4464 Bittern to do 90mph on ECML - 29 June & 27 July 2013

Mum's the word - keep what quiet???

 

Truly amazing to see, and I hope all the measurements (on an off the loco) showed all was OK and it is good to go for July. Full credit to those who appreciate the significance and importance of historic events such as Mallard's run and are prepared to pull out the stops to make it happen in today's world of regulation, safety and liability etc.

 

Looks like they went for the record on the London to Brighton line..........................

Impressive simulation. Look out for the woman on the platform at the end..............
(She is also visible in the shot above).

 

That's a great video. Couldn't beat Mallard though!

 

A very nice run on the down ACE in July 1964 with Fred Hoare at the controls of 35019. 76 minutes net time, (schedule 80 mins to Salisbury from Waterloo). His slowest net time of the week! But with 12 cars.

Trying to keep on topic, we didn't quite make 90 though! 88 max through Andover.

We did touch or just exceed 90 a couple of times that week on the down ACE. The last down run of the week for me, (and Fred Hoare, it must have been his last down ACE run ever), was behind 35028. 2 late ex Waterloo, 1/2 min early into Salisbury with a severe tsr just over the summit of Grateley and a signal stop outside of Salisbury! 73 minutes net time. 90 mph through Andover.

Those were the days! Fred was a superb engineman and a real gentleman as well. Always found time to talk to us young enthusiasts.

And for those who don't think unrebuilt Light Pacifics can climb grades, a very good run with 34019 in 1966. 14 cars and 500 tons gross. Just under 55 over Roundwood starting from Winchester. With what must have been a "cold" fire to start with as we had crawled wrong line from Eastleigh to Winchester because of engineering work. Then a lovely even time start to stop run Basingstoke to just outside Woking. 77 max.

Back totally on topic. Still no news of the details of Bitterns run. Interesting that........................

 

Oh to see the real 4464 hit 100mph through Haywards Heath as the sim model does in that video about 1 minute in. Although seeing her do 75mph through the station in 2009 with the whistle blowing was special.

 

Latest issue of The Railway Magazine (out on 5th June) reports that 4464 Bittern reached 91mph on the test run.

 

Great stuff. It's a darned good job they didn't choose Union of South Africa for this sequence of high speed runs bearing in mind all of the recent bearings problems. That said, she does hold the record in preservation that will never be beaten - not even by Bittern on the high speed runs.

 

Yes, but WHERE!!!

 

I suppose Maidenhead would also logically be the place to measure the hammer blow as the Thames rail bridge is I believe the flattest brick arch bridge in the world.

 

They

They couldn't choose no9 anyway as the tours are being run by Hoskins.

 

Is it still standing?

 

I believe Mr Brunel is considered in some circles to have been a man with a modicum of talent for civil engineering...

Tom (said through gritted teeth!)

 

...and architectural, and mechanical, and marine...... And you better believe it!

 

A bit OT - but I don't think even the most died-in-the-wool GWR enthusiast could claim Brunel had much talent for mechanical engineering. Without Daniel Gooch desperately sorting out the mess bequeathed by Brunel in the locomotives he had specified, the GWR may have ended up a supremely well engineered line completely unable to operate a train. His initial ideas for track construction were also problematic in that the piling made the permanent way far too rigid and uneven and the less said about Brunel's championing of the atmospheric railway, the better.

As a civil engineer, and a bridge builder, and as a visionary of what the potential of railways was, he was undoubtely a genius. But the locomotives he commissioned were disasterous even by the relatively low standard of the 1830s.

Tom

 

The location is not given I'm afraid.

In the Rail tours section (near the back) of the new Railway Mag Phil Marsh has an interesting article on other high speeds attained in preservation. 60009 and 60007 are both mentioned with 60007 (in her 4498 guise) reported as reaching 96 on the Marylebone Stratford route in the 1980's. It is also mentioned that 60019 had already run up to 90mph when she was doing her initial ML test runs between Southall and Didcot after being restored at the MHR. So it sounds like they have been planning some fast runs since 60019 was returned to traffic in 2007.

 

Jack of all trades, master of none.