The Swanage Belle 13th June 2013

Gloomy slightly damp, but the Black 5 romped up the bank onto the SW main line here at Byfleet.

 

A few moments after Simon's view 44932 hammers through Deepcut making a great sight (and sound) on a drizzly morning:

 

Everything got to Swanage. Empty stock stuck in Corfe Castle at moment. Signalling problems with a track circuit according to our guard (I'm on service train also stuck/delayed)

 

Afternoon All,

I saw it going through a damp, dull and drizzly Fleet this morning and managed a couple of shots as she passed by. An overtaking South West Trains 159 nearly blocked my view but, luckily, it got out of the way just in time.

Here's the first of the pictures, complete with the overtaking Class 159. The other pictures are clear of the 159. Clicking on the picture will enlarge it and take you to the others :


RD7852. 159 006 & 44932 passing through Fleet. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

Hope that they are of interest.

 

Track circuit issue at Corfe Castle all sorted after a 30 min delay!

 

I assume Ice Cream is not on the agenda today?

If your weather down there is anything like in Mid Kent today the only thing with ice in it's name will presumably be an ice breaker working just off the coast?

Strewth, the evenings start drawing in, in just over a week.

 

Re ice-cream. No not the case at all. Sun came out just as the train left Wareham and stayed out for much of the day. Glorious evening sun now down here in Dorset.

 

Thanks a lot for that.

I've had my heating on most of the day today! LOL!

Any news of the train?

 

No news tonight as I didnt go out but this morning it looked and sounded great passing Totton with 12 on plus a dead 47245, thats around 550 tons gross. Just a pity the 5s are limited to 60 mph by the system used. A more logical system would be based mathmatically on the driving wheel diameter which at 72 inches would give 72 mph. Mind you some of us have timed 44932 at far more than that a couple of years ago. Say no more....

Don

 

current 7 late according to realtime trains

 

Two tasks competed today - replacement for my old Fotopic album covering the Swanage Railway uploaded and a few images from today (Images 33 to 47) added onto the end of the old set. Captions will be added in due course.

Album is at - http://www.island-publishing.co.uk/jalbums/Swanage Railway/Swanage Railway/album/index.html#

First picture of today's set is number 33.

 

It was eight minutes down at Fleet; the sun was setting but I managed to get three reasonable shots. This is the first one :


RD7857. 44932 passing Fleet. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

 

@ Andover

 

Brighter this evening, the return filmed at Addlestone.

 

Got clips of both the Down and Up Belle yesterday with 44932 running pretty much too time in both.

 

Yes- 44932 looked and sounded great blastng up the bank out of Corfe Castle in the sun. 47245 on the back wasn't doing much except adding to the weight! Swanage does seem to have its own microclimate. It was the same when Clan Line came down last year - wet and miserable everywhere else, but blue skies all afternoon between Harman's Cross and Swanage.

It made a pleasant change to see 44932. Southern main line steam this year has largely consisted of 60163 on Steam Dreams workings, 35028 on the VSOE and 34067 on RTC/Statesman

I went from Swanage to Waterloo behind 44932 a couple of years back. The driver told me that the maximum on the journey was 61mph. I must admit, I was quite surprised. If he had said 70mph, I would have believed him. We really seemed to be shifting between Basingstoke and Waterloo. Also some pretty fast running between Bournemouth and Southampton.

 

Got a momentary 90 mph behind one in 1968. Coming downhill somewhere South of Grayrigg, maybe quite a long way further South. I'll find the log one day and put it on a spreadsheet alongside the gradient profile to check that. Also had a nice run with one on 12 cars North from Preston, ran above 75.

 

My video from yesterday's Swanage Belle with 44932, captured at Shawford, Brockenhurst, Ashurst, Dean (taken from a foot crossing), Potbridge and Winchfield:



James at SVN

 

Black 5 44932 passing through Millbrook Station, Southampton with the down "Swanage Belle".


IMG_0921 - Black 5 44932 - Millbrook - 13.06.13 by Colin D Lee, on Flickr


IMG_0920 - Black 5 44932 - Millbrook - 13.06.13 by Colin D Lee, on Flickr

On the return run this evening -


IMG_0966 - Black 5 44932 - Millbrook - 13.06.13 by Colin D Lee, on Flickr


IMG_0971 - Black 5 44932 - Millbrook -13.06.13 by Colin D Lee, on Flickr

Class 47 on the rear -


IMG_0938 - Class 47 - Millbrook - 13.06.13 by Colin D Lee, on Flickr