Cathedrals Express to Scotland

I thought they were Blue!

 

They can't just be painted, you know. Who told you that?

 

Very good photo. I went up to a Reserve, ( in Suffolk I think), to see one, and got a very average shot of one in flight.

But, some here will laugh at this, my neighbour did have a Mallard nest in her garden this year. Damn cheek! I had to walk her and her ducklings down to the nearest stream and make sure she got into it. At a pedestrian pace! And the Mallard too. .

Getting back on topic, like I do, (ooh my nose is getting ever so long), I was up on the Outer Hebrides in April after Short-Eared Owls and had a wonderful view of both 4487 and 4494. How dare they have changed their names later on. 4487 in particular is a most beautiful creature. Totally gobsmaking to watch fly. "Flying Barn Door" my ar.e. More like a "Flying Aircraft Hanger Door"!


PS. You got any breeding Short-Eared Owls near you?

 

I went up to Western Scotland a few years back and saw some hooded crows mobbing one of your barn doors. Next to it the crows looked the size of midges, but with a lesser bite.

Short eared owls overwinter on the coast here, but I don't know where they breed. In the past few years there have been a handful of bitterns overwintering at the coastal reserves.

 

Like this?

 

Excellent. So much for those on another thread who think that 13 on the drawbar is overloading a Gresley pacific.
Because of work I could only make a last minute dash t Arlesey and only just made it. She was already closing up on the local so no fireworks sadly.

 

No 9 back in Northumberland after water stop at Tweedmouth..posted Henry

Another cracking shot Henry,I'm running out of superlatives for your shots. Best wishes Simon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10257146@N05/

 

Excellent and superb sound. Did 60007 at that spot one dark December night. Ankle deep in snow and bitter cold but it was worth it.

 

You can cut this bird spotting crap out right now!
My credibility with my family is through the floor now they know I am a gricer
If they find out I am mixing with Twitchers, well, that's a black spot for Blind Pew jobby

 

I've started a new thread under General Chat on A4s with bird names. Keep the family at bay or put a family filter on.

PS, I'm not a twitcher. They are in a class of their own.

 

I don't twitch either. Mainly 47XX class for me, plus those from that class that hunt in daylight.

Back on topic. Still no reports of the A4 running in either direction? We did have a great report of 60163 on Saturday.

 

Thanks again Simon A lot of it has being in the right place right time
Henry.

 

Really enjoyed this tour,certainly one of the best I have ever been on,got to be in the top 5,maybe even top 3,the same can be said for my dad. Absolutely top stuff from all involved at SD,DB and the various volunteers etc.

The run (and in particular return from) to Inverness was the definite highlight,I managed to share the front window up Slochd,and wow,those who think 60163 is a quiet loco need to have a listen to my videos linked below,It's certainly up there with it's LMS and GWR equivalents.Performance wise it was in a league of it's own,walking away up a 1 in 70 with load 12 was quite epic,and accelerating on a curving 1 in 60,well that's just crazy.

Either way,the run back on Saturday evening was absolutely superb and is something I will never forget.

May I also thank Graeme/SD for ensuring that all pax got a fair roll of the dice by (from what i'm told) going out of the way to ensure Std Class got the front for Edb-KX thus making it so the tour was evenly split,other operators take note,then you might work out why some people don't travel as much anymore.....


My videos (all 4 parts!) of climb right from Inverness to Slochd summit are now on at the links below,please be aware that although I could've uploaded in HD I simply couldn't be bothered with the waiting times for them all,and as the videos are there mainly for sound I decided to opt for lower visual quality,probably best to view it in the small window.


I have taken the opportunity to add in gradient info to the video,thankfully I was able to read the mileposts on the trackside and used my gradient profiles to get the gradients accurate to within a couple of hundred metres.

Hope you enjoy watching as much as we all enjoyed the noise,a lot of fuss was been made over the Forth and Tay Bridges,obviously this is a big thing for the "normals",but you simply can't beat the noise of a loco working hard over the HML.

Thanks again.

Videos:

Inverness-Slochd Summit:

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:



Cheers,
Mark

 

Without doubt an impressive performance by the loco: which means an impressive performance by the fireman (possibly with help from the driver or the inspector).

 

I have now also uploaded 3 videos of the run south with 60009 and 4464,the cow incident is included!

These are in HD.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Cheers,
Mark

 

"No Cows were harmed during the making of this video."





But it will be eaten at a later date no doubt!

 

Some very nice noises in all those videos Mark. Thanks for posting.

Annnnnnnnnnnddddd................................

For those who just sometimes make comments about Bulleids slipping, have a look at Part 1, from 5.24 onwards. For quite a long time. Oh dear.

Right, while you all check that out, I'm off to check up on how much is known about 05's slipping on restarts.

 

A damn good weekend of steam, but I'd say 60009 was the loco of the tour. Sustained 73-75mph running for mile after mile, with the grades barely denting it; plenty of noise from the chimney, and the crew did very well to claw back 15 mins on Monday, with a surprising lack of looping after Tweedmouth and a 'straight-through' at Newcastle. We just kept going until Tyne Yard. I felt 60019 was being kept back performance-wise for obvious reasons, although 60163's noise when climbing Slochd was equally as memorable as 46115 last year. Real sewing-machine stuff. I had to bail out at York on the return due to an appointment, but I passed the tour at Retford, where it seemed to be enjoying an impromptu loop, en-route to re-boarding at Peterborough. This probably helped clear the service backlog (another track-circuit failure had occurred north of York after the tour had passed through) and give 60019 a clearer run south to eat up the schedule and arrive on time. Over 1,000 miles of steam in four days is pretty good going, and would certainly consider doing one again in future.