46233 - The North Eastern - 19th April 2014

Good job you did. As the sound of all those camera shutters would of sounded like Anti Aircraft fire.

 

I would of fully expect it to have had a few light runs out on the MR. I just think it would of been wise to send it out to blow off some of those Winter cobwebs, Especially with the mileage and load of today's run.

 

One would have (note - not would of) thought so but as we all know the expertise in these matters resides here and not at the PMRLT.

 

Agreed and locos have failed even after rigorous running in programmes. It's the nature of the beast unfortunately.

 

Hot boxes have always been a fact of life with plain bearings. As tenders have external bearings would it not be possible to fit roller bearings? They would be costly but so are failures. As for authenticity, the last two Coronations were built with roller bearings and I believe that this is the tender that has already been modified to increase water capacity slightly.

Apart from the failure, I do have two gripes about the accommodation. Firstly, there was no heating. As the stock appeared to be dual-heated why could the steam heating not be made operable? Secondly, as a late booker, we had seats in the buffet where the lights became dimmer and eventually failed. With the fast and lengthy running one has to suspect either that the dynamo was not charging or that the batteries were faulty. Neither of these reflects well on WCRC's maintenance of the stock.

I can however congratulate the drivers and the machine when the diesel took over. I must say that I inwardly groaned when I saw that the rescuer was a "37" but it performed brilliantly with 12 on. A 90-minute late departure from Ferryhill was reduced to 24 minutes at Derby leaving a good prospect of reaching Leicester on time. Allowing for waits at Tapton Junction and Chesterfield, I made a net time of around 75 minutes for the 81.25 miles from York to Derby. The Voyagers take 91 minutes for the 88 miles via Sheffield and Doncaster. Anyone for restoration of services on the Old Road?

 

Wasn't there a Mk2 air con type vehicle in the stock which obviously wouldn't be steam heat fitted? That would only allow half the train to be steam heated if at all.

 

If rakes are made up like that, surely there is a case for a through pipe being fitted.

 

where is the engine now?

 

It should be in York (NRM)...

James

 

I'm reliably informed that something ran slightly warm on the Engine + Coach trip from MRB to Derby last Friday. Obviously not deemed to be too serious, as the Engine was allowed to run on Saturday. However was a warning that something not 100%.

 

Hot boxes can happen to anyone at anytime.

 

Not if you have roller bearings!

 

While relatively uncommon even roller bearings can fail.

 

Reported on another forum that there was a movement shown (shewn?) on realtime trains leaving the MRC at 22.08 on April 11th, returning at 05.54 on the 12th. Could this have been 46233's test run?

 

There has been a MPV weedkilling train stabling at MRC during the day and running around the network at night. This is probably the movement shown on realtime.

 

Just one shot from the weekend chase, 46233 on the return at Chester - Le -Street. Shame about the issues after Ferrybridge but hopefully nothing serious..