Z48 - 10th May 2014 - A Tribute to The Great Western Railtour

Well VTL and The Earl deliver once again. 130 min PLY to BTM. Caught up PAD train at Tiverton but bowling up Whiteball at 75until checked. Well done FGW. They really are stars and deserve eveyone on the train sending them a thank you..

 

76

 

By the way. They seem to have removed the bump at Flax Bourton since yesterday!

 

Will leave BTM at booked time.

 

Another memorable day courtesy of VTL and FGW. In my earlier posts I had speculated that 130 minutes from Plymouth to BTM was achievable given the right pathing especially if we could get away from Plymouth straight after the 1504 Paddington and get through Taunton at around 1640. In the event we did all three of those things and more to the point Ray Churchill, Alistair Meanley and The Earl did it in style.

The load was 310 tons gross and we hit the bottom of Hemerdon at 62 falling away to 17 by the top. Running thereafter was steady as we were up the back of the Paddington train, checked at Aish, and again dropping down towards Totnes that was passed in 36 minutes. Dainton was taken in storming fashion with 32 at the top and then a dash from Newton Abbot to Exeter in only 18.5 minutes, passed in 64.5 from the start. Exeter Control held the Paignton to Exmouth stopper at Dawlish Warren so we could pass. A nice touch.

With the benefit of a rolling start through Exeter we flew up towards Whiteball and were running at 75 when once again we caught up the London train that had slightly overstayed its stop at Tiverton Parkway. However, having dropped down to 37 through Parkway we still blasted over Whiteball at 55 and then sprinted down through Taunton at line speed (ish). The running from Taunton to Bristol was superb, taking only 37 minutes. In fact, from Wellington onwards, the speed only dropped below 73 after we had passed Parson Street on our entry to BTM. In the process the bump at Flax Bourton was virtually flattened and we only dropped 1 mph from Nailsea on this climb.

Running after Bristol was also fast, when we were allowed to push on, but the booked path had us behind a service at Thingley Junction. So we were checked as we were early, and we also sat for ten minutes at Swindon to allow a London service to call and go ahead of us. . However that was not before we had passed Chippenham at 29 behind the Westbury - Swindon stopper and then accelerated like a rocket through the site of Dauntsey station at 74 before only dropping 3 mph up the short 1 in 100 section. Brilliant.

A day like today makes you realise why Vintage Trains and The Earl, in particular, have a reputation that is probably second to none. And a salutory lesson to all was the time taken by the support crew at Bristol going around the loco, checking, inspecting, oiling. Take no chances and leave nothing to chance.

So what can they now pull out of the bag on The Midlander and will VT persuade NR to give us the 'Holy Grail' of the direct (Kilsby) route south from Rugby? Here's hoping.

(Edit: Just a quick postscript about the climb of Hemerdon. We started out of Plymouth with REG full of water so it's worth remembering that 5043 was actually lifting about 320 tons gross up the 1 in 42 - i.e. the equivalent of nearly 10 coaches in 'old' money. Worth reflecting on - eh?)