RTC 2024

Was very surprised not to see them loop the steak at Grayrigg tbh

 

Pretty late getting to Upperby. Touch and go whether it gets out in front of the 1450 unit.

Looped at Penrith. Actually they did very well to get out of Carnforth in 20 mins and stay in front of two of those three trains to Carlisle.

 

Think I’ll give it a miss. Chances are if it goes so late it won’t be much of a spectacle anyway.

 

Still no talk about tomorrow's 'Swanage Belle' run that I can see, so I thought I'd mention an oddity - the return run on RTT sees the WTT and RTT schedules diverge at Basingstoke, where the WTT shows a 20 minute wait, which I assume is for watering. However the RTT times show only a 1 minute wait, but the the timings gradually converge again by the time it reaches London such that both show a 2209 arrival. Is there something different about tomorrow's run?

 

Not that I know of, other than those coaches may be a little "toastie" on the way back after a few hours in the Purbeck sunshine.
I only ever look at the WTT column until it starts running.
More interestingly OTT has no data feed for tomorrow at all it seems.

 

I decided to give this one a miss as I don't do so well in the heat due to the medication I take. Hopefully it won't be too uncomfortable for the passengers tomorrow.
Really hoping the situation with the rolling stock will be better for the September Swanage Belle.

Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

Hopefully no problems yesterday (24th) with 44871 + POB travelling down from Carnforth on the 5Z42: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:K12543/2024-06-24/detailed

(Copyright of the videographer)
Filmed en-route - Hope not too much water was wasted at the fireman's injector overflow.

 

Not starting well for the Belle today. Still at Winchfield according to RTT and already "the robustness" of the Weymouth Line is shown with a track circuit failure between Brockenhurst and Beaulieu Road although bigger delays seem to be in the up direction at the moment.

Edit

Also a lineside fire between Fleet and Winchfield. Guess we know what will get blamed even if it was not the cause.

 

Yes, I saw the Winchfield delay and immediately thought that the water stop gremlins had hit again, but clearly a different issue. I imagine 44871 would not have been working hard between Fleet and Winchfield so sparks less likely, but who knows... RTT shows trains there before the steam being delayed so I imagine the fire occurred earlier. No mention on NRE of the fire, but that doesn't mean a great deal of course!

 

Regardless of how that fire was caused, I don't think we can be far off significant restictions/bans on main line steam. After the very wet months that resulted in enormous vegetation growth in some places, all it needed was a lack of rain (some way below average in June so far for the SE and SW), and a heatwave to start creating conditions dry enough to cause lineside issues. The forecast for next week is cooler, showery weather - fingers crossed that comes true, with some beefy showers!

 

Latest SWR update

Due to a fire next to the track between Micheldever and Basingstoke trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines

 

Why would you read the RTT before it's actually running? It's the WTT which is the schedule

 

Where does RTT schedule get it data from, then? I just wondered why the discrepancy, which I have not seen before.

 

A separate fire? If so, no matter what the cause, I wouldn't be surprised to see the return diesel hauled.

 

Yes a second one according to the SWR disruption page. Also to add to their delayed progress a broken down train in P2 at Bournemouth now as well. So I guess all trains will have to use P3 until it is fixed or removed.

 

Would the lack of dwell time at Basingstoke help the toastiness, though? I still imagine water will be needed. Anyway, just a minor query.

 

Oh dear, a very bad day on the SWML. I am afraid the equation might read 'steam train + fires = diesel soon'!

 

Now 62 minutes late at Bournemouth on RTT.

 

Sadly yes. Almost regardless of how those two reported fires have been started, they surely indicate that the lineside vegetation is now combustible?