Flying Scotsman

Don't get me wrong, they are very good at publicity and advertising so deserve plaudits for doing it so well. As a company, running railways is the only thing they have ever made money at, so I admire them less commercially.

 

Pearl and Dean Music.... superb.

 

Interesting that there were two magazine editors in the "wrong" place, especially as it would appear that the national press were much better informed, going by the stunning images in today's papers. I guess that they spoke to the event organizers - Virgin East Coast - and not Network Rail or the NRM who were not running the show. Just a thought.

Peter James

 

Aargh! Earworm

 

You're not doing a very good job there Fred.
There's an old saying..........'you can please some of the people some of the time', etc etc.
I'm sure it was disappointing for you, but................what would you have done? how would you have organised the event? The 4 DID run as intended, (see the BBC video clip) just not past where YOU had decided to position yourself.

 

Whatever you may think/say about Richard Branson/Virgin. One thing he/they are very good at is publicity and why not include 'Scotsman as Sir Richard did make a largish donation to the fighting fund for the NRM's purchase of the loco.

 

Pictures here, from the Four Track Scotsman event: http://www.blackhatrailwaypictures.co.uk/p583236429

Report is below:

It was an early start to be ready to see something that perhaps would be a once in a lifetime experience. Four trains running along the mainline at the same time, in staggered formation. That’s what was planned as Virgin Trains East Coast joined with the National Railway Museum to showcase Azuma, the next trains to work the ECML alongside its predecessors, being Intercity 125 and 225 sets which are still in use, and A3 No. 60103 Flying Scotsman.

Scotsman was to lead the Azuma, 91 set and HST, towards York from Tollerton, while the cameras from helicopters and those lineside tried to capture the event. It was all possible thanks to an engineering work closing the busy racing stretch of the ECML, allowing the trains to be positioned for what many in the politics world would call a ‘photo-op.’ After all – that’s precisely what it was.

The dawn sunrise saw the formation move off and pass ‘Half-way’, the sign erected by the LNER as the line was halfway between London and Edinburgh. The light and angle made the photo rather difficult, but on hearing that the formation was to pause en-route, it suddenly became a fact that the chase was on.

Running back to the car and driving to the next bridge saw me with seconds to spare, I ducked down alongside the now obligatory high security fencing to try and get an angle and see past the overhead wires. It worked of sorts, and the photo of the four was taken. The dawn sunshine still made it all rather difficult if honest, but the formation had to pull up at the ‘Sidings’ – an well known local hotel where the various VIPs and press staged the interviews and filmed the formation standing on the line where shortly daily service would resume and 125mph would be the order of the day, just 1.5 miles per hour slower than Mallards record breaking run but done now with trivial regularity.

The time gave me chance to park up and join the masses to the south of the Sidings and as the light grew the hundreds there waited, while at homes across the country people woke and ate breakfast while the news of the morning carried pictures of the event across TV or social media.

Finally, the formation got underway, but the Azuma sped off breaking the formation and disappointing many that had chosen this place to wait and see it for themselves. With York south being the end of the four line ECML, I went to the York By-pass road, and saw each set arrive one by one. From here it was to York station, where the crowds had gathered and pipers played as the Virgin spin machine went into gear. At the station the trains were all there in some kind of line up, the platforms and masts breaking up the scene. I walked round to the south and from a favourite vantage point saw the HST sets leave and then Azuma, Scotsman and the NRM’s Deltic, 55002 all leave simultaneously, with the latter eventually able to take part in the event.

It was case of looking to the future, to see what will be coming. I don’t doubt that such a line-up will take place again, especially on the move, railways are just not built for that, even if the photo-op was possible to put together. Azuma will become the future, and the nod to the past in a way that almost signified the transfer of duty of transporting millions of passengers on one of the most busy, historic and best built and maintained express lines in the world – will soon be its to perform.

In many ways, it has a lot of hard work to do. The standard has been set very high and this event using the venue, and engineering pedigree it showcased simply confirmed all that and more.

 

and he looks nice in a Kilt.

 

OT, but why is The Sidings "infamous"?

 

Yes, I wondered about that too...

 

This is great. Hats of to Virgin/Stagecoach for this, and NR.

High profile publicity for Scotsman, in any form, highlights the wider preservation scene and builds interest from future generations. How anyone can complain is beyond me.

 

I had a nice lie in yesterday morning. Bit of cereal and some coffee and a wander out onto the balcony in the sunshine. Seemingly blissful when compared to the disaster that was unfolding just three miles from my flat... A couple of journalists and a few delicate neds who should know better being in the wrong place.

 

Just viewed the BBC Look North Footage. Amazing stuff.

 

With an attitude like that I would be fully in favour of banning steam on the national network completely. The national railway network is not there so you and your palls can engage in pretending its still the 1950s or 1960s.

Yes NR do need to improve their performance as pertains to the gauging of non standard motive power that does not comply with current group standards (like all other railway operators traction does) so it can operate over certain lines a couple of times a year, but that does not give you or anyone else the right to scatter all sections of the organisation with our criticism - particularly given the way NR has dealt with things like the S&C landslip, or the Dawlish / Dover sea wall collapses which have been widely praised for being delivered ahead of time and to an excellent standard.

Oh and before you start whinging about open access - you would do well to remember that charter operators have their delay minutes capped, with that dastardly NR picking up the rest of the bill for them should they delay anything. Only once charters start paying their way do they have the right to start demanding the same treatment as TOCs, etc when it comes to gauging etc.

 

auto-correct caused by document and not fully reading again the whole piece. Sorry. My mistake...

 

Fair.

Its easy to forget how lucky we are that mainline steam is as abundant as it is. Steam has no automatic right to be on the network, long may it continue, long may NR support it.

 

Not a problem with that statement - where a certain bit of NR cocks up then that section of the organisation deserves to get criticism for doing so.

However NR does rather more than just organise charter train gauging - much of which is handled successful (and largely unnoticed) so it is unfair drag the entire organisation through the mud.

 

Can we stop knocking Network Rail please? I think with Sir Peter Hendy in charge, there's a pretty decent bloke, give him a bit of time to sort things out he'll come good. In comparison I have to deal with Heineken, and for a brewer they really couldn't organise a pee up in a brewery!