The Mayflower 11 September

Just had a belting text from my Cousin on a XC service presumably on the plat at Plymouth, on seeing, a Castle, A4 + double tender and 11 Mk1's, cooly asked him: is this the train to Gunnislake....

 

Not quite sure of that but it was still 10 mins early passing Clink Road Jnc., Frome. <BJ>

 

thanks for that. we were tempted to go on to Westbury station after seeing it at Heywood Rd, but didn't think it would still be there when we got there. I guess it wouldn't have been.

 

Exceptional run Ply-Ex. I suspect we would have achieved 57-58m but for prolonged sigs at St Thomas. Good outward run on this sell-out run.

A very memorable run over the banks.

 

Any updates on the progress of the up train. I am hoping to see the A4 at Reading or passing Twyford?

 

2 down at Cogload Junction, will post when through Kintbury.

 

Through kintbury at 20.33

 

I feel I must let off steam a here a bit (no pun intended!). To me the text message service seems a waste of time. This is NOT a reflection of the forum, the service itself or the way it works. In theory it is a great idea. The problem is that people just can't be bothered to use it & pass information especially as most mobile providers allow lots of free texts in their contracts. I subscribed to this tour online at around 6pm tonight with the intention of going to Theale to see it where it would be due around 8.35-8.40pm. I arrived at Theale around 8pm to allow plenty of time, up to this point I had not received any texts. At the due time there was no sign of 60019 & what I presume was a following HST went through at around 8.50pm. At 9.00pm with still no sign I sent a text out asking if anyone had any info-no response. Around 9.05pm 60019 came storming through Theale like a bat out of hell around 20-25 minutes down. After it passed I sent a text giving this information. I am still subscribed but no more updates have come through. People, please use the service. Updates on here seem very thin on the ground as well. Looking at Duke71000's posts it seems to have lost quite a bit time after Cogload Junction.

 

There are definitely certain aspects of the system that hamper the quality of Railtour live. The point that you raised is completely true, if people use and do not add to the information being sent members on that service will lose out. I personally don’t use the system but do text in when on tours to help those at the lineside. Tonight it completely skipped my mind and instead posted what info I knew directly onto the forum. Apologies for that Buseng as would have certainly helped keep you up to date. Suspect the time was lost around Westbury due to pathing problems as can’t really see any other obvious reason, although im sure that the members on the forum will confirm what happened.

 

Sorry to hear that you received no texts. I was on the train and sent around five texts during the day. I will try to find out what is going on. Great day today; a memorable tour.

 

A great trip, hats off to RTC and both loco crews. Got back home about 45 minutes ago. First the bad news. 15 minutes late (having been more than 25 late) in to Paddington (and my photos didn't come out great there but never mind). Rumours in Coach J where we were was that photographers trespassed on the track at either Hemerdon or Daignton (can't remember which but think it was the former) on the return from Plymouth and was not the only case (I saw at least 3 or 4). We had a very bad path after Taunton on th return so we kept coming to stand stills

The good news was that Bittern performed magnificently from Euston to Taunton and we had to stop at Westbury and even then we were early leaving and arriving into Taunton. Then a brilliant climb up Daignton and Rattery with 5029. And on the return we came to a stop outside Exeter St Davids for a while but managed to do about 50 miles in under 60 minutes and when we got into Exeter 60019's headboard was cover in soot. Also caught a Prairie on the way down to Taunton at Totnes and a Pannier on the way to London. Also we went past the sorry state that is 35022 at Southall.

But the niggles were nothing to do with the locos that performed brilliantly and some people had their suspitions that we may have exceeded 75 mph on some sections.

Also RTC made a mistake with Coach J which was meant to be a standard but one from Carnforth wasn't available so we spent the whole trip in a first class coach (though all indidcation was removed) but it had shorter numbers so the team on board had to sort it out

 

Stopped on Whiteball at a red due to what Ray Churchill described as "two men in boiler suits" although they didn't see them.

The run down the other side of Whiteball according to my GPS is best described as "very brisk!"

 

I wasn't getting at you personally, just speaking generally. As it was only a few minutes down when you saw it it wouldn't of mattered anyway.

 

great day some photos of trip at http://keyhamtrain.fotopic.net video at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=keyhamtrain#g/u

 

Cheers for your concern, what time did you send the texts? I did not subscribe until 6.00pm.

 

I agree totally, I am in talks now with a major main line tour company with regards to using this system.
I somehow need to find a way of making it exciting for members to use.

I am going to be launching a competition shortly, Watch this space.

 

We only received 5 text updates, by 4 different people? Can you contact me so I can make sure you are using the system properly.

 

That was it on Whiteball. Kept hearing a lot about various people using GPS to see what the speed was. I only saw one person on Whiteball and they were behind a fence so they were alright. At one of the points we stopped waiting a path we were oppsote a gate and a person was wrong side of the gate. Some others were of the down the ramp and even one off the end of the ramp as we whizzed through one station on the way down.