Pathfinder: The Marches Castle - Nov 29th

Strange that as of a couple of minutes ago, 1917 hours, 28th, the Pathfinder website has had no updates since 25th . Not that difficult to update a website is it?

 

I feel sorry for the (volunteer) support crew who will have put in many unsociable hours of work - they will be gutted.

 

Bad luck No.7. <BJ>

 

I believe one of the managers from LSL will be on the train tomorrow to answer any questions.

 

The Torbays have a couple of locos at Bristol, so if one fails, then the other can be made ready in time. As you say, 4464 is at Southall. That's a hundred miles away. As it was only announced at lunchtime today, that's nowhere near enough time to get a loco ready and moved west. Support crew, loco crew, pathing, coal, water, all need to be sorted, not an easy task at the best of times, and especially not at short notice. I doubt Pathfinder have taken any pleasure in using a diesel for this trip; their stewards will be the ones who have to take all the flak from passengers.

Failures happen with 70+ year old locos. They could happen at any time. At least this failure was before departure, and not like the trip 6 years ago which stuffed the Marches for two hours.

 

Considering it failed probably a good thing that it did!

 

If it's come off NR owned infrastructure then probably yes, here's a quote from the railway group standard for the registration of steam locomotives on the network:

5.2.3 A Fitness to Run examination, as defined in the Daily/Pre-run Examination
in MT/276, shall be undertaken by certificated examiners each time before a
Steam Locomotive is operated over Railtrack controlled infrastructure and
confirmation given, by the issue of a certificate agreed with the train
operator, that the locomotive is safe to operate

http://www.rgsonline.co.uk/Railway_...ck/Railway Group Standards/GMRT2003 Iss 1.pdf

Despite the date and the references to Railtrack this document is still listed as 'live' by the RSSB.

 

Agreed,very disappointing. An email to all passengers for whom they have email addresses explaining situation costs nothing and would at least demonstrate good customer care. And,as you say,not to put a detailed message on website seems very poor.

 

Water stops with a 67, chances of early running or will it the pain be made worse by having to wait in all those watering stops ?

Off peak day return from Bristol to Shrewsbury is £46.80, one would have thought the refund would be at least to the level of a regular on the day return ticket ?

All goes back to the need for "an heir and a spare" or "you scratch my back I scratch yours" when it comes to locomotives supporting each other for running rail tours... At the end of the day does the loco group bare financial responsibility for the consequences of a no show or is it the promoter left holding the can ?

To add insult to injury, it seems the CathEx has extra steam haulage from Bristol to Slough..

 

It can't be postponed as nunnery castle needs major work and won't work again this year, like somebody else has said lunchtime today is too short notice to get another loco ready for the morning, as most locos are 100 miles away


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With exception of 4464, all the other 3 have had very long periods of repairs and inactivity in the last few years... didn't 5029 sit out a considerable length due to needing tyres only a year or so back ?, 70000's last 2 years have been ... muted and 34046 took years to get to the mainline (Slipped wheel on axle ?)

Whats in common... they are all wheel related issues ? - how bizarre.

 

An FTR only lasts for a certain amount of hours so if there is a 2/3 day gap between tours then another one is required. Mind you and as stated above in post #48, a train crew/FTR examiner will always do another FTR the same evening after a day move for example to confirm the loco is still fit to run the next day incase any gremlins have popped up.

A real shame for the passengers tomorrow but at least it shows the examiner is carrying out his duties to the required standards.

 

Diesel pilot being attached at Bristol Parkway and apparently running triple-headed from there to Slough. As locos and stock heading to Southall this is presumably to save a seperate LE path.

 

Heard from a friend in Bristol that it's a leaking stays issue. He got it second hand.Anyone confirm?

 

I was told yesterday morning that she has major firebox problems and requires a lot of work.

 

If that were the case, then surely that would have been noted at MidHants, or is it just a known long term issue and the latest problem just brings it over the tipping point?

It certainly was going a treat at Mid-Hants.