The Great Britain VIII

Another act of bravado or a new hope, to borrow Star Wars parlance!?

 

Very interesting, so too the Wolmar commentary later in the same issue.

 

So is the whole thing now terminating at Carnforth tomorrow night then?

 

Thought it was Carnforth on Thursday. Or do you have more information?

 

DBS have nothing to lose, few paying passengers or customers know what a TOC is let alone which one is being used. There will be no public fallback on DBS if the tour disintegrates or does not deliver. They will tow this tour as far as as it makes good economic sense to do so and no further.

 

Report on Wnxx, say 70000 will not take the tour solo to, Bristol, due to bad coal ! Goes from bad to worst !!

 

Well, it could be 1968 all over again, no more steam main line apart from Bellmand Pullman, in place of 4472 special dispensation (in 1968), we had to cope with it at the time, how will you all do?

 

DBS becomes the train operating company and in theory issues the tickets - so if the tour falls apart during their operation with delays and or cancellations for whatever reason it is DBS that picks up the bill? or i am wrong here ??

(limited to the TOC payout for delay/repay for steam tours which is much less than normal TOC's)

 

fake steam just to annoy

 

Depends on the terms of the contract I guess.

 

Keep telling you, Its a virtual tour. Its happening only on the pages of the internet.

 

as i know it that is the way the contract works when you charter a tour - so DBS does have a liability if things go wrong under their watch

 

Has it got its rods on? Perhaps it's an ETHEL instead of a 47.

 

We have no idea what DB's "watch" is. We have no idea where or how far they have agreed or been contracted to go.

 

A report from SW-SWRG. <BJ>
''66122+70000 deep Plymouth 13.47''

 

Indeed so. With reference to the rest of the tour after Thursday, I have no new information although I believe NR are meeting today sometime, somewhere where rumour has it that this issue is high on the agenda.

 

Blimey. 70000 must have suffered from bad coal before it managed to couple up to the train. <BJ>

 

For me, the most disturbing aspect of the article is Harris appearing the cross the line into too much subjectivity and, to a degree, journalistic sensationalism (particularly the headline on the front cover of the magazine). His personal criticism of David Smith has also crossed the line in my opinion, especially given the fact that the investigation (ORR/NR, et al) is work in progress and the outcome is not yet known. Acting as judge and jury at this stage doesn't do anyone any good. Personally, I prefer the reporting and commentry given in the last issue of Steam Railway which was a more balanced and objective piece of work.

 

I'm sure your right. Those in Premier have the pleasure of the food and drink thankfully which will help a bit, but there's no escaping the fact this is not the experience they've been looking forward to, in some cases for many months. Also, the sun is shining so they'll have a nice journey along the sea wall. Britannia up front, and the British "stiff upper lip" Something very appropriate about that !

 

Clearly Harris has the respect of NR as they provided him with a detailed report including the driver's statement taken immediately after the train arrived at Swindon in which the driver said the distant signal SN43 was green when later investigations proved that the signal was at caution. As far as I am aware, NR have not given this report to any other rail magazines which says a lot for Rail Magazine and for Nigel Harris.