Cathedrals Express to Minehead with 61306 on Thu 26 November

So will arrive Minehead after it's due to leave ! And it will be dark on the outward journey. Seems 'anything can happen' !!

 

Left reading making good noise but diesel also making good noise and more black stuff than mayflower. Seen from pads bound 125......

 

Left from platform near the station building 4. ???

 

Assuming it gets that far, and is not turned back before!

 

Depart Reading 12:36, 114 late due to dragging brakes on Mk.2 coach 3058.
WCRC loco came from Southall to take coach back.
According to RTT no water stop at Newbury. Now 100 mins late. Straight to Frome for water.

All going to plan so far. <BJ>

 

How times. Change

 

Passing Feltham (3 minutes down).
Brush 4 tucked inside and evidently on, but the B1 was making all the right noises...

LNER Thompson Class B1 61306 Mayflower : Feltham by Tim White, on Flickr


LNER Thompson Class B1 61306 Mayflower : Feltham by Tim White, on Flickr

 

deleted

 

well you have to wait till it goes through next station lol

 

Return diesel hauled then? No longish stops on the way back

Andrew

 

Return leg looks to have been delayed by an hour due to earlier late running.

 

What a Shower of a steam tour !!

 

Nah, didn't you see the network Rail Weather programme the other night?

They'll be using that 17,500hp class 47

 

It's been said on another forum that 3 coaches had to be detached at Reading,can anyone confirm this?

While not at all indulging in WCRC bashing,it is surely a fact that their rolling stock can often leave much to be desired. Working lights,heat and p/a (or at least one of these three)are not infrequently notable by their absence which does not exactly inspire confidence in the condition of brakes etc which seems to have been the issue today.

 

YouTube has a video of an eleven coach train leaving London and another rather shaky video of what certainly looks like an eight coach train leaving Reading after a significant delay, so speaking as just an armchair enthusiast, I'd say yes, it's true

 

Bugger. Dentist appointment mean I couldn't get out and film this. Well I thought I couldn't, as it turns out I could have caught it at reading with all the faffing about. And Newbury probably!

 

Ironic if it was coach 3058 at fault. This mk1 vehicle spent many years on the West Somerset Railway as the Taunton Cider buffet car. WCRC converted it back to a First Open.

 

So, it's all that scrumpy dripping through the floor and gumming up the brakes, is it? ;-)