The Great Britain IX

Ok, with just over two weeks to go, lets see where we are with this tour. Advertised leg 1? double headed steam.
1/ Tangmere is currently unfit, last heard of lost in the dark and dirty confines of Southall shed, state of operations therein unknown open to debate and speculation.
2/ Braunton/Sir Keith Park/Adolph Galland or whatever name its coming out with, is on the back of its overhaul, highly likely to fall under the spell, of Steam Tour rule no 1*
3/ WCR is clearly having issues (or by design) cranking up into full operations.

Now accuse me if you wish of making 5 from 1+2+3, but this gives us pretty severe doubts that Day one will turn out as advertised. At best day 1 will have 1 unspecified steam and a 47, Likely 2 x 47, at worse no day 1, charabanc to somewhere in the midlands for start at day 1.5.

Of course I could be wrong, I could happily be filming a shiny clean smoke free West Country pretending to be a Battle of Britain, and a scruffy smokey Battle of Brattain pretending to be a scruffy smoky battle of Britain on day 1. If this happens you can all roundly abuse me, laugh at me and i will change my handle on here to "knob head"

*rule no 1 "new, rebuilt or overhauled loco will never appear on its first advertised tour"

 

Traveling with tangmere has always been - wait for it - a wing and prayer.

 

The other thing we've been told about Day 1 is that RTC have requested 46100 in place of Braunton. Of course, there's a long list of tasks between requesting a loco and it actually hooking onto the train at 9am on the appointed day...

 

Ah, brings in rule no 2. "If a loco has never done a route before* NR will not have done gauging in time"

*"before" a NR technical term, is a variable period ranging from between lunch time and afternoon tea break, anywhere up to 18 months

 

I heard this morning that Tangmere is having work carried out on it, and that it is touch and go for GBIX. 45407 will work the leg 1 if it is unavailable.

 

A case of Riley to the rescue again. Has the GB ever ran the full itinery with the originally planned motive power? I fairly certain it hasn't but I think we should be grateful that in the 21st century this sort of mega tour can still be run on th elation all network.

 

I am still hoping and yes praying too for steam on leg 1, 2 and 3. Whatever that steam is I am not overly bothered as long as its not the bag of spanners!

 

Having a black 5 rescue the GBnn is a tradition.

 

Fingers crossed for day three ! Might cancel my hotel if the Scot does not indeed make it down !

 

Yes I'm looking forward to Llanvihangel on day 3 too! Lets hope we are not disappointed. As in all things railway we'll just have to be patient and wait and see, but I wish the timings would hurry up and become public. I have 3 days to plan for!

 

Same here, though I doubt I'd want to put an extra few hundred miles on my car for a Black Five over the Devon Banks on days 1 & 2 ! In an ideal world it would be 46100 & 45407.

 

I agree hardly ideal but lets hope its still DH!

 

Although adding an hour or so to the run between Acton Main Line and Exeter, I wouldn't have thought it wouldn't really matter all that much south of Exeter? Isn't the line speed mostly 60mph beyond the Tamar? I stand to be corrected, though.

 

Does this mean a black 5 at the SPM open day as tangmere was meant to be displayed after coming off the rail tour

 

I doubt it, the black five is rostered on the Scottish days of the GB9 tour.

 

Doubtful, as I understand it, 46100 has been advertised every year so far.

 

I think you're right, perhaps there should be an agreement among tour operators that a loco is not advertised to run unless it has completed its loaded test run.

 

I thought that the pairing of 'Royal Scot' and 'Tangmere' was not the best proposition.
If 46100 & 45407 were to double-head that would be a far better option. <BJ>