North Norfolk Railway General Discussion

Makes sense not to flog an old loco to death!

 

Anyone managed a photo showing the blue of the livery nicely yet? Very tricky to capture.

 

Cherry was absolutely unique. Never rushed about, yet could make up time. Cursed by those of us who opened level crossing gates for him in the rain, as he seemed to take an age to cross them, but he was moving as fast as everyone else, just without the fanfare and show. I have a memory of him taking 5 up Tenterden bank, behind an ailing Austerity tank, and it didn't miss a beat. He knew exactly what he was doing.

 

Carriage & Wagon Blog update:

C&W Blog - August Part 4

 

Fireline - I wonder if that occasion was when I was firing for him one day, and a ram got out onto the line just where we exited the curve at the foot of the bank and headed into the straight past Rolvenden's outer home?

I got off to try and chivvy the ram back into a field (any field!), but he just headed on up the hill, with me following him, and Cherry following me. When we got near Cranbrook Road Crossing, I shouted to the gateman to leave the gates shut, but he misheard me and opened them - and the ***** ram kept going, all the way up to the level crossing at Tenderden, where the gates were still shut across the track. Then, typical of sheep, he hopped across a fence as easy as pie into a field next to the car park!

If that was the occasion you remember, the Austerity had no coal put into the box from the time we went over the crossing at the foot of the bank - yet Cherry still got at least five Mk.Is all the way up, and still left me enough fire to pull her round before we set off on the next trip. And it wasn't that I'd put a huge fire in while we were waiting to pass trains at Rolvenden, either; by that time, I'd worked with him enough to know to keep the fire fairly shallow. Starting like that, with only light top-ups, would give Cherry all the steam he needed to do the job!

With best regards,

Jack

 

Just had a look on the NNR website, looks like 45337 has been withdrawen from the gala.

 

Correct, the loco decided to self withdraw about two weeks ago.

Cheers John

Director 26B Rly Co. Ltd

 

Nice one John, over the years there's a loco decide to do that!

 

Shame, 45337 seems to be well liked at the NNR

 

Ring Haw didn't make it out yesterday either. The Class 37 stood in for its first Weybourne to Holt return trip, but after that didn't come back out for the next one. 564 did one return trip from Weybourne to Sheringham but then parked up on shed.

 

The Y14 developed leaking tubes of Friday which were dealt with overnight and repairs finished at about 4am this morning.

 

I also heard someone say that the brakes on the Quad-Art set were worn?

 

The quads were out yesterday. If and that is a big IF the brakes are found to be lacking by the C&W staff they will also be dealt with either through adjustment or repair.

 

Must be manic in the NNR engineering deprartments around gala days

 

Indeed, there are always a lot of elements to get together for galas and it must be frustrating for them when something fails.

 

I think every railway has a somewhat frantic time around galas. For the record the Quad set was in service as advertised today, that wouldn't have happened if the brakes weren't up to it.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing the quad arts again at the war weekend. Any idea what locos will be out?

 

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Yes, that makes sense. I thought it odd when someone suggested that they were being pulled after 4 miles because of brake condition given that it was the start of a weekend of (for them) heavy usage.

 

Fair play! I travelled from Coventry to attend the gala yesterday, so appreciate the hard work from all involved in turning out as many locos as possible. Does any one know if the timetable was cut short in the end with the late running? I left Holt not long before 7pm having travelled on 46521 & 53809 double heading, things were running around an hour behind schedule at that point. Wouldn't blame anyone for calling it a day in that weather.