The Royal Duchy 2016

Can't imagine there's been any leaf fall worth talking about since we did Lizzie from St Austell to EXD on the 20th September when there was - let me think .... oh yes, none. Autumn's later in the South West as it's a much warmer part of the country. The Duchess' first encounter with the banks was on October 27th 2001. Seem to remember Hemerdon had been 'sandited' but we had no problem getting to Plymouth and back with 10. Thought that would have been a good precedent to get an exemption.

 

If anyone is planning to see the Duchess at Red Rock/Dawlish Warren I understand that the pathway next to the seawall may be closed due to .......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-37519275

<BJ>

 

I note Duchess has yet to depart from Butterley to Bristol this morning -- should have been 10.17 according to Realtime Trains -- hope there's nothing amiss. Oh dear: "This service was cancelled throughout due to a problem at the depot (MU)."

 

L.E. movement reported cancelled on Realtime Trains

 

Not a very useful code MU - Depot operating problem - so probably not the Duchess. Perhaps points failure or something? - hopefully it can be resolved and an alternative path found.

 

I'm hearing it's class 57 hauled now, hopefully I'm wrong !

 

For my friends who are booked on I hope so too but you are rarely wrong. Wonder what happened at Butterley. Can't find anything online. Can The Man shed some light on the issue for us?

 

57.314 hauled the Royal Duchy stock to Bristol today and so it looks likely that the 57 may well be the loco for the train tomorrow ......unless a miracle happens. Very bad luck for the punters aboard the final Royal Duchy of the year. <BJ>

 

Probably too short notice for Lizzie to be made available. The only group that definitely would make it happen would need there to be a change of TOC.

 

Facebook suggests that 46233 was derailed at the depot :-(

 

Posted on UK Steam -

THE ROYAL DUCHY [Times] (01/10)

​

Bristol Temple Meads-Par (WCRC) [wcrc]
70013 46233 Diesel: Bristol-Plymouth-Par-Bristol
[Postponed from 18-Sep]
[Now diesel hauled throughout, 46233 unavailable]

 

Oh well, seems that I can put the stopwatch away and have a lie in tomorrow! These things happen but the Duchy has had a lot of bad luck this year. I hope RTC persevere next year.

 

The whole steam charters business has has a lot of bad luck this year. Let's hope that 2017 brings more suitable locos back into service and 2016 can be forgotten.

 

Personally I'm glad WCRC didn't get the chance to turn the Duchess into a show pony for the sake of satisfying what was sold as a steam hauled train.

 

It's sad that we won't see the Duchess down in Devon again this year but these thing happen. I think you're being a bit harsh on WCR, I'm sure we all want them to be successful and they probably will err on the side of caution, quite understandably.

 

Seems like team duchess has gone to ground on this one. Things getting a little heated on locos FB page as all comments have been deleted with people asking questions on what's happened. All seems too quiet in my opinion from Butterley to be a paperwork issue....so just hope locos ok no matter whats gone on....

Time will tell....

 

On the contrary, I've found in general that compared to earlier in the year West Coast are allowing the steam loco to do more of the work and the diesel attached to the rear only working when necessary.

In my opinion it's a crying shame that the Duchess is not gracing the Dawlish seawall and the Devon banks tomorrow. <BJ>