Flying Scotsman

money grabbers in rip-off Britain, will leave well alone

 

I hope the proceeds are donated to a good cause.

 

they say a donation to the S & C group will be forthcoming

 

Not a lot by the look of it. An exclusive view of FS from Lazonby Estates land (coasting downhill going north) and three of the locations aren't really anything at all.

 

Depends which bit, as it's mainly 1 in 168 upgrade going north between Lazonby and Sampson's Cave. They do work usually all the way from Eden Lacy to there. I think most of the locations being offered are after the summit though.

 

For £250 I'd want something like a 3 course dinner, some sort of booze included and I'd some decent after dinner speaker. But charging £250 just to watch a steam loco go past (shakes head). Couldn't you buy a ticket on the train for that? This is absolutely ridiculous.

 

For £195, I got to drive it....

 

You could by one of these, overfly the line through Lazonby Estates, get your pictures for free and save £125

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Quadcopter...&sr=8-18-spons&keywords=hubsan+x4+drone&psc=1

 

Northbound departure from Platform 9N at York was always difficult, as it was on the curve, and the track was wet from the water column, which was in the station roof. I spent many hours watching wheelspin there, and particularly remember 60064 "Tagalie" having exceptional difficulty.

 

Not totally true. In the early days [the '20s] those A1s as was that were allocated to North Eastern sheds, at York and Tyneside at least [and no doubt North British once cut down to fit the loading gauge] were dual braked with the Westinghouse air pump half way along the boiler on the right hand side. As both North Eastern and North British stock were air braked. OK the mainly East Coast Joint Stock fleet plus any other carriages for through running were dual air/vacuum braked.

 

Ah yes, thank you, I'd forgotten about those. Checking up I see the locos were air braked with either air for the train or separate ejectors for train vacuum braking - so for those locos it may well have been possible to apply the loco brakes separately from the train brakes(edit- at least if the train was vacuum braked) Apparently the air brakes were removed between 1933 and 1935.

 

"I think we might be able to offer something a bit different to the clays and pheasants this year m'Lord"

http://www.lazonbyhall.co.uk/shooting.html

 

Perhaps bagging gricers on the 31st. Some years ago I had a bit of a run in with a particularly unpleasant estate worker at Baron Wood.

 

Nobody is making anyone buy it. And if they are mug enough to do so, fair play to the landowner I say

 

Do I get that feeling my hobby/life long interest is being hi-jacked by unconverted/unknowing opportunistic "normals"?
I am more than glad we shall be taking a good portion of Spam in Dorset on the 31st.

 

Correct but other landowners will then see an opportunity and before long the countryside will be closed to all but the well healed

 

Already happening on the SVR. Access to one particular location has always been in exchange for a donation to the Air Ambulance and that's fair enough but another spot is now £200 a time since Scotsman's visit.

 

Yes. Spam is the real way to go that weekend. The only really worthwhile bit of this tour is the track between Keighley station and Network Rail. Whilst there might be kudos in running on the first steam over the S&C in a while, the fact there's plenty over the summer makes it pretty mundane.

 

Scotsman shown running York - KWVR Wed 29th, dep York 1905

 

So... if nobody pays the prices and there is no demand, then there will be no landowners trying to charge high prices.

Anything on the planet is only 'worth' what people are prepared to pay for it. If people are not prepared to pay for something, it is worthless. Therefore, if nobody is prepared to pay a stupidly high price to stand by the lineside, then the market, such as it is, will swiftly dry up. But all the time there are people prepared to pay stupid amounts just to get a photo of a steam locomotive, the market will be there and people will try to exploit it.

The fools who are too easily parted from their cash are those that your beef is with, not the landowner who spies an opportunity to exploit that foolishness.