Tornado to Walton-on-the-Naze - 12/08/17

That's what I thought. So steam just to Walton and not both ways.

 

From the RTT timings, the return journey to Liverpool St looks like diesel drag, Walton on the Naze to Colchester Town, where the train reverses, and steam leads back to Liverpool St.
I assume the shuttles are diesel Walton to Colchester Town with steam on the return.

 

Hence why the track bashers amongst us (well, myself, anyway) will stick it out as best we can. Three sides of Colchester Triangle by steam in one day.

 

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Spot the train!

 

There is a 1 in 80 section between Wivenhoe and Alresford, I have just seen the 1st shuttle trip at Arlesford station and the A1 was going equally well. Will hopefully upload a video tomorrow.

 

Nice film of a field.

 

Apart from the wind noise.

 

Just seen the OTT and RTT pages - it really has gone 'orribly behind schedule, hasn't it?

 

Yes, unfortunae delays due to trespassing. Very unfortunate sights working from liv st this morning- on several crossings- so not surprised. Good run this morning but bailing out now and getting service train home. Everything about one hour late. Train will terminate at Stratford.

Congratulations to the people of Walton on the naze for organising a superb event. Don't be deterred, consider a Torbay express-like service on Sundays from Liverpool street to Walton...

 

I stayed to the bitter end. Glad I did, but it really was a mission. I doubt we'll see steam in this part of the world again for a long while as a result of the woman hiding in lineside scrub before pouncing out with a camera in front of the train at Thorpe le Soken. She was arrested, but not before delaying all trains while the BTP was awaited.

Mind you, the hours spent at Walton were by no means the drag I had anticipated. I decided to stick it out and glad I did so. I have come away liking the place and it's community spirit. The afternoon nap I had up the Naze helped, though! Still in Stevenage, so a more detailed account of my thoughts will have to wait until later.

 

That makes sense. Hopefully the Mayflower will run next year, but I can see it running to Stratford and carrying on from there, rather than heading down to Liverpool Street. Wonder what 70013 will do early next year if NR get cold feet after yesterday? Now having a fuel break in Stamford, Lincs.

 

100 % agree.

Also: the shuttles had lots of families with excited children, great intro to mainline steam. The movement needs more events like this (but not the trespass - obviously).

 

Here goes. The seating arrangement was novel; the tickets had carriages bearing the names of local sponsors, and passengers were expected to organise amongst themselves. Luckily, this didn't run into chaos at Liverpool Street as the train was only about 2/3 full. However, it probably made loading and unloading slower as there was no individual allocation.

I felt the run out of Liverpool Street was fairly subdued as a result of the aforementioned modifications being made to the GE Mainline. As such, get steam on it while you can!

Brentwood was climbed without fuss, and we touched 74mph on the country section according to my GPS. Then there was the slight issue of the magic 2 minute waterstop at Colchester, which inevitably became about 5 minutes. So we arrived at Walton-on-the-Naze late, but not stupidly so.

The shuttles were great in concept, but a challenge in the execution. Essentially, I think the addition of the charter meant that both Clacton and Walton branches were operating to capacity. Naturally, if things got delayed, then there was no way of improving things. Maybe one less shuttle might have made all the difference if the train was to return to London at 20:30; the situation which developed had echoes of the Strictly Bulleid gala in that what looks good on paper doesn't mean it will work in practice. Ambition is critical, but not to the extent that it relies on top to bottom precision over an extended period of time.

First there was the water and coaling issues, then came the level crossing signal failure, and to cap it all, the woman hiding in the bushes, which resulted in three trains being delayed at Thorpe le Soken. With next to no leeway for recovery, the dropping of the hour was inevitable.

Allegedly, NR were very close to pulling the plug, which would have been hard given the two years of planning by the local community. However, the show rolled on; the woman presumably getting a night in the cells for her trouble. However, an engineering blockade at Battersea meant that the train crew and manager had no choice but to terminate at Stratford. In the event, it wasn't a bad run.

The highlight for me was the branch and covering the entire Colchester Town triangle with steam haulage (eventually, after most of my regular crowd had disappeared to make onward connections). Also, as already mentioned, the second highlight was feeling the sense of community at Walton-on-the-Naze. A decent place to spend a few hours. Whilst I am skeptical that steam will run along the branch again in the near future, if it does, then the town will only stand to benefit as a family destination.

 

The return of the delayed 16:30 pm shuttle at Walton.


An enjoyable trip. ( Delayed 16.30pm shuttle), with some better than expected running with a couple of service trains ahead. The previous shuttle was shown as cancelled at Thorpe-Le-Soken on RTT, for a time.