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

Blimey, sounds dramatic! I thought that BTP were present on the train itself? Out of interest was this early in the day or in the afternoon when it got an hour behind schedule? When I saw the first shuttle returning to Walton the automated announcements at Arlesford was reporting delays to service trains due to a trespass incident.

I'm from Colchester and it was lovely to see steam in the area again, disappointed but sadly not surprised that some locals couldn't behave themselves. On the plus side, glad you enjoyed visiting the Essex coast! Walton and 'the Naze' are nice places on a summers day.

Video of 60163 working up the bank to Alresford station, according to one gent I spoke to lineside 'the steepest gradient on the whole of the GER network'.

 

Looking at Ian Allan's "Gradients of the British Main Line Railways", you might consider that the 1 in 80 steepest part of the bank (eastbound) to Alresford station - sustained for about one half-mile - is fully matched by one mile's worth of the same 1 in 80 gradient going north i.e. in the down direction, from Whitlingham Junction on the Cromer line from Norwich (now "Bittern Line"). And a similar nearly one mile section of 1 in 80 extending north from Worstead station towards North Walsham a few miles further north. But all of these are eclipsed by the roughly one half-mile of 1 in 70 in the down direction that is shown as extending from "East London Junction"to Bethnal Green on the initial climb out of Liverpool Street.

All of which doesn't materially diminish the interest in, or relevance of, the line-sider observation. Just goes to indicate how much of the original GER primary route infrastructure was built as cheaply as possible to minimise the cost of major civil engineering works in order to traverse the modestly undulating terrain of its routes between the main centres in East Anglia.

 

Used to love hearing a 37 accelerate away from Whitlingham Junc with a freight while waiting for my bus to college Remember one morning hearing a huge handful of throttle being applied, only to have the loco come into view towing a single 12 ton 10' WB van

 

A compilation of footage from Saturdays run, seen at Liverpool Street, Colchester Town, Wivenhoe, Colchester Main & around Alresford

 

Some photos of Saturday: https://www.flickr.com/photos/djcs_trains/albums/72157687513113936

Departing Colchester North in the morning


The 2nd Shuttle slows for the curves at Wivenhoe


Heavily the delayed, the 4th round trip heads for Colchester town along the bank of the river Colne near Wivenhoe, so 60163 is going backwards in this one. The tower blocks behind are part of the University of Essex.