35018 British India Line

Not judging anything. Anyway, since none of us were on the footplate of '18 during this run, none of us know what view the crew had so any wibble regarding "it should have been failed" is superfluous.

 

Ooh! Ever the drama queen. Still, nice to see you're proving old Oscar was right.
Back to the run in question.Were you on the footplate of '18 and thus able to judge the level of visibility? I thought not.

 

Sadly, to the best of my knowledge AWS/TPWS do not indicate the presence of physical obstructions though, do they?

(Oops - I see others have already made that point )

 

As I did state, my mode of thinking may be seen as over cautious or risk averse. Is it really such a wild assumption though from the film footage that leaking steam is impairing the vision down the RHS of the loco? I might add that I was not the first / only person to make the observation either.
Referencing the latter days of steam as some form of positive modern day comparison seems rather absurd but if its the best counter argument you can advance, fair enough.

 

Agree with all that Alan. Obviously the responsible engineer is the only person who can answer the question and presumably did so to the satisfaction of both FTR examiner and booked drivers.

 

10A have a proven track record and I, for one, am more than content to sit back and leave it to the experts.

 

Seconded.

 

Nobody as far as I have seen is questioning the competence of the engineers to get the loco spot on, just as was done with 46115 and 45699 eventually.
The latest debate was about whether or not it should be at the head of a passenger train with a bad leak. As @BigAl concluded, not in that state and I agree.

 

It has had a loaded test run and passed as fit, on the day of the run it would have had a FTR exam by an independent engineer who also passed it to run. I would suggest that the knowledge and judgement of the people involved was much better than either yours or mine.

 

So are you and Big Al accusing WCRC of wilfully sending out 35018 in a dangerous and unfit state?

 

I think you may be receiving more if/when JS reads your latest musings around BIL's fitness to be out on a passenger train.

 

I am utterly confident James does not give a stuff for my opinion, and why should he?

 

Neither does anyone else but it doesn't stop you does it?

 

Ok.

 

I gave my opinion way back up thread so trying to inflame the conversation by putting words in folks mouths is not adding very much now.
Why not give an opinion on whether or not you think the steam leak is a help or a hinderance to sighting, which is all anyone else has done?

 

In a lot of instances I disagree with your opinions too but I remain keen for you to express them as you see fit.

 

Meanwhile, I have taken the opportunity given by the dry weather to scrub the flat's balcony... Life goes on, peeps, and I'm sure it'll get sorted eventually.

 

Indeed, and yet a fault apparent on each previous outing remained manifest only this test run involved passengers. Wise?