44871. Victoria to Bath. 4/12/18

So unless they are looking at shorter trains it needs to be double headed then. Their website for next years early trips states

"Motive power is likely to be from a pool of steam locomotives including; 34046 Braunton, 61306 Mayflower, 46233 Duchess of Sutherland, 70000 Britannia, 45699 Galatea, 45690 Leander, 35018 British India Line and various Black Fives."

That seems to be rather aspirational with the exception of perhaps Mayflower, the Duchess (if it is back by then) and "various Black Fives"

 

'UK Steam' never had mention of a double heading for this trip as far as I know. The fact that it was indeed a 12 car rake, plus the idling 47, gives the equivalent of around 15 coaches accelerated cleanly up 1 in 330 through Brookwood by a class 5 - impressive. Here's another from there today. Given that the steam was already a few minutes late before the signal check, it was pleasing that 44871 appeared to be left to its own devices to recover its heavy train on the gentle rising gradient.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16582147@N07/albums/72157698423325440 passing at Bath at lunchtime.

 

Yes, just like that. Nice one!

 

My take on the train in the Wylye Valley!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/151730409@N02/46127628522/in/dateposted-public/

 

I was surprised that control allowed the Cathedrals Express to proceed ahead of a Paddington to Bristol service today at Bathampton Jn.
Because the charter stopped at Bath Spa for 8 mins the 800 unit lost 12 mins. First Group will not be amused.

<BJ>

 

Going well at Grateley.

 

I can assure you and everyone that there are no plans whatsoever for the Clan Line trip to Sherborne on 20th to be diesel-assisted. As Big Al says further into this thread, you're not comparing like-for-like.
Indeed if anyone is thinking of doing just one of the three Christmas Carol trips to Sherborne this month, then the UKR trip with Clan Line should be the one. Right engine on appropriate route, and booked on the Fast Line in both directions between Woking and Basingstoke. Throw in some lusty singing in the wonderful Abbey, brisk walk around a lovely 'old-style' country town and the Digby Tap for a libation or three - what's not to like?!

 

Thanks for this, much looking forward to it!

 

If anyone would like to have a look, I've put some pictures of yesterday's trip on Flickr. I went to Winchfield in the morning and Fleet in the evening although the shot at Fleet, being in the dark, is somewhat on the grainy side. Anyway, this is the first one in the Photostream; clicking on it will enlarge it and take you to the others:

RD19576. 44871 at Fleet. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

Hope they're of interest.

 

The person to give there background to the diesel assistance would be James Shuttleworth but the WCRC haters on here have understandably caused him to almost give up. A pity as information from the people at the sharp end should be encouraged

 

Did you really mean to describe JS as “this evil”?

 

Noted - I've been called many things but I don't think John, of all people, really means it!

JS

 

Its clearly an anagram game. JS can pick his monika from any of this lot.

• evil
• live
• veil
• vile
• Levi
• el iv
• el vi
• i lev
• iv el
• lev i
• vi el

 

Apologies James, I did it on the phone, I've got no idea what letters I got wrong but that's what the wretched thing made of it. Now corrected.

 

I can't work it out either. I will just have to accept that my fingers are too big for the phone keypad

 

Now that I'm fully recharged after the efforts at the start of the week, I feel as though I can now reply with some sanity to some of the "interesting postings" that have appeared.

As mentioned, 871 could have easily managed a consist of this size without any issues but let's take into account the season we are currently in, yes it's autumn leading into winter so rail head conditions aren't great. This proved to be the case, most surprisingly after Woking on the slow main. Areas where the sun hadn't shone or got to proved to be very slippery and 48 picked up on a few occasions, even after we had turned off at Worting junction this continued to be the case, very randomly at times too towards Salisbury. Being sat in the fireman's seat gave me a decent view as to the events that unfolded before anyone asks!

On this matter I can safely say that asking 871 to take this train unassisted would have been too much to risk and from a personal point of view it was definitely the right choice in taking the diesel with us. Some passengers asked why the diesel was with us and after explaining the situation to them, they were all happy with the answer I gave them but in general, the diesel helped to get us moving away from the stations and then the loco took over.

If it had been in the right time of the year then a diesel would not have assisted and 48 would have coped comfortably but common sense prevailed and rightly so. Would people on here really want the (or any) engine wrecked just because they didn't want a diesel to tag along in the consist?

Hmm, clearly you've never been up Upton Scudamore at this time of the year and bearing in mind that it had started to rain just as we were finishing the servicing in Bristol, that load would have been a stern test unassisted for any loco let alone a class 5, one slip and it could have been a different story. It continued to rain/drizzle all the way back to Victoria so again, having the diesel with us was the correct decision.

Ideally two steam engines would have been great but this wasn't possible so a diesel had to assist, we tried to put on a show and gave it a go where possible and thankfully the video's posted show this clearly.

 

Thanks for an interesting post,but most of the posts earlier were not about why the diesel was in the consist,(most on here will know this is normal on most SD trips on this line), but why it had to run "inside" rather than on the back as is more normal, and some posters feared that this might be an edict from the new NR Wessex route MD and could be enforced on future similar trips. Are you able to comment on either of those points? Thanks if so.