35028 Clan Line to Exeter - now 10/08/19

Oh right. Thank you.

 

Checked by signals ahead, plus 20mph restriction on the down slow at West Byfleet.

 

Ah right I see, thank you.

 

Bristol arrival and departure.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16582147@N07/albums/72157710225638637

 

A very enjoyable trip, plenty of 70mph + running. Thanks to UKR, DB, & MNLPS.

 

A few shots from today's chase, captured at Byfleet (unfortunately on the slow line), Palestine Bridge, Tisbury, Honiton Tunnel, Whiteball Tunnel and shortly after Upton Lovell.








James

 

Dilton Marsh and Upton Scudamore this evening.

 

To round off. Slow start from Salisbury but worked up to 51 past Porton. Thro Andover in 21m 18s at 74. Climb past Enham breasted at 65. Eased past Worting Jn in 35m 51s at 49. Couple of mins outside ACE pace (34 mins) but we were well early.

Easy start from Basingstoke chasing down that Poole train, 71 max after Hook eased to 51 before Fleet, the opened up for 76 thro Farnboro and 72/73 at post 31. Easy run down to Woking.

72 at Byfleet from the restart, 68 thro Weybridge then 73 max Walton - Hersham. 50 slack thro Surbiton, final 66 max after Wimbledon.

Delays due to signaling probs meant 13 late arrival at Waterloo, but it didn't put dampener on a grand day out.

Would be nice to do Waterloo - Salisbury (& return) non stop. 80 min schedule for the 83 miles is viable with the 75 limit!

 

Here's my record of the return part of the run: wish I could have been on it!

 

Thanks Al for an excellent summary of a brilliant day with Clan Line. I would add that for me being with and meeting so many old friends from the real days of steam was wonderful. Almost all of the old gang were there.

 

Not sure it will ever happen Sean but yes easily possible with Clan Line. Full report and logs in the next but one Heritage Railway

 

Superb set of pictures

 

Congratulations and thanks to everyone who made this tour such a success. Everything connected with Clan Line is usually top quality. I really wanted to be on this trip but couldn't because of urgent family matters. I hope MNLPS will be encouraged to plan further events like this outside of their Belmond commitments.

 

There's room for it to do a bit of work oop North, It would be well looked after, BIL went down South, seems reasonable to get a return by sending Clan Line up here.

 

Anyone know why we were crossed to the slow and back to the fast? Nothing passed us on the fast during that time.

Seconded!

Once again Clan Line and her crews together were shown to be masters of the job. With dry rails she could have gone considerably faster up Honiton Bank, but we got to the top OK. Where conditions allowed the speed was mostly 70+ mph, and without the 75 mph limit she could clearly have gone much faster.

A bit of information via the station announcer would have been good while we were waiting at St Davids. It was evident that there was a delay, but only later did we learn that there had been a problem with loading coal. According to RTT the ECS eventually left the yard at 15:43, but had to wait until 1A88 Paignton-Paddington had got clear (and presumably another batch of road traffic had been allowed over the crossing) before coming into the station. Then by the time we were aboard and the train ready to depart, 1A89 Penzance-Paddington had arrived and it was only to be expected that that would go out in front of us. But half the lateness had been recovered as we approached Bristol. Despite a little further delay through Bristol before we reached the watering point, we were near enough right time all the way after that until the delay on the last bit into Waterloo.

I was in first non-dining (for the first time) towards the back of the train, so a lot of time I couldn't hear the loco. That included the evening departure from Salisbury, when all that was apparent was that we were slow getting going. So I am grateful to Jeremy English for the video showing a few slips on that departure (and of course for all the other videos and stills).

 

I’m not sure the support crews or the chief engineer will be too happy about days away that far from home. But you can ask

 

I'm sorry I missed this one, it looks to have been another superb performance from Clan Line. Unfortunately it would have required a 2 night hotel stay in London, which isn't cheap, and my budget wouldn't stretch to that. Hopefully next year MNLPS will re-run their Chilterns and Downs trip which had very reasonable departure and return times to and from London.