Fellsman 2020

Good to see steam in action again, especially seeing Britannia turned out so well and hearing her working so hard.

 

70000 Britannia passing the box at Culgaith with the returning Fellsman

David Price
Cop Lane on Flickr

 

Thats a crackin shot David

 

Risehill and Angerholme...


Britannia at Risehill



Britannia at Angerholme

 

Many thanks Henry,I thought it worth including some infrastructure in such disappointing light

 

My latest footage, enjoy

 

Britannia seen from Craghill Farm crossing on the outward leg and at Stockber on the return

 

Great to see mainline steam back in action today

BR 7MT No.70000 'Britannia' seen at Wilpshire Station, Helwith Bridge and Smardale Curve.

Video Available Here

 

My video from today

 

Took this from my phone as well

 

Think the main problem is some folk think they are bulletproof and stand anywhere they want mask or not .Had a similar experience walking back to my car today at Ribblehead as a row of ten people walked towards me but they didn’t even think of moving hence I had make my own social distancing decision

 

Some people just aren't aware Steve,stay safe everyone and we might get back to "normal"

 

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Exactly what went through my mind when I posed the question yesterday on how to respond.
I suspect over the coming months that will happen many times, my own approach will I think be to give the potentially popular locations a miss.

Nice to see the Brit in action and let's hope everyone (both on the train and watching it) stays well.

 

Yesterday I had a most enjoyable time remotely following the progress of ‘The Fellsman’ tour with Britannia in charge. Using ‘Railcam’ I watched the train pass Crewe North Jct, Horton in Ribblesdale, Ribblehead Station and Kirkby Stephen missing out on the return journey due to significant time zone differences and the need for sleep! Today I have further enjoyed catching up with the various videos and photos, the vast majority of which are great.

All this got me thinking a bit!

“Britannia” originally came out of the works a few months after me but as I am fast approaching 70 is certainly no ‘spring chicken! [Although it would be interesting to know just how much is actually ‘original’]. Despite that, the loco appeared to put up a very creditable performance yesterday and there seemed few occasions when the safety vales were not at least ‘feathering’ if not ‘blowing off’ so boiler, & of course firemen, apparently in good shape.

What also struck me was the amazing difference in technologies between a 70-year-old loco and the process(es) that allowed me to watch proceedings LIVE (& free) at home from the other end of the world. In addition, the fact that top quality videos and pictures appear within hours is also remarkable and very welcome. A heartfelt thanks to all who contributed and involved.

And finally, having been familiar with quite a few of them as a child I wondered about the ‘Brits’ names. This from ‘Wikipedia’;
From 1948 until the mid-1950s, the responsibility for recommending names for locomotives on British Railways rested with a Locomotive Naming Committee of three senior railway officers, E. S. Cox, George Dow with Derek Barrie as chairman.

The Committee set itself several rules and over the years developed many practices. The names had to be euphonious (they had to have a pleasant sound). Also, their meaning had to be readily apparent to anyone interested, whether railwayman or member of the public. There had to be good publicity value in the names as well as providing good morale for the staff, and the collection of names for a class had to provide some form of class identity. Another rule was not to use names of people who were still alive at the time, and some on the Committee had a strong dislike of names or associations with the military (largely because they were fed-up with the recently ended war). There was a preference for names of heroes and other well-known people. However, slavishly following a single theme to an absurd extent was discouraged.[23]

The name that was to be bestowed on the first class member caused great debate on the Committee and the wider executive of British Railways. However noted enthusiast Bishop Eric Treacy suggested the name "Britannia".[17] This set the general theme of the naming process, which featured great Britons, although several deviations from the theme were allowed.[3] These exceptions were allocated to those that operated on the Western Region, which were given names of former Star Class locomotives, and those of the Scottish Region, which were granted the names of the various Scottish firths.[4] The locomotive naming ceremonies were carried out at various railway stations around the British Railways network.[3] No. 70047 was never named.

If that exercise was carried out today do we think there would be more than the 2 (arguably 3) female names amongst the 54?

 

Florence Nightingale, Anne Frank, Catherine the Great?

 

Superb photos and vids on here as ever, well done and thanks to all. There looked to be a good number of passengers on board as the train passed Hellifield. The "overflow" car park by the abortive West Coast shed was fairly full and it seemed that a fair few joined the train here. It looks like people have been reassured by the detailed Covid safety information on the train website? Out of interest does anyone know the actual numbers on board?

 

Roaring south.

It's good to be out.

 

I think the last two might fail the test 'cos of lack of 'Britishness'!!

 

I’ve always wondered why inspiration seemed to have run out when it came to 70047