'English Riviera Express' 2020

Very true. The stock will not as so good on the return (mk.s after the support coach) but still wonderful to see after so many months without main line steam.

Royal Scot away from Taunton on time. <BJ>

 

Where did i say it was going on the front

 

The Diesel is there to provide power for the stock.

 

Great noise over Whiteball. Sounding like 20-25mph into the tunnel. Diesel well and truly dead weight!

 

Fantastic sight

lucky rain shower passed

 

I thought the more informed stated it was going onto the front of the train.

 

I'm sure it looks even better to those sat inside the coaches.

 

Im done with this thread and Forum.

 

Seen the train passing Newton Abbot the diesel was still on the back,

I thought it was gonna be on the front, Boy was I surprised.

 

Please don't. I'm afraid thoughtless and sometimes boorish comments are a part of most forums. Admin do remove trolling and really bad stuff here.

 

Anyone thinking of going to the field at Rewe / Stoke Canon for the return don’t bother as you will need to be over 8 ft tall to see over the crop of maize there and joy of joys network rail have installed an audible warning system at the foot crossing by the field !

 

Couldn't agree more. The BS factor on some of the posts on this train have hit MAX.

Interestingly no-one was disputing that 6100 would haul the train from Bristol. Yet according to RTT:

From Bristol Temple Meads

• Starts as Diesel locomotive, trailing load 420 tonnes, changes en route
  Planned for 75mph max.

Where the 'Diesel runs around' at Taunton came from baffled me as RTT says the train is "Pathed as Diesel locomotive, trailing load 455 tonnes from here
Service stops to pick up passengers only". Obviously a lot of passengers were being picked up at Taunton as the load increased by 35 tons.

Therefore, the conclusion based purely on RTT is that this never was a Steam Hauled Train. Whoever thought they rode behind 6100, saw it on Dawlish Beach Cams and Railcams (I'm one), or photographed it from the lineside are seriously deluded.

Point to be made is there's plenty of room for speculation and confusion, especially as not everyone who reads the What's going On Forum knows that RTT doesn't recognise a Steam Locomotive as motive power in the Train Information Details. Even for the The Steam Hauled Jacobite Trains Season, RTT describes the train as:

Pathed as Diesel locomotive, trailing load 246 tonnes
Planned for 45mph max.

Think it was a difficult one for the Moderators.

 

I believe the increased tonnage added "theoretically" to the train for the western part of the journey from & back to the stopping point at Taunton is one way of 'fiddling' the N Rail timetable planner calculator into taking account of the steeper gradients, and so journey time, on that part of the route.

 

?

 

As you say, RTT, or the NR system from which the data is derived doesn't recognise steam, so every steam excursion is shown as diesel.

The giveaway is that the speed is usually shown as 60mph and quite a high trailing load to simulate steam's inferior acceleration, whereas a genuine diesel hauled service is normally 75mph.

Puzzling to see the quoted speed for todays trip of 75mph, which does wrongly suggest diesel haulage...

 

The other confusing thing is that the alternative path via Yatton shown on RTT just above the one used does not say anything at Taunton about an uplift from 420 to 455 tonnes.