'English Riviera Express' 2020

Britannia seen near Bridgwater with the return working. https://www.flickr.com/photos/79185888@N04/50183444678/in/dateposted-public/

 

Yes, I believe that was 35028 with over 600 tons. 71000 did it from a standing start and 550 tons in 25 mins 33s.

Interestingly running down Whiteball in the morning we didn't have a single brake application and speed didn't go over 75 mph (mainly low 70's). That's unusual as unchecked trains can usually run up into the 80's on the steeper sections hence brakes these days to keep to 75 mph. This suggested to me that the rolling resistance of the train was higher than normal. Mike Notley used to make the point about the resistance of the traction motors in a "dead" diesel, and I wonder if that made the difference, i.e. the resistance outweighing the extra gravity from the weight of D1935 - makes the return working even more impressive.

 

I spoke to the driver of D1935 as it stood at Bristol TM in the evening. He was about to take the ECS out of the station. He was quite young but very enthusiastic about steam traction. He was at present firing and hoping eventually to become a driver. It was good to hear from someone who was so passionate about our hobby. Without young blood our hobby will eventually fade away.

70022 looked superb as it sat at the end of platform 5 in the fading light. The crew were stood around the cab discussing the return journey. My thoughts were that this could have been a scene from the early 1950s. It was a marvellous end to my day. <BJ>

 

Four shots from yesterday's tour at Yatton, Whiteball, Dawlish and Huntspill.



James

 

Pity no-one is prepared to do a full report or post the full timings of the Rivieras. Would be very interested in them. Haven't done the Brit on the route since 13th September 2015. That was a superb flat out run with 10+POB. Yet with a 46.1 mph pass through Exeter and a lot of running in the high 60s, a max of 70 at Tiv Jn, and a 58.7 mph speed at mp174, the Brit took 19m 0.6s that day. To only take a minute longer with a significantly heavier train is worthy of more detail being posted.

 

I would have thought that the passengers were more interested in enjoying their experience of luxury travel and fine dining. <BJ>

 

Not questioning the validity of the runs but had conversations with LSL diesel drivers over the last 2 years and they are of the view that drive/notch 1 isn't assisting. Have no idea whether they need to be in drive to provide ETH/Power for the set. Hopefully the upgraded Generator Car will be available later in the year or early in 2021.

 

Sorry for the delay, been a busy week(!) Full log attached.

 

I covered the matter of idling/notch 1 a while back in my Column with a detailed explanation from Ray Churchill so I won’t repeat it here

 

Thanks a lot for posting the log. Mega detail; way more than I ever record!!

 

Have listed an extract from 13/9/15 and 2/8/20
So, could a Brit with 500+tons pick up 10 mph more up the 515/300/620/lev/310 to Stoke Canon than the superb 11 coach 420 ton Torbay Express of 15/9/13?

Grad 70000+11 13/9/15 70000+11+Cl47
Exeter St. David's Pass 286d 33:30.16 46.1 40:07.47 32.5
193 3/4 515 33:40.56 46.1 40:24.65 35.0
193 1/2 515 33:59.97 48.0 40:49.14 37.5
Cowley Bridge Jn 192 52c 620 35:01.86 52.0 42:03.56 44.0
192 620 35:46.72 54.0 42:55.22 48.5
191 1/2 620 missed 43:30.88 51.0
Stoke Canon 190 1/2 310 37:21.71 60.7 44:55.84 57.0

Tornado on what I think was it's best Exeter Pass-Whiteball Summit, 12th July 2015, with 12 up, 460 tons, picked up 18 mph over the same distance.

Apologies for the format

 

For runs compared in the attached plot...
70000 on:
2/8/20 497.5/505
14/6/15 355/380
15/7/12 396/421
1/7/12 396/421

Also (for comparison) 60163 12 coach record from a standing start:
26/9/10 436/469

Plots show speed from milepost times Exeter to Whiteball summit. Speed are the average between the two points. The starting speed through Exeter is a little misleading because we don't always record a post time between St. Thomas and St. Davids.

(Thanks to my son for writing the Python program to produce the Graph...)