Pennine Moors Christmas Explorer 17/12/20

Glad I decided to stay safe after what I suspected would happen help wise on Copy Pit but fair play to anyone for going out in dire conditions so I can watch at home

 

You're right about the conditions, they were dire!
I really shouldn't have bothered, but it is almost on my doorstep and the dog enjoyed a romp round the field!

 

No such thing as dire weather, it’s just challenging!!

 

Or as the Scots say, there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes .

 

It seems to me that videos often show the cocks open for longer on Bulleids than on other locos, but that was extreme: there seemed to be more steam coming out of the cocks than out of the chimney.

 

Actually, those shots have come out rather well. The first is fairly timeless (apart from the photo technology). The second one, though, with the people and cars in the foreground, puts you exactly in a time and place: A Bulleid pacific on Copy Pit, Dec 2020. Who'd have thought it? For many reasons!

 

Al, your supposition is correct for a loco that is out on the road, with cylinders nicely warmed through, and has only stoped for a brief period. It is definately not the case as here where you have a cold engine that has been stood about in steam for a long period of time. Water and condensation accumulates in all sorts of passages and takes a good while to clear out of the system. I would not have expected the driver here to have closed his "taps" any sooner than he did. Contrary to many enthusiasts beliefs the driver does not keep his taps open just to ruin their photographs.

Peter

 

Thank you for those kind comments. It makes getting soaked all the more worth while.

 

Couldn't have put it better myself.

 

Re. the last sentence - does anyone actually believe drivers do that? If so, what paranoid nonsense! This (montage) shot I took of 60163 leaving Victoria several years ago amused me, in that the cocks were only opened at exactly the point where it reached the two track workers! The second shot shows 60103 at the same location with the full cloaking effect. While I was taking that shot, a woman passed and asked me if a steam train was coming!

 

My 7 year old said that to me this morning as we walked to school in the drizzle, proud dad moment!

 

Similar experience for me when 60103 left the SVR on a cold morning after a visit. With a couple of other photters I was at the south end of Kidderminster mainline station. The loco blew its nose as it set from the SVR some way away but really blasted us, and and the commuters on the opposite platform, until it reached the end of the platform.

 

Braunton at speed at Acton Bridge and climbing Copy Pit

 

Thursday started well at Dutton Viaduct but was soon forgotten by the time I got to Copy Pit with the weather and performance going for a Burton.
Saturday was good as was the show from Braunton, with a nice sunrise arrival and departure at Warrington Bank Quay to start the day well. Later on there was a lovely sound through Chinley which made it all worth and while and that could well be it for a good period of time.

 

I didn't know there were fields at Warrington Bank Quay. <BJ>

 

Fields of concrete !