Santa Steam Express & Christmas Steam Express - 13, 14, 20 & 22/12/21

61306 on train one at Clapham Jct. and train two at Putney.
2021-12-13 61306 CLAPHAM JCT by KING COBRA 92, on Flickr

2021-12-13 61306 PUTNEY by KING COBRA 92, on Flickr

 

Wow - the regulator looks as if it's actually open! Interesting that there are additional white lamps on top of the brass ones. Do the latter not work (come to that neither are the white ones lit)?

 

Pulling away from a red signal at Clapham Jct. and she was working well at Putney. I’ll upload a shot of 35028 later.

 

'28 ambling through Wandsworth Town today. I hope SD do well from these runs but I wonder how many aboard could tell they were (partly) steam-hauled!

 

Filmed at Barnes Bridge (Mobile phone).

 

My clips from today. 455s will be gone soon so I left the scene to run!

 

35028 at Chiswick today. Reasonable light while waiting for her but as dull as ditchwater when she appeared.
2021-12-14 35028 CHISWICK by KING COBRA 92, on Flickr

 

I wonder how passenger loadings have been so far. I also wonder how difficult it would have been to have done three Surrey hills circuits instead of three plus one evening runs - I know only one path nominally exists and the BML return may have been the sticking point, but it would have seen steam throughout, with the SL triangle for turning. Perhaps too many moves in and out of Victoria, but the SE side isn't at full capacity off-peak. Of course, if all the runs are heavily-booked anyway, who cares?

 

Haven’t seen all the runs but the second one yesterday was very well loaded.

 

Yesterdays runs with 35028:

 

A bit of crew interest in this one from yesterday. A couple of questions arise - are the two buffers from different sources or are they just worn unequally? The other is something I've raised a few times but have been unable to find an answer to - how does '28 'get away' with its relatively dim lights? I am delighted to see such restraint and wonder if a special exemption applies for this loco when all other traction's lights just get brighter and brighter (to the point of being dazzling)? The headcode discs are virtually brighter than the lamps!

Another thing has just struck me - the rarity of seeing '28 (or any other steam loco) on the main line without a POB immediately behind the tender.

 

Good work. Well done for catching the rare backing down at Victoria, and for actually capturing a few bursts with the regulator open - I think they were few and far between! Dedicated work covering the full day's events.

 

It was a huge surprise and treat when the Christmas Express came through Barnes Bridge to see Bob Baines arm really high up on the regulator, implying it was wide open. Certainly wanted to try and make up the 30 minute deficit!!

It was one of the longest days out filming steam and never more than 20 miles from the capital. A strange thought!

 

Going by today's update on the government website (over 78000 new infections) both Delta and Omicron variants already seem to be super spreading.

Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

That was at night when the video will obviously pick them up, but they are hugely less bright than anything else on the main line, which is great - I just wondered if anyone knows any background to it. These three shots taken from the same place within a few minutes of each other yesterday perhaps demonstrate my point. The electric and diesel shots have actually had their highlights edited to reduced the glare from the headlights, so the contrast in brightness was even greater than the photos show.

 

Yes, is it not because they have a less divergent beam?