RTC 2022

From RTC:

New Headboard for Steam Special.
The Kentish Belle Armistice Day steam trip will be hauled by Jubilee class locomotive 45596 'Bahamas', temporarily re-named 45606 'Falkland Islands' in honour of those who fought in the Falklands conflict in 1982.

 

Railway Herald shows a trip on Thurdsay 1 December to Worcester with 44871 run by RTC. The RTC web site makes no mention of the trip - was it a fiction all along, or has it been cancelled, does anyone know?

 

That excursion was still advertised on RTC's website when I last looked a few days ago, so on that basis one can only assume the venture has indeed been cancelled.

 

Thanks for that. It would be so helpful if they slapped a big 'cancelled' note next to it instead of it just vanishing. Some people may have been looking at tours and considering booking then re-visiting the site to find it gone and wondering if was ever really there to start with.

 

Not really, a list of tours with cancelled against them is hardly going to inspire confidence of prospective customers. Far better to remove it from sale.

 

I suppose it depends on your point of view. As I said, if I'm searching for tours and see one there one day, and gone the next, I don't necessarily know if it's full, cancelled or something else (some operators put 'full', I know). Anyway, I'm assuming this one's gone, but I hadn't noticed anything here about it, so just wanted to check.

 

After a few issues on Youtube, I finally managed to get this video uploaded of 45596 Bahamas on the morning run of the Christmas Cheshireman. I filmed her at Patchway, Tram Inn and Hope Under Dinmore. I hope you enjoy the video.

 

Nice filming, in lovely conditions. The first scene reminds us what a national scandal the GWR OHLE is! Vastly over-engineered - compare with the HS1 catenary, which looks very unobtrusive, is used at 186mph and with no problems.

 

I'd rather over-engineered than ECML quality and let's remember - the big railway is there as a public service, not a playground for 12":foot toys.

 

The catenary on HS1 is at a constant height, no raising over level crossings or lowering under bridges and in tunnels. The GWR has Steventon to mention but one problem location.

 

I would rather they engineered the ECML properly north of York, but what a Suprise they ran out of dough, increased post distance, and get the problems associated with it being disrupted in heavy wind....

 

I don't think they did "run out of dough" - it was never there in the first place. The whole East Coast electrification scheme was intentionally built on the cheap as Mrs T's government didn't approve of wasting taxpayers money on improving a nationalised national asset. Of course wasting money on a privatised asset is different altogether.

Peter

 

It has exactly the same problems north of Hitchin, where the original 1970s electrification scheme stopped. Get a good blow across the Fens and down it comes. @torgormaig has it right; whilst Maggie was responsible for electrifying more miles of railway than any other PM (and remains so), it was done on the cheap. And don't get me started on why they went for the 91 when "the Badger" was the superior locomotive...

 

Indeed, but the long stretches without obstructions need not have been so obscenely over-engineered - just make special arrangements at those points where the height needs to vary. The HS1 route is a public service as much as anywhere else and it (and most European systems, which also have tunnels, bridges, crossings, etc.) are vastly superior in terms of appearance matched with functionality. The huge masses of metal alone on the GWR system cost a fortune. This is not just an issue for train photography (which obviously is of no importance), but the general impact on the scene/landscape and, of course, the cost.

 

Perhaps Sir would prefer an eight-lane motorway? No impact of OHLE there.

 

Presumably there is a NR/Met Office resilience model of how frequently the wind is expected to blow above 40,50,60 from what direction in 2030,3040,2050? If Retford and Holme catenary are like they are today, what are the downtime predictions?

 

If that's aimed at me, I can only assume it's a joke. If not; simply what I said - European railways have slender but perfectly adequate high-speed catenary (with arguably more icing than here) on purpose-built and older lines so there is no reason why we can't do the same. It is universally accepted that the GWR stuff is ludicrously over-engineered and therefore ludicrously expensive, probably so because everyone involved in the messed-up UK privatised and litigious rail sector wanted to ensure they weren't blamed for failures, and assuming cost wouldn't matter. Cost did matter and the work petered out.

 

Probably so.