Steam Dreams 2023

A fine effort from Braunton this evening at Upton Scudamore. She certainly sounded very loud in my recording. With load 12 and a 47 at the rear, the 47 was bound to be pushing but it certainly didn't spoil the occasion. I thought the loco looked superb with the blood and custard stock.

Thanks to the crews today, it must have been very warm and dusty on the footplate. [BJ]

 

The TOC ( in this case SWR) pay the customer. They recoup money for the delay through the delay attribution system.
BUT the fines for charter trains are capped and above that limit Network Rail have to meet the costs.
The train preceeding 1Z92 was 2S17 0822 WAT-WYB (B) which lost time beyond Virginia Water. Therefore the money go round goes back to SWR, unless it was an infrastructure failure, then it lands with Network Rail.
( This is simple, just consider what the blame process is like around Cambridge or Ely, four passenger operators plus three regular freight operators
plus new wave operators like ROG.)

Cheers, Neil

 

But of course if it was all one company it would be departments arguing over those delay minutes, even if no money involved in DR, as I witnessed one day at the airlines daily ops review.
Delays accepted, just big arguments over who took the "hit" as the responsible department.

 

Even now, departments within individual TOC's still then debate further where the delay allocation is attributed to. E.g a train fault/low performance is allocated to fleet, a gradual lateness developing due to a new trainee being more cautious with braking point and speed into platforms being allocated to train crew etc. This is why train staff are implored to fill out their diagrams with full information regarding any lost time, so the source can be identified to it's most exact.

 

The return train at Fleet; according to Realtime Trains, it was a ¼ of a minute late!



Night, night.

Ron.

 

It needs 20 minutes which we kept exactly on Saturday

 

So what do you do if there isn't a 20 minute gap in the timetable? Find somewhere else to take water?

Peter

 

Apart from use a Bulleid Pacific, take sufficient water to ge to Salisbury and go!

 

VT did it on their Aquae Sulis tour in 2011 for the two coaches that OURS had booked, confirming that roof boards can still be made and used, albeit in that instance not promoting VT themselves.

 

Might be senior memory but have they stopped for water at Overton in the past?

 

This was a Bulleid pacific. I agree that the tender need not be filled to overflowing to get to Salisbury, and I still think some juggling of steam and service trains (i.e. 2L23) between slow and fast might solve the problem, depending on the exact situation on the day. The stations are blessed with the necessary crossovers after all. Perhaps that is too nebulous from a planning perspective and would require a signaller's decision on the day. As it is it seems that the schedule does not reflect the proven reality, so something either has to change or it is accepted that 2L23 is cursed!

 

Indeed, but not necessarily noticed by propsective travellers who happen to see it from a platform, and probably not something that operators would want to bother with - potentially fitting 24 coach boards before departure! Neither, come to that, is a headboard necessarily a particularly good advertising pitch unless it is so huge and garish that it is unacceptable today (I'm thinking of the old, smokebox-spanning boat train boards of the SR). I suspect word of mouth at these events is easily the best way of spreading the word to potential customers.

 

I got mixed up with Bahamas! I’m not sure what tender Braunton has but a Bulleid 6,000 gal tender will get to Salisbury without filling up

 

My video of Braunton on the Charter to Bath. Filmed either side of Upton Scudamore.
Not my best day with the camera but here it is...

 

From Southall via Victoria and Brentford? That's 95 miles. I'd have thought that might be a bit tight.

 

Indeed, but a half-fill at Winchfield would be far quicker and surely ample for the journey left, removing the water stop over-run which dogs the schedule.

 

Not much wrong with that.

 

I just posted my video on another group and somebody replied thus..

"Unfortunately it was reported that Braunton caused a lineside fire at Saltford and was reduced to light steam afterwards with the 47 providing power from the rear.."

I hadnt heard that, can anyone confirm this?

 

Thanks ..I am my own worst critic but too fast zoom in and then a short stop on the second shot....light all over the place on the first is what I didnt like, must do better next time.