35028 Clan Line

They normally change over at various points during the trip so it’s difficult to know who was in the driving seat.

 

I remember the late John Smith telling me that he and Malc Hall used to swap over. The reason: they both preferred firing.
Pat

 

I was lucky enough to do the early morning "commuter run" Apart from being a very good run from a performance perspective it was great to see startled faces on the platforms as we sped through. Mind you even in more recent (pre Covid) days of regular DCE blasts up the main from Woking of an evening, it still seemed to startle many waiting on the platforms.
Six Bells seems not to have a record of the morning trip and sadly if I kept any record of timings it has long been lost. If anyone else was on board and has the timings would love a copy.

 

Easily fixed by positioning some small springs to counter the gravity effect, holding the shoes in the "normal" position and not letting them sag when unapplied.

Its a neat system. More braking force, always useful, more modulation, and the added benefit of reduced axlebox wear due to braking forces.

 

Yes, you are correct. The trips were unadvertised and those on-board were by invitation only, and invited to give a charitable donation! They ran as an 'entertaining' way of getting locos and stock back to London !

 

All set and ready for tomorrow's British Pullman, A Belmond Train tour around Kent, complete with a special set of discs and flags to commemorate 80 years of VE Day.

 

Too much clutter. Just my grumpy old git opinion.

 

Lovely idea,. (though perhaps not the signwriters finest hour....)

 

This is a very important occasion though Victor, especially as it tours around the Kent coast. 80 years ago many of our troops would have been extremely grateful to have returned to that very same coastline. <BJ>

 

Yes, I know, I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm not being disrespectful, it's just my opinion.

 

I'm sure the person who went to the bother of making these *really* appreciates your valuable feedback.

I really don't understand why some members of this forum have to qualify any compliment they make with an extra, picky criticism.

 

Nice to see. I hope a similar effort is made for VJ 80 in August.

 

It’s not much different from the Golden Arrow front end, just a different headboard and two Union flags rather than one of them being the French tri-colour.

 

You've only just noticed? I wonder if the armchair experts on here have any idea whatsoever of the effort involved in turning out a loco in this condition.

 

Knowing of the efforts everyone on the team has gone to, to make ‘28 look superb today, the efforts of our support crew, the DB crew, and Belmond in making this trip an enjoyable and memorable day out for all (both on board and at the lineside), all I will say in reply is that the measure of our society is in how we support and validate everyone, whilst doing the most professional work we can do on the national network.

I personally thought we did a good job today - everyone gave a great account of themselves.

It’s such a shame that seriously minor details that are mostly immaterial to the actual running of the loc have to be raised just to try and spoil the overall experience.

But hey - our work speaks for itself.

 

Sure Ralph, it’s totally that - and not the mean spirited way of undermining the efforts of younger volunteers and hard working older ones whose only desire today was to put on a good show for the patrons and stakeholders of the operation in question.

 

I can't believe that people are getting upset about @Victor 's posts. For a blunt speaking Yorkshireman I thought that he was being courteous and pleasantly uncritical, especially considering some of the opinionated post that appear here sometimes. There was no criticism of Clan Line's turnout or the hard work involved. He was just stating, in the nicest way possible, that it was not to his personal liking. We all have our likes and dislikes on here and some are able to express them more pleasantly than others. I think anyone who is taking umbridge at Victor's post is taking themselves a bit too seriously.

But hey, this is just another grumpy old git opinion - and the smilie says that it isn't to be taken too seriously

Peter

 

Despite the criticism by @Victor the post still has 13 likes at the moment.

 

The thing is, this has been done for VE Day, 80th anniversary. This comes around exactly once in a lifetime.

We normally run with two white discs and the Belmond board (or whichever headboard is required).

This is a one off.

Victor knows that.

Ralph knows that.

Everyone on this thread knows that.

It’s a commemoration and our younger volunteers put in an additional effort to make sure the locomotive was spotless and ready, our older volunteers did what they do best, which is support them in their development and ensure the run goes well.

Maybe in my old age my tolerance for the lack of forethought, the lack of understanding, the lack of grace, the lack of basic manners from individuals who should know better, is getting steadily worse.

Then again, my tolerance for those who don’t do anything except post on here and talk about their opinions as if they are of any merit has long been pretty low.