Top Gear and The power of Clarkson

I wouldn't say that Clarkson is slacking - Especially what I saw of him on 'Tornado'' Kings X to Edingburgh =D> =D>

I did have to have a chuckle with Michael Schumacher and his driving skills at the end of the program....

 

Personally I thought the slice of bacon was a classic.

 

And the egg sandwich.

 

I think you'd need to be some kind of Superman to manage well over 300 miles on a Vincent at "line speed" - or at least completely immune to discomfort and pain - absolutely wonderful motorcycles, but even a modern unfaired bike over that distance in that time and thus speed is a considerable physical challenge... Now if they did Swindon to London at Cheltenham Flyer speeds...

 

Blimey....Not nice! Is there a report on this anywhere? (in English). Would be educational to read and find out the circumstances to this!

 

Can anyone name the others on the footplate and indicate who was who, IE cap on back to front, guy who acted the water shortage very dramatically, now signed up for a week at the Royal Vic, and the portly chap?

 

Flat cap guy was Graeme Bunker, He used to run Arriva Trains Wales before a move to Steam Dreams with involvment in the A1 Trust...

 

I Know, from York. Steve Chipperfield was the inspector and Brian Grierson was the driver. Not sure on the fireman though....

Rich

 

Whoever they are, they should all be nominated for oscars!

But I have to admit, while I still can't stand Clarkson, I did enjoy it!

 

Nah he loves his bikes does Hammond, I'm sure. Perhaps after that trip though he's gone off 'em.

 

Kings Cross to York
Driver: Don Clarke (beard, grease-top cap)
Fireman: Chris Bayliss (tartan cap)
(Driver and fireman swapped places at Doncaster)
Inspector: Jim Smith (white hair, grease-top cap)
A1 Trust rep: Graeme Bunker (flat cap)

York to Edinburgh
Driver: Brian Grierson (bald)
Fireman: Jimmy Hanser (sp?) (cap back to front)
Inspector: Steve Chipperfield
(I noticed Jimmy and Steve were both driving at some point)
A1 Trust rep: Graeme Bunker

 

Re posting by Avonside 1563 and others. If you enter '01 1516 - Bitterfeld' into Google it will bring up some items and photos of the Bitterfeld incident that can be translated into English.

 

http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/trans...en/BBU-DR-DB.html&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
Rather sobering... That's a lot of energy...

 

Please enlighten us, all I can see is JC firing, then cuts to the motorbike behind a bus. I have looked several times.

 

I see that Steam Dreams are running a private charter from Carnforth to Scarborough today. Has the Top Gear feature been so successful that Clarkson is now set to fire Scots Guardsman? <BJ>

 

I don't think so. Vincents can be set up to have a very comfortable riding position. The bike in Top Gear has very obviously not been properly adjusted to suit Hammond. In the 1960s I used to ride my Norton Dominator cafe racer between Southend and Bradford several times a year without too much trouble and that was not a comfortable bike. I still have one like it but can only manage about 30 miles before I have to stop for a stretch!

Cheers
Alan

 

Different crews between the shots innit ?

 

Interesting reading. As I had thought, (from long term memory!). It was the surging of low level boiler water as the train braked hard to a stop on a falling gradient that was generally felt to the final cause of the explosion. But I had forgotten the earlier events of the day (as correctly posted a few pages back here), when the crew had already failed one loco and set out on their return trip with insufficient water for the whole trip. And had missed one water stop opportunity already on the return. I guess that explains why the water level must have already been dangerously low in the boiler before the hard braking on the down grade caused what little was left to firstly surge forward. And then surge back and presumably into what by then must have been an incredibly hot firebox area when the train came to a stand.

 

AND they had already failed their first loco for almost exactly the same reason as caused the explosion, except that the fusible plugs (Schmelzpropfen in the Babelfish comedy text) had dropped and rendered the first loco u/s. In 01 1516 the plugs didn't do their job because they were held tight by limescale! The remains of the crew were found on the destroyed station roof 60 meters away, and there's no mention of casualties on the arriving passenger train which was blasted by the contents of boiler and firebox and caught fire.

East German railways pre-reunification seem to have been rather adventurous territory, don't they.