Diesel to replace a failed steam loco at a gala

OK ....

How about this for a dilema...

You are the organiser of a 3 day steam gala.

The timetable and loco diagrams are all written, published for staff and visitors.

You get to 1800 of the day before the gala starts and one of the loco's fails and wont be available for at least 2 of the days.

Do you re-write the loco diagrams with out them being proof read or do you replace the failed loco with a diesel and keep the rest of the steam locos as booked.
Is it better to let your visitors know when they arrive that loco A has been replaced by a diesel or let them find out that there "loco" travel plans for the day have all been re-written?

 

Diesel, if you can get a crew. If those travelling for one loco come away disappointed, it's a shame, but unavoidable. If those travelling for other locos, having made plans, come away disappointed, it's a much bigger, and avoidable, shame.

The above is especially true as more and more lines begin to charge for rosters...

 

Best course must be to leave all other arrangements as they are and use the spare STEAM loco which you will have already built into your plans??

 

I can see that substituting the diesel into Loco A's slot is the easiest. However, as a selfish, dyed-in-the-wool steam enthusiast who always avoids diesels, I'd much rather the work was shared amongst the remaining steam locos if possible, especially for a "steam gala". Maybe reallocate the steam locos to different diagrams so that the diesel gets the shortest possible roster? Experienced enthusiasts will soon work out which duties have been rearranged.

It would also depend on which loco has failed. Murphy's Law states that it will be the high-profile visitor or newly-overhauled loco that everyone has come to see, never the local stalwart that everyone's riden behind a dozen times. And of course, it always happens on the day I go to the gala. If I go on the Friday, the failed star loco is fixed by Sunday, whereas if I go on Sunday, it has limped gamely through Saturday only to fail on Sunday morning!

Whatever you choose to do on the day, post it on your web site, and here, in big red letters, and on every backboard you can find around the railway. We all know that s*1t happens sometimes, and if you can let people know what's going on, they'll be really impressed at how hard you are working to overcome the problems.

Here's hoping this is just a rhetorical question so far as next weekend is concerned!

 

Depends if it's a steam gala, and if the said locomotive was the star attraction...

if it's a 1960's gala.. then anything 60's goes..
If it's Thomas at a Thomas gala... well better think of some scenarios quick !
If it's just one of the dozen, I'd leave the plan as is and use discretion to rearrange something we're appropriate and easy enough, and use a diesel in the other place..

thinking back to the SVR Gala earlier this year.. 6233 dropped out months before... and it looked as if 7812 filled in it's diagram.. including the only nonstop of the day.. LMS Set with a Manor going tender first !..

 

5521 failed on sunday at the NNR with a leaky tubeplate and the class 24 substituted. I didn't hear any complaints.

 

I agree with this, replaced the failed steam with a diesel as it adds variety and then the other engines can carry out their rosters without having to do extra.

 

Depends on what the failed loco was due to be doing? For example if it was a double head and you could leave the diesel out of the diagram do so. If another steam engine had a less busy diagram re-arrange so the diesel is used less.

 

Replace it with a diesel, and leave everything else as is...

Months of hard work go into writing timetables, allocating loco's and organizing crews for a gala.

It is easier to phone 4 people (steam driver + Fireman, Diesel driver + secondman), and write a poster / notice for the public to say loco X has failed and has been replaced by loco Y. Rather than phoning each crew to explain that all previous timings have chanced, aswell as saying they might have to be up at 3.30am, instead of 6.30am to prep a loco. Aswell as rewriting a whole timetable!

 

You obviously didn't speak to my mate Cliff then.

 

I remember at the Keighley & Worth's Summer Gala that 63601 failed and 80002 did her turns whlist 85 (the spare) did 80002's turns.... at first, then they just stuck anything on everything and I ended up seeing 90733 every 5mins, so yeah if a loco fails replace with a spare or diesel, or at least switch diagrams and stick to them.

 

How about this for a dilema?? Steam hauled service - Steam fails - Diesel hauls - Diesel Fails, then what?????

 

Surely a properly run steam gala would always have a mainline pilot on duty. If I went to a gala and found that they were running a diesel I would feel that the were taking the mickey and probably not go again.

Railways should always assume that their customers always have an option; either to go to their railway or do something else. The customer should not be taken for granted, not ever.

Regards

 

I don't think the suggestion was an all diesel service, but putting one diesel out in order to maintain the rest of the roster... Personally I'd feel that was 'taking the mickey' less than the rosters being completely changed on the day, having paid for them!

 

But you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. I could argue the opposite and say that if I went to a gala with 1 loco confined to station pilot all day (or just in light steam), rather than actually hauling any service trains that would probably annoy me more than having a diesel out because of a failed loco.

My personal choice would be to put the diesel on the least intensive loco diagram.

 

Knowing how much work goes into loco (and crew) diagramming, the simple answer to a short notice failure is to substitute a diesel (just so long as there are qualified crews available) for the failure. However, if possible, some re-jigging of the diagrams should be considered to keep diesel haulage to a minimum for STEAM gala.

If, however, the failure was anticipated (in other words a loco which was only a possibility) then an alternative set of diagrams should, perhaps, have been drawn up to cater for this. Of course that pre-supposes that the person compiling the diagrams was given adequate notice of the possible non-availability.

This is a can of worms, whatever you do someone will be upset. I think the answer is to do your best to do short notice cover with the other steam locos if possible but use the diesel where necessary.

Mention has been made of having a standby steam loco, all very nice if you have sufficient motive power available (the whole point of this thread surely is that you haven't!). WSR often manages it but even they had to resort to diesel thunderbirds at this years Spring Gala. If you have a limited budget you have to do the best with what you've got available and try to put on the best possible show which inevitably means you don't have a spare steam thunderbird.

 

To be fair, it would depend on the railway in question too...

Taking (purely as an example) Embsay's forthcoming gala, with 3 steam locos rostered. Should one of these fail, the logical answer would be diesel substitution, or you're down to little more than a (busy) running day. The SVR gala the same weekend, on the other hand, has enough locos that it would be reasonable to expect a thunderbird or two to be available at all times.

In short, however, PLEASE do not completely change the diagrams unless it is completely unavoidable!

 

"You obviously didn't speak to my mate Cliff then."


There was nothing else to go out. The only other option was the 31 in railfreight livery! I know which one I would prefer.

 

Maybe we should learn from the national network...

when a Steam locomotive fails, cancel the diagram and organise a bus substitution for the day. :smt076

 

Hmmm... the lesser of two evils!