SLS Special 14 Nov 2009 (9600 & 9466)

My congratulations go to Bob Meanley, Vintage Trains and their loco teams on an excellent day out on Saturday. Highlight for me must be the sound from the two locos climbing up the Old Hill bank. Pity I was so far back in the formation - 5th coach I think.

Its always difficult balancing my needs as a photographer with the pleasure of actually riding on a steam hauled excursion but I hope you enjoy taking a look at my photo collection....

http://clive-hanley.fotopic.net/c1781048.html

Finally - It was a pity that we weren't able to stratch our legs anywhere until Kidderminster. What possibility would there be of a photo stop somewhere along the line. Would platform access charges be incurred for a 20 minute 'official' stop at a multi platformed station?

 

Well,i seem to remember being in the rear of the first coach and we were on the far end of the bridge with the loco onto the first 1/4 of it,so about a 2 coach lengths were on the bridge,or maybe it was 3,either way we didn't go right to the end....

 

Here's a few of my pictures from the day.

http://pannierstoironbridge.fotopic.net/c1781917_1.html

the engine is just beyond the first visible coach in this picture (below).. we didnt make the bridge.

http://pannierstoironbridge.fotopic.net/p62136184.html

A few people on the day were getting very nervous about the trip after the hour at Wolverhampton.. and a bit more after the uncoupling and watering for another hour at Bescot, as to whether the tour would get to Kidderminster or even on the Valley, but when the train started moving.. and really went for it all fears went away !

Some people made comments about lack of photo ops.. but at the end of the day this was an SLS special, by nature a tour to nowhere creeping down lines and not a "day out to..." kind of special.. so to me that's what it was all about.

However I doubt anyone went away unhappy..

whats worth pointing out is the "extra mile" effort made by Vintage Trains, faced with not having the run round at Ironbridge.. the easier, faster and cheaper method would have been to stay with the 47 all the way to Ironbridge and start the panniers from Madeley junction.. lucky for us they made the effort, time & cost of extra loco swaps, light engine paths watering and uncoupling to give us the ride we wanted from the outset.

The timetable was planned well.. all that extra recovery time, proved it was needed and as a result the tour was pretty much on time going back.. it's proves it's not as easy as you think running a small tank engine, with limited speed and limited range on the mainline today !.. I still hope for a pannier ride some day round the suburbs of Paddington (Greenford with it's semaphores hint hint) some day but just getting it there may be a challenge !

 

A selection of my pictures can be found at http://paul-simpson.fotopic.net/c1781719.html

Thanks to Vintage trains and all the crews( Drivers Ray Churchill, Andy Taylor, Ray Poole and Jim Clarke) for a great day out.

 

The semaphores at Greenford are long gone.

 

Some of the semaphores are still present at Greenford, only the 2 bracket signals from West Ealing have been removed by recent works. The Bay starter and numerous signals on the old main line section are still very much alive.

 

I stand corrected.

 

Clive, comparing photographs we must have been next to each other for most of the day ! I was the one "younger" than most at the window in the black coat, if I wasnt at the window, I had a phone in my hand updating this site Opposite window to me was a bloke in a dark coat with a yellow GPS device recording the speed / mileages all day.

 

Regarding the mileage of the tour I worked it out as follows:

47773 - Tyseley Warwick Road - Bescot Yard - 12.77
9466 + 9600 - Bescot - Cosford DGL - 15.57
47773 - Cosford DGL - Ironbridge - 12.79
9466 + 9600 - Ironbirdge - Kiddy NR - 49.77
5764 + 4566 - Kiddy SVR - Bridgnorth - Kiddy Junc - 29.60
9466 + 9600 - Kiddy Junc - Tyseley Warwick Road - 22.25

All mileages are in miles and chains and calculated using the 'Mile by Mile' book and Midland Quail.

Hope this is of use to some.

 

Not much was said about the run on the SVR, though it was approaching darkness..
I was surprised how much was insteam at the SVR that day ..

I noted:
7812 on an incoming train (and later on shed at Bewdley)
6024 in light steam at Bewdley
5164 on a Kidderminster Service
46443 departing Bridgnorth for Kidderminster
42968 in light steam at Bridgnorth.

4566+5764 felt like they had a few more rounds of slipping than 9600/9466 but handled the train well, with some good running and some nice non-stop sections including through Bewdley (to all our surprise) on the way south.

One question, why the need to detrain at Kidderminster ?, the track section off the SVR to BR is obviously certified for passengers as we came out on it.. is there a restriction on setting back or switching tracks at Kidderminster to get onto the SVR or is it a general shunting a train with steam restriction ?

 

Propelling a loaded passenger train is a no no.

 

A rarity, but it does still seem to be allowed in certain places such as around the triangle at Chester and into the platforms at Inverness. Does anybody know why it's allowed at places such as this, but not elsewhere?

 

Were you not on the same tour as me then going to Chester the other year ;-)

 

Was the train set back into the platforms at Kidderminster?

There does tend to be a restriction on propelling into dead-end lines with pssengers on board (as oppsed to setting back sghort distances after run round, which I blieve happens at Bodmin General and kidderminster).

Steven

 

70013 + 5029 set back into the Loop at Tiverton this year after the path was not set correctly.

6024 has also propelled the Torbay Express at Newton Abbot with Passengers on after a points failure.

My guess the move at Kidderminster could be becuase the line is not cleared for passenger working.

 

I seem to remember this issue has come up before and is due to a lack of an FPL on the points between NR and SVR, so if a passenger train runs from NR to SVR, the points need to be clipped (making a greater time delay between services and costing for a NR worker to clip them), but unless Im very much mistaken, this doesn't apply to an ECS move. But they don't need to be clipped in the other direction as the train is not traveling over an un-clipped facing point.

 

Generally you are not allowed to propel passenger trains for a normal movement (the lack of visibility for the driver being an obvious safety reason). There are exceptions as specified and allowed for in the rulebook (Chester would be an example of this).

There are also allowances for "abnormal" cases (such as points failure, over running of platforms etc).

At Kidderminster the network rail point does not have a facing point lock - which restricts the passage of passenger trains over it. I believe that a small number of passenger movements are allowed each year, but require additional locks to be fitted to the point.

Regards

Stephen

 

Dear All,

The support crew on 9466 for this splendid run were too busy to get any photos of the run and I would like to ask if any of you chaps who were around with cameras on the 14th November might be able to loan a photo or two for use on our website.

You can contact me via the email address on the website - the link is below.

Many thanks in advance for your help and support.

Regards to all,

Bruce Murray