The Bath and Bristol 24th March 2012

Likewise mate, no offence taken at all, hope it didnt ome across as I was offended!!!! I was just hoping for the best for loco.

 

Welcome Back! | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Avon Valley Five | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Evening all,

My two shots from Saturday. She sounded superb in the Avon Valley on the outward and a great shame about the failure on the return.

Best regards,

 

I fear that with the luck RTC have had in the last 6 months, and the TOC they limit themselves to using, they may have to become more "accommodating" with their offers of compensation if they want customers to come back!

As someone who fell victim to the high quality stock used on the 12th February train to Bristol in the form of the 'Green Train' i was certainly glad of a discount off another trip and my taxi receipt refunded.

Unless a separate incident has arisen with the TPWS, that is certainly not what is causing the 'off' beat. Listening to the video by the Gardens at Bath, and looking at the steam escape from the LH valve guide on the normally low pressure side of the valve, i would guess it is a rings issue.

 

In response to earlier comments about how the passengers got home, we were directed to the service train to Clapham (which was a bit busy once w'd all got on) and then there was a slow calling at 3 bridges and Preston Park followed by a fast to Haywards Heath and Brighton. We didn't have to pay for this.
We were expecting at some point that a ticket collector would have an argument with us about not having tickets, but everyone seemed to know who we were; the guy who opened the gate to let us out in Brighton (as we didn't have a ticket to open the barrier) obviously knew becasue he asked what it had failed on. We were only 1 hour 20 late, so not too bad all things considered.
Rumour was that passesngers for Worthing had a bus laid on.
We assume it was valves/pistons as the crew had their heads under there inspecting at Salisbury.

 

At 16.00 yesterday the loco and stock were back at Southall.

 

It sounds as though it's just as well 44932 soldiered on to Salisbury. At least there was a viable alternative route back to Sussex from there. If they'd terminated at Westbury, the journeys home might have been rather harder.

The video sound tracks, and descriptions posted on here, remind me of 61994's problems on the Kyle leg of GBIII. On that occasion, the issue was a broken piston ring that became steadily worse during the day. The main difficulty was the rapid loss of steam pressure, since one stoke in 6 (or perhaps 1 in 3?) the steam exhausted straight to the atmosphere without any resistance and without doing any work. She had to stop several times for a "blow up", but managed to get back to Inverness without assistance. She was deemed fit enough to pilot 70013 over the Highland main line the next day, though she did little more than move her own weight. It would be interesting to know how similar 44932's problem yesterday was to this.

 

My video of the empty stock working down through Purley soon after sunrise is on Flickr[video]http://www.flickr.com/photos/deepgreen2009/7014004109/[/video]. Flickr's 90 second limit means that the video cuts off as it passes - I have a version trimmed at the start to allow the train's passing to continue to the end, but Flickr won't load the amended file.

I've now put the full version on 'Youtube' :[video=youtube_share;QCEurbPaMBk]http://youtu.be/QCEurbPaMBk[/video]

 

Here's a link to my photos. 44932 Three Bridges-Bristol March 24th 2012 pictures by DanHill1991 - Photobucket

One thing I thought I'd ask. Are platform staff allowed down platform ramps because from those images I got this

 

SWT were not that impressed......

 

A Passenger TOC viewing Passengers as an inconvenience, welcome to the shareholders 21st century railway system.

A problem with this train in particular regarding rescue options is as can be ascertained from the Green Mk2's, it was operating in Vac Brake mode, which rules out DBS, Freightliner etc performing a rescue, the nearest Vac Braked Diesel was probably at Eastleigh or even Southall.

 

They werent impressed because they were not advised that the passengers off the charter were going to be boarding their train.
Some of their own fare paying passengers were even left behind at some stations....

 

Granted they could of been told, but it's not good than a TOC can be so easily withered by a few extra passengers, the fact they were off a tour is irrelevant, they could quite as esaily of been a large group going to some event.

 

David, you cannot claim the 300+ is a few extra passengers! It's the equivalent of 5 TSO's in our language. That would fool anyone in this day and age of average passenger load.

 

I'm surprised to hear that. I don't know what happened on Saturday but in similar situations in the past the TOC would be asked if they were willing to carry the passengers. Maybe a lack of communication somewhere on Saturday?

 

The Toc was asked and agreed to it
If they had refused we would have laid on road coaches
w e had found 5 coaches then stood them down when South west trains agreed to take our passengers
RTC does not put 300 passengers on a service train(s)
with no agreement
We have occasionally carried passengers from other Tocs to help them out

 

Quote from IR on the "other side" after watching one of the video's.
"Sounds like a valve ring or valve head problem there, time will tell."

Hope nobody minds me quoting this.

 

Nigel, thanks for giving us the facts as James Shuttleworth and Vintage Trains do. Your input in much appreciated.

 

Have not had internet for a while as moving house so some delayed photos...

Balcombe Viaduct...
Black 5 no.44932 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Haywards Heath...
Black 5 no.44932 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Black 5 no.44932 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Preston Park...
Black 5 no.44932 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Black 5 no.44932 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Portslade...
Black 5 no.44932 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Video to follow.

 

Thanks for confirming that, Nigel. I thought the claim that SWT didn't know about it was very unlikely.