VT - Cotswold Explorer - 20th October

Spot on Ben. As you well know on a Castle it is often easier if you are standing, to look around the corner of the cab roof to see where you are going. 6236 has obviously not spotted that the railway appears to disappear just a little further ahead due to a substance widely known as Fog. There are a lot of footpath crossings on this section of line, and there are a lot of local idiots who like to spread themselves along the cess away from the only bit that they are entitled to be on, called the path. Saturday was no exception and I have no doubt that Alastair was doing no more than keeping a sharp look out and maybe checking the shade of smoke at the same time.

We had quite a few instances of lineside photgrapher stupidity on Saturday, the worst being the mindless idiot who had crossed the grids (placed on crossings by Network Rail to prevent cattle, sheep and the terminally stupid going off road) and was reported by a passing driver. This caused at least 3 trains including us being brought to a stand, and we had to draw forward to Northway crossing and throw him off before Gloucester panel would allow trains to pass. Needless to say he and other belligerents could not see what he was doing wrong. It is a very great pity that there is no mechanism for passing on the Netwrok Rail delay claims to such morons.

Obviously 6236 has no recollection of the number of times every day that drivers and firemen could be seen hanging out of the cab windows of Coronations, Princesses, Scots and 5x's. I have and it was amazing how many of them used to return the wave to a small trainspotter.

Regards
Bob

 

Sapperton is usually bad for this also, especially as the vegetation continues to grow with many people, even if not close to running lines, on the wrong side of the rather small boundary fence - no wonder NR like their metal palisade fences.

 

That's a bit of a generalization about GWR locos I think, but in this instance it was Mr A Meanley assisting the driver looking at the road ahead for obstructions, signals and silly buggers the wrong side of the fence. Remember the driver is on the right side of the cab.

Also, earlier in the day we suffered a significant delay whilst we "herded" some trespassing idiots off the line at Northway Level Crossing.

After all the time and energy Alastair has put into restoring and maintaining 5043, if he wants to hang out of the cab upside down and naked, that’s his prerogative!

And if it upsets a few spotters, awfully sorry. How about you support us by buying a ticket once in a while?

(For those that do, this is obviously not targeted at you!)

 

Hear, hear!

 

I'm not a photographer but surely the fireman hanging out of the cab watching the road ahead adds to a picture by showing not only the loco but also how it is being operated and the problems with visability that a boiler in the way presents?

 

For me, this trip was the silver lining of the dark cloud that was the postponement of the Marylebone Flyer. Until then, it had not even been on my radar.

The highlight of the day was the very tightly timed Gloucester to Didcot leg of the journey - a blistering climb of Sapperton (my phone GPS had around 45mph into the tunnel) and then sustained 75mph running on the GW main line. The load was 8 cars, by the way. The lengthy stop within sight of Oxford station for a platform to become available was a little frustrating - I gather that plans are in hand to add an extra platform which is obviously much needed. I too enjoyed the high speed pass through Kidderminster to the accompaniment of much whistling, and the finale was the vigorous climb of Old Hill bank, where my GPS was reading a fraction under 30mph into the tunnel. By the way, for anyone with a BlackBerry model that has a GPS receiver built in, I can recommend a free speedometer app. called appropriately GPSpeedOmeter that can be downloaded from Blackberry App World. Be warned that when in use it does drain the battery pretty quickly though.

Thanks to VT and WCRC for another great day out. Given that the tour was running about 40 down at one point, I think Network Rail deserve a special pat on the back for whatever they did to facilitate the recovery of all the lost time.

Nick M.

 

Fog?

What fog?

5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe 20/10/2012 - YouTube

 

Expect a naming and shaming shortly: Police hunting 'extreme trainspotter' after Tewkesbury level crossing incident | This is Gloucestershire

 

How did they come up with "South West Coast Trains" from "West Coast Railways" & "Vintage Trains"?

Glad the BTP are actively searching for these two “gentlemen”. Our driver was quite “upset” by the whole incident. To me, the article makes it sound less serious that it actually was….

 

And certainly no excuses for what those two idiots did, definitely not "gentlemen" in my eyes!

Fingers crossed that these two numpties are made an example of!

 

Got to love that. Who says we should censure the media?!

Very disappointing about the actions of the individual and their reaction when the driver spoke to them. I would have thought that most railway enthusiasts would, at least, have some respect for professional railwaymen carrying out their duties. It's a shame that there's such a strong 'me, me, me' culture in the hobby.

 

Well here they are - anyone recognise them?

Police hunting 'extreme trainspotter' after Tewkesbury level crossing incident | This is Gloucestershire

 

Hardly the best photo - I couldn't recognise the bloke on the right whether I knew him or not!

 

Bloke on the left of the photo looks clear enough to me?

 

Railtour of the Year!