Golden Arrow Statesman

The reason for the Class 57 was to power the Mark II rolling stock' electrical heating and ventilation systems. As we know now 34067 left the Class 57 behind on Saturday 25th May at London-Liverpool Street. Barry

 

The Golden Arrow Statesman is running again on Saturday, its first run in June 2013. Looking to catch both the Canterbury-West run and the Derby run on the short bit of the Great Western where the train is steam-hauled. Barry

 

On Time through Tonbridge, looking and sounding great!

 

On time through Ashford

 

No sign of it between Deal and Dover, gave up when the normal service went through just over half an hour later, cannot see any times on the realtime return leg.

[edit] looks like it's now scheduled an hour later

 

55 late from Canterbury. Its cold wet and raining, so I've come home!

 

Through Acton Main Line 41 late at 2022.

 

In the west London evening sunshine. Looks like a piece of glass needs replacing?

Saturday Night Steam 1

Saturday Night Steam 2

Saturday Night Steam 3

 

Quick video of Tangmere at Hildenborough, the diesel having to give a shove to make up the lost time, but 34067 still doing her bit.

 

Here is the 1st of two filsm of Tangmere I took taday both on the GWML. The film can be found at Your video will be live at: http://youtu.be/LBfLWWZ727k

 

Filmed at Hanwell

 

Realtime Train Info ended at Hanwell Bridge Loop - 20:32 (42 late) - when Tangmere was due to take its leave. The site now states: "This train has been cancelled due to a problem with the train communications." Presume that refers to cancelled from the Realtime system when the diesel took over at Hanwell rather than the actual diesel hauled return last leg from Hanwell to Derby being cancelled?

 

Here is my 2nd film of Tangmere. 40 minutes down (don't know why) on its way back to Derby. http://youtu.be/kdRuJu-zLF4.

 

I under stand from another site that the train was terminated at Paddington and passengers were sent home by bus and taxis

 

Thanks leander. Have now seen that post on another forum. Hopefully someone will post more information about what happened in due course.

 

Have just read a new posting on the other forum from a passenger who understands the problem arose because of "a fault on a GSM-R radio on one of the 57s". What followed does not make easy reading. Reported to be stuck in the Hanwell Loop for 1hr 15 mins with a lack of information. Diverted to Paddington where they arrived at 11pm with no working toilets on the train and those at Paddington locked for the night. Claims of more lack of information and mis-information with elderly passengers among those eventually left standing in the street waiting for taxis back north - medical help needed for one. "Our small group finally managed to get away around 2am, after being in the taxi queue for around an hour - dozens and dozens of elderly people still waiting on the street at Paddington for taxis to different destinations. "

 

I hope I don't offend the mods by quoting a post from another forum but the events described are staggering. The quote in full:

"I was on the train yesterday (as a passenger).

The fault was with a GSM-R radio on one of 57s as I understand it. I do not fully claim to understand the system but it seems it is interlocked into the signalling system. Some general background on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM-R

Network Rail it seems were not happy to allow the train over the North London Line from Hanwell Loop without this in place. It took a good 90 minutes to get the train manager to communicate this - there was definitely a lack of information, we were being told we were waiting for a signal to clear for more or less an hour.

After sitting in the loop for about 1hr 15 mins we were told a rescue 47 was to be sent from Southall (I am guessing a WCRC 47 with a working radio). Whether this ever left Southall is unclear. Around 10:45 our train started moving under the power of the 57s only, missed the turning onto the NLL much to the surprise of the more observant people on the train and it was only after we had passed Old Oak Common, crossed over to the Up Fast and passed North Pole Depot that the train manager (apparently a Director of Statesman Rail) bothered to tell us that we were being sent to Paddington and terminated.

It seems, after waiting in the loop for so long at Hanwell, the train ran out of time to clear a planned engineering possession somewhere (though I didn't find out where this was). I got the feeling this was what forced the train ultimately to be dumped at Paddington around 11pm (left in P1, toilets on the train blocked out of water, toilets on the station locked up for the night).

I have to say, the information coming out of the guard/Statesmen Director yesterday was at times completely lacking and more often than not full of false positivity/certainty (statements like "I have no information to give you but we should be on the move in 15 minutes").

After another 30 to 45 minutes we were then told "11 buses are on the way" from First Group.

After another 45 minutes it was announced only two buses were in fact coming and the rest would be taxied home. Later it was announced "70 taxis are here", and everyone was directed to one part of the station where there were no taxis, forced to wait there for 20 minutes before being told this was not the right pick up place. There then followed a trek to the other side of the station where three or four taxi's were waiting. Taxis then pulled up slowly in dribs and drabs.

Our small group finally managed to get away around 2am, after being in the taxi queue for around an hour - dozens and dozens of elderly people still waiting on the street at Paddington for taxis to different destinations.

No sight of the train manager for hours around the taxi queue. I understand that unexpected things happen but the attitude of the train manager in particular yesterday left a distinctly sour taste.

I had also not realised until yesterday that a radio was now viewed as a piece of critically important signalling equipment. Watching so many elderly people left on the street at Paddington at 2am, the thought did occur that surely it must have been possible to navigate the North London Line at reduced speed (let's face it, the NLL is pretty slow anyway for railtours!) using the traditional means of looking at the signals!

I also expect the taxi bill was absolutely astronomical, sending ten rail coach loads of people by taxi half way across the country in the middle of the night.

The thought also occurred that are entering an age where railtours are becoming ever more complex to operate (and ever more annoying / less important from the perspective of Network Rail).

Lots to learn from this debacle for all the parties involved.

I just hope everyone got home safely. Some medics were called to one of the elderly for whom all the standing, queuing and confusion had all become quite distressing. Not at all how a rail tour should be ending"

 

Yeah did well in the morning and not Tangmere's fault that it was delayed in evening. Power supply problems I understand. Barry