LU 150

We both had an excellent day yesterday. Great event. We thought we had missed the first run as our SWT service was delayed by a "fault with the track". To our surprise when we got to Wembley Park everyone was still waiting for the first service to arrive so we quickly hopped on the train to Chorleywood. Whilst stopped at Preston Road the ECS went past from Amersham to Wembley. Don't know what caused the delay but things didn't get back to normal until the third run with 5521. I thought that perhaps there was something wrong with the Met Tank as on the second run she was completely shut off whilst 9466 was hammering along pushing the tank and hauling the rest of the load up the bank from Rickmansworth. Very impressive display from 9466 and worth the visit. 5521 looked great in LT livery. I wondered if there was something wrong with 5521 as well as she was getting a lot of assistance from the Class 20 on both of her trips.
Here are three of my videos from yesterday (Now in HD). They are a little bit shaky as I was using my new Sony Cybershot camera for the first time so was getting used to it. Didn't take a tripod either (LU Print out said that tripods were not allowed):
The very late first run with 5521:


The second run with 9466 putting on a great show:


The final run with 5521:


Three of my favourite pictures from yesterday (The first and third shots were taken whilst the camera was also shooting video. The wonders of modern technology!):

 

Confirmed Met No1 has failed.

Today's runs are L150, the 9466 on the 12pm.

 

The run from Wembley Park this morning was slightly disappointing, with the prairie mostly not working hard. Some of the time Sarah Siddons could be heard providing power, and apparently the diesel on the back was pushing too. I enquired at Amersham and was told the prairie was short of water.

 

Feels strange seeing Steam on the Met again. Great to have it back and hopefully occurs more often. Whether it does or not though.

L150 looks great. I was i London yesterday and completly forgot this was going on. I spent most of my time seeing Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich fans and the Muse concert at the Emirates but if I'd remembered I'd have gone to see some of these outings.

 

It didn't work that hard yesterday either. 9466 was the only steam loco making an effort.

 

L150 does look great. Wonder why no ex-LT pannier(s) though.

 

Is Met 1 a bit susceptible to hot boxes? Was sidelined with one at the Bluebell a few years back and there was another gala appearance I seem to recall which got caped because of one.

 

A couple of runs filmed at Moor Park today , Some good whistling action from '9466

 

On the Chesham runs in '89, Met 1 ran a hot-box on an overnight test run. It was repaired in time for the following weekend's runs.

ISTR a tendency to throw whitemetal from the eccentrics, although I suppose it may have been the big-ends.

 

A couple of pictures from today, note the class 20's headcode

 

A few cut aways from the Pannier...

a. note the wooden smokebox number plate and stick on shed code on 9466
b. the modern tech.. the digital camera on top of the diagram indicator sign on 9466.

 

More Steam on the Met. Video of today's runs (Sunday May 26):

 

Does anyone have any indications as to what loco is working what train tomorrow? Seeing as it has been L.150 on the first train 2 days running is it likely to work the same train tomorrow?

 

I've just watched the pannier run past North Harrow station, chucking out a lot of smoke -- and evidently cinders too, as it started two fires, one between the eastbound fast track and the westbound platform fence, and one on the north side of the embankment.

 

I was on this train sitting in the first coach behind the engines. We had to close the windows because of the red hot cinders flying in!
As it happened the pannier was working much harder than usual because the brakes were sticking on the diesel. We eventually made an unscheduled stop at Moor Park to resolve the problem.

 

Only had time today to pop out and see the last run. Bit of a disappointment as L150 wasn't doing much work whereas the Class 20 "Chopper" was working hard. My video of the train about to pass under the Cuckoo Hill road overbridge at Pinner can be found at

 

Here's my video of Day 3:

 

Nice stuff. Having looked at this and another video it seems that at some point today 9466 seems to have had its numberplate removed.

 

Yep. I did ask the the crew on the engine what had happened. Apparently it came loose so they removed it.

 

Can't quite work out what the front vac bag was doing on the pannier, looked at my photos today and it's going into a pipe with a gauge on it and back along the frames.... Don't think either of the other 2 locos had this arrangement..