Clan Line - Surrey Hills - March 1st

You have to commend the MNLPS for their attention to detail Al.

Even though my preference is for steam locos in service to be filthy dirty!

Yes, I know, totally wrong in these days of mainline steam when the vast majority of the market expect the locos to be spotlessly clean.

 

Heading out to Worplesdon for this one today. Hopefully 35028 will be going well as she races through.

 

Here is 35028 storming through Worplesdon this afternoon. Managed to get a half decent shot in the very changeable light conditions.
Also managed to shoot a short video available to view here:


Lovely sight and sound on St Davids Day and no leaky (LMS) drain cocks to drown out the exhaust sound!

 

Here's my photo of Clan Line near Abinger Hammer.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davestubbings/12856569173/

 

Here is CL at Virginia Water.


I appreciate what the MNPS are trying to achieve from a commercial and financial point of view, restricting (almost 100%) the use of the loco to a cosmetically demanding but fiscally lucrative regular charter is a great way of keeping the loco on the rails. You have to applaud and congratulate the crew for turning out, every time, an immaculately looking piece of machinery.

However, from a personal point of view its all a bit artificial, almost a Disney fairground ride, and I think its a great shame to see this icon constantly pootling round an undemanding route (timetable wise) barely providing a clue what it could do.

 

Filmed at Mayford and Betchworth.

 

Yeah fair enough, but I'd like to see it done at 75 mph!

 

Can you imagine the collective heart attacks to be had by management and punters if the shiny Pullmans were backed onto by something that looked like it had spent the previous month working down a coal mine? Sounds like something out of the Reverend Awdry's imagination!

 

Here are my efforts from a rather sunny London this afternoon

http://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com...-2014/37360116_Njb8Hb#!i=3100232465&k=kX7cJVX

 

VSOE is one if the heaviest passenger trains running on the Network, so I guess taking that into account what your trying to say is it should be put in risky paths where the threat of delay is greater ?.. Or maybe passengers dining at £450 for lunch, should finish their meals a bit faster ?, or perhaps you just want them to thrash it a bit more for your video and pay a bit more in repair bills and risk its availability ?

At some point however your problems will be fulfilled there's 2more MNs coming down the line at some point 35018 and 35027..

 

And you could also try and cut down the unjustified unnecessarily hostile and sarcastic comments because I said nothing of the sort. I would expect less inflammatory comments from an administrator who's job is to keep the forum postings civil.

 

Couldn't make today as was at the New Den watching Brighton play Millwall however my Mum was at Gomshall with her new video camera...

 

I have to say I agree with ADB on this one, Clan Line is not there to be thrashed, it's there to run stately and serene leisure trips. The people in the carriages don't care and slack timings mean that the delays are likely non-existent. It was delayed today by signalling problems at Redhill but that was it.

Plus it has meant Clanners is probably the most photographed and videoed steam engine in the country as the slow progress means people have a chance to get their camera phones out and record it, saw a good 20 or so doing exactly that at Clapham Junction today. These weren't photters or enthusiasts, just ordinary people taken aback by something out of the ordinary and wanting to capture it. Probably makes it the most talked about as well, heard a chap on the train I got to Victoria from Clapham waxing lyrical about it down the phone to a friend of his and he clearly wasn't an enthusiast (he mentioned about the engine being matt black for a start).

Plus remember these trips run on some of the busiest lines in the country, why risk something going wrong? Look at the chaos that ensued when Tangmere fell over at Winchfield.

 

Accept all that, as I said in my initial post I fully appreciate what the MNPS have done and why they have done it, and I said its a way of keeping the thing on the line and running. The section from Guildford to Redhill is however one of the least used lines in the south east. And if you use the Tangmere incident as a yardstick then you are, in effect saying, no main line seam at 75mph anywhere in the country is acceptable.

 

So maybe can can justify, or at least clarify what you are trying to say ?

Keywords.. I read here : Disneyland, artificial, shame, undemanding (timetable wise), pootling, barely providing a clue ...

I am struggling for other rationale to what I suggested my conclusions were for these words...

What would you prefer it to be doing ?

 

On reflection, I think its all perfectly clear and reasonable if my line of threads are read in their entirety and not quoted out of context, so I feel clarification or justification is not required.