Sat 15th March, The Cumbrian Ranger.

Wasn't saying traffic over Shap is light Fred, but it's still nothing compared to south of Rugby where everything goes.

 

Agreed ! In terms of the A4 tailing the main train over Shap I suspect a bit of "local arrangement" took place in which the A4 became part of the main train by following within a specified distance / time frame from the rear of the leading portion. As has been noted in many cases of railway practice - it's not the rules per se that is the problem but simply the way that they are interpreted.

 

Ha ha nicely edited !

 

I'd just like to add special thanks to the driver of 47773 for keeping the box quiet all day, even resisting providing any assistance when Sir Gordon got into a bit of a fix trying to leave Hellifield Goods Loop. Appleby to Ais Gill Summit in just under 30 minutes with somewhere near 520 tons on with the long slack at Helm was exceptional, and the climb to Wilpshire wasn't half bad either. Everyone concerned with the running on the day did us proud. We even got a bizarrely entertaining announcement by the train manager banning the use of electronic cigarettes on the train.
I'm certainly not going to deprive VT of £40 by claiming the credit on my next booking with them after such a good day out.

 

I would certainly prefer to believe that what the video shows didn't really happen, but that would imply extremely clever editing, on a par with what the computer graphics people do for the cinema. Slicing each frame to combine one train from one clip with the other train from a second clip would be clever enough, but in this case the slice needs to come at a different place on each frame, or at least to change every few frames, to remain between the two trains.

Edit: now I have spotted the join. Around the 11 second point the last few coaches of the main train are missing, and then at around 15 seconds there's a discontinuity in the track between the last coach and the steam loco.

 

Popped into Crewe on the way back north to catch Bittern arriving at a station which is now a pale shadow of the LMS fortress it one was. Nice to see Gordon still looking very sprightly on the footplate.


InspiringImages -20140315-332.jpg by inspiring.images, on Flickr


Master and apprentice ... by inspiring.images, on Flickr


InspiringImages -20140315-336.jpg by inspiring.images, on Flickr


InspiringImages -20140315-333.jpg by inspiring.images, on Flickr

 

Brilliant bit of editing. Even the exhaust in the distance at the start of the video make it more realistic. Well done.

 

The A4 just north of Crewe then at speed on the return at Warrington

 

A "streak" at night racing through a station, it doesn't get any better than that.

 

Many thanks - certainly kept me quiet for an hour or two!

Thanks Ralph - made filming a 47 worthwhile for once

Many thanks - the problem with Joe Public is that they probably wouldn't see 2 trains running that close together as unusual or a problem

Thanks very much and apologies for any confusion caused, but it's taken as a big compliment and certainly raised a smile. If I had longer to work on it I could have probably ironed out some of the imperfections but I shall save that for a rainy day.

Many thanks John - thought about adding 4464 as a banker to the 47, but think the smoke from the computer would become intolerable

 

The A4 was a totally seperate LE movment - headcode 5Z45

 

Sorry Ben - but YES I was one of those taken in by the spoof. But if I can't laugh at myself who else can I laugh at ? !

 

There's a few fallen for it on Facebook, I see Great stuff - very clever

 

I'm so ignorant I didn't know about the spoof until just now.... Maybe I should dye the hair blonde this week!