VNTL to Canterbury on 29th March

I see that Ben is getting his passport dusted off and coming South next week.

Firstly I wish him and VNTL all the very best with this one. A SR loco on the old SR.

Timings on the decent stretch are not good, (Tonbridge - Ashford and return), but that is how they normally turn up along there. I somehow don't think a 25 minute start to stop schedule will ever be achieved! LOL.

I'd like to do this one from K Olympia, but I've been getting some good Short-eared Owl action on the Isle of Sheppey after six months of waiting and have got some "must get" photos for my book, (close up of an Owl swallowing a vole), and some great observations too for my field notes. So that will have to come first as they will leave for the North or Scandinavia soon.

But if the weather is crap on the 29th, and Ben will accept a steam starved SR fanatic turning up at KO at the last minute and getting on his knees and begging to buy a ticket..................

 

Yeti, your a good man to ask, what injections do I need for travel into the backwater of Kent ?

 

You will need at least one Visa, if not two. Us natives of Kent are not happy at being invaded by the rest of the U.K. Other than if you are travelling to or from the docks on the M2 or M20 you will need one visa for West Kent and one for East Kent, as divided by the River Medway.

we kick up a Dickens of a fuss for 'furriners' who fail to comply.

 

LOL!

I did rather ask for that.

Like I do.

Anyway, SR steam back in Kent. Has to be good, and worth all the innoculations, inoccullations, innocculations, oh sod it, all the jabs etc.

 

But at least we don't suffer from the deadly and MAN eating species Northern Women roaming our land.

 

Unfortunately Tim and I will be in Manchester at Old Traffs for his annual birthday treat so the best I will do that day is a long trip on a boring XC and a few miles of new tram track. Shame as otherwise we would be on it if only to see Ben in foreign territory and to have pure steam round Kent as VNTL don't do diesels on the back (see other thread). Never fear Ben we will be booking on one of your excellent trips with 5043 this year as otherwise withdrawal symptons will set in leading to severe depression or rover rot.

Don

 

For those who do not know what "rover rot" is, (big brothers post above), it comes from the days of bashing steam non stop by using a 7 day railrover.

That could mean 7 days non stop travelling behind steam, timing most runs, and grabbing a small amount of sleep on the mail trains.

The old SR was great for that until almost the end.

The tiredness used to take its toll as the week wore on, and the participant(s), started to behave rather erratically as severe exhaustion set in. Meaning they , (often me), did strange things, (definitely me). Other gricers would just point and say, "oh, he's suffering from rover rot". ie. a rotting of the brain and other faculties due to the sleep deprivation. On occasions those suffering severe cases of rover rot had to be physically manhandled back onto a train by fellow gricers after they got off at the wrong station . Thinking it was somewhere else. That used to happen on the up mail more than another train as that was where peak tiredness occurred and because it used to have long station stops. To handle the mail of course! So a rover rotted gricer would sometimes get off at Woking on the up run, thinking it was Waterloo. One even did that at Basingstoke. After he had shaken all the other gricers awake telling them, "we must get out, we're at Waterloo". I think he had to be tied down for the rest of the journey to London so the rest of us could get some sleep.

Anyway. Back to topic. I doubt anyone on this forthcoming SR steam delight will be suffering from rover rot. The chance would be a fine thing these days.

 

Ah! That explains a lot, although I thought that would have recovered after nearly 50 years.

 

No, some of us never fully recovered.

So we are told.

LOL!

 

Totally back on topic.

Anyone here booked on this "no passport" tour of Kent this coming weekend?

 

Yep, I have nil miles behind steam in Kent and I can't see 5043 heading into Shakespeare Tunnel anytime soon somehow.

Anyway here are the paths Outward and Return , bit of loop hopping till Banbury, but a straight run down the Chiltern afterwards, looking forward to it .

 

I haven't done many steam miles in Kent.

Most were in 1960/61. Behind 30921, 30934, both Schools Class 4-4-0. 31739, (several times), 31489, both D1 Class 4-4-0. 31177 an H class 0-4-4T and 33029 a Q1 Class 0-6-0.

Quality, not quantity.

I wonder who here can state when and where I had passenger train haulage in Kent behind a Q1?

Big Bruv Don not allowed to say. LOL!

A clue. 34046 will pass one of the stations concerned this weekend.

 

33029 at Dunton Green possibly? Last day of operation on the Westerham Branch.
28 October 1961.

 

Liked Kent Yeti s description of all line Rovers - have to admit to doing one in 1964 -- and as you say , towards the end of the week being sleep deprived , planning to arrive at Carmarthen with intention of a Manor hauled trip to Aberystwth at 06.00, only to wake up heading to Pembroke Dock behind a Western , regrets , yes a few....

 

LOL!

 

Spot on that man.


I didn't get a photo of the Q1 that day, sad to say. But I did have some runs behind it. And I got told off for letting off a banger on the track: that was very normal behaviour back then for line closures.

As you all, hopefully, race through Dunton Green on Saturday morning behind 34046, look to the West and you may just pick up the ghostly image of that last day of the Westerham Branch. With the actual scene on the day photographed by a very young Yeti wearing short trousers, (See below. The view at Dunton Green that is, thankfully not a young Yeti in short-trousers)

Maybe Ben can even ask the loco crew to sound the whistle in mammary memory of the lovely steam operated branch line to Westerham. But of course, these days, only if that is an operationally correct procedure!






The line 34046 should take on Saturday runs left to right in the background. The "hills" to the left are the lower part of the North Downs, through which the train should have come in Pole Hill Tunnel.


PS. The young man standing on this own to the right just in front of the white building and surveying the scene was Howard Simon East. He was totally astounded by all the gricers running all over the tracks and was heard to say, "One day I will stop all this. I will start an organisation that will stop any form of activity throughout the county that has even the very slightest risk involved. And the name of that organisation with be formed from my own name's initials as a lasting tribute to me".

 

Anyone seen any movement today ?

 

On time through Ashford