West Somerset Railway Spring Steam Gala, 27-30 March 2014

I visited on Thursday 27th and thought the whole day was excellent with plenty to see and do, and a very friendly atmosphere. Cool weather with some bright sunshine, so we're hoping for lots of entries to the Manston photo competition. https://picasaweb.google.com/116839141471298057728/WSRSpring2014Gala

 

Just been watching the 15.45 friday departure from Bl with 3850 running tender first.Has there been a problem with trains running late as this train seems to have departed around 8 mins early or 52 mins late. Just an observation.

 

WSR twitter reports 34070 has failed and will play no further part in the gala event, 88 to replace.

 

My video of the event from Thursday, featuring 34070, 4160, 34007, 31806, 5322, & 3850 on Goods, Ballast and passenger trains.

 

From WSR website. <BJ>
''Unfortunately due to mechanical failure, 34070 Manston will be unable to run for the remainder of the gala. Its diagrams for Saturday and Sunday will be covered by S&DJR 88. Apologies for any inconvenience''.

From an email I received tonight:
''Yes, 34070 did fail today. I heard that it failed on the turning triangle at NF so preventing anything else from being turned. It's place on the double-header in the afternoon was taken by SDJR 88. I have no detailed information of what actually happened other than to say that it did operate the 'ballast' out of Minehead to Bishops Lydeard first thing. But that's all. Then failed''.

 

34070 has a problem with the little end bearing on the middle connecting rod. 34007 also seemed to be in difficulty with an errant steam reverser. It stalled on the climb out of Watchet but it later recovered after some delay.

 

It very nearly stalled on the climb out of Bishops Lydeard too - took around 10 minutes to cover the first mile because of the slippery rail conditions, but once we got going, she wasn't too bad. The climb out of Watchet was almost identical, in that 34007 couldn't keep it's feet. Had the curve that brought it's downfall been straight, I suspect she would've been fine.

It probably didn't help that while at Watchet, we had to restart the train after someone decided to get into the door that I was stood at while the train was moving. The rain had stopped while we were at Watchet, but as we left for the second time, the rain set in.

James

 

Wadebridge always seems to be light on her feet on climbs with slippery rail conditions.

 

Correct. I was on the engine and the weather conditions were atrocious. The misguided passenger who tried to join a moving train and caused the guard to put the brake in leaving Watchet absolutely stuffed us. Our driver did a remarkable job getting Wadebridge up the bank at all from a standing start in those conditions and deserves much credit for his patience and persistence. We used a lot of sand!

 

Actually it wasn't a straight swap of 34070 for 88. The loco roster was re-jigged to allow 34007 to work the "ACE" in both directions.

Good day today - all locos seemed to behave themselves and run to time. There was an unexpected double-header in the afternoon of 6960 and 3850 working from MD-BL. This was because somehow 3850 had ended up at MD on Friday rather than BL. Did it work an extra turn on Friday to cover for 34070?

 

Out of curiosity - what's the gradient there, and what was the load?

Tom

 

IIRC, 1in76(/1in80?) with load 6. Very tight curves.

James

 

How unfortunate about Manston.

 

More changes. Such fun!! <BJ>
''Changes for Sunday - 88 replaces 34007 on 10.45 ex Minehead. 88 double heads 13.03 ex BL with 5322 and 4160 now hauls 15.45 ex BL alone''.

 

The (3850 hauled) 1445 MD-BL today was well loaded and ideally needed an extra coach, plus there was no fridge, therefore no sandwiches or cold snacks/drinks, nor microwave so no warm food either, as this rake (set D) had the BSOT buffet, I ask why when there is a perfectly good RMB sat at Williton?! (plus a BCK that could be used to strengthen!)[/QUOTE]

Those 2 coaches belong to the WSRA, which are currently stopped at Williton for winter maintenance. If they had been available, the PLC would have had to hire them, maybe they are unwilling to do this at present (just my thoughts)?

 

My offering from the gala on Saturday, an enjoyable day all in all, a shame not to see the ACE headboard on the non-stop runs although I understand this was due to a problem with the headboard itself.

 

The QB is due out next Sunday, so surely these coaches aren't far away from being returned to service if not just waiting to be moved back down to BL! The WSR plc and WSRA need to sort this spat out, passengers should not be standing on the train imo with spare coaches sitting around, even if it means the centre DMU coaches are added.

 

You are absolutely correct. Maybe WSRA could not guarantee the coaches would be available when the formations were being worked out.

There are only 2 DMU centre cars on the WSR, and they do not have corridor connections which are compatible with Mk1s therefore they would have to be isolated at one end of the train with the corridor connection locked OOU and a dedicated member of staff allocated to this vehicle to supervise it, in effect, a third TTI. It would also mean that if this vehicle was next to the loco, there would be no steam heat for the rest of the train.

However, I was working on the trains yesterday, and I did not notice on my trains any instances of there being absolutely no seats left and people having to stand. Some chose to because they did not wish to sit next to a stranger, or there were not enough seats available for their large party to sit together.

 

some photos from the gala on friday at http://keyhamtrain.weebly.com/spring-steam-gala-28-3-14.html hope you like

 

From our experience of 34007 at the churnet valley gala the loco is not in good mechanical condition and struggled there too.