July 9th 2014.......... End of SR Steam Anniversary run.

A great end to the day with 44932 making an awesome departure from Woking with no assistance. She really raised the echoes. Will hopefully post a video tomorrow evening. What a sound.....

 

Through New Malden on time for what its worth. Made a last minute decision to cycle down there as it was light enough for a record shot of sorts. Bowled out completely by the Woking stopper which had paralleled it from Surbiton. Oh well!

 

Went to see this tour pass through Hook, the 5 at that point was working quite hard with the Class 33 seemingly idling; I've got my steam fix for the week! Like Green Five posted earlier the train seemed positively empty with one coach entirely devoid of people and several others with barely anyone in them. I had wondered if a lot of folk had already got off at Basingstoke!

 

Here is my video of the Woking departure last night:


Turn up the volume and enjoy!

 

And sounding a little off beat.

 

To everyone that has moaned about the operation of the DCE on 9th July 2014, be it the use of a LMS freight slogger or the ever-present ubiquitous 33207:-

Can I suggest you all channel your energies into persuading the likes of UK Railtours, DBS, NR & MNLPS to run a proper celebration train on 9th July 2017 using 35028. Or RTC, WCR & NR using 35018.
Or even both!

Rather than persistently moaning about everything!
34067 having unexpected boiler repairs - get over it
SWT & NR having a power struggle that results in a "steam ban unless diesel assistance" on a whim - get over it
Trumpton going on strike, again and again - get over it

 

As a straw poll - if such a trip was to be mooted, and someone/a society coordinated the donations etc., would linesiders be prepared to sponsor it as a photographers charter? There must be a balance somewhere for an alternative tour model where a mix of £P (fares) plus £L (Linesiders sponsorship) covers the operating cost plus a % for profit to the operator. Where I live going on the tours is prohibitively expensive with o/nights required but bunging in a fiver or a tenner towards supporting a few tours each year is affordable.

 

Six photos from on board last Wednesday's tour...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alts1985/sets/72157640115066276/