70013 Oliver Cromwell; Cathedrals Exp; Reading-Canterbury &rtn 28 Sep 2014

Unfortunately you can't compare VT's and RTC due to the fact that VT's own their own stock and loco's where as RTC have to hire/use all stock from WC. Only in the extreme circumstances do VT's use the 47 on their tours but there is always a valid reason for it.

Let's hope Ollie is back up and running soon.

 

This isn't my video, it was uploaded by 1Z64, but does show that 70013 was fit enough to haul the ECS home past Chiswick in the end. from 2 mins 34 onwards

 

Illuminating first sentence. Steam will always be at a disadvantage compared with diesel. It is harder to accommodate and it is impossible to escape the adhesion and tractive effort issues. Then you have the lineside conflagration issue to contend with.

If you travel on excursions or even just take an interest in them you will be aware of the earlier starts, later finishes, standing time in loops, reduced period of stay at destination etc. about which members of the forum have expressed dissatisfaction.

So, in spite of open access, given the increasing traffic trend on the network some routes will become excluded. Devil takes the Hindmost, you are too slow, not profitable enough, likely to cause problems, dial in the impact of the anti-steam people within NR and the selected quiet byways option becomes increasingly likely - as a move before final termination? Possibly not for some time yet but the byways will slowly be pruned to meet the commercial imperative. And then you may well have to consider the impact of personality clashes too. Complicated existence, is that not so?

 

Yes, the volume and nature of the regular traffic on the national network makes it difficult to fit in steam specials. Consequently the specials often get poor paths, and some parties might be happier if the steam wasn't there at all. But if we look back thirty or forty years, we should be amazed and delighted (a) that so many steam specials are running and (b) (if we are railway enthusiasts, not just steam enthusiasts) that there is so much regular traffic.

242A1 writes a lot of sense and I am personally sad that there is not more support for building or rebuilding a few steam locos of improved design that would be better able to fit in and less likely to disgrace themselves by breaking down or starting fires.

Back on the proper subject of this thread: does anyone know exactly what went wrong with Cromwell's lubrication? And how it was later able to continue its journey as far as Clapham Junction, and subsequently via Chiswick and (presumably) South Acton to Willesden? (RTT shows 5Z84 running a bit ahead of its original schedule from Willesden to Southall but as far as I can see not the working from Clapham Junction to Willesden.)

 

From my local rag.
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/trainspotters-gather-see-oliver-cromwell-7858076

THE Oliver Cromwell PULING 10 C1 CARRIAGES.

Infant school children can write better than that!
As for the term "trainspotter", well.

 

What a cringe, reading that. 10 C1 carriages " was a wonderful sight to behold " You can thank Philip Goodier, for the Joe public, labelling us trainspotters.

 

That doesn't surprise me one bit. Two of my colleagues at work who repeatedly bleat on about their University education do not seem to have a basic grasp of the English language. I have to check some of their drawings with many words spelt in interesting ways! The classic was guage! After pointing out how gauge should be spelt (and having a good laugh) the same person has again put guage repeatedly on his drawings and it's not funny anymore. The other guy is even worse as he has asked me how to spell words a child should know how to spell. I couldn't believe the occasion he asked me how to spell were (which he pronounced as war!) I asked him how the war was relevant to his drawing which confused him........

 

70013 will miss her next run (Oct 9th) as the 5305 folks are waiting for parts for her lubricator. They hope to have her back for the 14th October according to Twitter.

 

Says it all really, tried going on the SD site,

Internal Server Error 500
Exception: EReadError
Message:

As for 70013, couldn't they "borrow" the parts from 70000 for the time being?

 

The posts on NP are not always good exemplars of correct spelling and grammar.