60009 The Talisman: 15/9/18

The Talisman 15.09.2018 – Alycidon takes Centre Stage for the Return

Spamcan 81’s post up-thread (No.76) seems to confirm that Alycidon can safely be regarded as an honorary steam locomotive. That view certainly got a decent number of “likes”. So that’s my alibi for indulging in some more story-telling about the rest of the day featuring a memorable return to London later that afternoon. And it really is a story worth telling, so, with just a short intermission, here goes…..

Mid-afternoon at Newcastle Central, and as the pair of “09”s departed with the Talisman ECS, time to contemplate how best to spend a productive three hours in the City Centre. Whatever that was going to be had to have symbolic affinity to Newcastle/ Tyne-side/ and all things Geordie. Started at Eldon Square / Grey’s Monument, drinking in the atmosphere of a mild, bright autumnal Saturday afternoon and live street music. Next up, St James Park to pay homage to Newcastle’s footballing heritage with, in particular, a pause to study the statues erected to the memory of the late, great, Sir Bobby Robson, and “Wor Jackie” (Milburn), legend of the great 1950’s cup-winning exploits of this club. On to HMV to rifle through what is probably (wouldn’t be surprising!) the largest selection of Mark Knopfler solo albums in captivity at any music store in the UK, looking for gaps in my collection. Then to the much-photographed-from-the-platform-end-but-never-visited Castle Keep (some Azuma test activity in progress noted hereabouts). A brisk walk over the High Level Bridge to Gateshead and back via the Swing Bridge. And finally, after soaking up the atmosphere of the Quayside, a relaxed Newcastle Brown Ale interlude in the shadow of the High Level Bridge at the Bridge Hotel. Then back to the station, skirting the noisy chorus of the ranks of Gooners fans who had just witnessed their club serve up a winning performance to deliver yet another unhappy chapter in Newcastle United’s miserable start to the season.

Alycidon reappeared at 17.23 leading what was now a ten-coach formation, and quickly ran round via the Up Slow avoiding line in readiness for its booked 17.47 departure. Which came and went, and we sat at Platform 3 until 18.00 (not sure why) to depart 13L – just six minutes ahead of the late running 17.58 departure of the 1E23 16.30 EDB-KGX. As things transpired, we were to stay ahead of this as far as Peterborough by dint of some superb running and an incident at the Tees Bridge south of Croft. A decent enough run ensued, but nothing spectacular, out to our first stop at Durham – with Chester-le-Street (8.26 miles) passed in 9m 28s at 82mph. Overall, this first leg was covered in 15m 22c for the 13.9 miles – a 14L arrival at Durham with no recovery of any of our lateness at this early stage.

We then got away to some purpose, with the now-closed Ferryhill Signal Box passed at 83 mph in even time from the Durham start - 9m 14s for the 9.3 miles. The pace quickened with a short spell of running at 91/94mph north of Aycliffe Junction before our progress was reined in by checks approaching Darlington, with the centre of the station passed on the Up Main (avoiding) line at a mere 22mph – 18m 55s for the 22 miles from Durham and now 16L. Despite an initial increase back to 35mph south of Darlington as we headed out to Croft Junction, we were then subjected to two short stops in quick succession either side of the Tees Bridge, totaling two minutes, with a crawl across the bridge in between. The Train Manager reported that a trespasser – a potential suicide – had been reported on the bridge, hence the crawl across the bridge. To the restart from the second stop, (estimated position in the dark 40m 64c) we had consumed 31m 32s for the 25.5 miles from Durham. RTT indicates that we had fallen back to 31L at the next working timetable waypoint (Northallerton) and our schedule indicated a slow line booked path all the way to York from there. So as we slowed to 49mph for the points at the Longlands Junction entry to the slow line south of Northallerton station, things weren’t looking too good!

At least the first section of the Up Slow has a line limit of 90mph as far as Thirsk, where a 40 mph restriction precedes a lower limit of 65 then 70mph through to Skelton Bridge Junction outside York. I recorded a maximum speed of 78 mph on this section. But the fight-back was just beginning, for then….Deep Joy!!!.… we were switched back onto the Up Fast line at Green Lane Junction, immediately south of Thirsk station, despite the fact that the chasing pack at this point were not far behind – a TPE service by only two minutes, and the 1E 23 Edinburgh service (now running 32L after the Tees Viaduct incident) some three minutes behind that. Alycidon’s speed rose progressively to 100 mph for the first time on our jouyrney at Tollerton Junction and held steadily around 101 mph for six miles thence to just north of Skelton Bridge. With a fast unchecked run into York station, we arrived some 22 minutes late – already almost a third of our lateness had been clawed back. From our restart south of the Tees Viaduct, the 40.7 miles had been run off in 35m 55s (68.0mph start to stop including the slow line running between Longlands Junction and Thirsk). And the overall time from Durham, 67n 27s for the 66.2 miles, was just a mere 75 seconds outside even time despite the incident.

The York stop was planned as a crew change, and Rule 55 has kindly confirmed that at the change-over, Joe Wray gave way to Paul Lindley for the remainder of the run to KGX. This was done very quickly, four minutes against the eight scheduled, and so we now left 18L.

The York-Peterborough leg of the return journey as scheduled looked to be very much the highlight of the return trip. At a scheduled 84 minutes (representing an 80.0 mph start-to-stop average), this appeared to present some degree of challenge and I thought it would be interesting to seek out a benchmark Deltic run by which to compare our own performance over this section. The RPS archives contain a log of a 2003 run – coincidentally also with Alycidon, and with Load 12, that achieved an overall start-stop time of 73 minutes 15 seconds for the 112.2 miles (91.9 mph). It featured much running at speeds in excess of 100 mph, and was unhampered by any checks. So it would provide a useful reference point for measuring our progress in winning back some more of our lateness.

Colton Junction was passed just outside even time at 82mph and speed continued to rise steadily to 97 mph at the Hambleton Junction Rail over-bridge – passed in 11m. 23s. for the 13.85 miles. We now settled down to a spell of 100/ 102mph running over the next 14 miles until a check to 67 at Arksey/ then 60 rising to 63 mph though Doncaster, interrupted our progress. The time of 23m. 31s (82.9 mph start-to-pass) to this point almost matched the 2003 time of 22m 57s, having been marginally ahead – by about 21 seconds – to Arksey before the check took effect. In the event, I would estimate that the effect of this slowing was worth around 2 minutes compared with a passage of Doncaster at full line speed. But we were winning back more time – 14L at Doncaster.

Speeds again rose steadily to an almost unwavering 97/ 98 mph through from Ranskill to Grove Road, south of Retford - 10L at this point, and still only 2m. 18s. slower than the benchmark 2003 run. Although the climb up to Askham Tunnel (just over 3 miles at 1 in 178/ 200) pulled speed down slightly to 89mph, the fluctuations in speed were more or less following the contours of the regional topography and speed quickened again to 99-102mph on the descent into the Trent Valley, through Newark and beyond as far as Claypole, where rising gradients resume.

The growing excitement in Coach D as successive GPS Vmax readings were called, first evident along the Vale of York section, was now almost palpable – lots of consensus, with photographic evidence, around a top speed of 102.6 mph – or maybe 102.7 mph, and personally I had recorded 102.3 mph in the vicinity of Egmanton LC on the descent from Askham Tunnel (1 in 200 down).

Newark had been passed in 46m 38s (87.9 mph start-to pass for the 68.4 miles from York). Still 10L, but still only 2m 49s behind Alycidon’s 2003 benchmark run. Speed was pulled back to 89 mph on the five plus miles of 1 in 550/ 300/ 200 to Peascliff Tunnel, recovering to 91 mph through Grantham but falling back again to 84mph after a further 4 miles of the 1 in 200 climb to Stoke Tunnel, and thoughts were turning once more to the chasing pack. We were now only just over 2 minutes ahead of the 1E23 EDB-KGX, (running 44L passing Grantham!!) and I had fully expected we would be turned on to the slow line at Stoke Junction. But no!! We stayed on the Up Fast. Down Stoke Bank GPS readings wavered slightly between Vmax’s of 102.6–102.8 and down to 99.7 mph (briefly around Greatford LC). Helpston was passed at 100.4 mph before progress eased for the Peterborough stop. A slow approach to Platform 1 ensued, taking around 2 minutes longer than the 2003 run, with the result that we finished at 77m 47s - 86.5 mph average!! – some 4 m 32s overall more than the benchmark run, almost entirely due the Doncaster check and the slow run into Peterborough. But crucially 6m 13 seconds less than the 80 mph schedule allowed.

While sitting in Platform 1 1E23 crept past 3 minutes after our arrival on the Up Fast , now 51L!. Meanwhile we were still at 11L on departure, and once again contemplating the possibility of the slow line path that had previously been scheduled from Sandy. 1E24 EDB-KGX (running 9L) and 1A50 LDS-KGX (running RT) were due to depart PBO 11 minutes and 16 minutes after our departure respectively. A truly clean pair of heels would be needed to stay clear of these services if we were to stay on the Fast Line. But stay on the Fast Line we did, after a very slow start occasioned by Slow Line running for the first 1.2 miles out to Fletton Junction (4m 12s/ 29 mph). Speed rose to 89mph at Connington and back into three figures with 101mph at the foot of the three miles of 1 in 200 down at Huntingdon (17.5 miles/ 17m 03s). From there, we enjoyed another longish spell of sustained high speed running with speeds ranging from 97.4 (St Neots)/ 97.6 (Sandy) to 102.7 at Offord LC. Accordingly, the 21.8 miles from Huntingdon on to Arlesey were run of in 13m 10s at an average pass-to-pass speed of 99.3 mph.

This almost did the trick. Energetic fast line running against a slow line schedule once again slashed the arrears – almost by half, to 8L at Hitchin, passed at 91mph, and then to 6L at Stevenage, where we arrived in 38m 21s from Peterborough at an average speed of 76.3 mph. The Edinburgh service arrived two minutes after our departure at 21.29, with the Leeds service passing through 8 minutes after that. Surely now time to be diverted onto the Slow Line from Digswell in anticipation of our final call at Potters Bar?

But once again, and for the last time, No!! We ran off the remaining 14.8 miles to Potters Bar in 14m 57s, with a top speed of 95 mph attained at Hatfield, after 91 mph through Welwyn GC. And this finally did do the trick. Our performance against an allowance of 20 minutes for this leg finally brought us to a Right Time arrival at Potters Bar – all the way from 31 down entering North Yorkshire at the Tees Viaduct. Quite a story. Quite an achievement. I left the train at Potters Bar to continue my journey back home to the Midlands via the M25, but with much to reflect on with this performance.

Meanwhile RTT shows that final arrival back at the Cross was nine minutes early, at 22.00 pm, once again with the continued benefit of fast line running. Back at Potters Bar, just three minutes or so after the sound of the twin Napiers had disappeared into Potters Bar Tunnel, the 1E24 Edinburgh service limped through looking every bit like a service running 18L, to be followed three minutes after that by the Leeds service, likewise traveling at a decidedly modest speed and 11L. And I did just wonder whether I was witnessing the consequence of providing our charter us with uninterrupted access to the Fast Line and the punctuality benefits that we enjoyed.

In summary, the timings for this run had allowed an overall 3 hours 56 minutes for the whole 256 mile journey back from Newcastle to Potters Bar, inclusive of stops at Durham, York, Peterborough and Stevenage - an average speed end-to-end of 65.1 mph. We had run the distance in an actual time 13 minutes less (equivalent to our late start back from Newcastle), at an actual average speed of 68.9mph. Excluding all stops for any/ all reasons, our actual time in motion was 3h.31m.56s.-an actual average in motion of 72.4 mph. But most tellingly, the 216.6 miles from the stop at the North Yorkshire border back to Potters Bar had consumed only 167 minutes exactly in running time (i.e excluding all dwell times), an average of 77.8 mph!! Some achievement indeed from a 57 year old thoroughbred!

A big, big vote of thanks to the Deltic Preservation Society for making available this magnificent machine. To all the DBS personnel and A1 SLT members who planned and delivered this excellent day out. And last but not least, in the light of events that unfolded on the return trip, to the Network Rail Controllers who made this superb run possible. Thank you to you all. When we arrived at Newcastle behind No 9 earlier in the afternoon I didn’t think that what had been a brilliant day up to that point could possibly be bettered. And it wasn’t. Instead, the brilliance of the day’s experience just got more sustained. No anti-climax on this excursion after the steam leg, unlike so many previous outings. That’s the benefit of a double bill. And that’s what made the day extra special!!

 

Was originally saving my footage to combine with today's run but as 60009 has failed thought I would edit it together, Welwyn North....