61306 Mayflower - Cathedrals Express (Sapperton Return) 24-09-15

Which would be fine, except you wrote "to lazy", not "too lazy".

If you are going to castigate others for being too lazy to correct grammatical mistakes, best not to make your own, eh!

Tom

 

"ne nub" ?

 

Shouldn't that be a gricer's apostrophe?

 

I am not certain if hatherton hall and 83B are one and the same, or if 63106 was (improbably) attended upon by two flawed individuals both getting their sad and lonely jollies by upsetting the staff. In any event I object to you telling me “to worry not” about the fire alarm at Victoria or reducing the train service to chaos. You are in no position to say any such thing. There is one essential difference between you, Mr Two Names, and I;

1. You have never run Victoria Station, the second busiest terminus in the UK.

2. I have.

And it is from that perspective that I say this to you. You are a dismal ambassador for steam, at a time when it needs all the friends it can get, at every level of the rail industry. It is made worse by your perception that what you did is worth bragging about on the internet. In your own words, you will “cherish the moment for many years”. That is both peculiar and loutish, in fact it is the very definition of both conditions. You are clearly unashamed of yourself, but I am ashamed to share a hobby with you.

Neil

 

Thank you!

I seem to recall when I was growing up, more people turned out to see steam locomotives along that stretch of the Reading-Guildford line than others in the area. I remember the platforms being quite busy for the Mid-Hants' Green Train when the likes of 73096 and Bodmin were pulling them. Great to see!

 

You could always join a knitting circle!

 

Moving on slightly,with your detailed knowledge of Victoria, are you able to say if there was a genuine possibility of the fire alarms being set off? I was just thinking that there must have been hundreds of steam arrivals at Victoria over the past umpteen years and I have never heard of this being a potential problem. Are special instructions in place to steam crews to keep smoke to a minimum in the station?

 

I cannot say what today's instructions hold, Alastair, I am old,past it, and sometimes smell of wee these days. But back when MNLPS and VSOE decided to put air brakes on 35028 (with the enthusiastic support of the Special Trains Unit and some skepticism from everyone else), the Southern Region steam men were fully seized that they were working in a station that in 1989 had, thanks to the raft over the Central Side platforms, come to be a sub-surface station under the Section 12 response to the Kings Cross fire, and had been wired with alarms. This also affected the then fairly new Liverpool St. The crews certainly knew then, and I believe still do, that you do not make smoke under the roof at Victoria - at any price. Section 12 approved alarms are sensitive and over-riding them is legally courageous - which is why the Uckfield DMUs now all go into London Bridge, and not Victoria.

I should perhaps make it clear that I am not commenting on or critiquing the train crew (of any TOC) in any way. My contempt is reserved for a lout who is proud of a) having had a pop at well-intentioned station staff (who work under a Rule Book that stops them telling him he is being a total ar*e), and b) then brags about it, and how much he has pleasured himself over it, in here.

 

Even on here we occasionally see references to "smoke" or "clag" when in fact it's just that the condensing steam is more visible than usual. Can someone who was there say whether that particular loco on that particular occasion was really making a significant amount of smoke, more than usual for steam arrivals at Victoria, or whether it was just the blower and some steam?

 

How on earth can I be the same as Hatherton Hall. There is a connection of course. Hatherton Hall was sheeded there for most of its life!!

As for "cherishing the moment for many years", when one witnesses two NR represtatives asking the driver in a very abrupt way with serious attitude, to stop the smoke coming out of the chimney and then being told by the driver in no uncertain terms, "what do you expect, it's a steam engine" and seeing them flee onto the course was enough for anyone to cherish the moment.