61306 The Cathedrals Express to Kingswear - 1st April 2015

Cholsey - Note the OHLE stanchions going up



Kintbury

 

Driver "Hmmm, shouldn't this bit be bright red?" Firemen "Yes there was a fire there when we left this morning, dunno where its gone"

 

some photos of this tour at dawlish warren at https://www.flickr.com/photos/127093061@N06/

 

Looked good at Cockwood!!

 

Going well at Bruton this evening.

Video from this morning (including struggle up Whiteball):

 

Mayflower
Teign Estuary https://www.flickr.com/photos/tguppy37401/16380497764/in/datetaken/

Torre https://www.flickr.com/photos/tguppy37401/16795501417/in/datetaken/

 

Heres my couple of shots of Mayflower today...

 

Bruton, going well!

 

Excellent.

 

Here’s my video, taken at Dawlish and Sprey Point (Teignmouth):

 

Caught out by early arrival and service trains diverted to the main line , causing doubt (see man on fence).

 

Got an early finish from work and popped over to Kingswear to see Mayflower's departure but guess the loco swap was made at Churston or Paignton on the return this time as it was D7535-hauled out of Kingswear. Still a worthwhile trip as I swing both ways traction-wise and the Rat was echoing gorgeously across the estuary with that length load, but it didn't quite have the novelty value of Mayflower in the south west. Will hopefully get to Paignton for its next trip later in April instead.

 

Mr Oldham does it again !

 

Thats the best one of its type in the uk yet.

 

OOoo Wondered what the light at Cholsey would be like - thats pretty good.

 

Had to venture out o be able to photography this working before work, but here is my end result:

http://flic.kr/p/rSjqK1

 

Just to lighten the mood a little after the "WCRC BANNED" thread, a wee bit of comparative fun

 

My footage from Teignmouth and Torre.

 

Brilliant stuff!

 

As the 1st April seems to have been the last serious steam hauled tour for a while, I wrote up the timings and thought I’d post a report mainly focussing on ‘The Banks’ as load 10 was one coach more than expected. The day started well with Driver Bill Warriner accelerating the train smartly to 65 through Culham and to a max of 68 through Appleford.

After our water stop at Newbury Racecourse, Bill lifted the train nicely up the short 1:198/288 out of Newbury, topping it at 32. The little engine accelerated noisily to 66 on the gentle lower grades, passing Bedwyn at 64 and holding 58 onto the last half mile of 1:195/105. Savernake Summit was reached at 55. We sped down towards Lavington and beyond in the mid to high 70s.

After our water stop in Frome we passed East Somerset Jn at 50 and Brewham at 47. We approached Castle Cary at 75 but were checked on a TSR. We approached the climb to Somerton at 62 to be thwarted by a signal failure. The run down to Taunton was muted, indicative of a problem shown later.

Speed rose slowly as we left Taunton, only reaching 39 at mp 168, even before the start of the 1:174. Wellington was passed at only 37 and by the start of the 1:90 speed had dropped to 31 and then fell rapidly to 21 at mp 171¾ the end of the 1:90. We struggled over the ¾ mile of 1:86 and hit the ¾ mile of 1:80 at only 8mph. Things got worse with a minimum of 4.7 at mp 172¾ but the crew kept her moving and the little engine rallied to 11 into the tunnel, and to 23 at mp 174.

Leaving Exeter there is the unofficial “Exminster Challenge”, 75mph being the target speed passing the site of the old Exminster Box. All we managed was 62, a sure sign there were still problems up front. We passed Aller at 35 and speed only rose to 37 before the start of the 2 miles of 1:110 through Kingskerswell to the summit. Speed was 31 through the station but fell to 20 by the summit. We drifted through Torquay at 30 and struggled up the short ¼ mile 1:57 section west of Torquay, only passing mp 220¾ at 11.

After a pleasant short afternoon in Dartmouth we walked from the Higher Ferry alongside the railway expecting to see 61306 pass us at after 1630. There was no sign of her after the last service train left so I asked one of the support crew what was up. He told me the lever on the rocking grate had come adrift and fallen into the fire. He seemed hopeful they could weld it up and she’d be able to get us back to Oxford. At the NR crossover point we had a few nervous minutes before the whistle of the B1 was heard. As we pulled forward into Paignton a bit of window hanging showed she was on her own up front.

The climb away from Paignton in the damp evening – now with Ray Churchill driving – was really good for a Class 5 and a bit with load 10, only falling to 19 at the end of the ¾ mile 1:56. We went through Torre on the ¾ mile of 1:73 at 20 with speed falling to 13 at the summit.

The highlight of the day was the noisy climb of Whiteball. From a standing start we reached 38 by Cowley Bridge Jn. then speed rose steadily to 51 by Stoke Canon LC; 63 by Hele and Bradnich LC; and to a max of 65 by mp 182. We were still doing 63 through Cullompton, speed rising to 64/5 on the short downgrade through Tiverton Jn. We roared through Tiverton Parkway at 65 and hit the 2 miles of 1:115 to the summit at 63. Speed dropped gradually and we topped the summit at 53 before diving into the tunnel at 55 in 23mins 44secs, an excellent time for load 10. A rapid run down the bank – Wellington passed at 72; Bradford-on-Tone LC at 76; Victory LC at 76; and Norton Fitzwarren at 70, resulted in an exceptional time of 33mins 34secs for the 30 miles from Exeter to Taunton.

It got dark rapidly after Taunton so timings were based on LCs, landmarks and the GPS miles from Taunton. The climb to Somerton Tunnel was excellent. Athelney was passed at 71, speed rising to 74 before the start of the almost 3 miles of 1:264 to the summit. Two miles into the climb we were still holding 69 and we roared into the tunnel at just over 65, a speed held to the summit just outside. We hardly noticed the next 2 miles at 1:264 to Charlton Mackrell which was passed at 68 and speeds were held in the mid 70s until the approach to Castle Cary where we were slowed to 20.

That ruined the climb to Bruton and onto Brewham but the noise from the front increased as speed rose to 42 on the gentle grades before falling to 38 at the top of the 1:98 into Bruton. Speed picked back up to 45 on the short level and gently graded sections and only fell to 45 up the 1:98, then to a shade under 40 topping the 1:81 to Brewham; seriously entertaining.

There was a still more to come as things got noisy again and we were doing 67 at the start of the 5 miles of 1:222 through Lavington towards Woodborough. The noisy climb saw speed fall slowly to 56 before we had to brake to pull into Woodborough Loop for our last water stop. After taking on water 61306 still had enough in hand to pass Pewsey at 49, accelerate to 56 on the level before topping Savernake Summit at 54.

Again the B1 proved to be an entertaining and excellent performer. Special thanks must go out to the engineers at Paignton for their efforts in getting 61306 fit for the return journey. It would have been horrendous getting home if they hadn’t. Thanks to Steam Dreams for running the train steam hauled all the way, just over 382 miles, hard work for a big engine let alone a little 'un with a sizeable load; to David Buck for making his superb engine available; to his support crew who probably didn’t enjoy their afternoon in Torbay; and to Bill, Ray and the firemen who did an excellent job all day, sometimes under very trying circumstances.