Atlantic Coast Express 4th-6th Sept.

Thanks for braving the weather to get those shots, and for some fast working in editing and getting the vid onto You Tube.
Was unable to get out today due to work commitments, but your video made up for it.

 

Thanks. I try and get the videos onto Youtube as soon as possible; not quite real time but as near as you can get.

 

Especially a box that used to be called "Great Western" !!!!

 

If you're going to start going down that road, wasn't a fair bit of the trip run over ex-GWR routes rather than ex-SR.
Lets jut be thankful it ran at all.

 

That's because the "brown region" closed almost the whole of the former SR routes used by the real ACE, in their attempt to kill off everything west of Salisbury when the took over in the early 60s!
"Andover"

 

The route of the ACE in the pre-Great Western era continued on the Southern Railway from Exeter - Crediton - Yeoford Jct - Okehampton - Plymouth.
At Yeoford Jct a portion of the ACE would split for Barnstaple Jct where the train would split once again for Ilfracombe or Torrington.
The main train to Plymouth would split yet again this time at Halwill Jct for the destinations of Bude, Padstow or Bodmin. <BJ>

 

In the same way that BR management got rid of steam in their haste to 'modernise'.
As I said before, we would all like to see more;
let's enjoy and be thankful for what we have got.

 

So Sir 'Useless' Missenden strikes again... 34090 has gone down on record as not being one of the better Bulleids, which is surprising when one considers that it was supposed to be the Southern's war memorial locomotive had the company survived long enough to see it completed. It had an interesting nameplate, a hybrid of both BB crest-plate and modified WC nameplates. Also had an interesting, if somewhat garish livery, crossing Malachite green with the early BR crest with green wheels.

 

Hope this is allowed. Apologies if it isnt but just thought I'd mention that Ive got a petition going to reverse at least some of what happened in the 60's. Sign up if you feel strongly about it n maybe we can get an ACE going at least as far as Exeter on its original route

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/7849
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/7849

 

If a train has a path then it should stick to it. Early running can result in delays to other services that were running on-time. Pro-active regulation is encouraged but not if the risks outweight the benefit.

 

That's a great video in atrocious conditions, thanks for sharing it. :thumb:

 

Many thanks to S.D for allowing me to join the ACE from Exd - Oke. Okehampton station is a gem and v evocative. Dartmoor Railway put on a good show + a warm reception. The climb from Coleford J was excellent. Again,thanks to Marcus + Richard.

The path from Exd-Yeovil was interesting+showed that a 16.40 slot was available albeit with waits at Honiton + Chard. Perhaps other 00.40 slots can be found.
My feeling is that the cl47 timings on this section indicates that a steam path can be found on a weekday even before the resignalling......

How many Brits have reached Oke?! My first but I'm not a local expert.

 

Down run to Salisbury sounds good. But with two pacifics at the front I guess it was to be expected.

Briefly checking my down ACE runs I see that Fred Hoare took Clan Line with 11 on past Overton in 50.29 in July 1964. But with 11.25 to passing Wimbledon, not the slow start you had from Platform 19. Although, as I have said above, Fred liked a gentle start. We were 70 mph over MP 31, which was about standard running for Fred on the down ACE with a MN on 11.

I most certainly agree with you about that incredible 6 hours up from Exeter. Just shows the times we live in.

 

As I've said before Steam Dreams are a very decent bunch of people which is why I will continue to support them. I don't believe they are under any obligation to provide compensation in this case since the train did actually run to the advertised route (they even got a bit extra on the outbound route) without too many delays and the issues with locos were well beyond their control. However it is as you say a case of recognising that their were issues which meant that the experience delivered was not quite what was promised. From what I have read on this forum not all other operators would do that.

 

Its called regulating correctly. There was probably a vaild reason why you went USL at Basingstoke. If you had got into the London area early you would have probably delayed services due to being not on your correct pathway. If you delayed a service because of your running early the TOC would have put in a performance claim against NR.

 

So you were kept to your path and got in on time. How is that too difficult for NR signaller and controllers? Steam tours have no god-given right to run early just because it suits the passengers. This kind of attitude is very blinkered and very naive, as if a steam hauled charter has priority over every other train on the network.

On Saturday evening I had to hold a Deltic hauled railtour at home signal for 10 minutes while I did a shunt with a unit to get it on the depot at Worcester. I thought about running the Deltic early but checked the schedules and knew I had no margin to do it. I bet it seemed pointless to the driver and the passengers on the train but that's how the paths were done and everything was done on time. Charters, railtours, specials, steam or diesel have to fit in around what else runs on the national network.

 

Al,

I share your frustration, hopefully this will amuse you.

We used to get significant problems with checks approaching Basingstoke in the last months of steam operation when the new power box staff were just late in setting the road. We knew that, because we did know the train services back to front from the vast amount of trips we did around that time: there was nothing like the level of train service of today. And the loco drivers knew what was happening as they used to really moan to us about it: we knew those guys very well indeed. Especially if they were on time over Worting on an up Bomo express and really wanted to get going through Basingstoke.

Anyway, in those days the coaching stock had toilets that deposited everything directly onto the track. Timing was everything of course, but most of us got quite good at it.

Sadly electrification arrived before the detritus got up to rail level outside the power box!

I would add we never did the same at Woking: biologically that would have been quite hard. Even though a number of drivers, Salisbury top link in particular, called it "stop all Woking". But it was a much busier junction with the Portsmouth line coming in there etc.