Braunton to Salisbury 23 December

Yuk and Yuk again. Heavy rain and gusting close to 50 mph near Salisbury. NOT a day to be in the cab driving 34046 down Porton Bank I would imagine.

As well as a possible check that could well explain the 11 minutes from Grateley to Tunnel Junction.

It looks like around 95 minutes to Salisbury. And it also looks like it was non stop.

Not a fast net time taking acount of the checks, but I will be interested to hear how the crew coped with what looks like very bad weather, especially in the latter parts of the trip.

So nice to be tucked up all warm in my study today. Will not be out Owling tonight!

Can't wait for the on train reports.

 

Not sure what all the weather panic is about as its just normal December weather and not much different from the last few weeks. In fact we had a big gale a few nights ago with 50mm of rain but this went almost unnoticed and didn't set off any SWT train panics.

Just over 1 late Salisbury so just over 87 minutes. Is this the first non stop since the end of steam. If so please UK Railtours repeat at a better time of year, with standard class as well. Looks to have been a good run.
Are you on it Andover?

Don

 

Yes Yeti just under 95 minutes. My brain wont work this morning! Increasingly common as age takes its toll!

Still good and well worth repeating for the non stop element and a nice simple itinerary unlike others who drag you all round the Southern to take 6 hours plus to Yeovil. Who wants that?

Return retimed to take account of speed limited weather panic.

Don

 

Tree already on the line at Horsley causing chaos. Apparently surface pressure below 927mb is forecast in the Atlantic. That is not "normal December weather"! Gales of 70mph+ forecast this afternoon for south London so speed limits would be very sensible.

 

I wonder whether you would still class it as "panic" were Braunton to run into a fallen tree at 75 mph?

 

The trouble is, the threshold for weather-related special measures keeps dropping - where will it stop - what strength of wind can be guaranteed to cause no problems? In another ten years will the wind speed only need to be 40mph to prompt the risk-obsessed private operators to retreat into their shells? Then only 30mph another ten years after that, and so on.
Incidentally, I'd far rather have a Bulleid/tree encounter than a 450, given the sheer frontal mass of the steam!

 

Gave this a miss today. With wind and rain hammering against my bedroom window when I awoke this morning my warm bed was irresistible for a while longer!
Absolutely foul out there. There are a few videos on Youtube which show the crew must be having a little trouble viewing the road ahead as the exhaust is being blown down across the front of the cab windows. Not a day I would want to be driving a Steam loco at speed. This video I found from Winchfield shows the problem:


I had to make do with the nightmare that was the local Tesco's instead. Everyone in the area seemed to have the same idea with cars queuing out onto the main road and then queues to the tills going right down the isles of the supermarket. Not surprised one guy was videoing the spectacle on his mobile. Unbelievable. Oh the joys of Christmas food shopping!

Merry Christmas to all the folks of the forum and a Happy New Year!

 

All those out for the return (I don't blame you if your not!), departure is now an hour earlier from Salisbury at 14:41 due to the weather.

 

At least it wasn't blowing down the driver side. Obviously later ti may well be.

 

Afternoon All,

It was going at a fair old lick though the wind and the rain at Farnborough this morning. I don't know how fast it was, but I used a shutter speed of 1/750th to make sure I froze it. This resulted in an f1.7 aperture, so not the best picture I've ever taken. Anyway, I managed to grab a couple of shots for the record and they are now on Flickr. This is the first one and, as usual, clicking on it will enlarge it :


RD8900. 34046 BRAUNTON passing through Farnborough. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

Hope that they are of interest.

 

If NR looked after the lineside properly there wouldn't be any fallen trees

 

This has been gone over before. Many weaker trees that fall are not on NR property so nothing can be done about them. Then of course there are the gazebos and the dreaded trampolines.......

 

Yes quite agree. I remember in my commuting days trains continuing to run in the most appalling conditions which today would see the railway closed down altogether. For instance September 1968 extreme gales and flooding over most if Kent but we still got to Charing Cross from Ashford via Dover, Canterbury, Chatham and Dartford. Current conditions here near Southampton barometer 993 falling slowly now, raining humidity 100%, wind SE to SW around 20 mph with max gust so far today 40.6 mph about 2 hours ago. As I said earlier nothing unusual for December. It may still get worse of course but not sure if the wind strength is going to beat November 25th when we had 51.8 mph.

Don

 

Byfleet & New Haw, on time - bit wet and blustery but it got far worse after this.

 

Departed Salisbury at 14:48.

 

Not non-stop I am afraid not at least it appeared not to be because the power box at Woking let out a Guildford to Waterloo train across the path of the special, Braunton seemed to come to a halt at the approach to the station. If it did keep going it ware barely at walking pace. Pity really because Woking announced to passengers that "those waiting for the steam special, this train will pass at high speed in the next 2 minutes", raising expectations that a high speed charge through platform 4 would ensure. It didn't!

 

Guess what Jeff?

I can ACTUALLY view your video this time!

I wonder if my ISP thought that steam(y) traction videos were classed as porn?.......................................

Any way you did better than Dave did to day........................................... he was still faffing about with his new Nikon when the "twins" hove in to view sooooo....................... didn't get the best of shots, something tells me he won't be too pleased...........................................

 

12 SWT incidents reported on their website. 8 certainly trees down, possibly the others are/were too. One between Basingstoke and Salisbury, one between Salisbury and Romsey, one at Hook and one between Basingstoke and Winchester on lines used/to be used by 34046 today. Some/most are now cleared.

34046 seems to have been held for a long time near St Denys, but RTT indicates it is on the move again.

This timing trains from the comfort of my study gets more and more attractive as the day goes on! Provided the roof stays on.

It's gusting to 60 mph in Kent already with the highest winds not forecast for a good few hours yeti. I do hope all on todays train can get home ok tonight.

 

Mr Yeti some advice for your armchair following of trains:

Have you seen the opentraintimes.com "signalling maps" for certain locations I think based on the same data used by RTT? http://beta.opentraintimes.com/maps

For example the approaches to Waterloo http://beta.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/WI/1 and there are lots more besides some even with actual signals shown. Unfortunately none for the Southampton area.............but you will be able to follow Braunton on the way home from Chertsey to Clapham Junction with this one http://beta.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/WI/2