CathEx to Cornwall, 17th & 20th Sept

Only found 1 video clip at Hungerford so far - unbelievably 9 + WCRC Class 47. Thought there was a seperate path for the diesel??? Did it come off at Exeter???

 

Came off at Exeter, Lizzie was unassisted up dainton. The plan was for the diesel to run light engine from Exeter only.

James

 

1Z84 still at Plymouth, 0Z84 now at Plymouth also.
Edit: both now left Plymouth 0Z84 seems to be in path immediately behind 1Z84.

 

Video of 6201 passing Crofton this morning. Sounded great. Being delayed by the Bedwyn stopper meant she was accelerating hard up the bank towards Savernake

Well done to all involved

 

Theale

 

Princess Elizabeth was booked to stop at Dawlish Warren for 14 mins for the 1V56 Newcastle to Plymouth service train to pass. In the event Lizzy was allowed to miss the DW stop as the 1V56 was running 13 mins late. This ensured a pleasant run along the seawall for the charter participants (and the numerous photographers) in very nice evening sunlight .....many thanks to the 1V56.

Lizzy continued her successful run with a 30 minute early arrival at Plymouth, finally reaching Penzance 6 mins early at 21:20.

Well done to Steam Dreams and everyone else concerned. <BJ>

 

Are we sure it wasn't a deliberate move by SD? After all they get so much stick these days for diesel assistance that, with the additional charge to passengers for a multi-day trip, they may have been able to make a decent profit without flogging 12 coaches.

 

My footage of Lizzie roaring up Whiteball and Dainton in lovely sunshine and cracking exhaust. Enjoy.

 

It's pretty much a destination train. With two days in Cornwall with no branch line steam on offer we didn't even give it a thought. The hotel costs are way over what we like to pay on the odd occasion we do more than one dayers. Got nothing against Lizzie, in fact over the years we've clocked up nearly 6,500 miles behind her, but neither of the runs we did with Lizzie over the banks were that special, not as good as the King and not in the same league as the Duchess in the four cylinder arena. I must admit we would probably have done it if it had been 35018.

 

Sadly the train does seem to be rather empty looking at a number of videos on YT.
You could put this down to;
1. Either the passengers had all gone to the toilet at the same time, 2. they are very short and their heads don't appear in front of the headrests or, 3. not many people chose to book it.
A few years ago this trip would have sold out fairly quickly with 6201 as the rostered motive power over the Devon Banks. Trips I have done in the distant past with SD using 6201 sold out very fast.
Perhaps the regular SD customers (if there are any these days) and non-enthusiasts are getting fed up with the current situation not only with ML steam but with SD.
Yesterday I met some friends at the MHR who I hadn't seen for a little while. They were very regular ML steam travellers but they said yesterday that the last trip they had travelled on was last year and that was a major pain in the arse as it was changed around several times.

 

I think it's fair to say a lot of trust has been lost in the mainline steam market over the last 18 months due to various factors, it will have to work really hard to win it back now IMO, the reasons why people are reluctant to book has been outlined many times recently, granted it's not the easiest issue to solve, but a few key players need to get round a table and do some serious headscratching regarding the way forward, as at the moment it seems the only way to get proper steam currently is to book with VT (even their itineries at this time are on the "reserved" side, perhaps due to the circumstances) or one of the few DBC operated trains.

SD seem to be the hardest hit for all this currently (curious why RTC don't seem to cop for it so much), the combination of faires into three figures, hastily changed routes, often with shorter than advertised steam legs, and a 90% probability of shovage presents an unattractive offering, regardless of whether your a daytripper or enthusiast, the customer pays his money and takes his choice, I just hope SD are fully aware of this and looking what they can do about it, as the current situation cannot continue.

I did see Lizzie at Plymouth, briefly passing it on a 13 coach sold out tour behind a Western that everyone was happy about and standard was priced in the 90's, so it's not impossible to put on a good railtour now.

 

Because WC has a more direct commercial relationship with RTC?

 

With Lizzie back in operation I would really like to see Steam Dreams have some success despite some of the things that have been said about them in the past. Not to be mistaken there are a few other operators who I want success for as well.


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But surely either a diesel is operationally required or it is not, regardless of who the Tour Promoter is ?, anything else seems slightly dishonest, if there are differing policies based on who the Tour Promoter is.

 

SD's set is not dual braked, and the impression from a post by Andy Taylor, was that a diesel was more likely to be attached. RTC use at least one dual braked set. Most of SD's trips being one offs, while RTC run a lot of repeat itinerys, so you usually know with the later based on previous trips whether a diesel will be attached.Reduced servicing times due to slower paths and shorter time at destination, mean a diesel is more likely to be attached to carry out the shunting of stock to endsure an on time departure eg. a Cath Ex to York earlier this year where there was only 2.5 hours in York compared to 4 hours in the past.

 

I think West Coast are getting more risk averse due to delay attribution risks ( Did the cap increase ? ), and also they now have a T.I. on the footplate ( which is another driver ) on most trips, so that doubles their requirements and is probbly why the steam section has been reduced on some trips. Also at least 3 West Coast drivers have retired this year.

There is an article in the latest Railway Magazine with the MD of Rail Operastions Group, and he states " One of the key area of concern for ROG is that charter trains present a greater operational risk and the costs can outweigh the returns should a train fail and penalties begin cloking up at at £ 64.00 per minute" he goes on to state that " ROG will undertake low-risk charter work that is simple and uncomplicated, but will use a pair of of locos as 'insurance'".

 

Funny thing is, WCR have in the past offered to pay Network Rail a flat rate "delay payment" per year based on previous years' actual net delay attribution caused by WCR operated services. Reviewed annually this would have been a financial incentive to reduce delays caused by WCR trains, on average, year on year.
Network Rail didn't agree and insisted on the "per incident" method. Which puts the fear of Christ up planners, Ops Management and Controllers to try to make every job as robust as possible.