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Clan Line Farewell 30th June

Discussion in 'What's Going On' started by alastair, Jan 14, 2015.

  1. mrKnowwun

    mrKnowwun Part of the furniture

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    By the grace of St George.......
     
  2. Spamcan81

    Spamcan81 Nat Pres stalwart

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    All this talk of speeding Bulleids reminds of a piece I read in Railway World many years ago. IIRC it was an unrebuilt Light Pacific and it was being driven very hard indeed and throwing hot coals far and wide. The crew got a "please explain" and while in front of the "boss" the driver pointed to the fireman and said, "he filled the box at Woking so I thought I may as well burn it" and burn it he did by all accounts. I just wish I could remember who wrote the article.
     
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  3. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    I think it was behind 35007 that I went over Roundwood at 60 mph with 4 cars on................ :(

    Starting from Micheldever! :)

    Can't find the log at present, but I know we, "the top link timing group", went down specially for it as the Eastleigh driver was going to have a go on the slow train. I think he went on to get 87 mph before the Hook stop starting from Basingstoke. Not that good actually but I suspect he was a bit worried about braking distance. On the famous run I wasn't on, Gordon Hooper on an up Salisbury slow, WC with 6 on, either reached or got very close to 90mph between the Basingstoke and Hook stops.

    And as for rockets from unrebuilts. Lapford's 100 mph run was an amazing display of leaving large amounts of it's fire on the lineside between Basingstoke and Farnborough. Until I read my brothers note book a few years back that to many was always a contentious 100mph, often reported as 98 mph. But he is a fastidious timer and took a lot of whole milepost times as well as stations and 1/4 mile stop watch times and that clearly shows we reached 100mph. As did my note book when I eventually recovered it recently. Winkworth in his book refers to the Bramshott Halt time not supporting the ton, but that halt was not a good place to take a time from as it had no easily distinguishable timing point at speed. Whereas whole mileposts do!

    I also got to 98 -99 mph on that stretch with Lapford behind Clive Groome. I was told he was experimenting with loco control settings so speed was fluctuating quite a bit as he got to the best settings or we would have certainly got to another unrebuilt Light Pacific ton. Don't recall vast amounts of rockets and lineside fires that evening. Presumably by then the other drivers had burned down most flammable crops within rocket reach so there wasn't much left to burn down.
     
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  4. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    And more or less fifty years later, Clan Line is still on the mainline doing what she does best. Whereas England ... Who'd a thought it, eh!

    Tom
     
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  5. david1984

    david1984 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Do I detect a bit of double standards from those who dispute a 1904 ton :D
     
  6. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    I'd just come up from Southampton behind 34044 on the up Club Train. 19.15 ex Southampton, and the Waterloo station announcer was telling everyone we had won the world cup at football. Looking at a note in someone else's note book for that day, 35028 seemed to be out working but I can't quite see which train she was on.

    Edited the time from Southampton as I may be able to get split seconds correct but I sometimes can be a whole 12 hours out. LOL!
     
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  7. Spamcan81

    Spamcan81 Nat Pres stalwart

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    How long did that train take to get to Waterloo? The match wasn't played until the afternoon.
     
  8. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    :eek: OMG! Not at all. Lapford ran without a sudden brake application over a stretch that myself and several others knew like the back of our hand and we were timing with the benefit of looking across two other running lines at clearly marked mileposts. With, in my note book and that of my brothers at least, a sequence of passing times and stop watch times that fully supported 100mph. From the build up of average speeds to the run down after the event. And where the HP calculations were in line with that of a Bulleid Light pacific, and not that approaching the HP of a Deltic diesel locomotive which a certain 1904 loco would have needed for it's final incredible reported acceleration.:)
     
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  9. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    19.15 ex Southampton! The Saturday up fast from Weymouth where us timers gathered in the last coach to catch up on the days runs, and on which driver was driving what over the coming week. So we could plan our evening timing runs etc for that next week.

    The 07.15, with a Bournemouth gnome at the controls, wouldn't have got to Waterloo before the players and supporters had sobered up after the celebrations.
     
  10. torgormaig

    torgormaig Part of the furniture Friend

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    I spent a memorable afternoon at Basingstoke that day. My notes record sighting 35028 passing through on an up express between 2.30 and 3pm. This may help identify which train she worked that day.

    Peter James
     
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  11. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    Thanks Peter. The note states 35028 on 12.14. Or it could be the 13.14, which would be the 11.17 ex Weymouth, 13.14 ex Southampton. Running late, quite likely on a summer Saturday: there were two up Bournemouth trains booked right in front of it. 13.02 and 13.08 ex Southampton. Either of those with a class 5 or a badly steaming Bulleid would slow things down a lot on the climb to Roundwood. And I can imagine them queuing to get into and away from Southampton before that too. Departures from Southampton booked at 12.38, 12.42, 12.47, (d.e.m.u.), 12.50, 13.02, 13.08 and finally the 13.14. Plus a 12.53 d.e.m.u from Southampton Terminus to Alton. 35028 didn't have a chance!
     
  12. 30567

    30567 Part of the furniture Friend

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    Mr Yeti--- the Widdowson book as well as referring to the Lapford run mentions 34001 achieving 98 at Winchester on 4/7/67 on the 0245 Waterloo-Bournemouth. Do you know anything about that one? Sounds like a case of stand well back from the platform edge.
     
  13. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    Don't immediately recall that one. The 2.45 was a favourite for good runs: Nine Elms no 4 link turn. It did stop at Winchester so the max was usually approaching Winchester Junction.

    There was an authentic Light Pacific 102 mph down Roundwood Bank on the down newspapers one morning.

    There were a lot of runs that got to 95 mph and over, big Brother Don may well be documenting all of them in a book he is currently writing.

    One of the very best runs was with 34087 on the up Channel Islands. 29th June 1967. 12 car train and we got to over 90 mph on near level track from the Basingstoke start. Driver Shepherd of Eastleigh. I don't recall the loco was thrashed at all. Even at the end some of those Bulleids, not in the best of condition, showed what outstanding steam locomotives they were and still are.

    One of my dreams, I know it can never ever happen of course, would be to see one of the current group of drivers, if one was willing, at the controls of a MN out of Basingstoke with a 12 cars, 430 ton gross train, a clear road, willingness to drive the loco hard, thumbs up from the loco owner and no speed limits! After what 34087 did and having timed many, many other runs over that stretch there would be a very good chance of 100mph being reached approaching Fleet and a virtual certainly approaching Brookwood. 34101 on 10 cars got 90 mph on the slow line approaching Fleet in February 1966. I was on the footplate of that one and the loco was not steaming: lack of a boiler washout. Pressure was 220 psi starting from Basingstoke and down to 145 psi when we got to 90 mph! Driver the late Gordon Porter and the fireman the late Tommy Moult, couple of damn good guys who left this world far, far too early.

    But as I said, that will never ever happen, far too many good reasons why it can't happen these days. Just glad I was a dedicated timer on the SR in the years up to electrification.

    Oh well, back to my Short-eared Owls!
     
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  14. athelney

    athelney Member

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    KentYeti , maybe you have a note somewhere as to what was on the up Belle that day of the cup match ? .. I went up on it to London on the Belle and as we were waiting for it at Southampton, they had the match live on the announcement system .....much cheering from the punters on the platform when the goals were scored ...lol
     
  15. torgormaig

    torgormaig Part of the furniture Friend

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    I noted 34052 on the down "Belle" that day. I have no idea if the same loco would have worked it back or not.

    Peter James
     
  16. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    The same friend's notebook states "34095 Belle". That would have been the down Belle but often the same loco would work it both ways. Unless the crew weren't happy with a Light Pacific on it and tried to change it at Bournemouth. I remember the New Cross Lip, "Boy", John Gaffney did that once. He had a Standard 5 on the down Belle and with a big group of us timers doing both down and up workings with him, he failed it at Bournemouth on arrival on some pretext or other, hoping to get pacific so we could have good up run. But the shed just turned out another Standard 5 for him for the up working! He did quite well with that up Roundwood bank, 43 mph I think. But where Gordon Hooper once took 35012 over the top, still accelerating, at 76 mph with the heavyweight Belle load. One of the truly great MN performances. 70 minutes net up from Southampton! Big brother Don timed that one.

    I wasn't on it that day, but took a photo of it approaching Wimbledon somewhat early!

    [​IMG]
     
  17. torgormaig

    torgormaig Part of the furniture Friend

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  18. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    Bryan - maybe a bit before your time, but do you have records of the down Devon Belle? 14 Pullmans over about 7 miles of 1 in 80 on Honiton Bank must rank as one of the toughest regular jobs anywhere in the country. Normally a Merchant Navy, in original form - not much doubt there about their hill climbing prowess!

    A Light Pacific taking 8 Pullmans from the divided train from Exeter Central to Ilfracombe and back must have been something to behold as well, though they would have had assistance once the gradients got steeper than 1 in 40.

    Shap, Beattock - pah!

    Tom
     
  19. torgormaig

    torgormaig Part of the furniture Friend

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    This is where life gets confusing. I noted 34095 on a down train north of Farnborough at about 5.45pm that afternoon, following 35029 on the down "Royal Wessex". Sorry for the clash of notebooks, but it was a long time ago now. Mr Yeti is certainly far more knowledgeable about the last years of Southern steam than I and I would not want to argue with his accounts. Just noting the record I have of that day.

    Peter James
     
  20. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    You could be right, the note book page is a copy and I can't read the number that well. The number was written down at 16.45 as the up train my friend John was on passed though Clapham Junction. Not sure why he wrote Belle after it, that was the most distinctive train on the line, and John was and still is a very astute guy. It could be he was just noting down information a less accurate gricer was giving him.
     

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