Cotton Mill Express 17th July, 3rd time lucky

Thanks for posting this. I was saddened to hear of her failure yesterday and that of 44932. It must have been a very frustrating day for WCRC yesterday! Glad to hear it was not too serious for either loco in the long run.
46115 was very impressive down south last week and I hope she returns this way again in the future. During the water stop at Eastleigh last week someone commented to the crew that she sounded "spot on" to which one of the crew replied "Thanks. We are still running her in from repairs to the middle cylinder". The Dorset Coast express was some running-in turn!


P.S great videos and pictures folks.

 

I got my dispensation from Maunsell that day, and he didn't seem to mind too much for the reason mentioned in my last post...

 

My shots at Patricroft in the (very) wet morning.

http://graham-williams.fotopic.net/p66018228.html
http://graham-williams.fotopic.net/p66018232.html

Alongside the M602
http://graham-williams.fotopic.net/p66018233.html

 

I was on The White Rose (Wakefield to KX) a few weeks ago and 46115 put in a very fine performance. ECML. no diesel on the back, oh yes, I'll have a bit more of that when the opportunity presents itself again. :thumb:

 

Given that 44932 is fresh out of works, unproven and 46115 has been a bit stubborn up north, how practical would it have been to have had 48151 in steam on standby instead of the WCRC 37 ?

Afterall passengers paid for a ride out by steam, and given 100% failure for 46115 on the cotton mill todate thats hardly "unexpected", and 44932 having less than a few hundred miles since overhaul must be high risk, it's fare paying passengers were really test dummys for this engine and lost out significantly, having 48151 do the return to Carnforth would have been a bit more appropriate given the circumstances and could have tripped down to Manchester to pick up the return albeit very late cotton mill, instead of abandoning it's passengers.

 

I'd assume that Network Rail would love the phonecall "Hi, one of our locos, you know the one that failed earlier in the year at Preston and the one that failed again at Eccles. Guess what. It has failed again at Manchester Victoria. Any chance we can send another of our steam locomotives down from Carnforth, via the busy West Coast Main Line, then through Victoria Station, which is a busy station and we are already blocking one of the 4 through tracks, then up the bank then reverse onto the train to bring it home? We can? Brilliant ?!

 

I could take your argument and say why should NR rail allow steam locomotives that had a fail record run at all...
I was looking for something more constructive.. afterall people pay money for this.

If the Cotton Mill was "at your own risk" and Ravenglass was advertised as a "test run" then fair enough.. but they werent and there wasnt a backup plan and no doubt some unhappiness.

I was on the January cotton mill, and paid up to travel from London for this trip. After the failure I decided maybe to give the second a miss, and the third, but i'd love to ride behind 46115... frustrating but I aint spending £400 quid (hotel, train, food & railtour) on a weekend up north "in hope" it might work or to expect a ride behind a 37.

I apply this same argument to booking a ticket to manchester and finding your train turns into a Bus part way into the journey due to engineering works.. but at least in this instance you know when it's going to happen and more importantly.. a plan is in place for which you chose or not to travel.

At the end of the day engines are getting older and network rail tolerates, not welcomes steam, and passengers are sympathetic to the cause but should not be considered mugs... they will walk eventually.

 

Not practical at all to be honest. All the costs of a second loco, e.g. crew, coal, FTR exam etc. would have to be added to the cost of the main tour, then you'd get people saying they weren't booking because it was too expensive. You then have the time factor depending on where the failure occured and how long it would take to arrange a path for the rescue loco to set out on its mission and how long it would take to get there. In an ideal world there would be a spare loco available for all steam tours but sadly that world doesn't exist and I think steam does very well for itself on today's modern railway.