Flying Scotsman

IIRC it was called Sheffield Tea....

 

Me too, I also went up to London in the 90s from sunny Hampshire and the same always unpleasantly surprised me too.

 

I always thought that was more to do with the air on the Underground. Modern tube trains are a bit more 'sealed' than the old ones, I assume they filter the air to some extent.
And, I also had a theory that the line colours matched the snot produced... black for the Northern, obviously. Red for the Central(!), green/yellow for the District and so on. Well, I'm not sure about the Victoria & Piccadilly... maybe my theory was a little off.
(I still work in London...)

 

Ochre in water is quite common in natural discharges from old mine workings. I was in Whitehaven a couple of months ago and one of the discharges into part of the harbour was such that that part was a deep orange colour in contrast with the adjacent part, as shown on Google Earth




For more information, go to: ttps://www.cleanriverstrust.co.uk/mining-pigment-and-ochre-waters/

 

Dosing with a small dribble of H2O2 at the inlet of the oxide-stained water works wonders and drops it out as a precipitate.

Occasionally an otherwise clean mine outfall discharge can suddenly turn orange, if the chemistry (eg pH) of the receiving water isn't optimum. Another cure is oxygenation, with the discharge being sprayed, or more likely, tumbled over a sleeper stack to get some air into it and clean it that way.

 

I'm busy rescanning my old railway negatives and I'm just doing a batch from a visit by 4472 to the North East on 7 September 1968 hauling the Durham Coast Rail Tour. 4472 had brought its train to Newcastle, then headed to Tyne Dock for replenishment. An elevator conveyor was used to fill the tender with coal and me and my schoolmate mucked in, hand-balling the coal from the heap onto the conveyor to help fill the tender more quickly and get them on their way.

I was chuffed to bits a few months later when we were at a special screening of the film 'The Train' at the Tyneside film theatre, organised by the Flying Scotsman people and the bloke introducing the screening said that the last time in he was in the area had been on that trip as support, and he wanted to thank the locals who had got stuck in helping with the coaling.

I was less chuffed when the film over-ran and we missed our last bus home by 10 minutes. Walking 16 miles back to Ashington on a February night wearing a school blazer because I'd not got an overcoat rather sticks in my mind for other reasons.

Anyway, one of the shots I took that day was of the cab side and crew. I've got a feeling that the bloke on the right in the beret and tie is Alan Pegler. Am I right?

 

IIRC Alan Peglar's usual headgear was a greasetop.

 

No, that isn't AP, as @Victor's picture shows. Chances are Pegler's the one with his hand on the window ledge in the cab.

 

Thanks folks .

 

Also, I seem to recall Mr Pegler wore only a boiler suit, when with Flying Scotsman, rather than a railway cotton jacket plus bib and brace.
Therefore, I don't think he's in the footplate photo at all.

 

A short video of 60103 'Flying Scotsman' at Didcot Railway Centre, displayed alongside GWR Castle Class 4079 'Pendennis Castle'

 

A "THE FLYING SCOTSMAN" headboard on Flying Scotsman will tend to exacerbate the confusion in the minds of Joe Public.

 

Why worry? Putting an informal ‘The’ in front of a locomotive’s name is nothing to worry about and has, no doubt, been a colloquial practice ever since ‘The’ Rocket. They are, after all, things not people.

If you’ve ever explained the difference between Flying Scotsman and The Flying Scotsman to Joe Public you’ll know he soon gets bored and wants to change the subject which, arguably , is a perfectly sensible reaction.

 

The general public don't realise that Flying Scotsman and The Flying Scotsman are any different. If anything it'll reinfornce the idea that they aren't!

 

Kind of appropriate that 60103 is a world away from 1472, whereas 4079 is, pretty much, still 4079.

 

Yes--the combination of 4079 in original form, and 60103 in early '60s form, 'bookends' their careers very nicely.

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I must say that given the bedlam that tends to follow this engine around, things were fairly relaxed and sensible at Didcot today.
No limit to the number of rides you could have, that being determined only by the times it ran and how long the queue for trips was. People took photos and, when asked to clear the lines as things moved, did so without complaint. Yesterday was sold out I'm told but today was fairly comfortable for numbers. If only everywhere worked as smoothly.

 

We attended the event yesterday and it was very busy:


We stayed on after the event finished to get some shots without the crowds:



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History made at the Didcot event yesterday. To the surprise of everyone they double headed Scotsman with Pendennis Castle. My clips of the event:

 

I'm intrigued who provides footplate crews for 60103 these days on heritage railways.
It used to be Riley's team of course but, as they are no longer involved, I wondered if the host railway's own crews now operate it themselves with, perhaps, a representative of the NRM.
Does anyone know current arrangements please?