Kent Circular - November 11th

Blimey! I only posted the video clip of Bearsted bank with a tongue in cheek response to Kent Yeti's question to show that it had been assisting 44932. It was not my intention to cause the uproar that has since appeared on this thread.
What was the cause for the delay to the trip?

 

Does anyone know why 44932 and its train crept into Eynsford 6 min down (behind a late running service train) and then sat there staring at a green signal for a further 8 minutes before moving off quite sure footedly (no doubt helped by the box on the back)?

 

Rolling into Eynsford

 

Purely an educated guess - to get a gap to the late running service ahead. Given the good route knowledge drivers need there may have been an assessment of where the service ahead would most likely result in a red. It might well have been in an unsuitable place. Better to wait and follow at a steady speed rather than stop start. if the service ahead was a stopper getting a gap would have been even more important. As I said its just a guess.

 

To be fair though they're plied with enough wine that they probably don't remember much of it.

 

That makes sense - Thanks!

 

whoaaaaa ralph, jumping on ur hat?

 

This is a very good point and if electrics are slipping and sliding, a steam loco will certainly do the same. If I was assured that when the leaf fall season is over, steam trains would run in Kent (or anywhere else for that matter) I would be the first to dig deep into my pocket. Sadly, I suspect that the current trend (VT excepted), will continue at a time when we not be able to use falling leaves as an excuse.

 

remeber the 4 seasons of Steam..

Autumn - leaf fall season, steam banned
Winter - too much snow, nothing goes no matter what
Spring - floods, steam canceled for our safety
Summer - too hot, steam banned for everyone elses safety.

in between that we have The Great Britain Gap, where all rules are relaxed for big wallets, The Religious Passage, where rules are relaxed for the Cath Explorer and occasionally the Hollywood glamour, which avoids all rules and restrictions.

 

Is that because of what they are being plied with?

Or because of who is doing the plying?

If the latter, I'll be getting me some tickets....................

 

What exactly is the current trend you refer to?

 

Just get used to more diesels on the back - I'm not trying to 'troll', but its increasingly becoming a fact of life to ensure the minimum of delay to service trains. I'm afraid the time of the single-handed steam trip is fast diminishing because of the risk-averse culture prevalent on NR, thus it is rapidly leaving the hands of the organisers and to some extent WCRC. Whilst sad, I can understand the generally practical reasons behind it, and am willing to accept it as long as steam remains on the network in some form or another. In the end, I enjoyed the trip; I got to cover a few miles of winning track, and got back to London at a reasonable time. The railhead conditions on the Maidstone East section appeared abysmal, and NR decided to let the service train run ahead of us at Otford Jc. rather than allow us to continue to the booked water stop at the loop at Lenham and suffer from slipping. We were thus brought to a stand at Borough Green, and it appears that all electric services on the route were slipping on the gradients due to leaves. 44932 was slipping several times on the gradients, so I think that having the diesel at the back was a particularly prudent measure in this instance. Even then things were dicey...

 

You might be right. If you are, I will just stop spending about £400 a trip and do something else that I and SWMBO enjoy.

 

Its getting increasingly that way. Stating the obvious, and leaving the principle of 'open access' aside, I doubt NR would shed a tear if steam suddenly disappeared from the network.