Kentish Belle on 26th May

Lovely day with the "foreigner" at the head of our train.

Ran well and to time all day despite pathed to follow semi fast/stopping trains over quite long sections.

Had a couple of slippery moments, (leaving Whitstable and climbing Walmer Bank), but those got sorted fine by a crew who may not have had a great deal of experience with this class of loco?

Nice climb up to Sevenoaks tunnel, and then presumably a speed restriction at the North end of the tunnel. Followed by a noisy acceleration and a good climb through Polhill Tunnel.

Nine cars seemed about right for that loco on that route.

Did notice the crew got very dirty. Dusty coal and/or a characteristic of that class?

Oh. I failed to add the loco looked very clean and in superb condition.
Too clean for a Black 5?
How dare I say that after all the work that must have been done to turn out the loco. But the only other ones I've seen before were totally grime encrusted!

 

Matt, 44871 is crusing there thats why you can only hear the steady black 5 beat when she gets closer. Looks as though that stretch must have been pretty level.

Glad you had a good day Bryan. Regarding the coal, it was very dusty Saturday so I'd imagen it was exactly the same yesturday. Was Mr Roberts in charge at some point yesturday?

 

No sign of Mr Roberts yesterday - we had the same driver throughout. Don't know his name but he's driven a couple of tours on Kent/Sussex lines that I've been on this year.

 

I believe the driver was Bob Baines.

 

Dunton Green is on a short level stretch after a mile and a bit of downhill from Sevenoaks station, gradient starts to gradualy rise north of DG sation up to Polhill.

 

I understand the driver was Bob Baines throughout. And apart from his face getting dirtier and dirtier as the day went on, (as did anyone who worked on the loco), he certainly seemed to be enjoying himself.

The grade through Dunton Green is as said above. We came out of Sevenoaks tunnel at circa 10 mph, (not sure if it was a tsr or a signal check), which allowed some lovely noise from the 5 as we accelerated on the 1/160 down though Sevenoaks at 38 mph and reached 57 at the bottom of the dip through Dunton Green. By which time the loco was nicely purring along!

 

Is this the same Bob Baines of EWS fame and notoriety? I was told he he had retired - but West Coast may have rescued him!!

Nick

 

I think it is a very rare event indeed for a steam loco of any type not to have assistance over Grosvenor Bank. Even with only 9 on, the climb will have severely tested loco and crew. I presume it was a dry rail as a wet railhead would have resulted almost certainly in a stall.

The noise ringing out over the Thames must have been fantastic!!

Nick

 

There's a vid on YouTube from KINGANDCASTLE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNuQBp32Kak

 

Good video - I was in the first coach and can confirm that it was noisy! I suspected at the time that the diesel was not assisting. I saw some operating instruction once about banking out of Victoria which said that if the diesel loses contact with the train up the bank it must NOT attempt to re-connect. I guess this is what may have happened.

 

Not sure about his notoriety but I have seen him driving Clan Line. I believe he retired from EWS in April last year. There is a picture of him in the Clan Line newsletter looking a lot cleaner than he did last Wednesday.

 

Same here re notoriety. Seemed a nice guy and a decent steam driver to me.

Maybe his "notoriety" came from an association with this TV programme. In which case all the loco crew on Wednesday could be tarred with the same brush. So as to speak. (No offence at all meant to anyone worldwide).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/timeshift/minstrels.shtml