Legends of Industry steam gala - Tanfield Railway 11-12 September 2010

Hi Andrew,

I will try to explain the events that occurred to cause the above issues:

The J72 decided she needed water very last minute... this is what caused the delay of the first passenger train.

The Second Coal train was cancelled due to Renishaw failing at the bottom end. I had to make a decision on how we handled the trains from there. The decision was taken to put the coat train shuttles into action a train earlier and to get two passenger trains out on the line.
We had to spit the 6 coach train a train late due to not having the motive power to make the spilt possible.

From the point of Renishaw failing the time-table was kind of made up on the spot by myself and Watchdog. so I hope it was OK for all?! I don't think the timetable was too adventurous but with everything that was thrown at us yesterday we had to make some snap decisions.

Thanks for coming and I hope you enjoyed yourself.

Chris

 

Thank you. There were some cracking performances from the crews this weekend. =]

 

Better late than early! :lol:

 

Some photos from this weekend.

Fotopic
http://owen-edwards.fotopic.net/c1895891.html
http://ksrailwaygallery.fotopic.net/c1895889.html
http://blackhatrailwaypics.fotopic.net/c1895775.html
http://flyingscotsman123.fotopic.net/c1895342.html

Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/tanfieldrailway/pool/with/4982921831/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16708569@N08/sets/72157624950066470/with/4988194538/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/80275422@N00/sets/72157622225389165/with/4983968920/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8117412@N05/sets/72157624940678308/with/4983191869/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sxv74/sets/72157622057950556/with/4982706393/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djhewitt/with/4979895245/

other sites
http://steam-box.com/event-or-charter-name/legends-industry-2010

 

Hi Owen
Couple more sites

http://henrysgallery.fotopic.net/
http://elliottsteam.fotopic.net/

 

Hello Chris

Many thanks for taking the time to write a few lines regarding the "back story" out what was unfolding.

I did actually wonder at one point if AW2/Husky might make a trip to Sunniside in lieu of a steam loco?

That would of been quite good actually (give them a turn at the coal train day next month!)

I certainly appreciate how stressful if must of been with Cochrane and then the temporary loss of Renishaw to deal with coupled with (no pun intended) the need to keeps things running and everybody happy.

I think you all managed that with 100% success - so well done.

Thoroughly enjoyed Sunday and will be back up in about a month for the coal train.

Cochrane Is it an easy repair?

Just wondering if you will still have 4 locos to choose from?

Not sure what your plans for the coal train day will be?

Thanks again for the news.

Best Regards




Andrew

 

(badly) leaking tubes, I understand. AW2 and husky doing something at the coal train day sounds like a good idea to me too!

 

Can I just put my input onto the thread here. We do appreciate all the good comments and criticism which comes through this forum, we have taken the problems on the chin and are currently working towards solving them for next year. Can I just say that 3 people pretty much organised that event, so I hope you can appreciate that some areas, such as signage, were not totally covered. I do actually apologise for that because that was my area to cover, but at the time all hands were needed to try and finish ex M.S & L.R, TR No.8, with a small band of people doing almost 9am till 2.00am for 5 days!

As for the timetable, "was it ambitious" YES, "was it too ambitious" definitely not! We strive on getting better each year, and try to experiment with it wherever possible! There is a lot more which can be done! However, I hope you can appreciate that 4 trains on a 3 mile line is quite an achievement in itself. The timetable was an improved version of 2009, which worked to perfection. This year we not only added swapping locomotives at Sunniside, but added swapping at Marley Hill. This was taken from 2009s comments of why only 2 locomotives were only ever seen on the coal train. This is pretty much the only way of doing this, and allowed for almost all locos to be on all trains. The problem though is if one loco misses its allocated slot, the rest goes to pot. This is what happened on Sunday. We thought we'd solved the problem of Cochrane, after confirmation of that on Saturday night and a new timetable produced through the night. The working timetable just made it out in time for the first movements, and the passenger copy was literally, and I mean literally just about to be taken off the photocopier when Mk1hater passed the news on of Renishaw. I later laughed when I returned to the office to find the photocopier still on awaiting more paper with about 200 copies in the tray.

This meant we were down to 4 locos to move 4 trains. This is why the J72 was stuck on the coal, and as soon as we could we got it off their because we did realise fairly early on that this would be a problem. For us though, our main priority was to keep passenger trains running.... and we will be honest, the timetable was pretty much made on the spot, and there was no point in producing another timetable as we knew Renishaw would re-enter traffic but didn't know which slot it would take.

I do believe we cancelled one train to bring the timetable back on track, and i think by the close of the day we came in 10mins late, however I may need to be corrected on that as I was too busy firing Twizell on it's last un-timetabled full line coal train back up to Andrews House! Quite an impressive sound!!

As for Cochrane, she is currently being assessed and we await results, and Renishaw is back in traffic. Can I just add that Cochrane only recently returned from a few weeks visit to Beamish, and there was only a small amount of time to do maintenance work in readiness for the gala.

Leaving on a happy note, we are still awaiting passenger figures but it is believed to be above the 1500 carried in 2009 which would mean its been the best gala attendance since starting in 2006. We look forward to 2011, with more people joining the gala organising team with more exciting ideas!!

Thanks, David.

 

Many thanks David for your comments

As I said in reply to Chris, well done to all involved and we will say no more about Saturday.

All the best


Andrew

 

Just posted the first part of my film footage.
[video=youtube;whMVzB1X5pM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whMVzB1X5pM[/video]

 

More Photos,
http://ksrailwaygallery.fotopic.net/c1896458.html

Pennysteam, Cracking Video.

 

Thanks, for the feed back, I wonder if we will ever see them in steam, only time will tell.

 

Coal Products No. 3 is due to be looked at by the boiler inspector within the fortnight... so yes time will tell!

 

If you get Coal Products going then Colin Davies, who I think was her driver for many a year and is a driver at Embsay, would love to be re-united with her I'm sure!

Oh and if you do we'll look forward to seeing her at Foxfield...... eace:

 

Part 2 now up.
[video=youtube;Er57MaYhcug]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er57MaYhcug[/video]

 

And whilst you are waving spanners on that project you have time to consider, Mr P&JR, that you have something that I want and I may having something that you may want..climate change makes it a prospect ?. PM me if you want a chat.

 

Here it is in happier days. Colin was the driver but is hiding at the other side of the cab. Footplate rides for anyone who asked in those days...:smile:

 

Third Part now up.
[video=youtube;Tj0QRqpzs1c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj0QRqpzs1c[/video]

 

Posted the last part of our 4 part film late last night.
[video=youtube;ufpsUzysSdY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufpsUzysSdY[/video]

Looking forward to the next event.