Peterborough - Salisbury April 4th 2012

Looked a treat crossing the viaduct just south of Hertford North (pic to follow). View ruined for some by a car that arrived and parked in front of the gallery at the last minute. A very polite request to ask if it was possible to move it just a few feet was met with a torrent of abuse and threats of violence and all in front of women and children too. What is the world coming to?

 

About 40 late away from Staines.

 

Sadly this seems to be happening rather a lot lately. Some people don't seem to have any manners these days and a lot seem to be constantly on edge, ready to vent their fury.

 

Hertford Viaduct

60163-Hertford by KING COBRA 92, on Flickr

 

Excellent photo and composition.

 

Lovely picture that. Just looks brilliant. Its just highlighted that I was talking incorrectly about the stock. Just watched my video from last week and today's, same stock it seems and same formation.

 

They had made up 10mins so was only 30mins late through Andover:
60163 Tornado - Cathedrals Express - Andover 04/04/12 - YouTube

 

[video=youtube_share;CHa4TorqY7I]http://youtu.be/CHa4TorqY7I?hd=1[/video]

Around 40 minutes late at Brookwood, on the slow line, but making reasonable speed with 13 coaches and a class 67 - around 550 tons (?), up 1 in 300. View in 720p HD.

 

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Does anyone have the remotest idea of why there is a diesel tagged on the back? Most steam tours terminating at Salisbury are single handed with the loco pushing the stock out and then turning on the triangle beyond the tunnel at the East end.

 

Evening All,

I have just added some pictures of today's train to my Flickr site. They were taken at Offord and at a rather dull and dismal Fleet. They are in the 'Stop Press! Latest Pictures' collection and here is the link if anyone would like to see them :

Latest Pictures - 4th April - a set on Flickr

This is only a temporary collection, but they will be there for a month or two. They are, however, also in the 'Main Line Steam - 2012' collection which is here : Main Line Steam - 2012 - a set on Flickr

Hope that they are of interest.

 

Possibly to assist the train up the bank, on the link between the East Coast Mainline and the North London Line?

 

I believe that is correct, there is usually a diesel attached for heavier loads on that route.

 

Thanks. Major grief from a lout who dumped his car in the shot a few minutes before Tornado was due. A very polite request as to if he could possibly park it a bit further to the right was greeted by a torrent of abuse. All in front of a gallery containing women and children. Charming. Fortunately I'd taken a shot of a local train a few minutes earlier from the same spot so was able to merge the two and thereby remove the offending vehicle.

 

As has been said earlier, so typical of the world we live in today. "The couldn't care less society" as I call it.

It happens with my owl watching and photography sometimes too. Only for me there is a better result!

In December particularly, crowds of birdwatchers/photographers gathered at a spot in North Kent to watch the daylight hunting Short-Eared Owls that came to spend their winter here. Giving a wonderful daytime display. On a couple of occasions up to 40 people gathered on a viewing mound, (not on the normal Owls' hunting ground and usually ignored by the Owls), and around ten cars with photographers inside, on the road the Owls hunted around. We had to stay in our cars or the Owls would fly off. Along come, "we don't give a damn about anyone else" in their car, park amongst the photographers and then get out and walk up and down the road to get a close view of the Owls. What did the Owls then do? Exit stage left, plenty of hunting a mile away where they cannot be viewed. So no one, including the di.k heads, saw anything. Upsetting for the large number who had used a weekend day and come a long distance. Not so for me who goes down there most days.

I did stop my, (so I was told), very informative blog on these Owls. And lo and behold numbers of viewers quickly dropped back to just 2 or 3 well behaved birders.

So it was all my fault! LOL!

Back to Spamcam, (always a good thing to do), my old dad had a saying that would have covered the situation of those behaving like this, "Shoot the Bas..rds".

 

How depressing, too, to have a diesel on the entire journey just for the tiny stretch up to the North London line! Surely it's not beyond the wit of man to have assistance attach and drop off appropriately, rather than lug it around for the full 300-350 miles round trip? Aside from the visual detraction of the diesel, more tangibly it seems that fuel and carbon savings do not feature large on the railways these days - despite the green claims of the industry. So many trains are 'top and tailed', hauling round hundreds of tons for no good reason every day, while so many others take hugely-extended routes to transfer stock, etc., just to avoid potential 'compensation-worthy' delays on key routes.

 

After his torrent of abuse had waned he turned to threats of physical violence and criminal damage to my car. All delivered from an increasing distance as he walked away, getting braver as the gap between us got bigger. He was no youngster by the way but a grey haired 50+ years old.

 

Would the diesel have been a "visual detraction" to the paying passengers? I doubt it. If you find it that much of an eyesore then perhaps you should a) not go out to see such tours, b) compose your pics so as to hide the "box on the back" or b) learn some Photoshop skills to remove it if it's visible in your shot. (Not so easy with video I'll admit.) There is also the possibility that it was there to power on board services and maybe perform shunting at the destination.

 

I am not one for diesel assistance on tours as most of you will know,and when I found out that this was the case on this one I was also disappointed,but I understand that there was also a requirement for heating for this train as a generator van was not hired.People need to understand what is being offered as you do not get a full description from any of the tour operators.
Any train up that incline,(from Belle Isle to the North London Line is likely to have assistance.I also regard the Harringay curve as doggy with a load as big as yesterdays.

 

Off the mark again, the main reason the 67 was on the back was for electric train supply puposes.
Yes it would have been used for assistance if the train had sat down on the kings Cross incline, but not what it was there for. The 67 had its 'E70' isolated, meaning it would not have been able to assist unless the train had been brought to a stand and the driver changed several isolating cocks/switches to gain power. Made hard work for us at the sharp end dragging it around much better for us not having one. But as there was no generator car, one 67 in consist.
The late running after West Hampstead (right time away) for those interested was, poor regulation at Willesden High level, which cost us our pathway at Kew. Then a total shables at Staines where the signalman did not have the paperwork to allow us into the goods loop. Its a Network rail document which every man and his dog seemed to have except the signalman whose job it was to let us in there!
Anyway all delays went down to Network rail. Thankfully the 40 mins late away (which I thought would delay us further) ended up with us only about 25 late at Salisbury.