Peterborough - Salisbury April 4th 2012

Sorry to Spamcam and palace gates, they got there correct messages in whilst I was typing mine out, Cheers Wayne.

 

Thanks for your input as ever Wayne. Interested to learn that the A1 tackled the Kings Cross incline unassisted. If you'd like a shot of her departing Hertford, drop me a pm with an e-mail address and I'll send one to you.

 

Wayne,
I too would like to thank you for your input,and the most interesting outing to Taunton about three weeks back.
Best regards

 

Had a very good trip out on this trip as it was nice to not have to go into London to catch a steam charter. My first experience of Tornado and have to say it was impressive. An announcement was made early on that the diesel was only on the back for ETH and a good decision I would say. My other half enjoyed her day but not sure she would have felt the same if it was cold particularly at night. As it was we were flying along in the night north of Stevenage and it was very enjoyable with a glass of red!

I overheard someone talking to a member of the support crew at Salisbury. They said that Tornado had already been tried on the incline before yesterday so as to assess the level of risk and that the recent works mean the run to the signal at the top is more level making a restart much less risky. I am not 100% familiar with the area so don't know whats changed but we went up the incline with barely a slowing so I guess someone knows what they are doing. Didn't appear that Tornado was opened out too much but some very brisk running in places and a nice day out where we avoided the rain in Salisbury. It tipped it down just as we got back onboard!

Thanks to everyone for a great day, and nice to see the pictures too.

 

Strange that no generator car was hired, but maybe after the recent warm weather it was assumed that the train heating season was over! Don't you just love the umpredictability of the British weather!

 

Apart from providing heating for yeserday's trip (which was needed early on to demist the windows) the diesel was also there to take the carriages back to Southall at the end of the trip. After we all disembarked, Tornado was scheduled to make its way to the NVR using the fletton junction connection.

 

And from me too. July the 9th, I'm booked on that one too so a repeat of the Eastleigh Centenarian would be good. Shall we start the rain dance now?