Royal Duchy 2015

34067 failed on its inaugural railtour as it was not, in my opinion ready!......but pressure from railtour bosses upon the then owner pushed the loco out too soon.

Whilst in Riley's ownership the loco operated faultlessly apart from a catastrophic valve gear failure...which was eventually tracked down to the wrong drawings being issued for manufacture, following the failure, the NRM found modified valve gear drawings which sorted the problem!

There is no such thing as a curse......

 

That video is of interest despite the poor quality. On some of the slips it looks as if the regulator was opened again before the wheels had stopped slipping.

 

Have to agree, wait until the reason is known, the Eastleigh reverser is an pig and takes some getting used to, if the driver had never driven a spam can before then why was not someone telling him what cut off to use, so it could be a fault in the reverser, the chains are known to stretch altering the valve settings, but until something official from the driver comes out, we wont know, how ever i would question what is the maintenance regime for Tangmere, as Ian has pointed out , under his joint ownership the engine was reliable,and the engine was maintained to a very high standard since he sold his share, are the same high standards being kept?

 

After watching the video,2 points come to mind, , were the sanders on? or were they not working, because it looked like they were not being used, and i have to agree that she did not appear to be in full foreward gear so either the driver didnt set the reverser correctly, of the valve settings need to be looked at. the slipping should have been controlled by using sand, and Southern men have a technique to control it on the regulator at the same time.

 

Everyone seems keen to blame loco and/or crew and as the vagaries of unrebuilt Bullieds on hilly routes have been documented for years one can see why that might be the case.

However is there not the possibility that brakes may have been sticking on the coaching stock to also be eliminated when the official enquiry occurs? Final undebated issue/question - the foregoing posts mention rain as the tour left Plymouth but was that actually forecast or an unexpected event?

Only the operator can state why they felt a load over the original standard set for the route in day to day working (when off days with steam were factored in) was an acceptable risk without a diesel back up.




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Hopefully a king and castle will be amoung locos allocated for these tours next year. Pray that both 6023&6024 are both out and about next year. 4079 possibly 2.

Quite a bit of good news surrounding Royal Scot last week and Flying Scotsman this week. The ball is starting to roll.

 

I've just seen a video of the train departing from Bristol TM in the morning. Once again Tangmere had to reverse back before proceeding.
Possibly a normal procedure at the time or was it a sign of things to come? <BJ>

 

Whatever problem if any Tangmere has at the moment, she is in better state now than in this video.

 

Stuck in top dead centre? on 3 cylinder locos the driver may have to sometimes set back then re start, im not sure what the actual reason is, but i assume something to do with valve movements ,ie ports not being open to admit steam,

 

I don't think you are off post because the current discussion is about Tangmere and HEMERDON. I managed to dig out the PSOV video of the climb and great footage it was. As Ian Riley says, speed dropped alarmingly to 3mph and so a stall was imminent. But thanks to 45407 which reverser on 60 per cent, she managed to haul the train over the top. Interestingly, 45110 had only 125psi on leaving Plymouth, hardly ready for the mountain! It did indeed happen in August 1999.

 

My understanding, right or wrong of Mike's post was to replicate the Clan Line situation. Which I also understand to be one loco at one location with no other locos there or maintained by the bulk of those working on Clan Line. Owned by a society with a lot of members a good number of whom are dedicated to preserving the knowledge and know how to keep just that one loco in tip top main line condition. The one loco being hired out on a fairly limited number of occasions per year from one operating base, (her home location), to one main customer on a small number of regular routes very well known to all her footplate crews.

I wasn't aware there was any intention to question the dedication of those looking after Tangmere. But I have always thought that it was not a replica of the Clan Line situation.

 

Going back a few years like I do when the subject is Bulleids and the rebuilts too.

35020 was not liked at all by certain Salisbury top link men. Couldn't run well with her. A sort of curse.

Come July 1962 she was on the up ACE relief with 12 cars, 430 tons gross. Revd. J.E.T. Phillips recorded one of the most incredible MN runs ever. Just over 68 minutes net time Salisbury to Waterloo. Normal ACE timing was 80 minutes and the fastest on the old SR. 83.7 miles with the climb through Porton at the start, quite a lot more uphill running to near Worting Junction and the slow finish in from Clapham Junction.

By the time he got to the loco at Waterloo the crew and been relieved so he never found out who they were. (Bet it was the first question he asked St Peter when the time came).

A number of us old timers once spent a lot of time trying to find out who the crew were. The nearest we got was, I think, that they were Nine Elms, and possibly No 2 link.

No one told them the loco was cursed when they got on the footplate at Salisbury.

 

This phenomenon has been debated here and elsewhere many times. In theory a three cylinder loco should never be "centred" but tell that to footplate crews who've had it happen to them.

 

Ian, helpful input there, trouble you for a bit more please?
From what you say, steam wise, all drivers 'sign' all traction?
What is the policy on interval between periodic assessment for traction and route competence? Using yourself, say, as an example how frequently would a driver undergo assessment for GWR, SR or LNER types that perhaps don’t feature in their routine mainline turns so much?
Infrequently used routes / not 'signed' by a driver would require a conductor - is that how it works?

 

Difficult to see the early slips, but some of the later ones are not violent, and while still a slip, do not appear to be "uncontrolled"

 

it appears to effect both the rebuilds and the un rebuilt class members then, i can remember it happening on CP, and on Swanage, with us having to set back half a revolution, before the cylinders would take steam, prehaps there is something to say for having a box on the back of some tours after all, especially if the route has some taxing climbs and the rostered engine is known to be light footed .