Royal Duchy 2015

Place your bets now, folks, for what motive power we can expect on 6th September's planned train. My wedding anniversary, thinking of booking if my better half fancies this trip, but if we get stuck somewhere I'll be in the maison des chiens!

John

 

70000 should be in charge


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

No 9 was no trouble when based at Bridgnorth but then the guys would take her down the line or put her into service to make sure everything was OK.
In fact that was the reason she moved to the SVR inthe first place.

Cheers Dave

 

The train is fully booked according to an email received from RTC yesterday.

 

Hopefully that will not impact on John and his wife's big day.

What the "fully booked" tells me is how much impact all the negative comments on here and the events building up to those comments has had on the train loading.

I imagine some knowing smiles within RTC: much deserved IMHO.

Adversity happens in todays main line steam scene and has to be lived with. 19th century technology operating on the 21st century railway and all that.

 

To paraphrase Disraeli (nearly) 'There are Lies, Damned lies and internet forums. 'Experts' have questioned the location of the contingency Diesel loco. It was stationed at Bristol, with a Driver on close call, in case of problems. This was a deliberate plan, and one which I believe the industry would regard as suitable. No issues were anticipated after steam loco had run nearly 300 miles without problem. (if 300 miles is not a trial trip, how much do you want?)
The RD jobs are commercially challenging because the routes dictate a maximum load of 9 vehicles with a class 7 or 8. With the POB that's 8, one of which is a brake, and one a Kitchen, so numbers become quite tight. 34067, 70013, 34046 have all handled this job comfortably with a load of 8 + 1.
What the experts have also completely failed to consider is that the RD stables in the Branch Goods at Par. This line holds, wait for it, 8 vehicles. If a Diesel had gone on the rear of the train, then the load would have to be reduced by 1 vehicle to fit the line at Par.
WCR have run many RD's over the last few years without any problems. It is very unfortunate that the last two have run into completely unrelated problems. However good news does not generate good press.
Everybody is free to hold and express their own opinion. What I find exasperating is when these opinions are touted as 'informed fact'. When I arrived at Totnes on Sunday I was told that No 9 had a hot middle big end. I said no, its a hot axle box. "Oh No, its the big end, its on the internet". I was surprised I had got it wrong, as I had just driven it at reduced speed from Newton Abbott in the company of the engineers who had worked bloody hard to make it fit to move to the SDR!
Please just look forward to the 6th Sept, and hope for a successful run.
NOTE: These are personal opinions and do not reflect views of any organisation which may be involved.

 

I hope that this sold out tour is partly to do with a very clean 70000 as of late being at the head of the train.

 

Like it, like it, A fella at the sharp end posts THE FACTS and at a stroke blows the "experts" out of the water.
Thank you sir for your input.

 

Thanks for this most informative post. I'm particularly interested in the point about the siding space at Par - not something most of us would be aware of.

As for the "... it's on the internet" quote, one just has to grin knowingly and stroll on. Rumour and gossip have always sprung up to fill the void left when there's no credible information. The internet just makes it easy to spread rumours further and faster than ever. The best way to counter it is to publish the real story before the rumours get established, and to make sure people know the information comes from a reliable source. I know that when an incident like the recent RD failures are still unfolding, the last thing the folks involved want to do is post a tweet or update a forum like this! It depends how much the rumours matter.

In the case of No. 9, the line-side gossip was close enough - there was a hot bearing and it was something to do with the middle drivers. It's not unreasonable to wonder whether the middle big-end was to blame, since many people know it's what Mallard suffered after her record-breaking run. The problem you encountered was that the person you spoke to didn't know that you knew much more about the situation on the ground than the people posting on the Internet did. Without being there, it's hard to say how much that says about that person's judgement

 

The old ones are the best.

 

A most excellent post. Nice to get info straight from the horse's mouth.

 

Entirely agree.

 

It's all gone very quiet at the moment. There must be a problem with the internet signal in Sherborne. <BJ>

 

Oops Al.

https://www.gov.uk/weights-measures-and-packaging-the-law/units-of-measurement

I think you meant 28.3495 grams of common sense?

 

A warning from the mod team as a whole or just yourself?

 

No Bill its fine.....

 

Does this post infer that some of the members of this forum may not actually own 28.3495 grams of common sense. This is must be considered inflammatory, even if true.