RTC End of Southern Steam: London to Weymouth 9th July 2016

Suspected this was the case.

 

Give it a rest.

 

No,

just posting what I saw with my own eyes.

 

Oh go on, please give it a rest. By the way, take a look at the Torbay Express clips from yesterday and you will have a further excuse for a whinge!

 

34098 has a valid point. Either there is now a strict rule against sticking out heads, cameras or anything else or there isn't. Confusion as to what is allowed, or inconsistency between one trip and another as to whether a rule is enforced, is unhelpful.

 

With an eye on next years end of steam can i hope that there will be a much bigger celebration using suitable Southern Engines, for instance can we hope for 2 MN out of waterloo? 35028 and 35018 one running to exeter and one to weymouth? with the return being made so both arrive at waterloo at the same time if NR can play ball and ensure a good timing for both to have fast non stop runs from Basingstoke to waterloo pathed at 75 mph
will 28 be back by this time next year? if not then can we hope the reserve engines will be 34046 and 34067?

 

Fair point but I think stewards are using their common sense. There was the always the likelihood that many would want to film the sea wall around Dawlish and Teignmouth from the train and it seems that is what happened.

 

As I was on my first DBC run steam tour, I had planned to test out the boundaries on what was being enforced on last Sunday's trip. On the outbound leg after just topping Whiteball I was asked to put the window up and I did. The return leg was different, I was at the window for the whole the return trip and not once was anything said, I even had a brief discussion with the one steward about how well the Scot had just done up to Whiteball as he was at the opposite window. There was plenty of reminders about the windows, but nothing was enforced heavily. The big difference between stewarding on DBC & WCR operated trains was the level of relaxation on the stewarding side. The stewards on Torbay were mainly situated in the buffet car and rarely came up the train, except on that one occasion when they were selling raffle tickets, where I got my collar politely felt. What's clear to me is, there's obviously different approaches from different stewards, but no definitive action on the window hanging issue, also the vestibule enforcement was non existent. On a side note, that return journey was up there with some of top return Torbay runs IMHO.

 

Nice to see the return of common sense.

 

The overhaul of 35028 has thrown up some additional work to be done and has gone over budget, if you want to see it nex July I'm sure they would be grateful for your contribution to the cost.

 

You are right John; it is the public domain that some extra remedial work has been found to be necessary, so all contributions are welcome (see MNLPS website for details). It might have been possible to 'make do & mend' but this is not the MNLPS way, so the extra work will be done thoroughly to the highest standards. Additional money spent now means savings further down the line. The overhaul work proceeds apace, and ways will be found to ensure that 35028 takes its place on the main line in 2017 for the 50th anniversary of the end of BR Southern steam. Remember that there was still a lot of steam activity in the months leading up to July 1967 - including the well-documented high-speed runs of the surviving Bulleid pacifics - so the 'commemoration' does not have to necessarily happen only on 9th July. 35028 wasn't even in traffic on that day.
As is well-known, MNLPS use DBC as their operator, so I cannot comment on what other promoters and operators might be doing. A dual arrival of MNs at Waterloo - as suggested by martin1656 - isn't going to happen though!!

 

I know about the steam activity, I was there. The one other thing I'd like to see that won't happen is a repeat of Royal Mail's 106 mph on the 18.25 up from Weymouth which by luck I happened to have been on from Basingstoke, my only authenticated three figure speed behind steam. I think I must have put a fair bit into the collecting tin for 35028 back then and always intended to join the society, I don't know why it took so long but finally did so this year!

 

While we're discussing Clan Line, there are a couple of rather good DVD productions available from the MNLPS that will help fund the overhaul.

• David Oldham (OVP) has produced "The Clan Line DVD 2006 - 2015", which is available from the MNLPS web-site now.
  
• My own humble effort is called "Steam Age Pictures: Clan Line 2007 - 2015". The society has a stock of DVDs (2 disc set, standard definition) which I think they are selling for £15 (though it's not listed on the web-site yet), or you can order it on 2 Blu-ray discs (high definition) from me for £22.50 incl p&p.

All proceeds will go to MNLPS, whichever format you order.

Now, back to the subject...

 

Just wondering if next years end of Southern steam rail tour will run on the Sunday 9th July. Being that Southern steam ended on a Sunday.

 

Steam Dreams have already announced their plans. London to Kingswear on Thu 6th July, Kingswear to Weymouth then to London on Sun 9th. I'm sure there's a thread about this already, somewhere...

 

To get a real flavour of what it was like towards the end of steam perhaps Clan Line should be turned out like this, or perhaps not...

 

see http://www.national-preservation.com/threads/steam-dreams-2016.563125/page-13. The plan on the 9th is " According to last months Steam Railway, Marcus told Tony Streeter that the plan is for 35018 to be banked by 48151 out of Weymouth."

 

I get the feeling that we have about as much chance of seeing 35018 next July as we do 6023 on the mainline!! As with Braunton, although it did eventually show up, false dawns seem to be the order of the day. The comment from the Merchant Navy society yesterday that there was NO CHANCE of 35018 and 35028 at the buffers on 9 July 2017 was significant. I am sure they were not talking about Clan Line!

 

Why so negative? Either that or the poster was referring to the chances of both being used on the same trip. 35018 is essentially a Barry restoration with one or two benefits, so am not surprised about the length of time.

Also, I understand there's only two or three platforms at Waterloo which can still be used by steam, so clogging this busy station with MNs, despite being nice in principle, won't happen, certainly not without assistance from SWT.

 

It was the arrival of both at the same time which the poster said would not happen.