ScotRail Steam

I've seen Drumochter, Druimachdar & Druim Uachdar but never Druimauchdar . Nothing to get upset about though.

 

(Continuing the thread drift) it's Druimauchdar in the gradient profiles book, with Drumochter in brackets. Some place names in England have had various spellings over the years, so why not some in Scotland? And how long has Scottish Gaelic had standard orthography anyway?

More to the point on this forum -- what spectacular climbs! I'm looking forward to the videos, though with current droplight concerns possibly not one from on board like the one from Tornado's previous run on that line.

 

Looking forward to the climb of Beetok on Saturday then !

 

@BordersRailTV's Tweet: https://twitter.com/BordersRailTV/status/613442051229794304?s=09
Retweeted by @60163 Tornado too

 

Just out of interest, this is a link to a pic of the old summit board, another variation!! We went past the current one rather too quickly to photograph it on a mobile from the train on both days.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/train-pix/5878348333/

 

The OS map has "Pass of Drumochter" beside the summit of the A9 and the railway, and "Dumochter Lodge" a little further north, on both 1:50000 and 1:25000 maps. The OS has been put to some trouble over the years to give the accepted local spelling of Scottish names.

 

The Highland Rambler

As so few were lucky enough to have travelled on the weekend’s trains I thought I’d put some context to the bank climbing exploits of 60163, which it needs to be remembered had only turned a wheel for the first time after an extensive overhaul 10 days or so before this train.

I think it’s fair to say that most of us were expecting a fairly subdued weekend even with the 8 coach train, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Just over 2 miles out of Stirling, up through Dunblane, is almost 6 miles of climbing with a final mile of 1 in 88. 60163 hit the bottom of the 2 miles of 1 in 100 at 57 and topped it noisily at 52. Over mixed grades including a short section of 1 in 78, speed was 47 at the start of the mile or so of 1 in 88 that was crested at 43. Not a bad start.

After our scheduled stop at Perth, we passed Murthly Jc at 58 and stormed up the mile of 1 in 80 and half a mile at of 1 in 75 topping the climb at 39. We had a clearance issue at Blair Atholl and cruised through the station at 16 ensuring there would be no rush at the long climb to Druimuachdar Summit. We hit the foot of the 1 in 80 at 41 and were climbing well until an overbridge slack a mile in cut speed back from 36 to 25. We picked up to 47 on the mixed gentler grades for the next mile and then topped the mile of 1 in 72 at 44. A short stretch of 1 in 80 took us to the foot of the almost 8 miles of 1 in 70 at 42. This speed was held for the first 2 miles and then only fell back to 40 over the next mile and a half. 60163 really dug in then and produced a superb performance as we covered the next 4 miles or so of 1 in 70 at a virtually constant 39. The easing to 1 in 85 for a mile and a quarter saw speed rise to 42, and 60163 used the easier grades to increase speed to 54 at the foot of the final mile or so of 1 in 78 to the Summit Board that was passed at 49.

Leaving Aviemore, there’s a steady climb of 1 in 200/100 for 2 ½ miles that led to a speed of 52 at the foot of Slochd. The climb was seriously noisy, speed slowly falling to 44 at the top of the mile and a quarter of 1 in 75. We couldn’t take advantage of the downhill section as there was a speed restriction through Carrbridge that resulted in a speed of only 24 at the base of the two and a half miles 1 in 60 section. 60163 then accelerated to 37 on this section, with speed further increased to 44 on the mile of I in 92 that followed. The top of the climb, a mile and a half of I in 70 away, was reached with our speed only having dropped to 39. We passed the Summit Board which is on a slight downgrade from the south at 41.

Quite some performance 'out of the box' it's fair to say.

The crew was Driver Steve Hanczar, Fireman Tony Jones, and A1ST’s Hugh Parker who assisted with the firing on the steep sections. Traction Inspector was Gareth Jones or Bob Hart or possibly both at different times.

 

Apologies to Steve. Now corrected.

 

As the Sunday train was just a trundle I thought I'd skip a report other than to say the state of the Highland Line vegetation wise is a disgrace. mature tree branches were continually crashing against both sides of the Mark 1s and the engine. We were really worried that one of the crew might be injured looking out at the wrong time. one of the support crew was hit by a branch but we understand fortunately came to no real harm. Brora in the pouring rain was nowhere to be but the beer in the Sutherland Inn satisfied most. Their only handpump had the oddly named Cowabunga IPA from the Isle of Skye Brewery. An excellent pint.
To Monday's Highland Caledonian. It's a fearsome old climb to Slochd Summit and we were seriously glad the heavy overnight rain had moved away and we had a dry start from Inverness. There is little in the way of a run up to the foot of the first 1 in 60 section. We came off Milburn Junction at 23 and started the 2½ miles of I in 60 at the same speed. 60163 slipped a few times on the damp rail but speed gradually rose to 30 after a mile and was held at 30. The big engine then accelerated slowly up the next section, 2½ miles of 1 in 70, reaching the change of grade at a commendable 40. Using the short downgrade over Culloden viaduct to good effect we hit the foot of the next section, 5½ miles of I in 60 at 59. The sound was amazing as 60163 took on the bank. Speed fell to 45 over the first 1¾ miles then she dug in and over the final 3¾ miles our speed only fell to 39. After the scheduled wait at Moy for a service train to pass, 60163 used the lesser grades and bits of level track to pass Tomatin, the start of the final 2½ miles of 1 in 60 at 60. Our speed fell quarter by quarter to 39 at the end of the section, picking up to 41 passing the summit board. Some serious climbing indeed.

Druimuachdar isn’t as fearsome southbound. There are no 1 in 60 sections as there are on the northbound climb. The bank really starts with 2 miles of 1 in 95 a mile or so after Newtonmore. We hit the foot of the section at 57 and the end at 51. The next 7 miles of lesser grades between 1 in 300 and 1 in 100 were negated by a slack through Dalwhinnie Station which led to a speed of 17 at the foot of the 5½ mile slog to the summit. The first part of the climb is 2½ miles of 1 in 80. The big engine accelerated the train all the way up, ending the section at 48, and kept picking up speed on the next mile and a half of lesser grades, 1 in 150, 300 and 100 to hit the foot of the just over a mile of 1 in 80 at 55, only falling back to 53 as the grade eased to 1 in 250 on the approach to the Summit Board passed at 59.4. We were almost disappointed as 60 seemed possible!

There was supposed to be another bank on the way back to Perth, virtually 2 miles of I in 80 after Dunkeld. We had the usual station slack through the station and reached the foot of the bank at 25. Apart from the racket from the front it was hard to believe it was a bank as speed rose to 41 as we entered Kingswood Tunnel at the summit. Wayne Thompson was our driver with Dave Proctor on the shovel. I think Graeme Bunker was also on the footplate with Bob Hart as TI.

Steve and Tony took over at Perth and were taking the train back to Millerhill SS straight after. There are no significant banks on the way back to Stirling other than a longish climb away from Dunning through Auchterarder and on to Gleneagles. The bank starts with 3 miles of 1 in 121. We hit the bottom at 63, speed falling slowly to 44 at the end of section. The ¼ mile of 1 in 92 took speed down to 39. The next section of 2½ miles of 1 in 100 was approached at 20 due to a late running service train which rather spoiled it. Speed rose to 31 and was held over the short 1 in 91 section, rising to 41 over the next mile of mostly 1 in 100.

Huge credit and thanks must go to the A1ST personnel at DLW for all their efforts to get the engine there. 60163 performed brilliantly all weekend with no noticeable issues. It sounded superb, such an even beat for a 3 cylinder engine. I’m not a great fan of big engines with light loads but these two trains were special in the way they took the banks on, producing speeds none of us expected at the major summits.

Huge thanks to Scotrail and Abellio for running them; to the SRPS for providing the stock and a great and friendly set of stewards, plus the beers from the Kinniel Brewery, Orkney Dark Island and others I can’t remember but enjoyed!; and to DBS who operated the trains in their usual professional manner, great and friendly drivers, firemen and TIs. No doubt we’ll be seeing Wayne, Dave, Gareth and possibly Bob on Torbay Expresses this season. All in all, with the excellent Isle of Skye and other Scottish beers in Stirling and Inverness, a great weekend for all who made it.

 

Good to see it all went well, and that bodes well for this combination on the Fife Circle coming up. What were the loadings like on the Sunday run ? That's the important one if this sort of thing is to be run again, would be good to have a week (or two) of well patronised trips from Inverness then poor loadings getting there and back wouldn't matter so much.

 

Very poor, less than 100.

 

I think Wayne would be good with any engine. But LNER engine Al? Design origin yes but apart from that no.

Don

 

Does anyone know of anything on RTT for when Tornado moves down to Carlisle for Saturday's run?

 

Was just about to ask whether this could be it:

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/R45020/2015/06/26/advanced

Anyone know whether this is Tornado + ECS or diesel + ECS?

 

Moved south of the border under cover of darkness in the early hours of yesterday folks..