Third Pickering replica arrives at Llanfair

Less than 10? Are you sure? Travelled in the first Pickering soon after it arrived and there was more than 10 passengers therein.

 

Photo showing inside of one the coaches taken last year, from the 3rd class end, cannot see the 1st class end clearly.

http://paul-simpson.fotopic.net/p60258136.html

 

According to the History of the W&L the capacity of the Pickering coaches was:
W&L Nos. 1&2 (GWR 6338 &6466) 1st class - 10. 3rd class - 26
W&L No. 3 (GWR 4154) 3rd class - 46 (16 of which were in the "smoking" compartment)
I assume that the replicas being pretty accurate copies will be the same.
For comparison the ex-Zillertalbahn coaches carry between 28 and 32. So the "set" seats 118. I don't know what the tare weight of the set is but I would guess about 24tons perhaps as much as 30tons. The Zillers are 5 tons each, and 5 of them would seat about 150 - more seats for less trailing weight - big issue on the Golfa.

Right from the start the original coaches were heavy and offered too little capacity, apparently the overflow would be carried in the brake compartment or indeed in the goods brake of a mixed train.

The Saturday and Sunday trains are usually full to bursting at the Gala until early afternoon on the Sunday- every seat is needed, but it is perhaps a shame that "managment" couldn't find space in the timetable for a Sunday Afternoon run of the replica coaches.

 

Countess will be going in for its 10 year over the winter. just like The Earl did last year, so it won't be away for that long. And even while it is, we still have The Earl which of course is also an original W&LLR Beyer, though I admit not in GWR livery.

Andrew C
Press Officer
W&LLR

 

Usually the Pickerings have done the first run of the day either on their own, or part of a mixed train, then had a couple of Zilllertal coaches added for the rest of the day. So despite what the timetables, they are usually out, but not marketed as a W&LLR train, just a passenger train.

http://5944.fotopic.net/p60991275.html

Taken last year, No. 85 with two Pickerings and two Zillertal coaches.

 

As a guard with many Pickering turns under his belt I agree with the historical numbers you have quoted but in practice it is not possible to seat that many (I would say around 30-something is normal). Even a trial with "very friendly volunteers" who don't mind each others body odours found that we could not seat the historic capacity figures despite the vehicles being full size replicas. The unfortunate fact is modern people with decades of better nutrician are physically larger than our forefathers. The Ffestiniog had similar problems comfortably accomodating crews today on "Prince" and "Parlmerston" yet a glance at the Victorian/Edwardian pictures reveal that a race of pigmy loco crews in perfect scale with their machines once existed!!!

The comments posted here are quite correct. The problem the W&L faces is that Gala demands a large number of people out of Welshpool & Llanfair every hour with very few quiet spells. If we put in a smaller train in the middle of the day people have an uncomfortable ride or worse some are left behind. This is why the limited capacity Pickering runs are always at the begining of the day. The problem with the Sunday afternoon idea is a logistical issue getting the vehicles from the rakes back together since all the effort in the timetable has to be geared to getting two locos (usually 822, 823 or 85) together for the double headed mega-train that is required to coincide with the exedus caused by early finish of the garden railway show (passengers armed with very large LGB and Roundhouse purchases) and the offset in the regular departure slots taken up by Dougal passenger run to Cyfronydd.

The W&L is keen to see the Pickering used together as a set but regretfully the peak time at a Gala weekend is not the ideal time to do it, hence why we now run a Friday event and also why during the running season we have the monthly vintage weekends in June July and August where on set is always Pickerings & Beyer (we try to roster 823 if it is available).

The last vintage weekend this year is the 14 & 15 August (this weekend).

Carrying of passengers in Brake Vans or Pickering Brake Compartments is a famous feature of W&L history but are now regretfully forbidden. The former is because they have no continious brakes or type approval for conveying passengers (even BR(WR) made people sign disclaimer documents, I gather the legal situation today is much different!), and the latter because of the unavoidable exposed position of the brake setter in the compartment. To be honest the dark and clostophobic Pickering brake compartment is not a pleasant place to view our railway compared to the lovely "green house esq" passenger compartments adjacent to it.

Kind regards,
Gareth