West Somerset Steam Express 2015

Given the uncertainty around at the moment it is increasingly likely more people will do this. I must admit I would not pre-book until I was 95% certain a train would run at the moment, with so many cancellations and summer fire risk (laughing as I look out the window at lashing rain!). Unfortunately, this is of no help to promoters who rely on advance bookings to judge whether a train will be profitable or not. We run the risk of more trains being pulled due to 'lack of bookings' if this practice becomes more widespread.
I would not like to be a promoter at the moment, RTC must be so glad of their overseas income, though why it should be easier to run a train on a different continent than at home... - answers on a post card please..

 

You convinced me on the quality of the trip and I would love to book but there is the small matter of a cricket match on the same day at Trent Bridge that takes precedence as I have tickets

 

Went up on the hill at Crofton as with the relatively early westbound path, the sun wasn't going to be anywhere near on the nose. In the end the position of the sun was irrelevent - stood for ages in full sun, only for it to disappear less than 10 mins before Britannia arrived
The pumping station was in steam too

Steam - Mobile and Stationary by Stephen Dance, on Flickr

 

Lots of interest in that shot. So different from normal. Hope Henry sees it!

Purely personal, but I myself would have cropped it to a non standard size like this:-

 

Yup that works thanks - in fact I'd already done that for the preceeding HST that caused the delays further west (in full sun of course)

Crofton Panorama by Stephen Dance, on Flickr

 

Wise choice, at least you stand more chance of getting what you pay for. Namely a cricket match, not football or hockey.
Probably also more chance of "compensation" if anything goes wrong, ie the weather.

 

But, cricket can be so much more interesting and at times thrilling.

Some years ago I used to watch the one day matches screened by the BBC, towards the early evening as the final overs were played it could be quite nail biting if the team you were supporting needed a few more runs to win the match or you hoped that those in play failed to get more.

 

I have received my ticket for the 8th ( I transfered from the cancelled Pilgrim Fathers, which was a transfer from the redated Peak Forester)
Loco 70000 . Loco for WSR not stated. 11 coaches - 2 dining, 3 first, 4 standard including buffet, plus Kitchen car and support coach.

 

Apparently according the unofficial WSR Website, It's going to be 3850 once again hauling the WSR leg to Minehead and back to Bishops Lydeard.

 

Normal load limits on the WSR are as follows:
King, BR 9F and 28xx are allowed 12
Britannia, Castle and 5205 are allowed 11
42xx is allowed 10
Hall, Manor and West Country are allowed 9
43xx, 5101, 56xx and 9351 are allowed 8
57xx and 45xx are allowed 7

However these loads are occasionally exceeded provided railhead conditions are OK . I have had 10 behind a Hall more than once.

 

6960 took 10 coaches from MD to BL at the end of June on a dry sunny day, and appeared to keep to time.

 

May book this for Saturday, as there's plenty of space on board. However, everything I've booked since March has been postponed or cancelled, so I'm one of those reticent to book until I feel the odds that it will run are overwhelmingly in my favour. However, its a long time until 'The Wansbeck' in October, and even that has a fairly high level of risk of not running as planned due to the locomotive situation. If the WSSE is still a runner on Wednesday, then I'm going for it, as it ticks-off another main-line link with a heritage railway.

 

The West Somerset Steam Expresses on August 15 and August 29 have been cancelled, apparently due to a lack of coaching stock, another of this year's problems.