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44871 is she fit or not for 28Apr?


Metr0Land

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  • RMweb Gold

44871 was pencilled-in for tomorrow's leg of the Great Briton 9 Tour from Brizzle to Grange-over-Sands.  Monday night she was crossed out and diesel-haulage was stated to be in the frame due to loco problems.

 

At time or writing uksteaminfo is now showing 44871/Diesel again.  Obv they have been working on her.  My problem is that I have a 100 mile drive to eg STJ so am trying to find clear info one way or the other.

 

(Clearly I know she may still fail on the day, but I'd like to know if I have a fighting chance of seeing steam in action).

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  • RMweb Gold

http://www.railwaytouring.net/travel-tours/great-britain-ix

 

Thursday 28th April
Steam through the Welsh Marches to the Lake District
This morning your train climbs out of Bristol to join the South Wales Main Line before passing through the Severn Tunnel en route to Newport. Today you will be hauled by steam locomotive no 46233 ‘Duchess of Sutherland' for the journey northwards through Wales and on to the English Lake District. You pass through Newport before joining the scenic Welsh Marches route along the Welsh/English border. The steam locomotive will be working hard as you climb through Pontypool and Abergavenny to Llanvihangel Summit. Stopping at Hereford for the locomotive to take on water you continue to Leominster, Ludlow and Shrewsbury. You follow the Shrewsbury to Chester Line through Gogowen, Ruabon and Wrexham. Soon the River Dee is crossed and the city walls of Chester come into view. On leaving Chester the train travels northeastwards towards Manchester, stopping at Frodsham to take on water. You join the West Coast Main Line (WCML) at Acton Grange Junction just before Warrington and can expect a fast journey from Wigan to Preston. You continue north to Lancaster and Carnforth, and then along the former Furness Railway Line around the north shore of Morecambe Bay. Your destination is the picturesque seaside resort of Grange-over-Sands in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria. You transfer to a hotel for the evening and overnight.

 

 

Looks like the Duchess is coming out to play.

 

Black V was due to be with the Scot 46100 today but the Scot is on it's own (with diesel of course - 57316) - the Black V has a broken radius rod

 

My son caught her at Eccles on the failed journey to Southall.

https://flic.kr/p/GD3JPX

 

(I might disagree with you on the JD issue but I still help elsewhere)

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Posted yesterday (26/4) at 8pm by Ian Riley on intheworks forum

 

"Well after a very 'full' days work the replacement Radius rod is now fitted to the locomotive with all new pins and bushes required to it and the mating Combination lever and Expansion link.

Valves removed from both sides, examined and refitted.

Valve setting in the morning, engine kept in steam, and a path requested to Bristol for tomorrow PM....................."

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  • RMweb Gold

Do VSTP paths come up that readily on any of the normally accessible sites Dave?

 

On the site I subscribe to - 99.9% of the time, yes.

 

realtime trains has (had)  an issue with STP/VSTP and doesn't always get them.

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I looked at that and wasn't sure if it was the move.  The load is shown as 455 tonnes which is a bit heavy for 1 support coach!   However, 455 is the normal load shown for Northern Belle workings so maybe they just copied a pre-existing path calculator thingy* without changing the details?

 

 

(*Other technical terms available)

 

 

Edit; Just noticed it's timed for 213mph max, so maybe they're wanting to really test their handiwork ;)

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There was some consternation when we heard that 44871 had failed as it was not known how we would then tackle things with 46100. A new plan was made which resulted in a really good couple of days for all concerned, the 'midland piece of junk' putting in a sterling performance including dragging load 11 AND a cl 57 up Dainton all on its tod. I was on the footplate for that and it was pretty epic.

 

Although it was obvious what had happened to 44871 the last we heard was that they weren't too sure why so fingers crossed for their share of GB9.

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There was some consternation when we heard that 44871 had failed as it was not known how we would then tackle things with 46100. A new plan was made which resulted in a really good couple of days for all concerned, the 'midland piece of junk' putting in a sterling performance including dragging load 11 AND a cl 57 up Dainton all on its tod. I was on the footplate for that and it was pretty epic.

 

Although it was obvious what had happened to 44871 the last we heard was that they weren't too sure why so fingers crossed for their share of GB9.

I think you will find the 57 wasnt being pulled but would have been providing just a bit of assistance, actually quite a lot of assistance if earlier in the run was anything to go by!

 

I saw it leaving Penzance (I got stopped at Marazion for it) and it did look rather good as it rounded the corner, although the numpty photographer that nearly walked in front of my train at Ludgvan 16 foot crossing because he didnt look did annoy me a bit!  :triniti:

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I think you will find the 57 wasnt being pulled but would have been providing just a bit of assistance, actually quite a lot of assistance if earlier in the run was anything to go by!

 

I saw it leaving Penzance (I got stopped at Marazion for it) and it did look rather good as it rounded the corner, although the numpty photographer that nearly walked in front of my train at Ludgvan 16 foot crossing because he didnt look did annoy me a bit!  :triniti:

The driver asked for and got assistance up Hemerdon because of rail conditions but said we could tackle Dainton on our own, which we did.

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The driver asked for and got assistance up Hemerdon because of rail conditions but said we could tackle Dainton on our own, which we did.

Fair enough, I did watch the train leave Plymouth and the 57 was assisting there.

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Fair enough, I did watch the train leave Plymouth and the 57 was assisting there.

I was on Plymouth - Tiverton loop. It was a bit greasy to start with, the thing slipped a bit getting away from Plymouth even with a shove, but got better as we headed east.

 

Edit..for those who know about these things, today's trip on 44871 is / was Ray Churchill's last trip before retirement, yesterday on 46100 being the penultimate. Sad to see him go, a complete gentleman and engineman.

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