Spotting the Scotsman...

[johndon]

Shouldn't really laugh but...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4851478/Trainspotters-upset-Virgin-train-blocks-Flying-Scotsman.html

John

Edited September 7, 2017 by johndon

[big jim]

the synic in my recons he has highlighted his 'plight' as the last person to make the news when they were bowled waiting for scotsman got a pair of 1st class tickets on VTEC (or it may have well been on virgin airways thinking about it)

 

just as well it wasn't an azuma unit or the daily mail headline may have read "japanese immigrant virgins head to the uk to humiliate elderly yorkshireman"

Edited September 4, 2017 by big jim

[Hilux5972]

I was thinking exactly the same thing Jim.

[Ed-farms]

Photographer's own fault at the end of the day. He stood there and had 3 lines between him and Scotsman so there was 3 chances of Scotsman getting blocked, if he had wanted to see it he should have stood on the same side as she would be on

[Steamport Southport]

How long ago was this?

 

I've just watched it go past on the WSR webcam.

 

 

http://www.wsr.org.uk/r-cam-ch1.htm

 

 

http://www.wsr.org.uk/r-cam-bl2.htm

 

 

I was looking for Manors rather than A3s. 

 

 

Jason

Edited September 5, 2017 by Steamport Southport

[luckymucklebackit]

BBC have a video of the Flying Scotsman slipping on the WSR

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-somerset-41229861/flying-scotsman-gets-stuck-on-somerset-hill

[cal.n]

Wow, I counted 8 coaches from the video (maybe 7 or 9) from the video. She has easily taken 12 up Shap the in heavy rain unassisted last year (albeit at speed) so I can only assume crew error?

 

I may be wrong, but do the driver and fireman come from the railway itself (with the route knowledge) and there is a traction inspector from the NRM and Rileys with the knowledge of the loco that stay with her.  

[TheSignalEngineer]

I remember back at a Tyseley Open Day in 1968 Scotsman couldn't get out of the yard with about 8 on when working a trip to Leamington. Had to have a push from the depot 08.

[Liam]

Wow, I counted 8 coaches from the video (maybe 7 or 9) from the video. She has easily taken 12 up Shap the in heavy rain unassisted last year (albeit at speed) so I can only assume crew error?

 

I may be wrong, but do the driver and fireman come from the railway itself (with the route knowledge) and there is a traction inspector from the NRM and Rileys with the knowledge of the loco that stay with her.  

I had the privilege of working behind Scotsman (and Tornado) when it came to the SVR last year, in fact on the very next service after the one which the BBC made a programme out of (Flying Scotsman from the Footplate). But to answer your question yes, we provided our own driver and fireman, but Noel Hartley from the NRM was aboard the footplate and I believe there was another person as well - probably a representative from Rileys.

[Steamport Southport]

It's spent most of the week getting pushed around by a Class 33.   

 

 

 

Jason

[Guest Midland Mole]

I had heard that Scotsman struggled to get going out of Bridgnorth when it came to the SVR, and then they showed exactly that on the BBC Programme about the journey.

Alex

 

And I know I will probably attract massive amounts of hate for this, but It always gives me a good chuckle when I see a story like this about the over-hyped Hovering Highlander.

[The Johnster]

I can recall watching 'Gordon' take about 20 minutes to move more then a few feet from it's overnight stabling position at Bridgnorth shed one morning in the 80s; whatever the driver did, the engine's wheels went around but no forward motion took place.  This was a dry, warm, summer's morning, and the loco took 10 blue and grey mk1s to Bewdley when it did finally manage to get off shed, all full of schoolkids, without any problems at all in exactly the way you'd expect from a powerful 2-10-0 with small driving wheels.  I don't know what happened on the way back, as I was on my way home, but it just goes to show...

 

Exactly what it goes to show I've no idea, of course, perhaps that, sometimes, steam engines just don't want to play!

Edited September 11, 2017 by The Johnster

[Trainshed Terry]

 

That has just made my day. The more powerful GWR loco has to assist an weak LNER loco 

[Guest Midland Mole]

I agree with the above sentiment, that video made my day too! The Hall was making an absolutely beautiful noise pushing the poor stricken hippo up the hill.

Alex

[luckymucklebackit]

Its very easy to spot a Scotsman. He'll be the one wearing a kilt and taking his pet haggis for a walk!

 

Tim (25% Scottish DNA)

 

Whattttt - someone has tamed a Haggis, photos please!!!

[luckymucklebackit]

I agree with the above sentiment, that video made my day too! The Hall was making an absolutely beautiful noise pushing the poor stricken hippo up the hill.

Alex

 

I wondered when the GWR supremacists would jump on this, probably some of their activists sneaked in overnight and smeared grease on the wheels

[Froxfield2012]

That is a very enjoyable video for those of us who wondered why so much money was spent on such an over-hyped locomotive.  A locomotive that was saved when the equally significant 2750 Papyrus went for scrap.  However, perhaps the real point is that Gresley's "racehorses" were designed for maximum speed on the relatively flat East Coast Main Line not for working Great Western branch line trains up challenging gradients from a (more or less) standing start.  Frankly FS just looks odd on a single track branch line!?  Even one used for lengthy holiday trains back in the day.  Still you can't blame the WSR for trying to use the publicity inevitably attache to FS to try to increase revenue.  At least I hope the income exceeded the cost of getting FS in?

Edited September 12, 2017 by Froxfield2012

[luckymucklebackit]

That is a very enjoyable video for those of us who wondered why so much money was spent on such an over-hyped locomotive.  A locomotive that was saved when the equally significant 2750 Papyrus went for scrap.  However, perhaps the real point is that Gresley's "racehorses" were designed for maximum speed on the relatively flat West Coast Main Line not for working Great Western branch line trains up challenging gradients from a (more or less) standing start.  Frankly FS just looks odd on a single track branch line!?  Even one used for lengthy holiday trains back in the day.  Still you can't blame the WSR for trying to use the publicity inevitably attache to FS to try to increase revenue.  At least I hope the income exceeded the cost of getting FS in?

..

...relatively flat West East Coast Main Line

 

FTFY  Shap and Beattock are a wee bit hilly!! 

[Zomboid]

I don't particularly care one way or the other when it comes to FS, but I really don't understand why you'd actively wish ill upon it.

And it won't be the first or last steam engine to get stuck through slipping. Even GWR engines can slip, you know...

[bike2steam]

The pacific curse, now you know why the GWR didn't like 'em, - oh wheelie !?

[Dunsignalling]

That is a very enjoyable video for those of us who wondered why so much money was spent on such an over-hyped locomotive.  A locomotive that was saved when the equally significant 2750 Papyrus went for scrap.  However, perhaps the real point is that Gresley's "racehorses" were designed for maximum speed on the relatively flat West Coast Main Line not for working Great Western branch line trains up challenging gradients from a (more or less) standing start.  Frankly FS just looks odd on a single track branch line!?  Even one used for lengthy holiday trains back in the day.  Still you can't blame the WSR for trying to use the publicity inevitably attache to FS to try to increase revenue.  At least I hope the income exceeded the cost of getting FS in?

I'm no fan of FS and think the amount most recently spent on turning it into a workable loco could have been better employed. However, much off it was stumped up specifically with that loco in mind rather than anything you or I might prefer.

 

Back in 1963, FS was saved because the only potential buyer for an A3 who had the money to buy one wanted that one. Simple as that.

 

60103 was widely regarded as a bag of nails at the time and Alan Pegler was, I understand, strongly advised to buy St. Simon which was in tip-top condition and just use the plates off Flying Scotsman on it, but FS it had to be.

 

All Class 8 engines are wasted on branch lines and high-powered locos with big wheels slip very easily on wet rails at the unnaturally low speeds they have to keep to. 

 

Horses for courses - if you want the real feel of a Pacific doing what it's designed to do, get yourself onto a main line trip.

 

John

Edited September 12, 2017 by Dunsignalling

[Guest Midland Mole]

but I really don't understand why you'd actively wish ill upon it.

 

It's not like I want it to crash, or suffer the same damage Blue Peter did in '94. I'm just laughing at it not being able to get up a hill!

Alex

[Froxfield2012]

..

...relatively flat West East Coast Main Line

 

FTFY  Shap and Beattock are a wee bit hilly!! 

 

 

Thanks for the correction. You can put the mistake down to approaching senility! I have spent enough hours on both sides of the country to know the difference.  But at least express trains got a bit of a run at Shap and Beattock even if (as I understood from a former driver on the route) one had to turn off the injectors and "mortgage the boiler" to have a satisfactory shot at Shap. 

[Liam]

My grandfather was area inspector for the WCML in the Beattock area, so when they were young my dad and my uncle would be allowed on the banking engines (initially Fairburn tanks then class 20s) for rides up to the summit, then back down to Beattock station again.

 

Apparently Scots Guardsman ascended Beattock bank unassisted a few years ago (or was it Royal Scot?)

[Froxfield2012]

I'm no fan of FS and think the amount most recently spent on turning it into a workable loco could have been better employed. However, much off it was stumped up specifically with that loco in mind rather than anything you or I might prefer.

 

Back in 1963, FS was saved because the only potential buyer for an A3 who had the money to buy one wanted that one. Simple as that.

 

60103 was widely regarded as a bag of nails at the time and Alan Pegler was, I understand, strongly advised to buy St. Simon which was in tip-top condition and just use the plates off Flying Scotsman on it, but FS it had to be.

 

All Class 8 engines are wasted on branch lines and high-powered locos with big wheels slip very easily on wet rails at the unnaturally low speeds they have to keep to. 

 

Horses for courses - if you want the real feel of a Pacific doing what it's designed to do, get yourself onto a main line trip.

 

John

 

Of course, as you are right to remind us, it was Alan Pegler's choice:  I remember seeing FS go through Reading (light engine) shortly after the purchase.  But it always seemed sad to me that Papyrus (the locomotive with all the proper documented evidence of the 100mph run) did not survive.  It just indicates the random nature of which engines were saved for preservation.  All steam locomotives being something of a "Trigger's Broom".

 

And I agree wholeheartedly about Class 8 locomotives and branch lines: always reminds me of tigers pacing around cages in zoos particularly when condemned to run tender first.  Which is why, I suppose, we have just got back from a trip to the WSR hauled by 60009.  I thought it ran particularly well doing what it was designed to do.  It will be sad to see it retired and passed to a museum in a year or so.