Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71 Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 Mornin' all, We spent the day at the ELR Autumn gala yesterday. Trains ran 60-90mins late throughout due to an early issue at Rawtenstall with 60007 and there were some consequent alterations to the timetable but we managed to see all that we had planned to. Here are a few clips The first scene of 60007 appears at the end due an SD card swap during the day. Our homeward journey from Bury...unfortunately in the dark...to the car at Ramsbottom was behind double headed A4s...not an everyday spectacle! Apparently this wasn't booked to stop at Ramsbottom but a mistake in the ELR's public timetable showed it to call there. One of the A4s ran round the train at that point anyway so it didn't make much difference to the limited stopping of the train. Well done to the ELR staff for keeping an often over enthusiastic crowd safe at the stations. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted October 20, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 20, 2014 A great spectacle yesterday and heaving with people while we were there. The service seemed equally chaotic on Sunday afternoon. We sat at Ramsbottom for a while waiting for a southbound train to pass us then later on were 30 minutes late from Rawtenstall, even after the freight train had been cancelled. I think that they try to run too much and what was conventional wisdom during my career says that their timetable, although it looks as if it would work in theory, is impossible to run in reality as each minor delay compounds as the day goes on. My only real gripe is the behaviour of some of the punters. My wife was walking along the platform at Bury with our grandchildren aged 4 and 2. Both were knocked over by enthusiasts barging their way through flailing cameras and rucsacs and not the slightest sign of an apology or even an acknowledgement. I hope no-one deals them some 'accidental' equipment damage when they behave like this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted October 20, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 20, 2014 A great spectacle yesterday and heaving with people while we were there. The service seemed equally chaotic on Sunday afternoon. We sat at Ramsbottom for a while waiting for a southbound train to pass us then later on were 30 minutes late from Rawtenstall, even after the freight train had been cancelled. I think that they try to run too much and what was conventional wisdom during my career says that their timetable, although it looks as if it would work in theory, is impossible to run in reality as each minor delay compounds as the day goes on. No practical experience of this one but I have noticed on other lines in the past that they seem to try and run too many trains at gala events and in some cases aren't brave enough (or flexible enough?) to cancel something in order to get things back in kilter. If you have a tight theoretical trainplan with what are, in many respects, inexperienced folk running it the odds are that whatever is likely to go wrong will go wrong and your fancy plan will start to disintegrate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Like the man says the people who organise the galas want to cram in as much as possible and you can guarantee that EVERYONE wants to come out for a play at a gala and suddenly silly mistakes start being made by people doing unfamiliar movements and then it all goes sideways from there, This is why the NYMR gala team (which I do have an input to) decided to split the Esk Valley and internal services rather than run through Whitby to Pickering services on the Friday and Saturday, this isn't an option on the Sunday because of the Northern service but we know the basic Sunday service works from experience. We also created a rolling timetable so trains slipped 5-10 minutes an hour rather than running an hourly service, it's better to have things waiting for time and space for staff to think rather than having to do things flat out all day. Although granted 60007 has been a less than reliable performer for the past 3 years or so. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerseyMan Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 Not strickly from the Gala itself, heres a couple of pictures from the "Pre-Gala" Charters. Organised and run by Richard Newton and the 3P20 Parcels group, we believe this was the first time an A4 has hauled a Parcels train since 1967. The other shot was taken at the Sheds on the Friday night, again on a 3P20 organised nightshoot. 2015 "Giants of Steam" Calendar On Sale Now. Selling out fast so order now not to be dissapointed. See http://www.aportraitofsteam.com/otheritems.html for more details Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.