Flying Scotsman Paddington to Salisbury - 28/5/2016

According to uksteam.info the lunchtime Surrey Hills trip on the 1st June has been cancelled because the route is unavailable.

 

Look at UKsteam again and you will see that it is the original trip to Oxford that has been cancelled and has been replaced by the Surrey Hills Circular.

 

You're right! I missed the word 'twice' on the other entry for the 1st June. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

The media seemed to have picked up on it pretty late, by accident or design, and reports didn't start to appear in and on the local media till it was well under way. Crowds were building as the tour progressed, Reigate being well populated.

 

Here's the summary of special speed restrictions for the A3 tomorrow, sorry it's a bit late!
Paddington to Reading & vv RELIEF lines restricted at most station platforms, mostly 30 mph, these were avoided last week by running Main line both ways.
MAIN line restrictions:
Hayes UM 30
West Drayton DM 30 UM 30
Slough UM 15
Maidenhead DM30 UM30
Twyford UM30

Remainder of route:
Pewsey Down 15
Dean Up (eastbound) 30
Dunbridge Up 15
Grateley Up 30
Overton Up 30

The reason it has to go down the B&H and up the SW is it's banned through Thatcham up platform, where the A1 and MN were restricted to 30.
Does anyone know what the particular problem is with the A3 making it worse than anything else for platform clearances.

 

Thanks. It was stated in another thread that it is wider where the cab, with dimensions given for it and other locos.

 

very handy, thanks

 

Through Twyford on time on the down relief having slowed to its 30mph platform clearance speed limit and then accelerating away towards Reading. Not as many out as last Saturday, but still a good showing.

 

Through Berkshire with a smell of dieselhttp
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60103 races away from Theale in hazy conditions this morning. I went for Black and White again as the sun went in: (Low res image uploaded)

Video to follow later.
There were a lot of people about again in the Theale area. We had to abandon our original intended location as we found the road had been shut this morning so we couldn't get to the spot
So we hastily headed off to the other side of the railway depot at Theale to a location we found last week. While we were getting set up some guys from the depot chatted to us through the fence and asked what was coming. As soon as we said "Flying Scotsman" their faces broke into smiles and they said "that will brighten our day up!". I guess they viewed her passing by from the depot yard.

 

Flying Scotsman was allowed to run straight through Westbury in front of a late running unit and was therefore 5 mins early at the summit of the climb at Upton Scudamore. It was going well. It appeared that the diesel at the rear was just taking its' own weight with the A3 doing all the work. A very noisy A3. Well done WCRC. <BJ>

 

And for a video of the climb...

 

Super sound track.

 

It would be interesting to see a comparison between the 2 trips' times up the bank as they both seemed to top it at similar speeds.

Sent from my E6553 using Tapatalk

 

Indeed, fully 10 minutes early at Wylye, it caught me (and others) with 'us pants down. Not the shot I intended, but at least I got something in the can.



My thoughts and sympathies are are with the lemmings stuck in the annual and predictable (double whammy Bank holiday and half term) Stonehenge A303 jam. (it had built up by 08:00) so I bypassed it, and even on the "up" it was bad, so I bypassed it again.

 

The authorities hysteria seems to be abating a bit. I filmed at a user worked private crossing (on the correct side), and I had another crossing in my sight. Apart from the police helicopter doing a recce of the route shortly before FS came along, there was no presence by any in authority. (tho I think the bloke in the middle of a farmers field got his picture snapped by the fuzz).

 

In fine form passing Crofton this morning. Back up to the usual number of spectators, as opposed to last week. Haven't seen it that busy for a while!

 

I was at Crofton as well - although the sunshine was very diffuse it was WAY better light than last week !!

Scotsman at Crofton Take 2 by Stephen Dance, on Flickr

Scotsman at Crofton Take 3 by Stephen Dance, on Flickr