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Steam Dreams 2021

Discussion in 'What's Going On' started by Gladiator 5076, Oct 28, 2020.

  1. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

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    Glad someone is more philosophical about the problems and the way in which they were sorted on the hoof.
     
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  2. LMarsh1987

    LMarsh1987 Part of the furniture Friend

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    Here is my take on proceedings.

     
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  3. 6026 King John

    6026 King John Well-Known Member

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    It's much more fun saying what should and shouldn't happen from my sofa here in Surrey!

    Strikes me as a rather strange trip from the start though - a steam train trip to Wales that features no steam in Wales (apart from the Marches)!
     
  4. eggbert

    eggbert Member

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    Kemble & Gloucester footage
     
  5. Sam 60103

    Sam 60103 Member

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    Are the Scotsman tours later this month off? No trace on Steam Dreams website?
     
  6. Frankie Hutchings

    Frankie Hutchings New Member

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    61306 Mayflower and 45596 Bahamas seen leaving Shrewsbury 908220D1-63BB-4177-8AC5-477881248630_1_201_a.jpeg 9AF1FC04-08B6-490D-9A00-BAADA39DD5A5_1_201_a.jpeg
     
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  7. GBoreham

    GBoreham Member

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    Footage of 61306 doing all the work up the grade from Wrenbury, along with a shot of the diesel leg at Waverton.

     
  8. David likes trains

    David likes trains Member

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  9. 3ABescot

    3ABescot Member

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    My effort of today's Hereford - Paddington leg of the Welsh Special. Crossing the River Wye, leaving Hereford.
     

    Attached Files:

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  10. 6026 King John

    6026 King John Well-Known Member

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    Delayed by around 30 mins at Gloucester. Any ideas why?
     
  11. green five

    green five Resident of Nat Pres

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    Now over an hour late.

    Sent from my I3312 using Tapatalk
     
  12. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    What a marathon and it was supposed to be an enjoyable rail holiday. It really is about time that operators started to get real over timings.

    I realise that there are always difficulties in getting a steam charter to fit into a busy network. That means, inevitably, that sometimes there have to be early starts or late finishes. But why on earth even think about planning for a train to return right at the end of the day when the rest of the network is running down and onward travel home might be on the edge?

    So the Welsh Dragon was booked to return into Paddington after 11 pm with no time allowed for eventualities. Something goes wrong - I guess someone will tell us at some point. It looks as though other trains were in difficulty as well. No doubt it was unavoidable and I'm sure everyone worked hard to get the trip back. But the fact remains that arrival back in Paddington was at 00:16 according to RTT. It also took nearly AN HOUR to get from Reading to London that's less than 40 miles. But even so, dropping people off at Reading with the possibility of folk getting a faster service into London still meant that it was a late arrival with last onward transport having already gone.

    This is not me having a go at either Steam Dreams, WCRC or the loco owners. It just illustrates what can happen through no fault of anyone. I feel sorry for the travellers and also all the on board staff and helpers who had to find their own way home at silly o'clock.

    There is a solution. Just don't bring any charter back after 10 pm, say. If it's not possible to do that then forget about running the trip in the first place. Just think of the occasions when a delayed charter has been hit by line closures through engineering works. It's madness and avoidable, in my opinion.

    No, I wasn't on it but I have been on enough that have fallen foul of such issues to know that it's no fun and it should stop.
     
  13. Bifur01

    Bifur01 Member

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    Here’s my video of the pair running along the Severn Estuary at Gatcombe and departing Gloucester in the dark

     
  14. jsm8b

    jsm8b Part of the furniture

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    A couple of views from Shropshire of Day 5 as the temperature rose to 29 degrees for the second day in a row.
    Looking across the county to the Wrekin, some occupants of the third coach appear uninterested in the imminent views of the Long Mynd. And passing the 1873 signal box at Bromfield level crossing.

    When did a B1 last haul a train on the North and west I wonder ?


    21D_1134 61306 & 45596  Leebotwood 080921.jpg 21D_1144 61306 & 45596 Bromfeld crossing 080921.jpg
     
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  15. 6026 King John

    6026 King John Well-Known Member

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    Quite agree - it's bad enough for a one-day trip when this happens but when it's the end of an extended trip such as this one and the passengers have been on the move since 10am (albeit with a couple of hours break at Hereford) it's the last thing you want. It would really take the gloss off the trip for me. I wonder how the passengers felt about it - the enthusiast community are generally fairly understanding about these things and will always come back for more. But for non-enthusiasts how many will say "never again"?

    Would be interested to know what happened if anyone knows. Looks like things started to go wrong at Gloucester and got worse after that, with the Milton Jct water stop taking over an hour.
     
  16. Paul42

    Paul42 Part of the furniture

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    When they ran one of these before, I though the return was via Birmingham and the Chiltern Line, instead of the Marches.

    The return was advertised as Bahamas only. Did they take water at Gloucester? It so the issue might have been watering 2 locos.
     
  17. Michelliss

    Michelliss New Member

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    An audio record of the event from Sapperton, with some interesting slow shutter speed effects!!
     
  18. mrKnowwun

    mrKnowwun Part of the furniture

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    With the promise of two steam tours returning up the GW main line within 12 minutes of each other, it was a shot that promised much. It would be dark of course, one up the Main, one up the Relief, would need to be after Slough to get them as close together, the line now being a bitch to film with OHLE and ML platforms with suicide barriers. Iver was chosen because of its good lights and the ability to lean over the barrier..

    Of course it all went to Rat Poo with the Welsh Dragon sliding backwards faster than an Italian advance. Anyway 46100 came sliding through, clearly doing nothing more than lubricating its cylinders. Then Tango men turned up to rip up the platform with a petrol saw, and the TFL supervisor warned me I would be kicked off the station in 15 minutes.
    And then the dragon, by now over an hour late, got lost after Slough. Due on the ML, it suddenly occurred to me that nothing had gone up that road in nearly an hour, and there might well be a block on it dawned on me it might well have switched, and grabbed the camera from its set up to move. And then this happened. Possibly the most visually dramatic night shot I have ever taken.

     
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  19. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

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    Fascinating video and sound. Thanks for making the effort. So two locomotives plus a diesel were all needed to get it up at roughly the same speed as charters normally climb Sapperton. That, in itself is also interesting.
     
  20. 6026 King John

    6026 King John Well-Known Member

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    Originally advertised as Bahamas only but it was decided a while ago that it would be double-headed.

    Must have taken water at Gloucester as it hadn't had a drink since Hereford. There was a stop scheduled for just before Severn Tunnel Jct but as the train was running late it was missed out. May have been a pathing rather than a water stop.
     

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