Shepherd Neame "Spitfire" 6th September with 34067

Just got back from watching her near Tonbridge about five minutes early making a nice turn of speed and wonderful sound, video should be up by tomorrow night.

 

A good day out and an excellent run from Tangmere and her crew. Max speed I recorded was 77mph. We were running early at various points during the day. Hop Festival was packed and weather stayed fine-ish.
A couple of downsides were being right at the back in a carriage with a deafining wheel flat. There were others on other carriages too. The dreaded things are coming back again and it wasn't just enthusiasts complaining. Also witnessed a couple of arguments on the train about seating arrangements for the trip to Sheerness on sea. Some people had booked the run from London and thought that the trip to Sheerness was automatically included in the ticket so they refused to move when people boarded for the trip to Sheerness. I bet they wished they had read the booking details correctly now!

 

60163 Tornado stopped at Swanley on 15th August this year.

Great trip to the Hop Festival. Also saw an argument in our coach on the Sheerness part. Shepherd Neame had put four people into 2 seats but luckily there was 2 empty seats so they got their trip

 

One thing I forgot to mention was that 60163 was residing at Hither Green when we went past yesterday. A pleasant surprise for those who managed to spot her.

 

The Cath Ex with Tornado was strange that it stopped at a small station like Edenbridge but if anyone got there they couldn't get back because of the route change. The same went for Tonbridge. Anyway having ridden behind Tangmere before a couple of years ago and went over the Devon banks I know how great she really is.

 

video on youtube at... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7or78pRpWVY

Thanks for the comments. I completely missed the scheduling of Tornado coming through here instead of the planned route which was a shame. A guy at Swanley told me about it yesterday which is why I phrased my comment on youtube as I did - 'the fiirst steam train to be scheduled to stop and pick up passengers at Swanley since the end of steam'. Tornado was just dropping people off I guess?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRnrGA_2U58

Enjoy!

 

Coaches were provided from Swanley to take passengers back to Edenbridge, Tonbridge, Redhill and East Croydon.

 

Yes, passengers were only dropped off at Swanley.

 

Looked good and sounded great! Gave you a five!!

 

Thanks Mike!

 

I too was in the back carriage, in fact I was in one of the four seats furthest from the loco! Suppose on every tour there must be 4 people so far back, but sod's law that it would be me on a tour on which I had decided to sit and not 'window hang'. I really couldn't fathom why I had to change coaches for the mini-tour when I had booked both at the same time..?

As ever, a good performance from Tangmere (was very well turned out as well), but I expected that any way (and yes I am still going to be upset that it wasn't Cromwell)

 

I was on this too and thought it was brilliant. I also witnessed an arguement about seating arrangements. Some guy in my coach (E), was booked only on the London Bridge-Faversham & Faversham-London Bridge main tour legs, yet did the shuttle trip out to Sheerness.

A few photos, if anyone's interested, can be found @ http://craigrailpics.fotopic.net/c1751872.html
And a video @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBdsL6OrdE0&feature=channel_page

 

Just updated my web site.

Photos now @ http://www.germansteam.info/2009/2009-17/2009-17.html

Cannot get that URL accepted as a valid file type. Any ideas please?

 

It works with "url" and "/url" inside square brackets at the beginning and end of the address, like this:

"Photos now @ http://www.germansteam.info/2009/2009-17/2009-17.html"

The BB software probably isn't sure whether it's a URL or not because of the "@" and the hyphens in the string.

 

Thanks for that.

Rather a basic thing to do!