Big Tin Bus » Trains

All fired up, and down.

Keith — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:34:54 +0000

We have to start by apologising to family members living on Portland for not telling them of our plans. We did not have a lot of time in Weymouth so meeting would have been difficult, sorry.

On Tuesday the 2nd August we caught a steam hauled train from Victoria to Weymouth returning to Waterloo. It was to be a treat for both of us in what is refered to as premier dining class. Left London at 08-45, bucks fiz started the day off, followed by a full English breakfast. Lunch was a plowmans, a large plowmans. The return leg, a four course silver service meal and a botle of wine. The food was excellant and served at our table for two. ( see the picture). If Keith can work out how to do it he will scan the menu and add it to the photos. Stop it. I can hear you saying that’s easy.

Whilst it is great to enjoy the dream that is steam hauled trains it is easy to forget the reality. They discharge copious amounts of black smuts. On a hot summer day sitting in non air conditioned classic first class coach you open the windows and soon everything is covered in black spots. For all that, it is a wonderful experience.

ANORAK WARNING.

Locomotives. A4 pacific Bittern masquerading as Dominion of New Zealand. Hauled the train from London to Weymouth.

Tangmere, Weymouth to London. Battle of Britain class bullied loco, built to run on southern metals hauling this type of train. It is a loco, and it’s crew with a reputation for good running. On Tuesday they both lived up to it. We assume that everything must have been right and the boys were out to play on home ground. It flew , lots of people with smiles.

Schmalspurbahan.

Keith — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:17:20 +0000

Try putting that in the spell checker. It is a railway network in the Hertz region of Germany that still extensively uses steam locomotion. One of its routes is to Brocken, a hill with extensive 360 ° views of the surrounding area, used until 1988 by the East Germans to monitor its neighbours. We decided to ride it on Sunday the 23rd of May, bad decision, it was a bank holiday weekend in Germany and it was heaving, had to stand most of the way. The six P’s apply, Poor Planning Promotes Piss Poor Performance.

On track

Keith — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:31:06 +0000

Keith speaking. I tried to resist this but, in the end I could not. Although we are in Spain we closely followed the unfolding events in the south east caused by the bad weather and the ensuing travel chaos. When talking about the tunnel and euro star in particular my comment was, “send down a steam loco, that will sort it out”.

Low and behold the big green machine, Tornado did the business. Two untroubled round trips from London to the Kent coast. It even gave a lift home to some commuters who were stuck in London. I hope they dipped in to their pockets with a donation towards the outstanding £600,000 build cost of Tornado. It would have been nice if the media had given it more cover, forgot, they only do negative.

That weekend, up and down the country preserved railways ran as scheduled. You do not have to be interested in steam railways to appreciate the pictures, the scenery is magic. Go on youtube and have a look at the videos, in particular the North Yorks moor railway, note the little boy on the station and the big boys playing with their toys.

National Railway Museum Video Clip

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:18:54 +0000

Video from The National Railway Museum at York:

From National railway Museum

This and more photos in our online gallery.

Locomotion

Keith — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:45:51 +0000

This is the northern branch of the N R M. Whilst I can understand both the reason for and location of the museum, it seems to lack something. It is as if they have built a big shed just to store locomotives and rolling stock.

Keith found the hand operated crane quite interesting. The counterweight is mounted at the rear, which is usual. However, the weight is mounted on a trolley which can be moved fore and aft by a worm and crank. Assumption is that this allowed the load to be balanced, therefore, making it easier to move the crane through its vertical axis.

Have a look at the pictures. Jan looks as is if she is saying typical, you wait for ages then several turn up at once.

Real ale and trains

Keith — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:05:45 +0000

The combination of a steam train and real ale, what could be better? An evening on the RAT, (real ale train) on the Mid Hants railway. Enjoying a combination of fire and water to provide power and create the great taste of good ale. The atmosphere on the train is friendly and makes for a relaxing evening. The first of many good journeys. Visit the website.

Tornado

admin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:50:32 +0000

Apparently some fellas up North built a new choo choo!!