KWVR Santa Specials 03/12

[cksteam]

http://chriskempster.zenfolio.com/p499597072

The second weekend of Santa Specials at the famous Worth Valley branch with 4F 43924 taking the limelight.

 

[YorkshireBear]

I saw these from the Keighley and worth valley facebook page. Nice work i did also like the link you posted to it too.
4F certainly performed well. Although the 25 was putting in a fair amount of effort at the back. Especially climbing out of oakworth (where i was working)

 

[cksteam]

I saw these from the Keighley and worth valley facebook page. Nice work i did also like the link you posted to it too.
4F certainly performed well. Although the 25 was putting in a fair amount of effort at the back. Especially climbing out of oakworth (where i was working)

I must admit that unfortunately you are right. The 25 was louder than the 4F at times out of Haworth. I'm not sure of my opinion of banking to be honest. On one hand i think its a shame to take away from the steam experience, on the other its halves the cost compared to last year when they had to double head. Anyway to make it cheaper to run but still offer the same experience to kids who don't know any better must surely be worth it, but then there's the rest of us who are old enough to notice.

In an ideal world the WD 90733 would have been available enabling some of the other engines a bit of respite.

Thanks for hitting that like button. Glad you enjoyed the shots!

 

[YorkshireBear]

Well it isnt soley due to costs. As you are probably aware our fleet are pretty low at moment. We have the 4F and the standard 4 tank. So that is another reason, the other loco is prepared in the yard ready for if anything goes wrong with the other loco.

Last year we had troubles anyway with not being able to take on water at all for 3 weeks so we had double heading with diesel and steam, with steam doing nothing but provide heat, also removing turn around time.

 

[cksteam]

This railway certainly has proved resilient over the years. I remember seeing a video from last year with a fire built around the bottom of the water tower at Oxenhope trying to thaw it.

I wouldn't say the fleet is fareing as badly as it might be. Whilst the WD has been out for a while, 80002 and 43924 are in regular steam. I believe 41241 is available (although you may know better). 957 has been stopped for Winter maintenance and the coal tank is on test.

If you look around the country many fleets are far more depleted than this. Most only have a couple of engines available now with the rest stopped till next season. Even some of the longer railways only have 3 with a much higher mileage to cover.

The team at Haworth MPD should be proud that they have been able to keep such a fleet running, while at the same time pushing forward on overhauls. To be able to bring in two more engines this year whilst carrying out serious repairs on another and maintaining the working fleet has been fantastic.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Does anyone know what is running this Sunday, might be tempted down to get some photos, particularly if there is a little snow underfoot.

 

[cksteam]

Does anyone know what is running this Sunday, might be tempted down to get some photos, particularly if there is a little snow underfoot.

Can't say for certain but will be either one of Std 4 tank 80002 or 4F 43924. Theres not much snow left now, unless more comes.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Is the 25 likely to be running as well?

Rumours of a little snow over the weekend.

 

[cksteam]

Yeah the 25 will be on the back. Seems to be the prefered choice this year. DMU will be running as well if you need to get up and down the line.

 

[4SRKT]

I'm planning to come down for a go on the unit on Saturday. Will be nice to see and phot the Santa train, which I'm hoping will be 43924 (looking forward to hearing the rat working hard too). Doubtless there will be some self-righteous clown somewhere on this forum who will call me a freeloader for taking a photo of a train that I'm not riding on. This has happened before.

 

[YorkshireBear]

I'm planning to come down for a go on the unit on Saturday. Will be nice to see and phot the Santa train, which I'm hoping will be 43924 (looking forward to hearing the rat working hard too). Doubtless there will be some self-righteous clown somewhere on this forum who will call me a freeloader for taking a photo of a train that I'm not riding on. This has happened before.

Yeah but your paying to ride the unit... :/

It was 43924 last weekend, so it might be 80002 this weekend. But 80002 is in worse condition so it could be 43924 again who knows! The rat certainly works hard, it almost pushes the train up the hill especially out of oakworth as we have a speed restriction on the turnout there, so it has to work hard up to oakworth especially seen as it will be wet!

Enjoy your ride on the unit it is rolling quite spectacularly over our joints at the moment sit in the carrige at the oxenhope end as the keighley end carrige was putting fumes in the carrige last weekend not sure if it has been fixed.