Spitfires "The Prisoner", May 29th

[Dreadnought]

Dreadnought, not sure if you are in a position to get the 05:57 Crewe-Preston, arrives 06:37. You'll get 50 miles of West Coast 37s. A bit measley, but I'm determined to scratch off 685 having made the effort to travel over for it.

No as would mean leaving home at 4am :eek:and as there are 4 of us going would mean 3am starts for some, and with it now being Friday afternoon far, far too late to even think about changing all the plans.

That was the idea of getting on at Crewe, could leave home at a reasonable hour and still enjoy all the traction booked for the tour, yet it leaves a sour taste in the mouth that at no fault of Spitfire I feel "ripped off" that Network Rail can screw up yet another tour this year after the farce on the Cumbrian Crusader 2 ands its changed route.
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Yes its been confirmed by spitfire over on WNXX, apparently the website has been updated but it doesn't appear to have been from this end...

Spitfire website now updated, calls it a "Slight Alteration", and the train now gets to Pwllheli at 14:30 rather than 14:15 due to presumably waiting at Porthmadog for the Arriva Train Wales 13:42 departure from Pwllheli.

Checking the Arriva timetables I have spotted another issue, on the return leg the tour is due to depart Porthmadog at 16:35 yet the Arriva unit to Pwllheli isn't due there until 16:44 so will have to wait time again.

Presumably as there are no other changes to times the "11th hour Network Rail issues with Train Planning" mentioned on the Spitfire website must be in the Shrewsbury area!
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Despite my frustration on Friday after the late changes to this tour thoroughly enjoyed it, just a shame the weather didn't play ball! Mostly had rain or low cloud throughout the whole time with only occasional sunny breaks (but not whilst in Pwllheli ).

Very disappointing for all concerned that 37685 had failed on the ECS, so never even saw it working! 37069 & 37218 performed well throughout and it was rather ironic that Network Rail had managed to have 97302, 97303 & 97304 all at Coleham depot for us to pass on the tour :roll:

Looks like the issue was the return times for the tour as we had to wait 10 minutes at Porthmadog and another 25 at Barmouth so the ATW units could pass us and presumably pathing difficulties from Shrewsbury onwards.

 

[Drimnagh Road]

Just doing up my moves for yesterday, disappointing to not get 685 in the book, especially since it was at the head of the train for 50 miles albeit dead.

Never knew it was possible to have a dead loco on the front, tell me this, was 218 actually powering between Preston and Crewe or was it just on idle and 706 doing the work? Need to know wheter to count 218 for mileage from the Preston-Crewe leg.

cheers

 

[Chester025]

Just doing up my moves for yesterday, disappointing to not get 685 in the book, especially since it was at the head of the train for 50 miles albeit dead.

Never knew it was possible to have a dead loco on the front, tell me this, was 218 actually powering between Preston and Crewe or was it just on idle and 706 doing the work? Need to know wheter to count 218 for mileage from the Preston-Crewe leg.

cheers

218 & 706 both powered, well they did from Warrington.

 

[43034 The Black Horse]

Some phots of yesterday's Spitfire tour:
http://scotts-gallery.co.uk/290510.html
Comments welcomed.
Cheers.

 

[Jordy]

Nice shots, the queue for the door shot at Pwllheli was quite amusing!

 

[37412]

Just doing up my moves for yesterday, disappointing to not get 685 in the book, especially since it was at the head of the train for 50 miles albeit dead.

Never knew it was possible to have a dead loco on the front, tell me this, was 218 actually powering between Preston and Crewe or was it just on idle and 706 doing the work? Need to know wheter to count 218 for mileage from the Preston-Crewe leg.

cheers

Both powered Preston - Crewe being driven in tandem. Yep you can drive a pair of locos in multi even if the front one is dead providing the batteries are good enough.

 

[43034 The Black Horse]

Nice shots, the queue for the door shot at Pwllheli was quite amusing!

Thanks. Yes it was good. Got there in time before they reversed out. Some people weren't so lucky