The Bristol Railway Archive

Have been browsing on You Tube, not sure if the video of 46201 leaving Bristol was made by another poster/contributor on this site, but I would imagine that some others might like it.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj_kokZLixg

James wrote:

carpetcone wrote:The train was on time when it arrived at Exeter on the return leg. It was watered, then we sat there.....later an announcement was made that the traction inspector would not allow the engine to return to Bristol unassisted. The the various rumours then went round, poor coal, poor firebox, wet rails....I'm sure some one will know the correct reason.

A very credible source reported that there was nothing wrong with loco or coal.

The latest news seems to be (i.e. authenticity yet to be verified) that the newly-qualified EWS fireman had never fired a wide-firebox locomotive before and couldn't cope.

Should have had an extra Weetabix....

I did think the poor coal rumor was quite harsh as all the sources appear to be pointing at Dartmouth which after all is a bit difficult to pin point blame after all what coal and where it came from is a bit hard to prove.

At the end of the day it ran which is better than the other scheduled services that haven't so far this year.

before some of you blow a gasket, I can assure you that the video clip on You Tube "Lizzie takes a lashing" only shows 6201 running in Devon.

At the end of the day it ran which is better than the other scheduled services that haven't so far this year.[/quote]

That depends on whether you paid the úcash for the trip only to be shoved and pulled by a Diesel when it was billed as steam hauled excursion. Cancelled trips usually result in a refund.....even if it takes ages to actually get one as per a well known tour operator. There won't be any refund or compensation as far as this one goes.

If the paying travellers don't get what they are paying for, then in the future there won't be anything for everyone else to watch and photograph!

If the reason it failed was down to firemans (lack of) experience then heads should hang in shame.

Steve

Where was the loco inspector ? it is his duty to show or assist a fireman when he is in difficulty.You cannot by any strengh of the imagination expect a novice with little or no knowledge of a locomotive of that size, it took years of hard work to get the best out of express loco"s I speak from my own experiece.

Apparently EWS reported that the fire was "clinkered-up".

Looks like the finger pointing has began...

Did any one see it leave this morning?

Rich_Eason wrote:I did think the poor coal rumor was quite harsh as all the sources appear to be pointing at Dartmouth which after all is a bit difficult to pin point blame after all what coal and where it came from is a bit hard to prove.

Lizzie was not coaled on or by the P&DSR.

mow wrote:Did any one see it leave this morning?

No but i heard the diesel hauled go by at a fair lick and back up again at night!! what was hauling 67 or 57?

mow wrote:Did any one see it leave this morning?

Odd that, but my office is on Temple Quay and I have a perfect view of the lines coming into BTM from the East. We saw Princess Elizabeth eventually back into the station at about 9.14 and there were several of us watching from the windows. However, none of us saw it leaving which was rather odd as I can't believe we all nipped out to the loo at exactly the same time and we all missed it ! It was due back out within about 5 minutes of arrival as I recall but what happened I don't know...

stationcat wrote:Apparently EWS reported that the fire was "clinkered-up".

Ah, the old problem of clinker. A problem that causes havoc with me !!!

I would have thought that during the standing at Kingswear some of the clinker could have been removed any way thats what we old firemen had to do when the fire was dirty or if one had bad coal to fire with Ah!those were the days like when the fire was so dirty it went out and then it was get a tow This happened quite alot at Westerleigh waiting to get to Stoke Gifford yard.AMEN!

The lost art of firing a boiler. I have a solid fuelled (coal) Rayburn, learning how to keep it going efficiently took a while. Let it stand with a low fire for a while and clinker collects. Yes the coal can make a difference, but generally one learns how to cope with different coals with different firing techniques.
I am sure that tugboat would agree with this.
Clinker is when the ashes gather in the bottom of the fire, melt and then solidify when the fire cools a little or when to much ash builds up and insulates the melted ash.
As tugboat says after sitting at Kingswear i would of thought that it would of been routine to shake out the clinker. If you don't you ain't going to get the fire going very well with clinker in the bottom, it takes one hell of a fire to remelt it and get it to fall through, if you can at all. Your fire and draught area is also greatly reduced. Basically dead horses and whipping come to mind, but thats another story.

Having seen the size of the guys arms at the NRM who spent his life as a fireman credit where credit is due.

I cant see how anyone today (even with limited firing experience) could fire a loco efficiently over the distances that were undertaken on Saturday + the climbs.

The clinker issue whose to blame??? Should we be blaming? Lack of experience perhaps...