Flying Scotsman Inaugural Run

[giner]

Some nice shots here. Shame about the usual overhead spaghetti:
http://www.thecomet.net/home/motors/you ... _1_4433327

[S.A.C. Martin]

Well, I was on the train, and despite the incident at St Neots, it was a truly brilliant trip. For me, none of the magic was taken away from the day by anything which was perceived to have gone wrong.

I met Michael Portillo, a true gentleman in every sense of the word, at King's Cross early doors. Shortly afterwards I met Sir William McAlpine, who shared a heart rendering moment with me when he said "I only wish Alan was here to enjoy the day with us". Alan being Alan Pegler of course. I was very choked up by that - the locomotive did of course pass the large brick chimney with "Peglers" still written on it on its journey north to York.

I was in coach G and shared my compartment with a delightful group of fellow enthusiasts. The trip was fascinating, as the life experiences of my fellow passengers was something to behold. An ex-King's Cross driver, no less, a Nat Pres stalwart doing timekeeping (and seeing the speeds come up on the iPad as we travelled northwards was great fun!) and a designer who worked on the McClaren P1 too, together with a very knowledgeable Electrician and fellow Scotsman enthusiast.

The weather was perfect throughout (perhaps a little overcast on arrival at York) and the locomotive performed beautifully. High 70s were definitely recorded and she just went on and on. The catering staff were fantastic, and the food and drink plentiful and tasty, as you'd expect! Champagne drunk at half eight in the morning. Such a pleasure cannot be understated!

On arrival at York, there was time for a buffet lunch, courtesy of the wonderful people of the National Railway Museum, and time to spend around the museum, taking in the sights and sounds of the exhibits before retiring to the North Yard to see her arrive. The speeches by Mr Kirkman and the head of the heritage lottery fund were thought provoking and enjoyable, and being able to get up close to the people's engine and take photographs and converse with other members of the general public was wonderful. A very human and very memorable experience.

I was later on in the day interviewed by Dominic King for BBC Radio Kent, and you can listen to it here from 1:35 hours in: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03j0jcz

Overall, it was just one of the best experiences of my life. Thanks - big thanks - to everyone involved in bringing the legend back to steam. Thanks to the National Railway Museum for buying her, and persevering. Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the donations to help the project along. To everyone, like myself, who donated sums of money to the locomotive for her purchase and restoration. Thanks to the A1 Trust for the loan of Tornado's support coach at the last minute. Thanks to Heritage Painting for the superb finish which looked the business. And of course - the man of the decade - Ian Riley and his team for bringing her back to life.

You made this young man very happy, remembering times spent with his late grandfather and his father watching this locomotive go by in days past, and remembering that very first childhood memory of steam, a dark green steam engine, with 60103 on the cab sides, pulling a train through the valleys of Wales.

[madgewildfire60135]

The A3 made an unplanned stop in the loop at Claypole due to the late running. Here is she gathering speed after departing the loop.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10257146@ ... ateposted/

Then taken the previous day with the light engine move seen here soon after departing the loop at Calrton on Trent

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10257146@ ... ateposted/

Thanks,Simon

[Hermit 109]

Just got my scanner working again. Scotsman in 1969 taking water at Clarence Yard. No horrible black painted buffers !

[ROY@34F]

[quote="S.A.C. Martin"]Well, I was on the train, and despite the incident at St Neots, it was a truly brilliant trip. For me, none of the magic was taken away from the day by anything which was perceived to have gone wrong.shared a heart rendering moment with me when he said "I only wish Alan was here to enjoy the day with us". Alan being Alan Pegler of course. I was very choked up by that - the locomotive did of course pass the large brick chimney with "Peglers" still written on it on its journey north to York.

I was in coach G and shared my compartment with a delightful group of fellow enthusiasts. The trip was fascinating, as the life experiences of my fellow passengers was something to behold. An ex-King's Cross driver, no less,..............




A lovely heart rending description that , S.A.C. The driver you refer to must be Ron Kennedy . I fondly remember Ron . I fired for him sometimes while on my 2 years on loan to KX Top shed '59 & '60 . A lovely chap , always a laugh , a pleasure to work with , and it was wonderful to see him on the news clips .
Thanks for your post . Took me back a bit to those last golden days of steam .

Regards , Roy .

[Mickey]

Scotsman in 1969 taking water at Clarence Yard.

Thats how i remember my first experience of 4472 on a school trip to York from Welwyn Garden City station (the train had originated from Kings Cross of course) in August 1969 and i still can remember the excitment of that day Alan Pegler was on the footplate as she rolled into WGC station.

4472 made a number of main line runs around 1968-69 and apart from the 40th Anniversary non-stop run from Kings Cross-Edinburgh in May 1968 and the school trip to York i was on in August 1969 i remember seeing her on about 2 or 3 other occasions heading through Welwyn Garden City station on the Down fast line heading northwards and atleast on one occasion i remember seeing her come Up road with her train through WGC heading south towards Kings Cross which i believe was on a Sunday dinner time i vaguely recall, i remember seeing the clouds of white smoke way back at Digswell as she came tearing Up the fast line through 'Garden City' total magic!!.

Mickey

[S.A.C. Martin]

Hi Roy, I will check the name of the good gentlemen I spoke with but I believe he's one of the Deltic era drivers. He was exceptional - great humour and great knowledge.

I don't believe I met Ron Kennedy, and that's a shame as I have heard he's quite the character and knowledgable to match. A missed opportunity if so.

[ROY@34F]

S.A.C.,
That could still be Ron as he was only a young passed fireman when I knew him , as I was also only a young spare fireman . And he would have graduated to the deltics I'm sure , as well as driving steam engines around 1958 and onwards .

Roy.

[1H was 2E]

I should make clear that my post that the National Collection used to obsess about original condition was not something I agreed with, rather the reverse. When I first went to Clapham Museum (actually on a school visit before it opened officially) I could find no connection between the immaculate locos. from Down South in a high gloss complicated livery and the endangered freight locos earning a good living which I knew and loved. I personally am very pleased that locos are now being restored to late '50s and 60's condition.
I wonder whether the German smoke deflectors are a safety issue because of concerns about smoke beating down and obscuring signals - has someone been reading Mr Townsend's (?) book? (the one that says it was a problem for years, and the 'troughs' were totally ineffective, but made the unions think management were doing something.)
I'm intrigued, listening to and reading the "Meedja", about the number of people recollecting that they went specifically to see the (often at locations not on the ECML)/Grand-dad or other relative drove the/knew someone who knew something trivial about the/ "Flying Scotsman". There may be some confusion between locomotive and train...

[richard]

My understanding is that the deflectors are meant to have solved the smoke coming down. My understanding is that barring the A4s and P2s, they were just about the only deflectors that were found to work - but I don't have a reference off hand (half remembered from the RCTS probably). The LNER did have experiments in the 1930s. Considering these experiments never left to anything, one assumes they must not have worked.

Of course if they were the only ones that worked, one wonders why the "British style" 'full height' deflectors were preferred on the Duchesses, Peppercorn Pacifics, and more powerful Standards?

re. Flying Scotman drivers and relatives: We get those queries here and on other forums. It is understandable. A lot is half remembered, confusion between the train the locomotive is common (and not helped by the LNER, BR, etc publicity departments). Being half remembered, "Royal Scot" (for example) could easily become "Flying Scotsman", and vice versa.

[S.A.C. Martin]

My understanding is that the deflectors are meant to have solved the smoke coming down. My understanding is that barring the A4s and P2s, they were just about the only deflectors that were found to work - but I don't have a reference off hand (half remembered from the RCTS probably). The LNER did have experiments in the 1930s. Considering these experiments never left to anything, one assumes they must not have worked.

Of course if they were the only ones that worked, one wonders why the "British style" 'full height' deflectors were preferred on the Duchesses, Peppercorn Pacifics, and more powerful Standards?

On Humorist a set of small wing deflectors and a stovepipe chimney were tried, with varying degress of success. These replaced a lipped chimney in the style that all later A3s would receive that had been originally fitted. In 1946 Humorist was fitted with what have been described as Peppercorn style deflectors, but in reality these were fitted during Thompson's tenure.

I cannot find any evidence to suggest that Thompson himself was involved with the fitting of Humorists', though I must point to the experiments with the deflectors on classes A2/2, A2/1, A2/3 and A1/1 for examples of Thompson's experimentation with smoke deflectors. The full length A2/3 ones were reportedly the best of those classes, with the slanted A1/1 ones close after.

Nothing beats the Bugatti front end for smoke deflection, and class A1/1 was reputed to have been designed with this in mind originally, but the board would not authorise this modification, hence the front end which eventually emerged.

Given its clear success, one wonders why the LNER didn't authorise its fitting to all of the Pacifics, from classes A10, A3 and the A2 sub classes to the Peppercorn machines which followed. It didn't require full streamlining as proven with the P2s to some extent, and was mostly just casing. Perhaps cost was the biggest factor in that design.

[greenglade]

evening guys..

for those not aware the BBC program covering this run was shown last night on BBC Yorkshire&Lincolnshire and is repeated again tonight on BBC4 at 8:30pm...or you could watch it now on iplayer....link: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b073c7r0

enjoy

Pete