Great Video - I was waiting in Kingswear for this to arrive. Thank you.

Love those bankers. I was a lad in Weymouth and steam needed bankers to get out.

A4s can’t pull skins off custard? Bollox. An A4, which may have been Silver Link,lifted a 28 coach train, unaided, out of Kings Cross and took it a considerable distance at a respectable speed. But that was at a time that steam locomotives were managed by people considerably more experienced than today. Why? Because modern crews of proper machinery, be it aeroplanes with big piston engines and propellors or locomotives whose Tractive Efforts exceed their adhesion weights, are not operating them daily, year in year out. And I wouldn’t knock the modern drivers / pilots, who do very well despite having a fraction of the experience that their grandfathers had.

@Bullhead_JW

3 жыл бұрын

The be fair the incline between Paignton and Churston is really steep, that plus the slippery rail and slow speeds really isn't what the A4s were designed to do.

@125sloth

3 жыл бұрын

Kings Cross is hardly an incline. In fact it is slightly down hill.

Sweet.

And just when I was thinking there aren't any bankings happening in the present day.

We were on it

I bet the crew of Bittern were a bit embarrassed

Thanks to Gods Wonderful Railway to get it out of trouble AGAIN

Why do they use this loco when they know it has trouble with the banks on this line?

@125sloth

3 жыл бұрын

Because they are "puffer nutters" and those nutters are not the sharpest tools in the shed. Ask any driver of regular trains, especially passenger trains on main lines. They loathe steam excursion trains. Always something going wrong to block the line.

someones got their loading calculations wrong or poor driving

@davidgriffiths7215

8 жыл бұрын

+jim mitchell If you see the earlier video the driver did an amazing job of trying to get her up the bank and only just failed. You're probably right about load calculations but A4s weren't really designed for slogging up hills.

@streamleazefishhouse

3 жыл бұрын

@@davidgriffiths7215 A Pacific from the LMS would have handled it though?

@davidgriffiths7215

3 жыл бұрын

​@@streamleazefishhouse Possibly. LMS Pacifics were designed to go up Shap and Beattock. There are gradients on the ECML but nothing to compare with the sustained slogging needed to lift a heavy train to over 1000 feet at Beattock on the WCML.

A4's are not sloggers ok when a good run up is on the go

What useless great lumps the A4s are! ... couldn't pull the skin off a bowl of custard!! Even when the train does get going it seems it is Goliath doing all the work at the back, with Bittern just doing the tooting!

@FS2K4Pilot

3 жыл бұрын

Agreed. Bittern just doesn’t sound like it’s doing any work.

@thomashambly3718

3 жыл бұрын

If you look for a video from before goliath arrived, Bittern gave a gallant effort and got the train a good way up the hill

@animaltvi9515

Жыл бұрын

Bit harsh . They weren't designed to pull up steep hills they were designed for a specific route. Which they operated very well. Don't blame a design that is being used for something it wasn't built for . The big 4 locomotives were designed specifically for the routes of their. regions.

Pathetic! Bring on the diesels!

@roberteastell6939

8 жыл бұрын

+Ecce Homo the year before they tried the same train with a diesel on the back and it still got stuck j they had to put annother steam engine on the back so just as well a steam engine was at hand this time

@davidlawler4019

8 жыл бұрын

+robert eastell Hi Robert! I will defer to your better judgement on the subject. Do you think it may be something also to do with the quality of the coal used. At one time, Welsh steaming coal was supposed to be the best in the world. This was in an age before Thatcher came along and closed down all the mines!

@roberteastell6939

8 жыл бұрын

+Ecce Homo yes i agree about the coal. but the problem was probably due to the use of an a4 on a very steep slipery hill when these locomotives were more suited to fast running on level ground

@davidlawler4019

8 жыл бұрын

Thank you Robert for your reply. Originally, didn't these locomotives operate solely from the Eastern Region(BR)? Pulling main line express passenger trains? Another Q: Did the world famous locomotive 'Mallard' belong to this class? Best wishes

@roberteastell6939

8 жыл бұрын

+Ecce Homo yes you are quite correct on both counts