WITH FULL REGULATOR LOCOMOTIVE PERFORMANCE THEN AND NOW
I DON’T like the long, dark days of winter and so avoid anything which means timing in the dark for any length of time. Many charters are timed not to return until very late, which even if they are in the south sometimes means a struggle to get home at all on the same day. I was therefore very pleased to see that UK Railtours was running a short day circular trip on November 24, with No. 35028 Clan Line,‘The Chiltern and Downs’. This trip was bound to be popular and so I booked early in common with a small group of other exiles from the real days of steam. We arrived at Paddington over five minutes early on one of the Great Western Railway’s new Class 800 IET trains, which gave me my fastest ever time up from Reading in 22 minutes nine seconds – very impressive. We then convened for breakfast in the station’s Mad Bishop and Bear bar, before joining our charter in platform 9.
Heavy load on a damp day
The very helpful people in the office at UKR had kindly put us group of ‘old timers’together in the end passenger coach, as requested, but of course they don’t know which end of the train it will be. Unfortunately, we were at the back of what proved to be 13 carriages, including the generator and support coaches. This weighed in at 469 tons tare and as it was full, about 505 tons gross, a substantial load
