Photo runpasts on the mainline?

[EltonRoad]

These used to happen on some charters, I believe, including steam on the S&C. What stops them from happening now? Is it health and safety, or the privatised regime, or are lines just too busy these days? When was the last one? Cheers for any info.

 

[eMeS]

The few steam charters that I've been on, have attracted many trackside photographers and videographers, as well as others just giving us a wave as we went by. Some have stationed themselves in the adjoining fields, others on station platforms along the route. Many more at watering points. The last one I travelled on was August 2011 - the North Wales Coast Express, from Liverpool Lime Street to Holyhead & return.

(Or were you looking for something else? More organised perhaps?)

 

[matt]

A few years ago on steam tours the passengers would get off at a station, the loco would reverse and then pass the station to allow for photos etc

 

[EltonRoad]

From what I've heard passengers could get off and the steam train would reverse out of the station and do a runpast, then reverse back, for the benefit of photos. At other times it may just reverse out of the station and come back in.

This happened on the final InterCity service to Shrewsbury in 1992 I recall. The train was a 47-hauled rake of mark IIs and a DVT. After depositing the passengers it reversed out past Severn Bridge Jn box and came back in - twice as far as I remember! Specifically for photos.

Anyone know about this happening on steam tours?

 

[blackfive460]

Yes indeed, back in the happy days of Bernard Staite's Cumbrian Mountain Expresses in the 80's we usually had runs past at Wennington and Appleby as a minimum. Armathwaite, Garsdale and Clapham (Yorks) were also included if time permitted.
We had them over Ribblehead Viaduct a couple of times too.
Then there was the first charter on the West Highland Extension where we all bailed out onto the lineside just off Glenfinnan Viaduct and had a couple of runs past there. Can't imagine doing that now.
A combination of H&S, pathing and the marked lack of 'enthusiasts' on steam charters these days was what finished it and, no doubt, and 'it's easier not to bother' attitude.
Let's face it, there aren't even photo stops on most steam tours these days.
I'm glad I did lots back in the 80's when tours were run by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts - I wouldn't fancy being a regular now...

 

[sprinterguy]

I’m sure that it’s happened in the last couple of years at Rannoch.

 

[455driver]

Probably there isnt the line capacity for the charter to take up possibly 1/2 an hour to do the run pasts, oh there is the little matter of Health and Safety now plus everyone being completely risk averse to trains reversing.

 

[blackfive460]

I’m sure that it’s happened in the last couple of years at Rannoch.

Yes, but that may well have been the photo charters that have been organised on the West Highland for a few years now.
I gather everyone taking part has to sign something!

 

[LE Greys]

Yes, but that may well have been the photo charters that have been organised on the West Highland for a few years now.
I gather everyone taking part has to sign something!

Definitely happened, although I can't be sure when. The locos were usually double-headed, Black 5 and B1 or B1 and K1 being the regular combination. I think it was generally the Jacobite stock being moved back to Carnforth that turned into a one-way charter.

Probably increased frequency ended the days of runpasts anywhere else. You can't really hold up a heavy goods train on the S&C so that a bunch of enthusiasts can get pictures of an empty train passing them. Up on Rannoch Moor, time is somewhat less crucial.

 

[EltonRoad]

Yes, they've taken place every year since 2000 in Sept/Oct, utilising the Jacobite stock and locos at the end of the season. They started off under Bob Branch and ran for several days, then latterly became scaled down to Sat/Sun. One year they hired coaches to take participants from Bridge of Orchy to County March Summit. Last year's ran with the K4 travelling up there specially, and may have been the last one. The locos and stock need to return to Carnforth at the end of the season and this used to run as a one-way tour (see, for example, uksteam.info for 9/10/03 - The Summit Conference). However this dried up and then became an ECS working. However it's been resurrected this year at the end of October by SRPS who are again running it as a tour.

Would be nice to have steam excursions aimed at enthusiasts, with the occasional runpast, must be possible if the will is there. There seems to be too much emphasis on the Premier Dining market these days; however I supposed the flip side of this is that there are therefore more excursions than ever running on the network, so we can't have it both ways!

 

[neildimmer]

I was on a Welsh Marches Express with 6000 KGV which did run pasts both out and back at Abergavenny in 1981
Photos here

outward
http://railway-photography.smugmug....-18th/23054632_DPmkj9#!i=1277239395&k=shjnjvR

return (note the person half way up the signal)
http://railway-photography.smugmug....-18th/23054632_DPmkj9#!i=1277239385&k=NVQ5nwC

Neil

 

[EltonRoad]

Interesting. The platforms at Hereford are packed!

 

[theblackwatch]

The 'Elizabethan' tour had a runpast through Durham last month - although it wasn't planned! Passengers intending boarding the tour there watched the train storm through the centre road without stopping. They had to board the next East Coast service while the tour waited at Newcastle for them.