60163 Tornado & 34067 Tangmere on the Armistice Day Special's 11-11-2011

[AndreiTupolev]

tell you what, though, it gave you a rare opportunity to see Tangmere and a Eurostar side by side.

[Daniel5343]

It was was very good timing of the two trains to enter at very similar time's, i was just thankful a service train didn't enter on the platform i was standing on.

[bkendlerA4]

An excellent compilation. Good stuff. Barry

[Daniel5343]

Thank you very much.

[TangmereTornado]

Really nice shots. Superb whistle through Sittingbourne as well! Great stuff. A sad day in the end for Tangmere, rather inglorious having gotten stuck on the bank - still trying to work out why the 47 diesel they put on the end of the train was left at Waterloo? Tangmere even seems to look a bit meek coming through Ashford.

[Daniel5343]

Thanks very much.

The rail conditions that day were quite bad, even the 3rd rail units were having problems with low traction! I personally feel that the Deal waterstop was the wrong place to stop, had the waterstop been located at Canterbury i would like to think that Tangmere would have got up the bank no problem.

[TangmereTornado]

@Daniel5343 I see, must've been pretty grimy then! Yeah, it did strike me as very odd, Deal isn't even a terminus, so it struck me as kinda odd that it should stop and come back from there. If it was in Canterbury it would'nt have had to deal with the bank it got stuck on anyway, am I right? Or have I got my geography wrong?

[Daniel5343]

The climb to Martin Mill bank starts not long after Deal station, so a standing start from Deal in Autumn was always going to be trouble, had the loco watered at Canterbury, they would have been able to run through Deal at the line speed (Which i believe is 50mph) and would have had the momentum to climb the bank without problems.

[TangmereTornado]

@Daniel5343 Yeah, that's true. I have a friend who lives in Deal whom I visit, so I know the line as far as Deal. It's a climb up the hill from Deal to Walmer, then the bank itself. So it's basically uphill from Deal, on a standing start. For a loco with a reputation for slipping, with six driving wheels, in slippery conditions, it was just asking for trouble I guess.

[GrifterGuru]

Tangmere WAS assisted on the Dover water stop, but only after 90 minutes faffing around with platform hose pipes.

[TangmereTornado]

@GrifterGuru Oh man...so that added yet MORE delays on? That's interesting, I only assumed the delays mostly came from being stuck on the bank...that would explain why one guy on this railgen site I'm on said something about Dover station expecting a fine for delays...not sure about that. Thanks for the info though.