Kentish Belle Armistice Day rail tour
- 11 November 2012 03:37200713A steam hauled rail tour is scheduled to pass through Dover Priory today, apparently stopping from 1447 to 1502.
This is the Kentish Belle Armistice Day rail tour hauled by a magnificent unrebuilt Bulleid Pacific (colloquially referred to as a Spamcan), the Battle of Britain class locomotive "Tangmere."
Not sure what the stop is for as they are taking water at Headcorn on the way out and Paddock Wood on the way back to London.
The same rail tour last year ran into big problems shortly after restarting from a scheduled stop at Deal. There is a severe gradient on the Walmer Bank leading up to Martin Mill and Tangmere lost adhesion due to the dreaded leaves on the line experienced at this time of the year, resulting in a big delay. By the time they arrived back in London, they were five hours late on a six hour round trip! On this occasion they had to make hasty arrangements to take water at Dover Priory as they had used up so much trying to get restarted, also apparently ran out of sand in the process.
Tangmere has passed through at intervals in the past, seen here pounding through Dover Priory a few years ago:
This is Tangmere on the turntable at Dover Marine in 1960:
Details of the rail tour:
http://www.railwaytouring.net/uk-day-trips/the-kentish-belle-armistice-day
Full timings:
http://www.uksteam.info/tours/t12/t1111b.htm
Very long thread about the tribulations last year:
http://railways.national-preservation.com/whats-going/33294-kentish-belle-armistice-day-tangmere-now-via-bromley.html - 11 November 2012 09:39200734thanks for the tip off ed.
- 11 November 2012 15:38200781word clearly got around, hordes of people around the station earlier.
- 11 November 2012 15:41200783hopefully someone will get some pics from a bridge locally.
- 11 November 2012 17:17200785Great I missed that,
- 11 November 2012 17:34200790Tangmere was a magnificent sight hissing away powerfully in Platform One at Dover Priory amongst billowing clouds of steam.
Video of Tangmere drawing away from the platform heading a rake of West Coast Railways coaches with Class 47 diesel locomotive 47786 'Roy Castle OBE' bringing up the rear:
- 11 November 2012 17:57200794Great to see that train at Dover Priory - I clicked on the You-tube link, but because my download speed is so slow, it kept buffering and so I could only watch 5 seconds, then it would buffer for around 20 or more, then another 5 seconds and so on.
So frustrating.
Roger - 11 November 2012 19:05200813the enthusiasm was quite extraordinary, wasn't just steam buffs as i would have expected, a very wide demograph of people.
- 11 November 2012 20:36200833Sigh....there is just something about steam trains.
- 11 November 2012 23:08200849Steam railtours are fairly regular through Dover throughout the year, always best to check www.uksteam.info for dates and times.Josh Watkins - Youth Team Manager & Website Administrator
East Kent Railway, Shepherdswell near Dover - Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
12 November 2012 18:06201000A very nice Christmas present for somebody as this looks like the next visit Dec 21st.
THE CATHEDRALS EXPRESS
Woking-Dover [dbs]
34046/TBA: Woking-Staines-Maidstone East-Dover and return
Also on Dec 23rd
THE CATHEDRALS EXPRESS
Rainham (Kent)-Dover [dbs]
70000: Rainham-Bromley-Purley-Redhill-Tonbridge-Dover -Rainham-Bromley-Redhill-Tonbridge-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
------------------------------------------------------------------- - 12 November 2012 18:30201013will take a note of those dates from jan and josh.
