27 August 06 - Torbay Express

A Bank Holiday weekend and the penultimate Torbay Express was once again packed to the rafters for another run along the Somerset Levels, the climb through the Blackdown Hills and the picturesque Devon coastline. The Bristol crew soon had the loco into her stride, a late running service coming off the Weston Super Mare branch putting us slightly down into the seaside town. Once away though we were soon into our stride and reeling off the miles along the levels and into Taunton. The climb to Whiteball was dispatched without much fuss and we quickly made our way into Exeter St. David's. The sea wall section was again packed with holidaymakers, heads turning as we whistled our way through the seaside towns before joining the P&DR metals to make the final part of our journey into Kingswear. The return journey again saw some excellent running even if a stopping service along the sea wall meant progress was a bit more sedate than would be preferable. Away from Exeter, the noise of the exhaust echoing around the countryside as the line climbs constantly to Whiteball. The usual pathing stop was missed which meant we could carry some momentum into the tunnel before cruising down the other side in Taunton well ahead of time. With no need to water we were quickly away and back along the levels arriving into Bristol Temple Meads 20+ mins ahead of time.

20 August 06 - Torbay Express

Another sold out train of happy punters were once again whisked to the English Riviera on the latest in this series of highly popular trains. I hate to be repetative, but the running was once again out of the top drawer in both directions. As an added bonus this week, the run from Paignton to Torquay saw us duel for the attention of the public with the Red Arrows who were performing at the Torquay regatta (If anyone's got a picture of both the loco & the Red Arrows in the same frame we'd love to see it). They were certainly making more smoke than 6024 that's for sure.

13 August 06 - Torbay Express

A late night, early morning for the support crew but the loco was back in Temple Meads station ready to run once again. As we've come to expect from these trains, the running was excellent once again in both directions, being on time or earlier pretty much all day. Along the sea wall section, we were followed by a helipcopter filming for the BBC (Click Here). This footage, along with the on train footage they made a few weeks previous will be part of the new series of "Coast", which should air sometime in the new year.

Meanwhile, those of us who worked the Saturday train took advantage of a trip to Dartmouth for a spot of lunch. The 6024 Food Appreciation Group (or FAT for short) can highly recommend "The Dolphin" resturant (Market Square, Dartmouth. Tel: 01803 833835 - booking is advisable). We all got very full on a variety of excellent dishes topped off with ice-cream on the way back to Kingswear. We're sure the running back to Bristol was excellent but most of us were asleep.....

12 August 06 - Torbay Express

A busy weekend for all concerned with back to back runs to Kingswear on both Saturday and Sunday. Performances out of the top drawer have become the norm now with these excursions and today was to be no different with some great running in both directions. A slightly different path on the outward journey, no stop at Weston Super Mare providing the oppertunity for the loco to reel off the miles between Bristol and Taunton. On the return there was some fantastic running around the sea wall section to Exeter but reports later of a lineside fire at Turf Lock were not attributed to the locomotive. An early arrival back into Bristol Temple Meads saw the loco turned ready for the next days's support crew to begin their work preparing the engine for the next day's run. Needless to say it wasn't an early night.! On the return we ran with a K54 headboard. This was for our Operations Manager Keith Lines, who was 54 on Friday. Happy Birthday Keith. (Click Here).

06 August 06 - Torbay Express

Sunday once again saw another storming run with Torbay Express from Bristol to Kingswear with some measured running on the outward leg we were once again early arriving into Paignton after an excellent run along the sea wall section through Dawlish. It's the return journey though that tends to grab all the headlines with the prospect of making up time against some tight scheduling. The section between Taunton & Uphill Junction is timed at 25 minutes for the 25 miles so the crews really have to be on top of their game to achieve the 60mph average start to pass. 6024 was up to the mile a minute mark in under 3 miles and continued to accelerate maintaining our maximum permitted speed for some 14 miles before slowing for the turn at Uphill Junction, excellent work indeed. We'd covered the section in just over 24 minutes but there was still more great performance to come. Leaving Weston Super Mare, the line is level to just past Yatton before rising for about 5.5 miles to the summit at Flax Bourton. While not a steep bank (the last mile is at 1 in 200), it never the less makes a challenge for a tired crew/fire at the end of the day's work. This 19 miles stretch is timed at 29 minutes with a reduced line speed until Worle Junction. Once onto the mainline though there's some 6 miles of level track before the gradient rises and the Newport crew once again quickly had 6024 in her stride passing Yatton at 70mph. Maintaining that sort of speed up to summit at Flax Bourton was going to require some considerable output from the loco, but she not only maintained it, but even accelerated to achieve 72mph at the top.! With the cut-off at around 35% the noise from the front end was simply awesome and we estimate the EDHP at around 1800 for the last mile at 1 in 200. So another trip was done, some 34 minutes early back into Bristol Temple Meads.

Oh, how did those reporting numbers get muddled.? Well, a generous donation from someone who bet we wouldn't run with it upside down.