Six Bells Junction

I'd expected the running on this tour to be the usual standard that appears to be the norm on steam these days where you hope to simply maintain the schedule but rely on the various stops to pick any time lost. It was therefore a very pleasant surprise to be treated to a resplendent 5051 being pushed to produce very fast starts and excellent intermediate running. This meant that early arrivals on every stage of the outward trip were the order of the day, the highlight being an exhilarating run along the sea wall after Exeter on a sunny and warm day. All credit to the crew who gave us a great outward journey.

A four hour break at Kingswear gave everyone plenty of time to relax or watch 4555 working the service train on the branch. However the restart from Kingswear was slightly late waiting for the service train to clear Churston and with further delays at Churston and outside Paignton we eventually passed Newton Abbot a minute or so down on our scheduled restart time. After this we ran near enough to time to Weston which we left dead on time at 1902. However it soon became clear that all was not well at the front end and after some time losing speed we came to a stand a Bedminster. We stood here for some twenty minutes due, we were told, to the spark arrester having become clogged causing a shortage of steam. There were also rumours of injector problems but eventually enough steam was produced to enable us to crawl into Temple Meads just before 22.00

It was a sad end to what was a very good day but that shouldn't detract from the superb outward run and an otherwise good tour.

Miles	Location	Booked	Actual	Booked	Actual
0.0	Bristol Temple Meads	09.00d	09.01	21.30a	21.57
16.8	Worle Jn	09/24	09/23	21/09	21/06
19.1	Weston-Super-Mare	09.29a ~ 09.31d	09.28 ~ 09.30	20.58a ~ 21.02d	20.53 ~ 21.02
20.7	Uphill Jn	09/36	?	20/54	20/49
28.0	Highbridge & Burnham	09/45	09/43	20/45	20/40
34.3	Bridgwater	09.53a ~ 09.54d	09.47 ~ 09.55	20.35a ~ 20.37d	20.29 ~ 20.30
40.8	Cogload Jn	10/05	10/03	20/27	20/22
45.8	Taunton	10.12a ~ 10.13d	10.08 ~ 10.13	19w54a ~ 20w20d	19.56 ~ 20.10
60.0	Tiverton Parkway	10/38	?	19/38	?
61.8	Tiverton Loop	10w42a ~ 11w10d	?	-	?
75.8	Cowley Bridge Jn	11/28	?	19/20	?
77.0	Exeter St Davids	11.33a ~ 11.35d	11.24 ~ 11.34	18w31a ~ 19w16d	18.30 ~ 19.20
87.5	Dawlish Warren	11/48	11/46	18/19	18/18
97.1	Newton Abbot	11/59	11/57	1756a ~ 1805d	18.07 ~ 18.08
103.1	Torquay	12/09	?	17/46	?
105.2	Paignton	12.15a ~ 12.35d	12.13 ~ 12.36	17.35a ~ 17.40d	17.45 ~ 17.49
111.3	Kingswear	13.05a	13.05	17.10d	17.10

Loco Used	steam: 5051
Stock Used	21245+4915+4916+4949+1813+4996+5008+4946+35453

Loco	Route
5051	Bristol Temple Meads - Weston-super-Mare - Taunton - Exeter St Davids - Newton Abbot - Paignton - Kingswear
5051	Kingswear - (reverse of outward route) - Bristol Temple Meads