Another Day - Another Wizzo Railtour

After all the excitement of the trips to Paignton and Swansea, August 17th saw the fourth railtour in D1015's 2002 programme.

For the first time we got to see a Western hauling a full rake of Blue and Grey Mark 1's, and the train looked superb standing in the hot sun at Paddington.  How long before the locomotive is painted in the "right" colour to match the stock we ask?

The itinerary was a Paddington departure at the relatively civilised time (for those of us that don't live in London) of 10.54, followed by the usual run down the slow line to Reading.  However, unlike the previous three railtours D1015 was given her head almost from the platform end and we fairly blotted out the skyline as the cold engines went up to full revs and put out a cloud of white smoke.  The acceleration was excellent and by Old Oak Common we were well away.  After Reading we ran down to Oxford, where the fireworks started once more with a storming run through the middle road (how long has it been since that happened?) followed by a superb thrash through the Cotswolds to Worcester.  After exchanging tokens at Moreton in the Marsh (time warp time), we stormed through the station, and I noticed a young lady (photographers' wife/girlfriend) with her hands over her ears - Champion calling to the stars again!

After partaking of a liquid lunch (they couldn't keep up with the demand for food) in "The Dragon " in Worcester, we departed at 16.48 heading for Birmingham.  As on the original test run a fine ascent of Old Hill bank was made and then we made history with the first Western to pass through Smethwick Galton Bridge before dropping down to the ex-GWR mainline into Snow Hill.

I can well remember walking the ballast at the then disused Snow Hill station in 1977, a full ten years after the departure of the last loco hauled train, and five years after total closure.  If you had told me then that 25 years later we would roll through behind a Western I would have said you were certifiable, but that's what happened.

We rolled through Snow Hill and Moor Street before accelerating rapidly through all those places so familiar from bashing D1000's years ago - Small Heath, Tyseley, Acocks Green, Olton, Solihull (errrrr I wanted to get off there!), Dorridge, Lapworth and Warwick.  The memories flooded back as we romped along at a fine pace.

I finally got the front window to myself as we approached Leamington Spa, for an anticipated pathing stop.  Instead we were signalled non-stop through the middle road, and it was at this point that the voice of Tom Hanks could be heard - "Houston, we have a problem".  As the driver opened up D1015 to full power to accelerate through the middle road, the cloud of black smoke that appeared from the engine nearest the train was simply huge, and I knew that something was not right.  The loco sounded fine and performance did not seem to be affected, but this was not the way things were meant to be.  After about 30 seconds the engine was shut down and we ran on with only one engine operational.  As the front coach contained the majority of the worlds' experts on Maybach engines the source of the fault was identified in about 10 seconds - Turbocharger.  I remember D1055 in 1975 that ran for about 3 months with a defective turbo and the huge clouds of black smoke that accompanied it, so this diagnosis seemed right.

A DTG spokesman stated that the decision to shut down the "B" engine was taken for 2 reasons.  Firstly, as a precaution to prevent any further damage to the engine and secondly to offset the potentially negative publicity from the excessive black smoke (and it was excessive!).  The DTG are confident that the engine will be back in service quickly, and if necessary have a spare Turbocharger that can be installed.

Even with only one engine, D1015 managed to wind it's train up to 75 mph, and kept time all the way back to Paddington, in fact arriving 7 minutes early.  The acceleration out of Reading would have put most other loco's (at full engine output) to shame, oh and I forgot to mention that the load was 11 coaches - about 400 tons.

As on occasion in service with BR the two-engine flexibility of the Class 52 design was proved again on this tour.  Despite the loss of an engine, D1015 continued to entertain us and keep to its timings.

Once more my thanks to Diesel Traction Group (DTG) for restoring this locomotive - long may the sound of the Maybach's continue!

The day in pictures shown below.