Saturday June 15th 2002, and another milestone as a diesel hydraulic returns to the South Wales mainline for the first time since February 26th 1977.
D1015 Western Champion worked its third highly successful railtour since restoration - Pathfinder's Western Druid from Paddington-Swansea and return.
As on the Paignton trip in April, the locomotive was driven hard and the noise in the first coach was at the level of a Motorhead gig - especially in the Severn tunnel when in both directions as the train levelled out full power was applied to the chorus of "My Lords!" from all present. The westbound run was non-stop from Cardiff to Swansea and we coasted into Bridgend station at speed before full throttle halfway along the platform - perfect! A very fast run saw us stand outside Swansea awaiting a platform for over ten minutes.
On the return (having seen England beat Denmark 3-0) we took in the Vale of Glamorgan line via Barry, returned through the Severn Tunnel once more (hellfire!) and on into Bristol. Having avoided Temple Meads we stopped at Bath for a crew change and then we were off via Bradford On Avon to the Berks & Hants route (the desert) for a superb run over Savernake (full power for mile after mile). Storming through the middle road at Newbury at high speed we were held outside Reading as we were by now ten minutes early. The departure from Reading's platform 8 was so like the "real thing" - wide open before the train had even moved - filling the canopy with black smoke. Unusually we were routed on the mainline as opposed to the relief and other than one severe signal check we had a clear run to Paddington in 33 minutes - about 30 minutes net without the check. The arrival at Paddington was 17 minutes early.
I didn't think the Paignton trip could be beaten but this was so good but in a different way. There was more acceleration and braking than on the long fast run to Paignton. The Severn Tunnel in particular showed what a strong engine D1015 is, plus the way it easily beat all the scheduled point to point timings. It is probable that the timings reflect Class 47 performance and it may be that these will need to be looked at as it is now quite obvious that D1015 is MUCH faster than a Class 47.
Once more Pathfinder's organisation was excellent and the Diesel Traction Group's on-board mechanics had nothing to do as the locomotive did not miss a beat.
At Paddington we all said "see you in August" - can't wait for the next one!
The days events are shown below.
| Platform 8 at London Paddington awaiting departure at 09.09. | |
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| Checking on progress of the England game - Ferdinand has just scored! | |
| Arrival at Swansea - Next discussion point - is there a decent pub in this town? I leave those of you that were there to make comments on that in the discussion forum. | |
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| Having taken lunch we are now ready to depart back to London. |
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| A crew change at Bath and the new man gets the hang quite quickly - thrash near Bradford On Avon. | |
| Only one check between Reading and Paddington - this was the result when we restarted - My Lords! |
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| Back at Paddington underneath Brunel's roof. The shape of a Western's cab roof complementing the architecture so much better than the modern units. | |
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