I GOT A STEAMER

Well I thought I was working to Leeds with an HST today only to find out my job was ammended to work a double voyager set and only to York with a couple of hours to spare well an hour and a half in reality as I had to let the Derby driver off and sit in the station for 28 minutes before it departed so a long wait for the passengers to hang around which gave me time to have my Costa coffee and chill in my driving cab in the warm,
Anyway it was a drive of many weather conditions with sun  rain sleet snow and hail I only needed some fog and I would have had the lot anyway the heavy snow I encountered before Darlington to Northallerton put paid to me driving at 125mph as when there is snow falling or being disturbed by the passage of trains the maximum speed I can do is 100mph for line speeds over 100mph but between 100 and 50 mph line speeds I have to run 10mph below the line speed but don''t need to run at less than 50mph unless the linespeed is less than that I also have to do a full service application every 3-5 minutes or if a rising gradient is within that 3-5 minute window I'm allowed to extend that up to 3-8 minutes to allow me not to slow the train journey too much but it's to make sure we don't get a build up of ice on the brake rigging and pads so if you feel a heavy brake application regulary when it is all snowy outside that's the type of stuff drivers have to adhere to as per company and Network Rail rule book instructions for driving in snow so now you know. As I had time on my hands I headed over to the York National Railway Museum to have a wander with my camera,
Now the the Mallard A4 Pacific Steam Engine here at York museum only one of 6 remaining A4 Pacific steam engines with 1 in the USA and 1 in Canada and the remaining  4 in the UK and the Mallard still holds the record speed for a steam train acheiving a speed of 125.88mph although for a momentary second in the Dynamometer car it registered 126mph which has never been beaten so  a great acheivemnent some 75 years ago talking of driving at 125mph the drive between Darlington to York is the same as Edinburgh to Glasgow some 46 miles or there abouts now the journey time beteen Scotlands two big cities takes around 50 minute where as once you get out of Darlington and over the points onto the main line the line speed is 125mph all the way to just outside York when it drops to 60mph but I can do that same distance in 24 minutes which is really good and you do get a buzz driving at that speed anyway enough rambling and my old railway movie for the day is "The Titfield Thunderbolt 1953" go BIG See Ya