76017 attacks Wittersham Bank

Standard Class 4 on the Santa Specials accelerates past Wittersham Road signalbox with the down 12.20 departure from Tenterden to Northiam. This is when everything was working properly.

There was an early problem is opening the box this morning which was rectified by the Signalling and Telegraph department before the first train.

After the 13.20 departure from Tenterden we had problems with a signal which would not show the correct aspect - ie at danger which prevented us from sending a train the other way.

The S&T manager suggested a workaround which while arduous did work delaying the service. He then fixed that problem and caused another - which also caused delays - again we were able to work around it.

However, by the end of the day we were only 15 minutes down which we counted as a success.

That’s my last turn on the railway until next year. Tomorrow we leave for the Lakes on the first stage of Christmas events and to begin to put into place our plans for next year. We’re meeting blipper Nick_T for a meal out on Tuesday evening to help these plans along.

Today was full on and tomorrow and the next couple of weeks will also be busy so I may not be able to visit your journals.