The long awaited return for the sight and sound of Great Western steam over the Devon Banks has reached a decade and for the occasion 7029 Clun Castle would head over the notorious Banks to Plymouth for a two day excursion. The celebration would also see a non stop run from Bristol to London Paddington on the second day.
For the first day we kept it simple and headed to Tigley and Rattery for the stiff climb out of Totnes where the double chimney Castle can be heard in full voice with its safety valves lightly blowing off. Day two was always going to be the highlight with the climb of the 1/42 Hemerdon Bank. The gradient away from Plymouth always provides drama and today was no different.
Unfortunately, all the drama was of a negative variety. Upon leaving Plymouth, the train had two apparent lineside vegetation strikes which came into contact with the Butterfly plate which opened the train vacuum pipe to an amount of atmospheric pressure, in turn this caused a couple of coaches to ever so slightly drag, the levels of vacuum were so minimal that it wouldn't of shown on the Vaccum brake gauge on the footplate. This would prove costly as the effect of the dragging brakes and gravity meant Clun could not get over the top.
7029 is firstly seen tackling Hemerdon and as the last few coaches pass you can hear the brakes dragging and also see the loss of speed. Its then seen sitting stationary just 100 yards from the change of gradient board. 25 minutes later the rescue diesel arrives and they both restart the stricken train. A shot is swiftly followed up at Hemerdon Sidings with the diesel now eased back to allow 7029 to do the rest. The final scenes are taken just after Keynsham and on the outskirts of Bath, where Clun Castle is seen at the start of its Non-Stop run to London and with no diesel attached. A happy ending after its day of trials and tribulations !
I hope you enjoy the video.