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The costs involved plus availability of suitable paths make something like this extremely difficult to plan these days unfortunately. Thanks for watching.

Originally I had an external mic attached to the accessory shoe but the mount fractured within an hour of me first using it. I got a replacement, same happened again. Thereafter I just made do with the in built camera mic. I never thought until 4 years ago that Maybe I would upload videos some day onto KZfaq, until then they were all just for my own benefit. Still I am mighty glad I did go down the camcorder route for a few years and yes great memories external mic or not, thanks for watching

6 months before (UNFORTUNATELY !) I first owned a camcorder back in July 1999 I spent the whole day on the Saturdays only CrossCountry class 47 diagram starting & finishing at Bristol T M. A very long & expensive day but who cares. Starting off with the 07.00 Bristol-Paignton returning with the 10.02 Paignton-Newcastle then back from Newcastle at 17.53 terminating back at Bristol T M just after 23.00. It was 47840 North Star. Blooming marvellous, thanks for watching

Made all the better for the fine weather, thanks for watching

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Arguably the best of the 1st generation diesels for sound. Thanks for watching

And there will be more from BTP liveried 47829 in due course as in addition to the 2 videos you kindly viewed I have the original recording of the loco from Penzance through to Taunton & then back from Taunton as far as Plymouth. Thanks for watching

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And D1676 & 47090 before that. Thanks for watching

Yes me as well, just not the same anymore, thanks for watching

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Thanks for watching

I wasn't too keen on the livery at the time, hankered after the sectorisation liveries (large logo, NSE, Transrail etc) but over time I have appreciated the livery more. In fact it's a pretty smart livery. The 47/8's (yes I know that they are officially 47/4's under the TOPS system) both Virgin CrossCountry & GWR locos received plenty of maintenance in their latter years into the early 2000's so that they could continue to pound away on the mainline & I suppose that included being regularly cleaned. I don't see too many photos of the 47/8's, either from my own photos or videos or from Flickr etc covered in grime (nothing wrong with a filthy engine though in my books) Thanks for watching

Great memories, thanks for watching

The overall cost of scheduling/fuelling/staffing such a complex itinerary must of been huge. Can't see how you could possibly run a railtour like this and make any sort of profit. Also I don't think there are long enough gaps between scheduled passenger & freight services booked on the WCML unless it's in the middle of the night. What the videos don't show is the operational/pathing stops built into the schedule. Steam came on at Preston & there were operational/pathing stops at Oxenholme loop, Tebay on the mainline, Penrith loop, Carlisle for 2 hours, Lockerbie loop, Beattock loop, Beattock summit loop, Abington loop & Carstairs. It took 10 hours or thereabouts to get from Preston to Edinburgh ! Thanks for watching.

The late 90's/early 2000's was something of a golden era for preserved steam (in my opinion) on the relatively recently privatised railway. Gone were the handful of routes that British Rail permitted steam to run on. Any route anywhere suddenly became possible if a path could be found & the organiser had the cash. Past-time Rail who promoted this railtour were notorious (in a good way) for running expensive but fabulous one-off railtours. Maybe this is partly why they ultimately went bust, such a shame. Thanks for watching.

@@Locohauledtrainsuk it still makes a change from just seeing regular stuff get repeated, the Cumbrian Mountain Express is one example but it does make a change to see some different tours which rarely ever see steam or even attempt to replicate events like this. One that I would like to see run again is "The Cotton Mill Express" which ran in 2020 (weeks before the bloody covid lockdown), by far one of the best RTC tours iv been on (not the absolute best though as that claim belongs to 1T57). A Steam banked trip over Shap and Beattock however would be a fantastic sight to see again though. I know expensive but deffinately one people would love to see happen as there's many young generations of rail enthusiasts around now who didn't exist when this took place.

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Just as well it was dry on the day otherwise it might of been. Great work on the footplate. Thanks for watching

Thanks for watching & happy new year

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Although it didn't rain it was late October, overcast all day with a hint of dampness in the air which may well of affected the rail conditions for the footplate crew to deal with as well as the hefty load. Thanks for watching

Absolutely flat out, masterful skills on the footplate. Thanks for watching

From memory the train was originally booked as a doubleheader but 45407's regular partner in crime BR class 4 No 76079 was unavailable, can't remember why. Thanks for watching

Made all the more memorable by the time of year (late October) and a damp rail. Thanks for watching

Arguably the most successful multi-purpose (mixed traffic) design of steam engine ever built for this country. Thanks for watching

Similar sort of story really. My grandparents took my mother & uncle Eric from Southend-on-Sea to Minehead (from memory he said it was normally a GWR Hall) on summer Saturdays every year for a week on their annual hols from the late 40's until the late 50's when they left home. Sadly they are all long gone now but for Eric it was the highlight of his childhood. He was a staunch LNER man first working as an apprentice at Stratford Works before moving on to other things away from the railway but he was always a big admirer of the GWR Castles in particular. In latter years he even went as far as to say that in his opinion the Castles were far superior to all other Class 7 engines including those on his beloved LNER. Thanks for watching.

Back & forth along the sea wall without any of those ghastly Voyagers or IET's in sight. Love it !

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5051 Drysllwyn Castle/Earl Bathurst very much down the pecking order at Didcot these days you would of thought bearing in mind also that 4079 Pendennis Castle is there now. Shame, personally I always found 5051 to be a very strong & consistent performer whether working solo or double heading with more often than not 5029 Nunney Castle. Anyway the GWR 'Holy Grail' of Wellington Bank, Dawlish, Paignton, The South Devon Banks & Plymouth must be on the radar of Vintage Trains at some point over the coming years for 5043 & 7029. Thanks for watching

When I first bought the camcorder I also purchased an external mic, wind muff & mount. The mount broke within weeks while I was window hanging from a class 47 on the Settle & Carlisle! After that I just made do with the inbuilt camcorder mic. Obvious limitations like wind noise as you say but overall for the 8 years the camera was operational it did a pretty good job of picking up sound considering it was an amateur camera designed in the 1990's.

Thanks for watching first of all. Just had a quick look on the internet, didn't find anything posted since July last year saying 60532 should be back late 2022. But whenever the loco does return yes, a welcome addition to the mainline pool.

Not practical on the day as the driver had no second man & I assume the guard would not of been trained for such a manoeuvre. Unbelievably warm for early May in Scotland (around 21C on the day) which helped plus dry so good rail conditions. Doubt we would of made it had it been wet. Spent an hour or so at Arrochar & Tarbet while the driver & control decided what to do. Nearest other available loco would of been at Fort William about 3 hours away. Turned into a impromptu class 37 loco bash as 37520 replaced these two at Fort William for the run to Mallaig & back then we had the delights of 37674 & 37411 for the return from Fort William to Edinburgh. Aah the memories ! Another short video (4 mins 30 secs) next Saturday of the failed 37405 & the hard working 37416 leaving Upper Tyndrum. Thanks for watching