HDL Essex Coast Express railtour

Saturday 13 September 2014

This article was last modified on Sunday 12 October 2014

Hastings Diesels Limited’s 59th public railtour was from Hastings to Clacton, via London Liverpool Street.

Andy Armitage describes our visit to the Graham Road Curve, a spur between the North London Line and the West Anglia Main Line:

It’s very sharp, very steep, and only 10mph, and the driver had to have 1001 in notch 5 to keep us moving. We nearly stalled when a 315 slowed up crossing in front of us on the Liverpool Street line as the driver opened his window and was mesmerised by the green apparition slowly blasting its way up the curve. We just kept going as the signal cleared and we dragged our way back onto the main line with the ammeter almost ‘off the clock’!! This didn’t seem to have adversely affected the old girl as we picked up speed through London Fields and Cambridge Heath.

Andy has also examined the OTMR downloads, which show that both Power cars were drawing 1,940 amps at a recorded 2.47 mph on the Graham Road curve!

The train was reversed an even number of times, because the outward portion of the trip included extra reversals at both London Liverpool Street and at Colchester Town. Thus the train returned to the depot that evening in the same orientation as it had left.

Although the timings we had been given were less demanding of our train and its drivers than those for our previous Crewe railtour, timekeeping was difficult to maintain. There were lots of small delays from which we were always striving to recover, like being allocated an occupied platform at Liverpool Street and so doubling up there; various other trains we were delayed by; numerous harsh speed-restrictions at crossings on the way to Clacton; and an extra train being routed in front of us at Marks Tey loop.

None of this mattered to our passengers, however; we returned them to Kensington Olympia early and to Bromley South only one minute late, and a good day out was reported!

Historical data

The train was formed thus: 60118-60501-69337-70262-60529-60116, with motor coach 60118 Tunbridge Wells leading upon departure from Hastings.

The publicity leaflet, timings and map of the railtour route remain available.

Videos

Various photographers have taken video-footage depicting this railtour and have uploaded it to YouTube; the following are links to some starting-points but do not represent a definitive collection:

• Footage from various points during the day
• Passing Stratford at speed
• Two speedy passes in Essex

Photos

Further photos

• BloodAndCustard carries a photographic report of the day’s events as seen by a member of the train’s staff.