Flying Scotsman's schedule to be kept secret

The National Railway Museum, which owns the train, and Network Rail have announced that they will not proactively issue timings for Flying Scotsman’s journeys as it continues its tour of the UK after more than eight hours of delays were caused by people wandering on to the tracks.

The newly restored engine will travel from York and Newcastle and back at some point on Tuesday and from York to Edinburgh at some point on Saturday.

linky wink

Surely one of the main reasons for the existence of this and other preserved locomotives is for them to be experienced and admired. Secret running times are hardly likely to achieve this. What would work is to whack trespassers on the railway with the maximum fine of £1000 each. The policing costs would be repaid by the fines. Unfortunately this will never happen in this namby pamby nation of ours, it being preferable that the law abiding amongst us are penalised instead.

Mick

mick H, couldnt agree more.

Only 1000 pound, here it's $NZ10,000 according to the new notices that have gone up at the local railway station.

Ian S C

IMHO it's totally out of order for runs to be unpublished as the restoration was partially funded funded by the national lottery. The NRM are not that keen to run it through or from its birthplace of Doncaster either, the 'London-Edinburgh-London ' trips being diesel hauled to and from York.

Traveling on it is well out of the reach of many, seeing it in a museum is as close as many will get, which only needed a lick of paint and polish not a full engineering restoration taking a decade.

Snatch squads on a service run ahead of the train with huge fines and confiscation of camera equipment only needs to be done once to get the message across.

Get 2 for 1.

Run one of those big American steamer ahead of the Scotsman with a cow catcher fitted.

Simples.

Mr Stephenson,

What happens if the "Rocket" hits a cow ?

"Too bad for the coo"

Our Mr Stevenson is quite correct.

Dennis

It's not the steam loco hitting people that's the problem, it's the idiots that stand on the 80 mph slow lines to take a 'better' photo of it that will get scrambled, as another train hurtles out of Scotsman's steam cloud and tw*ts them. This nearly happened in several places last time.

Regards,

John.

.

.

Oh dear, that will affect the sales of hi-vis anoraks....................

I agree. ............. And so would this guy. Natural selection and all that. Looking at it as a way of weeding out the stupid gene in the human species.

My brother works for the railways and is based mostly at Exeter station. He remarked to me only the other week about how stupid people become when spotting trains. In particular steam ones.

Told me that some (of course not all) think they have a special dispensation to "get that perfect shot" and seeming not to care less how it is effecting others and timetables. They also seem to consider themselves immortal and that they are surrounded by some kind of protective bubble that will protect them against impact and being turned into something resembling a burst water melon.

Nick

The fools are the people with cameras who, unfortunately, have an innate desire to record an event. It is a very natural human response, but one that is best understood and then avoided. Better to just look at the occasion, and around you, to appreciate the sights.

I sympathise with the Darwinian view of the removal of the weakest, but in our modern society it is deemed that the majority must suffer to ensure the protection of the ill-behaved minority.

Looking carefully at the video I suspect that he was no closer to the train than the people on the platform edge.

But yes, some video trainspotters seem to be somewhat unpredictable people. I saw a site where someone dedicated a whole page to how someone had 'ruined' his shot by calling out in excitement as the loco hove into view. Surprised there wasn't an incident of 'rail.road rage'.

Neil

Hi

How can the police help when most of them are off duty having spent the previous night keeping the the stupid revelers from harming themselves and others.

Being a Railways Nut Case I ask why you would clamber on the tracks for few seconds of useless video or blurred and distorted image of the Flying Scotsman.

When a carefully selected vantage point some distance from the tracks you can enjoy the full symphony not a few distorted notes.

The intelligence is built into a modern camera so that lot's of users think that is transfered to them.

This will render them invincible to any threat or danger.

You can educate ignorance but you can not fix stupid.

Eric

The elf n safety mindset gives the feeling someone will have prevented them from harming themselves. You could argue that is what is happening by withdrawing information.

Agree, but I think they shouldn't be on the platform edge either.

The abuse station staff get whilst trying to keep people back is saddening.

I dunno, the look on his face at the end of video suggests a change of underpants is imminent.

A shame the Scotsman experience has to be curtailed due to the numpties. The trouble is that if one does end up on the cow-catcher due to his own stupidity, you are no longer allowed to just let the body lie wherever it falls off. All sorts of paperwork involving coroners etc to be done these days, which would make an 8 hour delay seem insignificant. Shame, that, too.

Edited By Hopper on 11/05/2016 09:42:45

If they don't give the schedule then the serious anoraks will simply camp out on the railway for the entire day

Plus Mobile phones and the netty mean the news is out 60 seconds after the Scotsman leaves a station

Ref the OP - who did they think they were trying to kid? As of yesterday it's all on Facebook. (So I'm told)

Diane

(p.s. 'they' being the NRM - not the OP!)

Edited By Diane Carney on 11/05/2016 10:11:42

> Agree, but I think they shouldn't be on the platform edge either.

That was my point

Having videoed Tornado from behind the safety of a fence within about five feet of the track I can only agree that with modern zoom lenses the best footage is to be obtained from a distance as a brief flash of flailing motion isn't very rewarding!

Neil

It is a bit pointless attempting to withold timings and routes of FS, as they are all available to enthusiasts on a site called Real Time Trains, and the Network Rail Trust website etc.

Here for example is today's run of Tornado to Bristol TM

**LINK**

Cheers,

Julian