70000 battles the 1 in 92 through Penge East! | Garden of England & Sunset Steam Expresses | 13/8/24

Today’s video sees me travel into London for BR Standard 7 Class 4-6-2 70000 Britannia, hauling a heavy train around South London, Surrey and Kent with Steam Dreams’ The Garden of England Lunchtime tour and The Sunset Steam Express! The Garden of England lunchtime tour is a circular tour from London Victoria, travelling out to Canterbury via Bromley, Gillingham and Faversham, before returning via Dover, Folkestone, Ashford, Tonbridge and Orpington. After completing this trip the train moved out to Battersea Loop for servicing, before moving back into Victoria to begin the Sunset Steam Express. The train departed Victoria diesel hauled and headed first to Willesden, from where the train reversed, 70000 Britannia now at the helm. It then travelled via South Acton, Staines, Guildford and then through the Surrey Hills to Redhill from where it travelled back to Victoria along the Brighton Main Line. Today's weather was scheduled to be very hot and with that came quite a bit of fire risk - but 70000 was still permitted to show us her best!
Train tickets to London before 10:00 at my local are extremely expensive. However after 10 it becomes possible to obtain a £30 ticket that covers my return trip to London as well as any form of public transport (Underground, Overground, bus, national rail) within the London Zones 1 to 6. Rather than forking out a lot of money to get only one extra shot, of the outward Garden of England, I set out at 11:59 from my local, first aiming to get to Penge East for the Garden of England return. I met ‪@LukeAlfordUKsteam‬ at Marylebone and then used the tube and the 14:27 from London Victoria to manage this. The gradient through Penge East is a not insignificant 1 in 92, and as 70000 appeared, only a single yellow aspect permitted her entrance into Sydenham Hill Tunnel as she was following a stopper! The performance that results is a load 16 equivalent at low speed on a 1 in 92 gradient - and the 57 was doing nothing. We also got a questionable whistle at the start of the clip lol. After that, we headed into London Victoria, and headed out to Grosvenor Bridge, a shot I've done a few times now, for the stock move of the Sunset Steam Express. Here I met ‪@danielstrainsukofficial9133‬! Getting bowled or not is always a bit of a lottery at this location due to all 4 lines of the Brighton Main Line potentially blocking the view, but again we were treated to a fine display in good lighting and very little bowlage! After this the three of us headed to Brentford, where we set up on a little overbridge just past the station. Upon seeing the green aspect behind us, 70000's crew chucked the regulator in the roof and accelerated nicely by! The plan was now to get to Merstham. Luke and I left Daniel at Clapham Junction, but as we travelled down to East Croydon it became very quickly clear that this would not be possible with me getting the 22:30 train from Marylebone due to a signalling issue on the Brighton Mainline near Redhill that I was concerned would delay everything. We had a look at Norbury station but decided to keep it as safe as possible and filmed at Clapham Junction. 70000 came through nicely! After that we took the 21:46 train into London Victoria, and amazingly, we came alongside 70000 upon leaving Battersea Park and were treated to some lovely exhaust! We were lucky arriving into Victoria before her, so a quick run to Platform 2 saw us view her arrive and get a few close up shots before running for the tube. At that we returned home.
Thank you to all who made today possible, thanks especially to LSL, 70000 and her crew for recovering well from lateness at Faversham due to a bridge strike and still letting 70000 do the vast majority of the work which I hadn't anticipated at all due to the fire risk. Thanks also to my company and thanks to SWR, Southeastern and NR for getting me about today. I hope you enjoy this as I did!

[@JakeBSteam]

Great video as always Dan, love the football chant whistle at the start, very nice. Cheers, Jake.

[@crunchynutsteamfilms5043]

Chers Jake, yes the whistle was a funny addition to the video lol. Regards, Dan

[@andrewjohnfox]

Many thanks for the video. Britannia going well and there's some impressive gradients in the London area that don't often feature on videos.

[@crunchynutsteamfilms5043]

Thank you very much for watching it! Yes I was surprised a 1 in 92 sustained really existed in London! I know there's some pretty hefty gradients on junctions, bridges and so forth but those are very short. Penge was a good find! Regards, Dan

[@maxwellwalcher6420]

Love the Shots you made.

[@crunchynutsteamfilms5043]

Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoyed them! Regards, Dan

[@SimonTog]

Very nice video Dan :)

[@crunchynutsteamfilms5043]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed. Regards, Dan

[@DavidFennessy-yj7du]

I saw Brittania galloping through Beckenham Jct on the down a few years back, no exhaust noise, just the scissoring and collapsing action of the motion, sixty miles per hour maybe

[@crunchynutsteamfilms5043]

That's superb! 70000 at speed is actually really impressive. Regards, Dan

[@DavidFennessy-yj7du]

The train had to have been checked because they would be moving a lot faster than that through Penge East normally

[@crunchynutsteamfilms5043]

Yes it had indeed been checked, a stopper ahead meant the signal guarding Sydenham Hill Tunnel entrance was at a single yellow aspect. Regards, Dan

[@kellyashfordtrains2642]

Steam engines normally aren't allowed to run, if there's a fire risk due to hot weather. Britannia did well to give you what you wanted in any case. You're lucky you weren't caught in a heatwave, because Britannia would have had to stay shed-bound. Steam Rules Supreme, but steam engines and heatwaves don't mix.

[@crunchynutsteamfilms5043]

Yes we were lucky to see Britannia going so well. Thankfully since the video was published the fire risk has been rolled back again to green but under an orange risk I was highly surprised to see the loco working so well. Regards, Dan

[@PercyPruneMHDOIFandBars]

The only thing wrong with this is too much coach action. Oh. It's not long enough either!

[@paulripley2178]

Blue Peter is a better locomotive. More powerful and durable than Britannia.

[@crunchynutsteamfilms5043]

On tractive effort the A2 certainly is superior! But both of them are nice to see out and about. Regards, Dan