Churnet Valley Railway Volunteers' Day

'Hotspur' early this morning

Early morning at a hazy Consall today. Before services began for our Churnet Valley Railway Volunteers' Day the Polish Tank was out for a play. I haven't switched in the signal box yet (and won't until the first timetabled train arrives) hence the loco running apparently 'wrong road' towards an 'off' signal.

Later the early spring sun burned off most of the haze. And despite a track circuit failure I discovered when I switched on the power in the 'box all went well.

Me filling in the all important train register 

The Polish Tank approaches Consall this afternoon, after the haze had gone

I wait to collect the Froghall - Consall token from the driver..... 

 .....Like this!

Here's a nice video shot at the Volunteer Day. Note the S160 at about 2 minutes into the video passing the Black Lion with caution before opening up to blast off up the valley. This was because I had a track circuit failure in Consall box which prevented me clearing either the down loop starter or down main starter signals so trains were authorised to pass the relevant starter signal at danger (at 10:16 you can see the Polski Tank passing the up main starter at danger) but I'd also asked the driver to visually check point 11 (the electric point at the north end of the loop) as they approached it. 

I asked them to do this as my stepping outside the protection of the signal interlocking in permitting 'pass at danger' also meant the point was unprotected by the relevant starter signal and if I'd screwed up there was no interlocked signalling protection against the train approaching a wrongly-set point and derailing, or wrecking the point, or both. Once the driver sees the point is correctly set, he accelerates away.

Yours truly can be seen collecting the token at Consall at one point in the video as well.

Volunteer Day video

Another superb day in the valley!

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