5029 Nunney Castle Conquers Dainton 

Pressure must be well down, about 175 psi instead of 225. Another couple of hundred yards and it would have stalled, judging by the deceleration as it approached the tunnel. 5043, though, steams like an absolute demon. I'd imagine it just roared up the bank "with the greatest of ease".

Hi Kelly - I wasn't knocking the young fireman. I was sympathising. A real "baptism of fire" ;-) You're right about Nunney. I've seen her apparrently close to stalling several times but never seen her actually beaten. There are 2 shots of her climbing Hemerdon earlier the same day on the disc: Steam Age Pictures volume 47: Mainline 2011, GWR Locomotives. That was even more epic. You could count the seconds between exhaust beats before she cleared the summit! I hear she's getting a larger superheater, similar to 5043's, as part of the current overhaul. It will be interesting to see what difference that makes. She'll still have a single chimney though.

No engine is bigger than its fireman and this one was not quite up to it maybe for quite understandable reasons. Another couple of hundred yards of that gradient and Nunney would certainly have stalled, to judge from the rate of deceleration as it approached the tunnel. There's nothing wrong with Nunney but it does need a proper diet.

Nothing to do with the Fireman, it's down to Lack of driving Experience ( probably)

@@loco42041 If blame has to be apportioned it can only lie with the fireman as it is very obvious the pressure is well down but I have great sympathy with the fellow who simply cannot get the practice of day-to-day work as was the case in steam days. The driver did what he could - not opening out too early as that would have brought the pressure down even more with a poor-steaming engine. From just before the bridge the loco was absolutely flat out, foot-on-the floor-in-bottom gear in motoring terms and the driver no doubt had his hand on the regulator watching for a slip which had it occurred would have been curtains. In 1959 I watched a succession of trains come up this bank (yes, I'm quite old). It is the easiest of the four South Devon banks. The technique was to go hard on the lower easier part of the bank and allow the speed to fall quite low at the top, without having to give the loco a hammering. You could almost call it a canter. The top part is very steep (1 in 38/43/37) but short, only 0.65 of a mile.

Never criticize the fireman unless you are aware of all the circumstances appertaining to the engine on the day. I'm a fireman and bad coal can cause no end of problems no matter how good the fireman is.@@Rosie6857

8 on . A number of Black 5,s have done it with 8 yes,