Pulling Power! 71000 Duke of Gloucester over the Riviera Hills, 2010 – 2012

The second video featuring a locomotive scheduled to return to main-line service in 2023.

It has been a long 11 year wait for this unique and glorious machine to return to the mainline but all indications point to her return in 2023 and the mouth-watering prospect of a Duke joining a King in service if 6024, after a similar length of absence, fulfils everyone’s hopes.

Here is a collection of HD footage from her last three years of operation before withdrawal on 15th August 2012 taken near my home on the hilly Torbay Branch Line (Newton Abbot to Kingswear) featuring some nice close-ups and controlled climbing on gradients of up to 1 in 55 just to remind us of what a magnificent beast she is and what we have all missed in the last decade.

We start with the 1 in 115 climb from Aller Junction through Kingskerswell in very damp conditions followed by the 1 in 60 twisty grade around Broadsands Bay over Broadsands and Hookhills viaducts, punctuated by that distinctive (almost light-weight!) 3 cylinder “patter” from her Kylchap exhaust which totally belies the enormous power on tap. The return from Kingswear is seen from the Higher Ferry slipway on the Dart, followed by the 1 in 66 climb through Greenway, the 1 in 98 at Preston Sands and finally a powerful assault of the 1 in 55 to Torre Station, the last place I filmed her and only 10 days before valve failure at Eastleigh forced an early withdrawal from service.

Chapters: 00:00 Title
00:13 Kingskerswell
00:47 Broadsands
02:51 Dart Estuary
04:17 Greenway
05:34 Preston Sands
06:28 Torre