The Great Britain VIII

Strange, the page/post/tweet no longer exists..............

But these do.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-32427781

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/...starts_into_near_miss_at_high_speed_junction/

And no I'm not stirring the brown stuff, but they seem to make a mockery of what RTC has issued in good faith......... is this Carnforth the "Ministry of Misinformation" spinning things given this is RTC's premier UK tour?......

Me, I would rather believe official statements from the relevant bodies, but as they are not saying much, I will hold my breath.

Though I do feel for those booked on this, not "getting" the tour they have paid for, but RTC have had no choice but to rescue what they can from the mess - just imagine if this had happened mid tour.......... or perhaps not.

The one "bonus" for those traveling is, they still get to see Britain in all its glory - weather permitting!

 

The tweet is still there I tend to agree I'm waiting for either wcrc to say something or RTC. Railway have posted this tonight not much new in this
RTC's Great Britain 8 working is understood to be running, starting on Tuesday 28th April.

Railway Herald has not been able to obtain confirmation from RTC, although we believe that DBS will operate the first two days, and No. 70000 Britannia will work the train between London and Exeter on Day 1. The onward journey is believed to be diesel, but this is unconfirmed. Day 2, is now understood to be steam to Bristol.

The situation regarding operators and motive power for Day 3 onwards remains totally unconfirmed, although we will endeavour to update readers on Monday.

Our congratulations go to all involved for their efforts with this charter. An operation like the multi-day 'Great Britain' working is complex at the best of times, and has been more so this year for obvious reasons.

 

One thing that has bemused me is that both the Railway Herald and, until recently, the UKsteam Info listings show GB8 as going via Cardiff. Whilst the original plan was to go via the Heart of Wales route, this was changed quite some time ago to the Welsh Marches route. Indeed even the latest RTC hard copy brochure shows the alteration in the itinerary, although the preamble still refers to crossing "mountainous Central Wales".

 

Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!

 

That link isn't working but it's on their twitter feed: https://twitter.com/rlyherald/with_replies

 

uksteam.info hasn't shown it going via Cardiff for a long time

 

The "Special Delivery" from RTC has arrived and the advertised steam sections are as follows.

Victoria to Exeter -70000
Plymouth to Bristol - 70000
Shrewsbury to Grange over Sands - Steam
Grange over Sands to Edinburgh - Steam
Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh and return - Steam
Inverness to Helmsdale and return - Steam
Inverness to Perth - Steam
Grange over Sands to Doncaster - Steam

The actual locos are tbc.

The timings for day 3 are given as Bristol TM dep. 08.19 and Grange over Sands arr. 16.10, although these do not seem to be on RTT yet.

Eight passenger carrying coaches are shown in the formation.

 

Closer inspection of the revised programme shows a couple of interesting and perhaps disturbing points. Day 5 (Sat., 2 May) is the one all diesel day from Edinburgh to Inverness but of more concern is Day 7 (Mon., 4 May) which is shown as only going to Helmsdale and not to Wick as originally advertised (and paid for!). i.e. it appears not to be the "Land's End to John O'Groats (almost)" tour that I thought I would be getting. It is bad enough to have had the steam content severely reduced but there seems no excuse for not continuing to Wick, albeit under diesel power.

Hopefully this is a typo in the revised itinerary and it will be diesel from Helmsdale to Wick and return.

 

Both of those are reporting the stuff from 10 days ago, and the "criminal investigation" title means it was a very slow news day indeed that needed spicing up

 

I don't want to pour cold water on RTC's efforts to rescue this tour, but, like Deaftech, I booked almost exclusively to get Helmsdale to Wick, the missing link on MY steam trackmap (and Thurso, of course, but one would have "done"). However, I don't think THAT will stand up in a court of law!

Let's hope that it was a typo, but I suspect NOT - returning by steam from Helmsdale probably took the proposed tour over the "half the advertised steam" level, which leaves one without a leg to stand on if you asked for a cancellation.

If that option was open to me, or even transferring the money to another RTC tour, or tours, I'd take it.

 

http://www.uksteam.info/tours/t11/t0418a.htm

These are the times from the Wick to Inverness leg a few years ago. Despite the sparse service on the line, it's a struggle to path tours along there. There was talk a few weeks ago, before it all kicked off, that the departure time might be 05.30! And that was for steam to Wick and diesel back.

It's not great, there's a lot of diesel mileage in there, but it's better than it could've been. One thing that does puzzle me is there is no mention of WCRC at any point in the last couple of emails. Could it be a DBS operation, hence the much reduced steam mileage?

 

Possibly DBS DRS in combination, with the former providing what steam remains?

 

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U55382/2015/04/29/advanced

 

Ian Riley's 5's??



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Shrewsbury to Grange was the fives originally so if DBS can operate them that could remain with them continuing round the coast next day. Presuming 10A isn't out of bounds for stabling

 

Showing as WCRC operation.

 

Makes sense. The 5s are air braked so DBS could use them.