CathEx - Chester - April 2nd

Where is Tangmere?

 

No, it worked a tour to York in February just a few days before the WCRC ban, so I would have expected it to be at Southall

 

Perhaps its been thrown away in the clean up?

 

Not good new's was looking forward to seeing steam though Northampton;

 

The livery gestapo would disagree with your suggestion that a short burst of Galatea is better than nothing!

 

Isnt there a member of Tangmere support crew who posts here sometimes? Perhaps he will enlighten us,thanks in advance!

 

He really brought the comments on himself...

 

The location of all main line steam locos every Sunday morning is listed in the loco movements page at uksteam.info !

David

 

Very useful David, wasn't aware you updated than often, but I thought 60103 was at the NRM last weekend?

 

A link.
http://www.uksteam.info/tours/lem16.htm#loc

 

In mileage terms, the equivalent to a trip from Paddington to Swindon, and that's it. I think I would request a refund or credit for a future trip. Just compare the mileage on the Tornado run which is over 300 miles, then you can see why 77 miles is very poor fayre. A stroll around Shrewsbury or Chirk is hardly compensation for that.

 

I suspect that for whatever reason WCR aren't using Southall at the moment. It might or might not be permanent. So don't expect much steam in the London area if WCR are involved. Also don't expect RTC or SD to admit to this as it would damage their business. We need another steam TOC as GBC and UKR cant take on everything

 

I fear you are dead right there,although the stock seems to be coming from Southall so maybe it is not completely closed. I guess we will know more quite soon,as SD have a trip to Bristol on 13 April and RTC to Worcester on 16 April. Both appear to be currently booked for Tangmere.....

 

The stock is usually stabled in the yard so I wouldn't have thought the state of the shed would be an issue.

 

Perhapse the route knowledge of the footplate crews have lapsed

 

Unlikely I think considering that this is the WCML. They must have enough men who know the route from Euston to Crewe. However, crewing steam tours could be more of a challenge now that they are required to have a Traction Inspector on board.

 

Perhaps this is something we should all start to get use to again! There is certainly signs that these are the sort of sensible itineraries that the ORR and other major stakeholders in the big rail industry are expecting to see with steam rail tours, sensible routes, mileage, and load.....
The one upmanship of tour operators to see who can run the greatest milage mega tours certainly doesn't do anybody any favours within the industry when overworked loco's start to flag towards the end of the run, causing delays etc....
Seems west coast are taking the sensible option....
IIRC these sort of trains were pretty much the norm under the old SLOA regime that many on here applaud!!