'Scots Guardsman' to Weymouth. 19/07/2016

All the trips I been on from London to Carlisle have been well loaded. One year I did not book earlier enough and they were full booked. They did cancel one date this year due to poor bookings. These trips have 8 pick-up points over a wide area but more importantly they are usually run on a Saturday - quieter roads and station caraparks, quieter service trains with cheaper fares.

 

I am not surprised these trains are well loaded as they have been running for seveal years now. As you point out, there are a number of pick-up points and if you join at, say Carlisle, Nuneaton or Rugby, it's not too long a day out. However, it's a long enough day for someone in London and if you live south of London and have a two-hour journey just to get to Euston, the appeal factor drops to zero as far as I'm concerned.

Given there must be plenty of other people keen to travel behind mainline steam living in - or to the south of - London, I do think that trying a different late winter/spring destination must be worth a try. Just seen this morning that next Wednesday's DCE has bitten the dust due to fire risk and lack of loco and the following Saturday's tran from Poole to Worcester has also been cancelled. It has not been a good year for main line steam in the south, but I yet live in hope that there might be a re-think of both destination and the period of year in which to run trains. Next year, besides hopefully seeing 35018's return, would be an appropriate year to experiment with some new ideas as it will mark 50 years since the end of Southern steam. This doesn't mean just Bournemouth, Swanage or Weymouth. The 50th anniversary of the last BR steam excursions to, say the Sussex Coast or over the Guildford-Redhill line could be commemorated, perhaps.

 

I was at Dorchester South, hoping to film 46115 passing through, but alas for me and my fellow enthusiasts it came in on the "wrong" side and stopped for a signal! Doubtless this was due to the various delays and signal problems you mention.

 

I do wonder if the WCME's are loading well due to more people getting fed up at not much traditionally happening in Jan/Feb and wanting something to do ?, I know I do a few diesel tours in Jan to fill the void between New Years and the gala season starting around March, yes shorter daylight is a downside but not a dealbreaker.