Tornado Railtours - 2019

Hi Daniel, hope you are well.

All recent UK Railtours brochures have advertised the A1SLT tours for which they act as agent. That's why I was surprised and disappointed by their departure from usual practice.

Best wishes

Peter on a WET Manchester morning
https://pjhtransportpix.zenfolio.com

 

Hi Peter, but I beg to differ. I have the UKRT brochure for Summer, Autumn and Christmas 2018 in front of me and that does not advertise any of the A1SLT tours. Neither does last years Autumn and Christmas brochure and I don't recall seeing them advertised

in previous brochures.

Dave B

 

True, and that is what the A1SLT says will happen for The Talisman on 15th September. UKRT haven't yet updated their website accordingly, but they will have been busy on Friday preparing for their (non-steam) Walsall Concerto railtour and on Saturday running it, and I suppose they just might need Sunday off after that. I'm tempted to book, but what we still don't know is what the fire risk will be just over a month from now.

 

Pathfinder have booked Tornado for a trip to Chester on 15th December. Outwards from Bescot Yard through Walsall to Stafford and up WCML, return through Ruabon and Shrewsbury. At least there shouldn't be a diesel assist at that time of year!

 

I can't recall many steam specials going through Cannock Chase.

 

For those not on Facebook, the dates circled below are planned 2019 railtour dates for Tornado.

 

Also, if 60163 heads back to Worcester on the return (don't have the proposed itinerary to hand, so not certain), then it'll do that equally rare curve at Smethwick Galton Bridge, as well as the north curve at Soho junction. Will probably help to salvage my line bashing requirements for the second half of this year, which have taken a serious hit due to reschedulings to the two weeks I'm on holiday!

 

Does it count if it's diesel-hauled? UK Railtours' Walsall Concerto two weeks ago (11 August) did the Smethwick curve, and it did Soho E to N twice.
Sorry for thread drift, hope there's soon much more to be posted about Tornado.

 

Depends on what you're in to, but as my personal ambition is to cover as much of Britain's current railway network by steam as possible, then it wouldn't count for me.

 

Tornado isn't running on the NVR this weekend. More inspections and sign-offs needed I guess. Hope to be running early in September. Then got to do 50 round trips to accumulate 750 miles before any mainline test. Wonder if the tours on 29th September and 3rd October are realistically feasible??

 

Unlikely I would say.

 

Along with Other tours this has appeared on the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust and A1 Steam Locomotive Trust Facebook page, so guess it's advertised elsewhere too:

‘The Aberdonian’, a brand new programme of five steam-hauled tours between Edinburgh and Aberdeen for 2019!
Let the ‘The Aberdonian’, a new steam operation for 2019, whisk you away as we take in some of the best that Scotland has to offer, both on train and off. Crossing the Forth Bridge and the Tay Bridge, the train runs along the coast for much of its route making it an unrivalled way to experience Scotland. In Aberdeen there is a chance to explore this historic city, or take one of our off train excursions that include a castle or distillery visit. On board the train you can sit back in comfortable seats and large windows through which to admire the scenery. Our friendly team will look after you, and if you choose to dine with us you will be treated to fine Scottish fare. Come and be one of the first to travel with us as Tornado begins another chapter running regularly over this historic route.

Dates available:
Thursday 14th March –
Thursday 1st August –
Thursday 8th August –
Saturday 31stAugust –
Saturday 7th September.

Prices start from £99.00
https://www.a1steam.com/2018/09/12/the-aberdonian/

I'd almost say the route deserves Number 9 - but I'll take Tornado as a good alternative!

 

One way only presumably as nowhere to turn loco.

 

Presume will turn on the turntable at Aberdeen.

 

I think the hope is the turntable will be ready for use for 2019. From the GBXII thread:

 

More detail from the link itself:

Once across the river on our left is the recently refurbished turntable at the former Ferryhill depot. This is where Tornado will be turned for our return journey and is something that is important facility to make this magnificent journey possible.

 

Article in the latest SR received today. Graeme Bunker is quoted " The turntable should be complete by the end of the year".

 

Definitely one to think about, methinks. Have been trying to sample steam on the Aberdeen line (unsuccessfully due to re-routings or lack of money) for the past five years. Quite good that they have considered things to do whilst there. If anything is arranged for 60009 apart from its prospective stint on RTC's GBXII, I expect the SRPS would be the ones to do it. Here's hoping, as I'll seriously consider going up twice!

 

Slightly puzzled by the latest wave of announcements including North Briton and Aberdonian tour dates.

Most immediately, no mention of any plans to rearrange the Ynys Mon outing scheduled for two weeks time (either on the A1SLTor the UK Railtours websites), despite the cancellation of the Pathfinder's S&C trip four days later. Which can only mean either a mercurial recommissioning programme for Tornado to maintain this date, or potentially a very last minute notice of cancellation that will surely be frustrating to intending passengers at this late stage. Not within my gift to speculate which, but I just would say that it was immensely helpful to get Pathfinder's confirmation of the cancellation of their S&C excursion on 3rd October in good time (4 weeks notice), because as it turns out, I can now use the day very productively doing something else that wouldn't have been possible if notice of cancellation had been delayed to the last minute.

Bleeder 4 reproduced a calendar (Facebook origin or some-such?) in post 166 above showing dates for A1SLT excursions in 2019 circled. The North Briton and Aberdonian announcements now explain most of the dates shown, but still no explanation of what is/ will be happening on 13th/ 27th April and 4th May, all of which are highlighted on the 2019 calendar. So is there more to come from what seems to be a rather piecemeal approach to the release of next year's programme?

One reason for wanting to know about these vacant dates is the disappearance of a Peterborough-Canterbury tour from the programme that looked particularly attractive - especially so since Kent and that part of South-East England isn't exactly over-run by steam on the main line at the moment. Perplexingly, the diagrammatic map showing routes of the forthcoming A1SLT tours still includes this excursion. So what's the plan?

Lots of advance notice and a very high standard of clarity about tour plans have both been hallmarks of what to me has looked like very professional, well thought out plans for Tornado tours by the A1SLT in the recent past. I do hope that the current hiatus with Tornado doesn't mean there's going to be a risk of any erosion of the latter, because the dependability of their railtour "offer" has been a crucial factor in having the confidence to support and commit to bookings on their tours.