2019 British Pullman steam

A bit frustrating for us today as we just missed this. Yesterday I looked at UK steam info website (which hasn't been updated for a while due to the poor health of the author. Any news on David anyone?) and saw that there was originally supposed to be a Surrey Hills run with 35028 today.
Then I looked at the alternative UK Railtours website which has steam and diesel trips listed. On there it said that the next few Belmond Pullmans were Kent circulars to Gillingham and it had the timings for the Gillingham trip today. People on Social media were also saying that today's run was going to Gillingham.

We were wondering around Guildford this afternoon and heard the distinct sound of a Bulleid whistle at about 14.15 with my Dad exclaiming "That was Clan Line!"
Had a look at RTT and found that they had used the Surrey Hills circuit Bugger!

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Why? It's been programmed for the Surrey Hills BP and shown on the Railway Herald tours list for ages.

 

Is that still going? thought it hd been discredited years ago.

 

On the contrary, it has effectively taken over from 'UK Steam' during David's illness and thus inability to update his site.

 

Agree. It’s the one I currently use. As you say it has effectively taken over since the demise of UK Steam.

 

At Buckland today, as a shower recedes to allow sunshine on the still-falling rain. BTW, in case anyone thinks it's mis-loaded or something, the effect I was going for with the editing was almost a 'Ladybird' book appearance.

 

The schedules are there now and I found them a week or so ago.
Note that they are VAR schedules not STP like all Belmond Surrey Hills workings.



Not certain where the idea of a trip around Kent came from - the Surrey Hills was booked for Clan Line from May if not before.

Cheers, Neil

 

And still full of TBC as much as it ever was.

 

Another, less painty, one from Buckland today.

 

Well, it told me what I needed to know today, whereas many appeared to be misled elsewhere! Perhaps you'd be good enough to share your source of infallible and constantly-accurate information?

 

We’re all desperately searching for a replacement for UKSteam and Railway Herald appears to have improved considerably in an attempt to fill the gap.
Another one that’s trying hard is Rail Advent. They seem to have a bad reputation on here but they got the British Pullman right today, giving a link to the new RTT website with the correct timings.
I couldn’t find the timings on RTT today because, as @Romsey said, they were under VAR rather than the usual STP timings

 

Sorry, but that may not be correct. The regular Surrey Hills circuit (like todays) has not been an STP working for years,it's always been in the WTT. Have a look at Shalford in RTT for any day next week and you'll see a WTT "Q" (runs as required) path every day.

Apologies if I have misunderstood the point you were making.

 

https://www.opentraintimes.com/schedule/P92206/2019-10-18

 

It is now, it wasnt yesterday morning.

 

I just have all codes visible (no filters) for a particular location (in my case, my home station of Betchworth) and see what's running on the day in question. I don't think it takes me much longer than filtering and I don't miss anything listed.

 

They always appear on RTT and I don’t see the confusion here, this trip was known about months ago. It did mean a quick turnaround for the engine after the Stratford trip and brings home the effort needed to keep a 100% volunteer run engine the main line. I don’t think I’m talking out of turn by saying if anyone wants to get away from the weekend routine and likes a bit of friendly banter and going home dirty then join the Society and contact the volunteer coordinator.

 

Also nice to see 35028 continuing to carry/use 'normal' headlamps on the main line, rather than a high-intensity headlight.

 

The high intensity light is mandatory and is contained in one of the electric lamps, similar to Tornado

 

Is there any chance No.9 will work the first Pullman of next year in February like it did this year?