The Impact of the Heatwave on Heritage Railways

I wonder if this has has much to do with the Royal International Air Tattoo at nearby RAF Fairford this weekend? Totally sold out and many local road closures so can't imagine it would be a profitable weekend for the S&C anyway.

 

"Due to the ever increasing weather" ???

 

The East Somerset Railway have cancelled their dining train this Sunday due to the heatwave:

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GCR cancelling all services on Tuesday

 

No diesel option? I guess their experience tells them steam haulage is more vital than the actual dining aspect of the service. Slightly curious all the same.

 

Their concern seems more to be about conditions for passengers in the carriages rather than fear of fire from steam locos in this instance. Wonder how many more will follow.

 

Or that it's harder to get people to work in a hot kitchen car than a hot footplate

 

I wonder how far the ESR's dining train actually moves during Sunday lunch?

 

I was on the first of what became the Torbay Expresses when the Manor (Bradley?) failed at Kingswear.

We came back with a 37, and I remember how the train cooked up waiting signals just outside Exeter, so I suggest that a stationary dining train could become dangerously overheated very quickly especially given the forecast for the weekend

 

Of course. I was forgetting about that. So, compartment stock for pandemics, MkIId or later for heatwaves. Is any line running an HST yet?

 

I remember a lunchtime Wessex Belle on the Swanage Railway on a very hot day some years ago, with 34028 Eddystone doing the honours.
The food and service were excellent, but the carriages were sweltering and I have to say that a full-on roast dinner would not have been our first choice on the day, on top of which one of our party couldn’t make it, so we had four meals to eat between three of us!

 

Nene Valley Railway:

Our scheduled service this Sunday has been changed. On Sunday 17th July we will now be running our Heritage Swedish Railcar and Trailer due to the Amber weather alerts. Our Railcar is more ventilated than our diesel service and will make for a more comfortable experience for those traveling with us this Sunday. The timetable will stay the same.

 

I have spent many hours in Jersey Sidings having cleaned the stock on a DCE. Even on a coolish day if you are sat in the sun and the stock is not moving it gets stupidly hot very quickly. Many heritage lines seem to have quite a lot of "parked time" on dining services, so many may find it an unpleasant experience.

 

Things cooled down quickly once the train got moving and we had a great time. Of course, it’s not just a ‘Swanage” thing, I have experienced very similar conditions on the return legs of mainline excursions when the train has been parked up for a few hours.

I have always been very impressed by standards of on-train catering, particularly on heritage lines where so much of the hard graft is done by volunteers working in hot and cramped conditions. I think the mere fact that, even now, most dining trains are booked up months in advance, speaks for itself.

 

Just seen the latest weather forecast on the Beeb ..... they're suggesting 40°C is on the cards in the SE and 'high 30s' elsewhere on Tuesday. Stay safe folks, keep hydrated out there.

I'm just hoping we don't get that horrible weather condition they call a 'calima' in the Canaries. Really high pressure, with the hot air so still (and stale) you can start to believe you're having breathing problems (been there .... but you're really not!).

 

According to the forecast Swanage looks like the place to be -

I'm going for an early holiday cos I know its cooler in the South