35005 Canadian Pacific launch Gala: 20th-23rd March 2025

Full details now available on the Watercress Line website of this four day event to launch Can Pac back into service. The event is part of the Railway 200 celebrations next year.
https://watercressline.co.uk/special-days/canadian-pacific-launch

Rides behind 35005 will be by pre-booked ticket only for one round trip (starting from Alresford). The tickets will allow unlimited travel on the other services in operation for the event.

Outline of the event from the WL website:
"Step aboard history in motion as Canadian Pacific, one of the last surviving Merchant Navy Class locomotives, takes to the tracks for her long-awaited return. Built in 1941 during World War II, this iconic engine has been lovingly restored to her former glory, representing resilience, innovation, and an enduring connection to Britain’s railway heritage.

This exclusive event offers the first opportunity to ride behind Canadian Pacific since her restoration, marking the beginning of a new chapter in her storied legacy. Join us on March 20–23, for an unforgettable journey, with tailored experiences inspired by the golden age of steam travel and luxury boat trains.

Immerse yourself in the glamour of the 1950s golden era as you step into a world of vintage charm. Enjoy live music performances that bring the era to life, browse our exclusive merchandise stands for one-of-a-kind souvenirs, and celebrate the enduring magic of steam travel."


March 20th: 35005 hauls three special dining trains (Breakfast, lunch or dinner). The stock will be formed of the Bulleid and Watercress Belle carriages.

Tickets: £350.05 for two people.


March 21st: 35005 hauls her first public service trains.

Tickets: £55.

March 22nd -23rd: Gala weekend with 35005 in action alongside the resident fleet.

Tickets: £35.

The timetable will be available nearer the time of the event.

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The prices

(Early access to certain individuals who subscribed to the relevant newsletter)

 

Interesting. Is Canadian Pacific really high profile enough to command that extra level of ticket pricing for one round trip over a 4 day event? (Genuinely asking, to me it doesn't strike me as being that level but I might be wrong!)

 

Is this in lieu of or in addition to a Spring gala?

 

This is in addition to the Spring Gala which is 25th-27 th April.

 

IMHO no.

Unlike 32424 at Bluebell and 563 at Swanage. CanPac is just another Bulleid Pacific (as great as they are) I honestly don't feel that the price is neccessary when it'll become a regular performer anyway especially for a timed round trip only.

Not intended to be mean-spirited. I think in these times it's important to get views from both sides of the coin. I wish MHR every success however but I'll wait for the Spring Gala the following month with extras.

 

I believe the Bluebell charged something similar for the first runs of Beachy Head?
I’ve genuinely no idea how that played out with punters.

 

Pretty popular. All services that week was on a extended timetable and people had free choice to go on whatever train they had. Albeit a few was non stops but was still able to change over.

Bearing in mind. That was a brand new engine. 35005 is still another Bulleid.

 

Ah, yes, I forgot all that! So it’s not really comparing like with like is it. Apologies….

 

No need to apologise. I think it's good to have people's different takes on a subject.

 

I don't recall doing anything similar for P&O's debut nearly 10 years ago (cripes!), arguably a slightly bigger deal it being it's first ever preservation trains. However, this sort of thing seems relatively new, my impression is it stemmed from flying scotsman visits since its last major overhaul and railways trying to emulate that styler of lucrative operation, so maybe a few years later and we'd have tried the same for P&O.

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I'm sure there will be some people for whom the attraction of being on one of / The first train CanPac hauls since overhaul will be worth paying an extra, supplementary fee. However, some I think limiting your CanPac haulage ticket to just the one trip on one day might be shooting themselves in the foot and resulting in many of CanPac's trains actually being quite lightly patronised, with more passengers saving the £20 and squeezing themselves onto the other service set(s).

Let's do some conservative rough maths here. Let's say CanPac does 3 round trips per day - that's 12 trains over the course of the weekend. Let's say they hang 5 coaches behind her, 4 SOs or SKs with a capacity of 48, and then a brake coach with a capacity of 24 - that's 216 passengers a train, so across the 12 trains your potential bums on seats is 2592 passengers. While you might well get 2592 passenger tickets sold over the course of a 4 day gala weekend, are all of those passengers going to be willing to spend an extra £20 to get them a trip behind CanPac, and are they going to be willing to spread themselves evenly over all 12 trains across the weekend? And that's not factoring in that some passengers, as @Ben Jenden has said, might decide to wait a month and attend the Spring Steam Gala where a similarly priced ticket could get you unrestricted haulage behind the big Bulleid. I do hope the MHR have judged this right but I'm worried their pricing structure will actually put more people off attending the event that they'll be worse off than if they just did a flat £35 (or even £40) rover ticket cost requiring pre-booking a seat on a CanPac train at no extra cost.

Says somebody who lives in Nottinghamshire and doesn't really have the ability to get to either the CanPac launch weekend or the Spring Steam Gala so for whom this issue is kind of moot!

 

If CanPac had been fitted with the necessary gubbins, I should have been delighted to pay a premium for the first mainline run. As it's yet another Bulleid condemned to trundle up and down a heritage line at 25mph, I can wait.

 

Yes I attend to agree with your logic, it seems strange not to allow travel on other trains. Plus is a TSO not 64 seats so that makes the passenger count even higher?

 

QUOTE="Gladiator 5076, post: 2904371, member: 26760"]Yes I attend to agree with your logic, it seems strange not to allow travel on other trains. Plus is a TSO not 64 seats so that makes the passenger count even higher?[/QUOTE]
Yes it is, but I deliberately chose an SO which is fewer passengers because there is then a smaller maximum capacity to hit in the interests of seeing how feasible it is. Likewise it is entirely possible that CanPac would run 4 trains per day or the trains would be 6 coaches long, all of which would mean you need to find more passengers to pay the extra £20 per ticket to mean the loco isn't trundling up and down with empty stock which everybody else crams onto the other train.

 

Oh dear no, no. no!! To those of us who were there for it’s exploits in 1965 it most certainly is not just another Bulleid pacific . Quite apart from the incredible night of May 15th 1965 it got close to 3,000 IHP on the 530 pm down during the ‘race to Basingstoke week’ in early June 1965. Despite Sooty Saunders trying hard with various engines signal checks meant the fastest time stayed with 35005 on May 15th

 

We have booked tickets on the lunchtime 35005 service on 21st March and ordered one of the Pacific provisions snack boxes to enjoy during the round trip.
Hopefully this event will attract plenty of customers.
The dining trains appear to be selling very well since the tickets were released for sale yesterday (although the online booking function on the Watercress Line website is currently not working at the moment).

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I think the Beachy Head event just had normal day rover prices (and travel behind Beachy Head itself was unlimited, i.e. you could ride as much as the timetable allowed behind that loco if you so desired).

I wish the MHR well with relaunching Canadian Pacific - been a few years since I last saw it!

Tom

 

My worry would be that the Flying Scotsman model (where essentially you can say "take this once in a blue moon opportunity to ride behind X" doesn't translate when all and sundry know that if they wait a few weeks, X will be the regular service loco for a railway and can be ridden behind at normal fares.

I wish the MHR well, and hope they make plenty of money for the weekend, but I think a premium fare for the first trips of what will become a regular service loco entering traffic is a hard act to pull off, relative to a premium loco for a gala visitor that may not visit again for years or even decades to come. A small premium for the initial services maybe, but not a major one. I suspect the MHR have probably got this just about right, in that it is only the first public day that is a significant premium; days 2 and 3 look like a gala fare, but not massive.

If I am reading the information right, it is only the first public day in traffic that has the £20 premium over a normal fare (£55). Days 2 and 3 are £35. (And day 0, so to speak, is high-end dining).

So using your calculation, they probably need to find about 150 couples ready to pay £350 per couple for a high-end meal; and 3 - not 12 - train's worth of people ready to pay the £20 premium over a more normal fare. The latter sounds doable to me; I think the hard one to fill might be the breakfast train at £175 each on what for many people will be a working day.

Tom

 

Whilst it makes sence to launch can pac after what has been a very expensive overhaul, I would have preferred to have seen a bullied gala, with several guests instead of the spring gala, especially if the other working MN 's could have been part of the show, when does 35006's ticket expire, , so it could have been a last chance, for her, plus if 35028, and 35018 could attended, OK, i know there would have been some very delicate negotiations, needed , but that would have made it something unforgettable, because as far as i know, none of the working merchants have ever beein on the same railway, at the same time. and are never likely to be again, as 35006, is nearing the end of her ticket, as is 35018