No Saturday steam on 28th May

Just went to book on the 28th May Southern Irishman with 70013 only to find it has been cancelled owing to lack of bookings. And with PMR Tours run over Shap and the S&C with 46115, already off due to pathing constraints we now have a mainline steamless Saturday. With five mainline runs listed for the previous Saturday and three on the following Saturday (apart from the Jacobite) all vying for business this is indeed unfortunate and hopefully not a portent of things to come.

 

I Think that this may well be a sign of things to come people only have so much money they can spend on days out and they will choose the one's that go from near were they live to save on petrol cost which are getting near the £1.40 a liter every day ;
all the best
jane;

 

Why not visit your local steam railway and give them your support.

 

It's Llangollen and through my shareholding I have a lifetime free pass although they do make a good cup of tea.

 

No, it is Sunday 29th that is definitely "steam free" - there will hopefully be 3 mainline steam trips on the 28th.

What does seeem very odd is that is Bank Holiday weekend, yet The Jacobite running. This is strange also considering that most heritage railways would see that as one of their busiest weekends of the year, leading the "7th week" of the summer holidays.

Steven

 

There is the Steam Railmotor launch at Didcot that day, there is the Golden Oldies gala at the GCR, and if I remember right, Flying Scotsman on display in wartime black at the NRM.

As for the Fishguard trip, I suspect it's just not that attractive a destination to get the family market out for it. Apologies in advance to any Fishguard lovers. Enthusiasts are well-catered for elsewhere.

Are you sure?

 

Yes - God willing, I should be guarding them! I suspect most people would say they don't count but they will be keeping the steam flag flying on NwR as they do on a number of other days each year!

Steven

 

I dont believe it, best look what else there is to do then.

 

By contrast, the 6024 train to Carmarthen, Tenby and Pembroke Dock last weekend was fully booked.

 

I think perhaps this says more about where the tour companies' regular customers are based. RTC, who promoted the Fishguard trip, have said a couple of times before that they have trouble filling tours to SW Wales. 6024's trip was promoted by Pathfinder, which has a much stronger customer base in the South West.

All the tour companies have a similar problem - they get better economies of scale by running more frequent trips, especially when they can repeat well-tested itineraries. However, they have to keep finding new customers to fill all these trains...

 

Not necessarily. I believe 5029's run to Fishguard last year was fully booked, and many commented on what a wonderful trip it was despite there being no destination. Having said that, it was a Castle on the front...

 

Saturday 28th May "The Bangor Belle" Whitehead - Belfast Central - Lisburn - Bangor (and return). Could be yours for a bargain fare of £12. Perhaps uksteam.info should really be gbsteam.info? ;-)

http://www.steamtrainsireland.com/events/

 

Thats a shame some tours were call of and there was going to be 3 in Birmingham new street that morning but still 2 are on cant complain.

 

I vaguely recall the occasional steam tour in the 80s / early 90s marketed as going to a "mystery destination". Wasn't there one with City of Truro that did something around the Lydney area? I doubt you could do it now, the "gen men" would never be able to keep it quiet, they'd be checking TOPS schedules every few minutes

 

TRUST schedules but you could check TOPS to find out the stock allocation and work backwards from there.

 

DRS 37s to the Cornish branches on the 28th for us now In some ways better than Fishguard with 70013. (Booked for 5029)

Does anyone know if this new service that will start (not sure if its starting this change or not) from Swansea to Fishguard will effect the running of steam as I believe it is to be of a fairly high frequency??

 

Nerd alert

 

Indeed