Steam Dreams Banbury - Swanage 19th April 2012

I couldn't find a thread for this one - correct me if I'm wrong. We'll be on this - anyone else?

Currently slated for 6201, though the listing in SR has Britannia and UK Steam has TBA.

Any idea of routings and climbs along the way - not really my neck of the woods!

 

Assuming you take the obvious route...

Banbury - Oxford - Reading: mostly gently falling or level, with a short climb between Heyford and Tackley.
Reading - Basingstoke: must be a bit of a climb somewhere, not sure.
Basingstoke - Southampton: gently uphill to Roundwood tunnel, then falling all the way to Southampton.
Southampton - Poole - Worgret Jnc: The line across The New Forest is a bit of a switchback. It climbs from Lyndhurst Rd (now called Ashhurst?) to Beaulieu Rd, falls to Brockenhurst, then climbs to Sway, falls to Christcurch, climbs to Pokesdown and, famously, falls at 1-in-60 from Branksome, through Parkstone to Poole. This is Parkstone Bank and ought to be the highlight of the return, except your train is diesel-hauled on this section going home. It's mostly level around Poole Harbour and across Wareham Heath. IIRC, there's a climb from Wareham to Worgret Junction.
Worgret Jnc - Swanage: Falling from the junction to a river crossing, then mostly uphill across Creech Heath, through Corfe Castle to just short of Harmans Cross, then down to the sea at Swanage.

Return: Southampton - Romsey - Andover - Basingstoke: Level or gently uphill through Romsey and Dean to Alderbury, then falling steeply to Laverstock Junction on the east side of Salisbury. Next is Porton Bank, rising quite steeply (around 1 in 100?) to just west of Grateley. Given the very slow start from Laverstock, this is probably the performance highlight of this trip. Falling to Andover then undulating through Whitchurch and Overton until you rejoin the Southampton line at Battledown Flyover and Worting Junction, west of Basingstoke.

Personally, I think I'd rather the itinerary were reversed, with steam haulage via Andover to Southampton on the outward, and all the way home via Winchester, since the best climbs are Swanage - Harmans Cross and Poole - Branksome. Eastleigh - Roundwood Tunnel is at least as exciting as Laverstock - Grateley. Never mind, it should be a grand day out either way, especially if Lizzie is rostered. A Princess is a rare visitor to the LSW. It's a shame Sir Lamiel isn't in the frame for this. A King Arthur would be spot-on for the Banbury - Poole leg of an inter-regional express!

 

Great reply - thanks Steamage! We will either be in super-std or posh class I imagine, hopefully the girls will do us proud again on the frock front

 

Yeah, usual off-the-shoulder Tango orange number to please the photographers

 

Sounds nice Sheff ................NOT!!

Agree with Steamage - I wish some of the charters to Swanage would run with steam at rear into Swanage and have steam leading out of Swanage but I live in hope .. would have been nice to see and hear Lizzie up Parkstone Bank!! DH

 

hi yes we be doing this one looking forward to it i hope 34046 is on this one;

jane;

 

Or the best of both worlds. Was on a tour last year Waterloo to Swanage, 45305 in and left behind, and out with 70013 leading.
No diesel support either.

 

Taking a leaf out of the Seibu Railway's book?

 

I will be booking on this,i would like to see the DOG back on the southern

 

Cathedrals Express (Banbury to Corfe Castle & Swanage) 19th April 2012

Doesn't look like anyone has started a thread for this tour.
6201 Princess Elizabeth making a first visit of the class to Dorset and Swanage and it looks like there are only a few seats left.
Steam Dreams - operators of The Cathedrals Express steam train trips

 

Re: Cathedrals Express (Banbury to Corfe Castle & Swanage) 19th April 2012

IIRC, there was a thread about this a few months ago, because someone was asking about the gradients, and I wrote a rough guide to the route, which led to a debate about the options for single-loco trips to Swanage - whether it's better to be DL-hauled Soton-Swanage or vice versa.

Maybe a diligent Mod can find the old one and combine the two?

 

Apologies for my not finding the original thread. Many thanks for merging them.
I wonder what DBS will do about diesel haulage back to Southampton? A 66/67 on the back all the way from Banbury or just a LE from Eastleigh? Time will tell of course.

 

Just looked on SD's latest timings page. Don't know if it's an error or they know something we don't but when you click on the details for this trip the rostered loco is 70000 Britannia...............
The other two pages there are currently correct (for today's trip and next Thursday). I hope 6201 has not been a victim of gauging problems again. This happened once before when she was booked to work on the SR.

 

70000 was the loco initially rostered for trip when it was first advertised. On another thread it is stated that it will arrive at Llangollen for SSS3 on this date.

 

Have heard rumours that 6201 may well travel down from Basingstoke via Andover, Romsey and Millbrook. Then run-round its train at/near Southampton ready to haul it to Swanage tender-first. The loco is then facing the right way for the return journey. This avoids the need for/cost of diesel haulage from Swanage back to Southampton as happened several times last year. If true this indicates there should be no DBS diesel on the rear.

 

Interesting. Tender-first running poses a few challenges. Tender locos are restricted to 45mph, which is difficult to path, and the view for the driver is very restricted, making sighting signals difficult. It would be quite unusual for such a long tender-first run on such a busy bit of line.

 

Much though I like the idea of 6201 having to work hard up Parkstone Bank on the return trip I share Steamage's concerns about the viability of tender first running from Southampton to Swanage - if it works out great then we might see other trips doing the same. Look forward to seeing the timings - was nothing on uksteam earlier this evening DH

 

This is the only one of the 40 or so trains/movements in April for which I have no times as yet. Fingers crossed that there are no gauging problems.