Scarborough Spa Express

The Scot to sunny Scarborough 19 July 2012


The recent emergence of a number of engines in BR Brunswick green express livery has been most welcome, but old favourites should not be neglected. So the near-certainty that the Scot would be covering the first week of the Scarborough Spa expresses this year made it important to clear the diary for the Thursday, when the weather looked the most promising.

There was torrential rain as I left Lancashire but this had cleared to sunshine by the time I reached York and rebuilt Royal Scot class 4-6-0 No 46115 Scots Guardsman reversed its ten coach rake into Platform 10.

With a light load, we plodded away on the first circuit of West Yorkshire, but we managed to reach 61 at Church Fenton. The main excitement occurred on the climb out of Wakefield Westgate to Outwood, where the loco cracked away, accelerating to 26 at the A650, 32 at Outwood station and a maximum of 34. It sounded marvellous, but was said by regular travellers to have been 5 mph slower that the Tuesday. We meandered back to York, the only excitement occurring when after slowing at Colton Junction, we barked away up to 51 at Copmanthorpe before slowing for York.

The level run across to Scarborough was more lively, reaching 61 by Barton Hill before the Kirkham Abbey curves, and after Malton we made it to 64 at East Knapton before an early arrival in Scarborough.

After the compulsory fish and chips at Mother Hubbards, I was delighted to find the sun was fully out and the train was back in the station, enabling a happy photographic interlude before the return run. We made it to 66mph at Scagglethorpe before slowing for Malton, then again to 65 at Strensall. I left the train at York after a good day out in the sunshine, but as a native Yorkshire fellow-traveller remarked, “Tha’ll nivver gerra nosebleed offa speeds like this.”


20 photos are at Zenfolio | Peter Hewitt's Transport Pictures | The Scot to sunny Scarborough 19 July 2012

Peter, on a grey Manchester afternoon
Zenfolio | Peter Hewitt's Transport Pictures

 

According to uksteam the last week of Scarborough Spa's 4th-6th Sep has been cancelled

Tue 04-Sep
to
Thu 06-Sep THE SCARBOROUGH SPA EXPRESS [CANCELLED] (23/07)
York-Scarborough (WCRC) [wcrc]
TBA: York-Normanton-Wakefield-Castleford-York-Scarborough and return


Neil

 

Assume the last Waverley will be cancelled as well. Unless they keep a loco at York

 

according to the commercial on tv, its only advertised as running until aug bank hol monday, so was it ever planned to run in sept?

 

WCRC bookings page has dates listed until 6th September but those dates after Thursday 30th August come up as "no seats available" so looks like the original intention was to run until 6th Sept but will now run only until 30th August.

 

Or perhaps it was the other way around? The trips in September were not put on sale to begin with, but the paths were planned in case demand was great enough this year to require some "extras" to be run. Sadly, ticket sales so far don't seem to have justified the extras.

 

I don't think that's surprising when you take into account the rain that we've had. It's no fun with kids on the beach at Scarborough (or any other seaside) when it's pi....raining mightily. It's only this last week that the weather has improved and with WCRC having a "pay on the day" facility maybe the pax numbers will improve. I hope so. Mr. and Mrs. V will try to get a day out on it.

 

We return back to school on the 3rd September, so that final week will be a bit redundant with families and kids...

 

Is Scarborough ready for Mrs V?

 

It's but a short walk from the station to the local 'Spoons so maybe Scarborough won't see too much of Mrs. V.

 

Big change of weather this week, hot hot hot in Yorkshire, so its the return of no steam in the picture challenge!
Scots guardsman on duty again which is no bad thing, seen here looking shiny and powerful at Colton junction on the morning run and cruising at line speed past Strensall with the return run


Langtree Photography-5156.jpg by Langtree Photography


Langtree Photography-5179.jpg by Langtree Photography

Cheers

Duncan

 

wow, no kids, no families, ideal time to run one

 

Agreed.

 

Nice thought possibly but not an ideal time to run one as like it or not "kids" and "families" make up a big proportion of passengers now.

 

Other rail tours seem to do OK during term time. Not everyone has kids and lives in a child centric universe. I accept that the SSE and some other tours are aimed at the family market but not all of them.

 

Would I be right in suggesting a lot of tour passengers are made up of retired folk (including non enthusiasts), there seems to be a steady rise in the number of weekday tours in recent years, yet logic tells you majority of people under 65 during the week are either at work or school, I know people work different days and have days off etc, but Im sure they are still the minority.

 

Yes, I think you're right in suggesting that, as "retired folk" usually have not only the time but also the money to spend on Railtours.

That said I would still argue that term time is not the "ideal time" to run a railtour. Tour promoters like Steam Dreams are always looking to make their tours appealing to a new generation of customers as they understand there is no such thing as a loyal customer base in an increasingly competitive market. RTC are to be applauded here for their good value family tickets, an idea which SD would do well to look at introducing themselves.

 

RTC's involvment in SSE for which they should be applauded is what?

 

blatent piece of misleading advertising tho, on the tv commercial it say a very inaudible 'from' £20 when its really £53 for the trip to scarbro

 

Well I didn't say RTC had an involvement in SSE so couldn't have said it should be applauded.

What I did say was that RTC should be applauded for their selling of family tickets as it helps encourage a new and younger generation of main line steam tour customer, which is where my point about running the tour during term time comes in. Families and children should be encouraged onto railtours not "managed" off them as some of the more unsociable among us might prefer to see happen.