Vintage Trains 2013 - 2014

29/3/14 Canterbury Explorer - From the brochure "We are planning to use a rebuilt Bulleid West Country Class locomotive".

I notice there is a pick up at Kensington Olmpia.

 

Can't ever think what that might be....

Looking like a probable booking that one, new route for steam and new loco for me.

 

Might also be on it, if it is 34046 with a London pick-up.

 

So what will happen on 19 October? Platform edges knocked off or cylinders severely damaged?

 

That shoddy East Midland concrete will be no match for Swindon Engineering!.

 

Canterbury Explorer is using a 47 down the Chiltern main. Huge slice of nostalgia for me as I havn't seen a 47 hammer up the main through Princes Risborough since they were two tone green I was train spotting in short trousers in around 1965!!

 

VT may have looked at the route .... but have NR? Wasn't there a VT trip to Ely some years a go where NR said a Hall was out of gauge just a day or so before the trip and they had to use a Black 5 instead?

 

I can't imagine any tour company having once been stymied by a gauging issue being caught out again. I should imagine that the people at VT checked and probably double checked with NR about any gauging issues on the route Similarly with the tour to Sheffield via the Robin Hood Line, about which there has been a bit sceptism in some quarters about a Hall being in gauge.

 

Real Time Trains has posted times for the return leg of this Saturday's Welsh Marches with 5043:- http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U50735/2013/09/28/advanced
I can't find the outward leg.

 

I had a look at work for it yesterday, not in the system yet.

 

Looking at those timings, it's not unusual to see routings via New St now, but I wonder, what was the last steam between Birmingham & Wolverhampton via Sandwell & Dudley instead of Bescot ?, is that a route still to be done in pres ?.

 

As far as I know, the only steam tour that has gone via Sandwell & Dudly in the past was a Past-Time Rail trip with 45407 which ran via Perry Bar, Soho and Wolves, albeit with disel assistance after slipping to a stand in the tunnel soth of Perry Bar....

As you, several VT tours have come in to New Street via Perry Bar and Soho...

..and 60163 complete the third side of the triangle at Soho a couple of weeks ago en route to Worcester.

So, Wolves to New Street via Sandwell & Dudly has all been covered by steam trains in preservation, albeit on separate tours and with diesel assistance for most of it.

 

I'm amazed to see there are no confirmed times for VTs trip around the welsh marches tomorrow.

 

Yes it's been quite odd that the return leg has been in since Monday (at least, it could have been there earlier but Monday was the first day I looked) but nothing for the outward leg. Hopefully something appears in the 'magic box' this afternoon.

 

I hate to be pessimistic but I do wonder if a path is available along the Severn estuary. If you look at RTT for Chepstow there are a lot of Swansea-Paddingtons and vice versa suggesting the Severn tunnel will be in an engineering possession.

 

Outline times on UK Steam http://www.uksteam.info/tours/t13/t0928c.htm

 

Might need a bit of guesswork for anyone further south, I'd suggest it's unlikely to be south of Worcester much before 10:30, Snow Hill to Stourbridge in particular is a stagger during normal service train hours.