RTC Dartmouth Express - April 19th

Not really, steam cranks will keep coming back despite setbacks and farces, Bert and Ada on a day out (who we need to make the trips run) won't.

An hour at a destination is just enough time to get fed and watered if you don't have to wait too long to be served, sod all time to look round the actual place which is the clincher for many daytrippers, I had a tour last year where circumstances dictated we only got an hour in Minehead, felt far too rushed to really enjoy the layover on what was otherwise a very good tour.

 

You also have to think about the turn around time on the DSR. For SNG to be turned and serviced within a couple of hours and to work that around their service train is difficult. It not like the Torbay Express which has about 4 hours to do all that when it runs. The last thing anyone wants is for it to be late at any stage on the trip and delay other services on the national network. If that happens it will give steam charters a bad mark and may end up with less of these charters.

 

A one time the DSR were only interested in the Torbay Express ( after previously having trips from others). If the trips keep having short turn arounds they might not accept them in the future.
There is also the time required to service the coaches including filling up the water tanks in all the coaches. I remember trips where there was no water left to flush the toilets on the return.

 

On the NR issue: are all such issues made at Milton Keynes? Or is there any regional / local autonomy and flexibility?

On the Westbury issue, and the reason a unit might sit in a platform for an extended period: I seem to recall from my days commuting via Westbury that sometimes FGW trains changed crews there. So it is possible that the incoming driver left the unit, and another driver took over later. (On at least one occassion I remember seeing drivers of Portsmouth - Cardiff and Cardiff - Portsmouth units swapping trains, though that may have been as a result of exceptional late runing on one of them, and trying to get a driver back to his home depot within his hours).

Also, would an FGW driver passed to drive through Westbury on any of the platform roads also be deemed to have route knowledge to go into the sidings (with associated signalling)? That might be another reason why a move in and out of the sidings to free up a platform may not be possible? As I recall, the sidings at Westbury are almost entirely devoted to stone traffic, so there would be no normal operational reason why FGW crews would enter them. Indeed, with a lot of shunting going on, it might be seen as somewhat inconvenient to have a passenger train enter the sidings, even for a short period.

Genuine questions, I don't know the answers!

Tom

 

Network Rail claim:

"Our work is shaped by four values.

In order to deliver our vision of safe, reliable and efficient railway for Britain, we have identified four values that should govern the way that we work.

‘We are determined to improve the rail service for customers’ - Determination

‘We respect our environment, our communities and all the people we work with’ - Respect

‘We are all part of the same team and every contribution matters’ - Teamwork

‘We are passionate about what we do and take pride in a job well done’ - Pride"

 

If they are passionate it would be nice if grass growing on mainline trackage be tended to.

 

I don't disagree. However, if they are just statements and are not acted upon, they are useless.

I believe they fail on all four as far as steam charter work is concerned.

 

I can only assume that they are having a laugh!

 

And in general day to day running.

 

I have been looking back through my photo albums to see when I last made a similar journey to this one: It was on 2nd July 2005.
6024 hauled the 75th Anniversary Limited (her Birthday Special) from Paddington to Kingswear and back as far as Taunton. Here are the timings for that run:http://www.uksteam.info/tours/t05/t0702e.htm It's pretty much the same route after Reading.
How things must have changed since then as even though the trip was steam hauled most of the day we still had a decent layover time at Kingswear (yes, the train started a little earlier with a 6.53 dep from Reading where I joined but not much earlier considering it was a slower schedule with steam limited to 75mph) and we got back at a reasonable hour (21.15 at Reading).

 

It's always interesting to read the differing perspectives from contributors and in many ways I wouldn't argue that most travellers don't give a monkeys how many steam miles there are on trains and don't even seem to care when there are substantial differences between what was advertised and what was delivered. But a lot do and it's getting a real drag that timings are produced so late by NR and that T&Cs are so anti travellers that cancelling means losing a lot of money. It's an expensive hobby and perhaps NR would be good enough to explain why on earth with their so called multi million pound computer systems they can't produce timings weeks in advance, subject to local issues like the derailment at Westbury - and how it takes them so long to repair the track in Westbury. Typically I've not been getting replies from the Charter Team when I've asked for explanations.

 

There are still some proper railwaymen left but not so many. Examples such as those you give seem to be exceptional.

I have been a steam charter customer for many years and, despite the undoubted triumphs, in the last few years the tours that have met my criteria have become fewer. The most important issue for me, and it has been well discussed on NP, is the late confirmation of what a tour itinerary actually is. I am not prepared to pay out a few hundred pounds for a tour that starts earlier and ends later, has less time at the destination, and fewer steam miles than advertised.

 

As SNG was travelling down the Berks and Hants so early I got up at stupid o'clock to shoot it near Crofton - had the sun been out it would have been a wonderful shot, but at least near freezing temperatures ensured a good exhaust and no wind meant a great reflection

http://www.ipernity.com/doc/d1059.empire/32096149/sizes/o

Hope the tour goes OK for you all