The Dalesman

No train this week, but open to bookings for 19th May onwards on the WCRC website, which fits with UKSteam.

 

Royal Scotsman from tomorrow...?

 

It may seem a bit hard on the other companies, but from an operational and monitoring viewpoint I think it makes sense to kick off with the repeat itinerary trains.

 

Will it be top and tail to Hellifield and then box on the back to Carlisle?

 

Certainly not top and tail - steam only comes on at Hellifield - but whether the box then goes to the back I suspect we will only find out on the day.

 

But it needs to reverse at Leeds --the route is Normanton, Westgate, Leeds, Keighley. Westgate 0930, Leeds 0950--no time to spare there.

 

Well I don't know how they will manage that, but this is from the WCRC website:

These traditional carriages will be hauled by diesel for the first part of the journey, then from Hellifield the steam engine pulls the train across the Settle to Carlisle, England’s most scenic railway.

 

It occurs that the restrictions might actually aid WCRC strengthening its monopoly position by growing its in house offerings at the expense of providing for other tour operators.

 

Like it or not the future of steam on the mainline in my view will be repeat itinerary trains on secondary routes.

 

If they wanted to do that they could have done it at any time. Up until the suspension it seems to have suited them to promote their own trips and operate those for SD, RTC etc, so I would expect them to return to that in due course.

 

However the situation is radically different now. If the other tour operators remain marginalised while WCRC is operating on a limited basis it has the potential to be market changing.
WCRC has already absorbed Compass. Who's to say one of the bigger players might not be faced with a similar choice?
It all depends on how long and to what extent WCRC remains in its post-suspension narrower format.

 

Timings for Tuesday (and no doubt the rest of the series):

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U54264/2015/05/19/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U54265/2015/05/19/advanced

Any clues as to this week's loco, and whether it will take one of the diesels to Carlisle and back?

 

47760.47237 and 4****.Hopefully not.

 

Word is that its 45690 and NO diesel on steam section

 

A couple of very good posts IMHO.

 

note for linesiders,I am not sure but it would seem all methods of tracking are down at the moment (for me at least),this includes Realtime trains,Freight Locate and the railcam diagrams. They seemed to go down at 08:00.


Systems would appear to be back online at08:50 The Dalesman was 9 early at Milford...

 

I think you will be proved to be so wide of the mark. Let's look back in a year or two and you will see that the blend of mainline steam will much as it was in recent times. I could of course be wrong but as long as the demand is there and WCR don't screw up again, I see no reason for change following the gradual resumption of business. As an example, Vintage Trains, apart from the Shakespeare Expresses, run a variety of one-off tours on busy mainlines. I think VT should be the measuring stick because if they are forced to run only repeat itinerary trains, then it will be a very sad day indeed.