61306 Easterling 8/3/15

Pie in the sky, but I wouldn't say no to a 'Branch-Buster' tour to Clacton and Walton-on-the-Naze, then Harwich before heading to Norwich. Actually, the plethora of branchline options could provide a unique selling point for any number of tours, although what lies at the end of said branchlines might be an issue. I understand PTR may have already done a few of these in the past, but I think several could bear a revisit.

 

Felixstowe is required by many track bashers......!!!

 

Felixstowe was done by Past Time also Clacton and Harwich

 

I found this film (not mine) of the tender first running from Norwich to Lowestoft.
Some lovely original features as the tour makes its way along the route.

 

I managed Harwich and Clacton but missed Felixstowe . What hauled it? 76079 + 45407?
I often wonder if a loop of the port would be agreed on a Sunday when the branch is quieter....
Say,KX,Bacon,Felixstowe etc then Ipswich( Rev) Norwich with a B1. Unless it was t/t with bothB1s and a visit to Walton or even Sizewell.......
I must emphasise that this is simply a musing. I suspect the owner and support crew of 61306 would be up for it,so to speak.
East Anglia,has,I agree been well visited in the past 20 years but it was noticeable that this very interesting tour was a sell out!
Ray Mason

 

Bacon = Hitchin as in "Bacon Gobblers," the nickname for 34D men?

 

New one on me...! KX. Cambridge. Newmarket BACON curve,Felixstowe. This route only having been made possible with the construction of an Ipswich avoiding line for Freightliners heading to Birmingham and all places North!

 

As I wasn't touring when PTR did their stuff over some of the East Anglian branches a decade or so ago, it would be nice to have another opportunity to do some of them. At the risk of starting a 'wish list' of East Anglian branches, my steam map is blank when it comes to Sheringham (I know it was done only a couple of years ago); King's Lynn; Yarmouth; Felixstowe; Clacton and Walton; Harwich; Southend etc... All in all, its an interesting corner of the network, and if a north eastern branches t&t operation could be done down here, even better as it would save running round.

 

Got it now. On the GN, Hitchin men were known as Bacon Gobblers owing to the Danish Bacon Co. factory near the station. Long gone now though.

 

The NNR will soon have multiple mainline registered locos and a will be running t and t to cromer. Next stop Norwich? Yarmouth back via Berney arms and then back home? That would work for me as a day out. If only they'd mainline register the B12 (it was overhauled to mainline standards bu doesn't have the requisite modern equipment

 

We should also thank 'Julia Smith' for her debut post, re the train running without a diesel in the consist!

Pathfinder have run a number of 'Buffer-Puffer tours, top and tailed with a diesel. One such was a tour of East Anglia branches, the details, with timings, are here on six bells junction http://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/00s/091023pt.htm
As the initial spade work has already been done, perhaps this can be copied/modified using top and tailed steam, say Ian Riley's Black 5's?. Those of us who travel, are generally either interested in locomotive performance, or rare track. so the fact it may have to be run during the night, after normal service, doesn't put off the diesel track bashers, so perhaps steam would have the same interest. Running through the night is popular on some of the preserved railways anyway . We are not talking fine dining here, just a buffet, so maximising the seating. Another bonus would be the lack of worry about missing the last train home!

 

That is until you can't get a low-price hotel at the start point and you've travelled vast distances to get there. Principle is good, but I think it would still have to be done in the confines of daylight if you want to fill the train. As such, the branches would need to be tackled piecemeal.

 

Correct! http://www.uksteam.info/tours/t02/t0505a.htm

Growing up in Essex, I remember this tour to Harwich & Clacton quite well: http://www.uksteam.info/tours/t00/t0903a.htm I'm pretty sure it would have been the first mainline steam I ever saw, I was 10 then and it was quite a big deal because it was the first steam to come through Colchester for many years. I also remember the 'Alresford Explorer' that ran from the town on the MHR to the village on the Clacton line that share the name.

 

In other words, overdue for another bite of the cherry (although over a longer period of time to prevent saturating the market- there could be ten years' worth of trips here).