Steam Dreams Queen's Birthday Specials with 45699 21/04/16.

Steam Dreams seem doomed to failure where steam haulage is concerned at the moment. Things can only get better as a well known politician once said. (Did they?)

 

Can we assume tommorow trip is diesel hauled?

 

Wasn't that Peter Cunnah from D:Ream???!!!

 

Now confirmed as Diesel hauled on SD website:

Quote taken from SD Timings page:
"We had organised a reserve locomotive, Galatea, which was accepted by Network Rail however Galatea subsequently developed a fault and has been withdrawn from the trip."

Following text taken from Bookings page where the trips have appeared again:
"This trip is scheduled to be hauled by a vintage diesel locomotive, most likely to be a British Rail Class 47, 37 or 33"


I wonder what will turn up for the next SD trip on 5th May? I spy something beginning with D.........

 

Don't you mean DD Website?

 

If only it was a D49 or a Duchess.

 

Galatea in London.. I knew it was too good to be true.

There endeth the dream, destiny means a ride over the Surrey hills, hauled by a tractor with a 47 for good measure.

 

You can't make it up can you, complete disaster out of London this year

 

46100 in steam and in London - a Royal Scot for a royal occasion? No that would be just too silly.

 

A couple of questions occur to me and hopefully some of those in the know (or just more up to date than me) might have the answers.

Are Galatea & Leander still the same size as far as Network Rail is concerned? I recollect from a relatively recent thread involving a tour via Whitehaven that the owners considered them so.

If Network Rail do consider them to be equivalent in height, width over cylinders, cab profile etc would it have been possible to send Leander south to deputise for Galatea? (I attach no blame to anyone for the late discovery that Galatea was unfit to travel, faults can develop overnight and that is after all what FTRs are designed to check).

The Salopian Express (on Fri 22nd) is shown on UK steam info as "5690/TBA" for the Preston - Chester - Shrewsbury - Preston sections. If the problem with Galatea is (hopefully) a relatively simple one then perhaps a simple exchange of loco could have solved the problem for Steam Dreams April 21st trip without upsetting arrangements for the 22nd? Even if 45699 requires attention likely to take longer than a couple of days surely a Black Five could have ben provided for 22nd? All the steam route involved that day is proven as Black 5 friendly.

At least one answer (and probably several) I can already anticipate may well be along the lines of "Don't be silly - Cant be done". Perhaps my memory is playing tricks but such a solution would only a few years ago have been obvious to all involved.

Steam Dreams. WCR and the railtour industry in general needs all the good press it can get right now, both for basic PR & more important a renewed confidence to encourage future bookings. With all the additional public awareness of birthday events this year tomorrow is the last day the industry should be publicly found wanting.

 

Be even worse now with Southall now going.

 

The Leander option crossed my mind as well. SD did say in the letter however that it would take 5 days to resolve the problem with Galatea. In my opinion cancellation of this trip should have been made when its reason to be, Princess Elizabeth herself was found to unavailable and especially since the reserve loco was also unavailable. I think this option would have been favoured by the majority of passengers, been in good time for hotel cancellations and would have had less impact on SD's reputation.

 

so wonder why cannot she be used ? gauging? crewing?

 

For SD yes - sorry to say

But not quite for all day trips though - all Tornado's runs (red rose and Devon belle) have been fantastic and very successful (as they should be) plus no issues on the Belmond Pullman charter contract

 

Just to add to the woes..

This months steam railway also states that steam is being cut back off the Southern end of ECML and WCML.

Page 80 Scotsmans May 25th trip from KX to Anglia will be turning into a spin around Surrey, it also mentions.

Maybe Surrey hills is the future of London steam ?

 

yes agree, plus doubt royal scot has been gauged by NR for being used on tomorrows runs ?

 

Unless everybody has missed something, Leander hasn't had a loaded test run yet. See Shep Woolley's photos on LE and test runs from last Thursday.