Railway Touring Company's 2017 Programme

The changes are recent so David might yet noticed them and/or been informed.

 

That is another "wish list" thing for RTC and any tour operator. I accept that pools of locos are utilised. However it would be good to know what the "intended" loco is for any given tour acknowledging that their may have to be last minute changes due to unforeseen issues. The knowledge of the loco could affect the choice of date with repeat tours.

 

RTC have done it in the past by email for the WCME's and the CME's and members of the forum have booked.

 

At this point I wonder what shall show up for the following tours.

45690?/tba for April 22 cumbrian mountain express

Tba for May 27 Hadrian

June 4 Peak Forester and June 8 Swanage Belle both advertised for 61306 but we have heard that maintenance is going to last into June for this one.

 

60009 now listed for the Swanage Belle.

 

There won't be one. WCR have confirmed 46115 will be hauling the train.

 

Duchess now listed for the Peak Forester, and will be steam between London and Derby.

 

Yet another railtour to a Midland destination that will be going from London via the ECML and Melton Mowbray rather than straight up down the MML. Is it really easier to find paths on the ECML or is there some other reason?

Edit: corrected "up" to "down".

 

The explanation I heard after 46115's visit a couple of years ago was that capacity at St. Pancras is tighter than at King's Cross.

 

Was told also that steam cannot go under the overall roof so even it the train departs St. Pancras behind steam, it cannot return there and that's why that tour ran back into Kings Cross.

 

Great Planning by NR there, Giving the MML a terminus that's now smaller than Marylebone* and a new st style roof

*Eurostar/High Speed platforms don't count for MML services.

 

Most Sundays the MML has only 2 tracks open due to upgradeing south of Bedford

 

And the only public trip out of St Pancras was on a Sunday, due to platform availability.

 

Only 4 Midland Mainline platforms, and only one available on a Sunday for 46115's trip in 2014.

 

Thanks for the explanations of platform capacity at St Pancras (which indeed is small with so much of the station allocated to the high speed trains) and only two tracks north of Bedford.
However St Pancras is not relevant on 4th June, as that trip is starting from Ealing so would have been able to join the MML at Brent. And is the service on the MML really too intense to fit in an extra path? For today, RTT shows only two passenger trains per hour northbound over Sharnbrook and no freights: will the summer timetable be very much different?

 

I also heard that, and only having two pick-ups, and one set down like 46115's trip, might be ok for an occasional trip, but would struggle to fill trips on a regular basis.

 

An alternative for St. Pancras would be to add an extra pickup point on the stock drag from West London.

Normally, I'd be interested in a trip along the cross-London route as I haven't done it yet (I understand it's a bit of a plod), but have already committed to doing a lot of tours this year. I'm already booked on six trips out of London between July and November, requiring five return journeys south, so better not add any more!

 

From the latest Steam Railway, further RTC trips with 60009 November and December : -

23/11 KX to York Out 46233 return 60009
30/11 Poole to Bristol
2/12 Worcester, out via Oxford, return via Sapperton
5/12 Three Bridges to Bristol
7/12 Norwich to York out 60009, return 46233
16/12 Victoria to York, out 46233, return 60009
20/12 Cambridge to York out 60009, return 46233

 

Certainly flogging the York market! It will be interesting to know how the use of two locomotives affect the price.