The Border Raider with 60163 - 16/09/17

Border Raider now sold out ! The standout tour for me until 90mph tours are sanctioned.

 

So excited about this one even though I live overseas.

 

I've been booked on this since early March. I think it is going to be one of the highlights of 2017, one of the standout trips of the season. I'm secretly hoping that the outbound up the WCML might be another 90mph test run.

 

Yes, I think a fair number of the usual crowd will be on it. It'll be a long day (for my sins, I'm driving to Tame Bridge from South West Wales at stupid o'clock in the morning, and spending the night in Walsall).

 

Travelling up from Reading for me and Essex for my Dad. We are also staying overnight in Walsall!

 

"Standout" is definitely the watchword here - its already been used twice in the first four posts on this thread!! Couldn't agree more, and I am deeply disappointed that other commitments mean that I couldn't do this trip - I just hope that there is lots of detailed coverage by the regulars from the train timing fraternity so we can keep abreast of the days events as they unfold and get a decent record of the day at its conclusion.

It might be interesting to reflect that this outing is in effect a near replica of what was originally intended when Pathfinder promoted its May 2015 "Cumbrian Fells Express". Earmarked as Tornado's come-back outing after the 2014/5 overhaul, as things turned out it wasn't quite ready in time, so Super-sub 70000 Britannia was substituted at short notice. In the event - for 7P/ Load 11 - the Brit produced a series of truly stunning performances over the Northern Fells. Quite apart from some sustained high-speed running on the WCML, some of the real highlights of this memorable day included an acceleration from 11 to 24 mph up the final mile of Shap's 1 in 75 following checks on the climb to that point, Ais Gill's 1 in 100 summit breasted at 45 mph, and finally and most remarkably Wilpshire Summit at the conclusion of the 1 in 86 climb topped at 35 mph.

All of which was certainly more than enough to assuage the disappointment over Tornado's no-show on that occasion. In fact, for me, the most exciting day I've ever enjoyed on any main line steam trip, despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of the Brits as a locomotive class. And now, I wonder if maybe that excursion might provide some useful benchmarks to assess Tornado's performance on the Border Raider, allowing for 8P and (probably) Load 12 distinctions. Reports of Tornado's performances on the main line are always fascinating, but (as witnessed currently on the Torbay thread) its the comparisons that are truly compelling as well.

Hope all you lucky lucky patrons have a great day out on the 16th!!

 

400 miles of steam in one day has to be rare. Even a day leg on the Great Britain doesn't come close. The only tour I can think of for recent long mileage was the Scottish Lowlander.

 

Indeed. That was 518 miles and 15 hours of overall goodness. Still the best tour I've done since I began this madness, and we'll probably not see as like again. Magic.

 

Well, you might consider the September 2011 "Caledonian Tornado" to be somewhere near the top, if not the top, of the "long-steam-mileage-in a-day" league table. Weighing in at around 500 miles (Crewe-Glasgow return, but out via Manchester Victoria rather than WCML direct), it was a 6am-start and 1 am-the-next-day finish, so a marathon for locomotive, crew, and staff in every respect. And where the Scottish Lowlander relied on the efforts of three locomotives, this one was a Tornado solo, so a record by a country mile in that respect.

As far as this year goes, at just under the 400 mile threshold, the A1SLT Heart of Midlothian outing on 1st May clocked up around 366 Tornado miles. In fact, Tornado has been probably been the only truly long-distance performer in terms of daily mileages in recent times. In this respect, you could speculate that it may be joined in the future by Clan Line if 35028's rostered appearance on UKRT's ACE in September becomes representative of the sort of itinerary and mileages that the MNLPS are prepared to commit to in the future. But in the meantime, the announcement by A1SLT that Tornado will be fulfilling a complete out-and-back Euston-Chester via Northampton itinerary in November presents yet another opportunity to clock up a good 360 miles of haulage by this magnificent machine.

 

It depends on what you are after. The fact that the Scottish Lowlander managed to use three locomotives (one was a bonus) suggests that the usual herding of cats had succeeded that day, and that was an achievement in itself.

 

The Lowlander is top of my list of railtours too (having only been on my first in 2011) and I'm also booked on the Border Raider. These days enthusiast focused steam tours are a rarity - which is completely understandable. When they do come along then they need to be seized with gratitude! Let's hope the plan is achievable.

 

The enthusiast tours are still there; indeed, if Walton-on-the-Naze was offered by one of the regular sources, I'm sure that would be considered an enthusiast's outing because of its rarity. 35028's special runs also fit in that category. But again, it depends on what the individual is after.

 

It will be interesting to see how far off the provisional timings are for Tame Bridge Parkway, as looking at times for the 16th show very little room for the outline departure time. Also there is the Ravenglass charter stopping at TBP. The only gap I can see to fit Tornado in is between 6.47 and 7.07.

 

I might be wrong, but isn't the Border Raider going in the opposite direction to the Ravenglass charter at TBP? I was more concerned about whether it had taken up the same path as requested for the Border Raider on the WC main line north of Stafford.

Sent from my SM-J330FN using Tapatalk

 

You're right, both going in opposite directions at TBP.

Dave B

 

There is a gap between 7.37 and 8.07.

Dave B

 

I was looking in the wrong direction, thanks

 

Easily done, I had to look on google maps to work out which trains went in which direction.

Dave B

 

I think this might be the timings for the move to Bescot for Tornado in readiness for Saturday.

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U50600/2017/09/11/advanced.

Still no times for the trip itself on either RTT, OTT or UKRT website. Am wondering if tour timings are not being put on OTT or RTT till nearer the day, as I am booked on a tour next week for which I received my ticket and timings at the beginning of last week and

those timings are not on RTT or OTT yet either. Tour operator website still shows provisional timings for that as does the webpage for the Border Raider.

Dave B