Atlantic Coast Express UKRT/MNLPS 23/09/17

I'm booked onto this tour - heck, I phoned on Thursday afternoon asking when timings were likely to come out - but haven't got any of these emails. Is anyone else in the same boat?

As others have said, it's not ideal - I was really looking forward to a quick start out of Waterloo instead of a trundle around Staines. But Clan Line without a diesel on the back isn't something I can turn my nose up at.

Any reason why this isn't on RTT yet? Looking on there, there's a Dover train that's due to leave P2 a few minutes before the charter - I'm guessing it'll need to be re-platformed to accomodate the tour?

Finally, with 60009's tour to York (leaving at 6.30am or so) and the Pullmans with Royal Scot, that makes three steam trips out of Victoria in one day - when was the last time that happened?!

 

Probably depends on your email and filters. Try spam, junk, promotions or whatever else you've got.

 

Yes, tried all the folders. Nothing in there at all.

 

How did you book?

 

Booked over the phone for the first date, had confirmation email, email about the change in date and a new confirmation email once I confirmed I could make the new date.

I've booked many times with UKRT but haven't had this problem before, which is odd. It's not the end of the world, as I've got all the info I need, but I thought I'd flag it up incase anyone else is in the same boat as me.

 

Just phoned UKRT and someone there seemed to think the times won't be published on RTT "at Network Rail's request."

Seems a bit odd to me...

 

Agreed, that makes no sense at all. Even the Flying Scotsman trips earlier this year which NR were "reported" as trying to keep quiet about to discourage trespass were, I am fairly sure, all on RTT. In fact, apart from steam Royal Train workings, I think the only steam trip where times were kept really secret was the Top Gear trip with Tornado and that was back in 2009 before RTT was around?

 

Ticket arrived this morning.

 

A cynic may say that NR do not want it published as they have not timed it yet so there is nothing to publish!

 

Plus given the confirmed timings on the UKRT site (compare with what they were saying this time last week about the Border Raider) I should think with a few educated guesses about the location of water stops and the running of other trains it should be possible to predict within a quarter of an hour or so what the schedule is at any chosen point.

We have to hope 60009 gets out of P2 at Victoria on time at 0631. Although then again I suppose a bit of lateness at Woking might not come amiss !

 

Yes it was meant as a jest comment, although RTC wanted to do this basic itinerary at the end of October which was subsequently cancelled. There was a rumour that may have been pathing related, but could have been just that, a rumour!

 

From what we know of what has been published so far, the path westward from Basingstoke looks remarkably similar to that of the Tornado/ "Devon Belle" excursion that ran on 2nd April 2016. The return departure time from EXD is also identical, so that may be a reasonable indicator of timings of the return leg through to the left turn at Fairwood Junction for the Melksham Deviation. So the educated guesses about intermediate timings stand a decent chance of being fairly accurate.

Whatever the circumstances surrounding the non-appearance of timings on RTT, I do hope that they become available in time for the final cut of the tour brochure.....its a nice-to-have feature that I find particularly useful on the day.

 

So much for these times being kept off RTT!

Outward: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U54504/2017/09/23/advanced
Return: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U54507/2017/09/23/advanced

 

No water stop till Salisbury on the outward run? Thats a bit surprising considering its going via Staines isn't it?

 

Not really, when 35028 used to work the VSOE Victoria to Bath via Salisbury, the first water stop was Salisbury.

Cheers, Neil

 

My thinking was that on the famous 9th July run about 5 years ago, Clan Line stopped for water at Overton even though it had run down the main line from Waterloo. However on that occasion I think it had gone from the Lane to Willesden to pick up the stock. Anyway I'm sure DBC know what they are doing!

 

The hard copies of RealTimeTrains pages are very useful. As a result of the quoted post l have put together my own (in the style of RTT) templates for the Out and Return trains - which are attached below (as PDFs) and may be of use. I have had an attempt at adding mileage that may (or not) be correct and also inserted the times from RTT as these are now available.

Going off at a tangent: if anyone want something to 'kill' the time from Reading back into London (or just fancies having a crack) l have put together a loosely themed cryptic crossword. This is the third attachment (PDF) and is my first attempt of putting one together.

Hope all those travelling this Saturday have a good day.

Cheers!
-SC-

 

Be hard to stay awake from Reading with those timings.