Steam Dreams - Bluebell Railway to Worcester - 27/10/18

Still 3 weeks away so nothing on RTT yet, but Steam Dreams have today removed 61306 Mayflower (which of course is owned by the new owner of Steam Dreams) as the motive power and replaced it with "Locomotive TBA".

What were the chances that Mayflower would have been ready by then anyway do you think? There have been several abortive attempts to book her on trips before. Also, can anyone confirm when the last time was that she was on the mainline? Before Steam Dreams updated their website, it was saying that this would have been her first time in over 20 years. I know I certainly have never seen her on the mainline before (or at all, in fact) so if she does still end up coming here on 27th it will be quite the event!

Perhaps more pertinently, with less than 3 weeks left to go, what could be the replacement loco?

 

"Riley International Rescue" Black 5 I would guess.

 

Mayflower hauled its last railtour on the main line in 2015.

James


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

8th March, Kings Cross to Lowestoft via the Hitchin Flyover on the way out and the Bacon Factory Curve on the way back. How on earth did SD think it was 20 years?

 

Just to prove it:

 

I stewarded a DCE hauled by it on August 12 2015. At Woking, and a Wood Pigeon at Basingstoke who had been at the wrong place at the wrong time!

 

Email received

Dear Passenger,

SATURDAY 27 OCTOBER: BLUEBELL RAILWAY TO OXFORD & WORCESTER

We have unfortunately made the difficult decision to postpone the tour from the Bluebell Railway to Oxford and Worcester on Saturday 27 October, as both our rostered and reserve steam locomotives for this trip are now unavailable. Our originally rostered locomotive, B1 Class Mayflower is still in the final stages of overhaul at Carnforth and not quite complete, and all the provisional reserve locomotives have unfortunately now committed to other work or are otherwise unavailable. There are sadly no other mainline locomotives available to us which have already been given gauge clearance for the booked route. Please see the end of this letter if you would like more information on locomotives and gauging.

We have been working today with the Bluebell Railway to find an alternative date and we are pleased to confirm the new date of the tour will be on Saturday 5 October 2019 running with a similar itinerary as was planned for 27 October. Discussions are currently ongoing with the owners of 46233 Duchess of Sutherland for use of the locomotive on the revised date but this is not yet confirmed.

We are very sorry for the late postponement but we hope that you will retain your booking with us on a route which we are very much looking forward to steam returning to after a prolonged absence.

Your travel options are as follows:

1. Transfer your booking to the rescheduled date of Saturday 5 October 2019 (default option). If we do not hear from you by midday on Friday 2 November your booking will automatically be transferred to the same class on the new date of Saturday 5 October 2019.

2. Transfer your booking to any other Cathedrals Express day trip of your choice subject to availability. Please call the Booking Office to arrange a transfer to your chosen date (subject to availability). Below is some further information about tours in which you may be particularly interested, or for full details call the Booking Office or visit https://eur02.safelinks.protection....WXtFn5AaAEBoxIHTtNldycAsxw5+8=&reserved=0:

a. London to Petworth House, Chichester & Salisbury on Thursday 28 March 2019. This tour will depart West Brompton at approximately 0900 (returning 2255) with pick ups at Clapham Junction, Cheam, Leatherhead, Dorking (Main), Horsham, Pulborough and Chichester with approximately three hours to spend in Salisbury.

b. Chinnor to Bournemouth, Corfe Castle & Swanage on Thursday 4 April 2019. This tour will depart Chinnor at approximately 0730 (returning 2300) with pick ups at Princes Risborough, Bicester Village, Oxford Parkway, Goring & Streatley and Basingstoke with just under three hours to spend in Swanage.

3. Transfer to a Steam Dreams Voucher.
Your Steam Dreams voucher will be valid for one year and will entitle you to the same number of seats on any day trip in the same class of travel as your current booking (subject to availability). You would not be subject to any additional charge in the event of an increase or difference in fares. Please call the Booking Office if you wish to take up this option.

4. A full refund.*

If you require any option other than Option 1 (transfer to the rescheduled date of Saturday 5 October 2019) please let us know by midday on Friday 2 November by calling our Booking Office on 01483 209888, open Monday to Friday 09.00 to 17.30.

Once again we do apologise for any disappointment caused but look forward to welcoming you on board The Cathedrals Express soon.

Yours sincerely,


The Steam Dreams Rail Co.


* Passengers who have paid for their tickets in whole or in part via a third party voucher company or a Steam Dreams voucher will receive a new Steam Dreams voucher valid for 1 year for the portion of the payment that was originally paid by voucher. Passengers who have paid by cheque, cash or BACS will be refunded by cheque. Passengers who have paid by credit or debit card will refunded on the card originally used for payment, if this is no longer valid please contact the Booking Office.



Estimated Timings for trip on Saturday 5 October 2019

Departure Return
Sheffield Park 0715 2315
East Grinstead 0815 2230
Oxford** 1230 1800/1920
Cheltenham*** 1445 1640
Worcester 1425 1610


** Passengers joining or alighting at Oxford will be transferred by service train or road coach between Oxford & Didcot Parkway on the return journey.

*** Passengers visiting Cheltenham will be transferred by road coach from Charlbury or Evesham on the outward journey.


Additional Information


Why was Mayflower not available and when will it be ready?
Mayflower is currently undergoing a full overhaul at Carnforth depot. When the trip was originally planned the overhaul was due to be completed early this year, unfortunately while progress has been made a number of setbacks have meant the locomotive has not been completed in the expected timeframe. Until the last few weeks it was thought that the locomotive would still be completed in time. She is currently in the workshops being painted and once that is complete testing should begin shortly. If the testing is completed with no further significant issues the locomotive should be ready for the Steam Dreams Christmas programme.

What is gauging and why does this restrict the available locomotives?
Gauging refers to the ability of a locomotive to pass lineside structures such as tunnels, platforms and signal gantries along a route with safe clearance. Steam locomotives are often wider or higher in some locations (e.g. cylinders, chimney, and whistle) than diesel or electric engines and passenger coaches. They also move in different ways around curves to other trains. Each time a steam locomotive is run on the mainline, Network Rail will perform a gauging.

When planning a trip, a maximum of four locomotives may be submitted to Network Rail to be gauged for a trip. Once the gauging process has been completed, Network Rail are unable to accept any new gauging requests for additional locomotives.

What other locomotives could you have used?
When this tour was planned in Spring this year with the booked locomotive as Mayflower, our reserve locomotives on the specification to Network Rail included 60009Union of South Africa, Jubilee Class locomotives, and the Black Five Class of locomotive. Discussions had been held with owners of these locomotives. Unfortunately once Mayflower was confirmed as being unavailable these locomotives had already accepted other work or are otherwise not available to haul this trip.

 

And the line about Mayflower not being out on the mainline for 20 years, previously mentioned in the write-up for this trip before they updated it, has now transferred to the write-up of the trip on 12th December. Here's a screenshot of what I mean. Perhaps someone ought to put them right?

 

Also 61306 was a Low Moor engine and hauled the Bradford section of the Yorkshire Pullman from Exchange to Leeds. I saw it! Neither was it her last trip as she worked a round trip to Leeds later in the day.

 

A shame its been postponed as me and my Grandad were booked on this but decided to transfer to the tour next year and if it does end up being 6233 that works it, it would be a nice treat.

 

According to a reply steam dreams put on facebook regarding the Dec 21 white cliffs lunchtime tour, mayflower is being repainted and will be ready for test runs shortly, so it should be available for Christmas.