Steam Dreams, Chinnor - Weymouth, 61306, 04/04/19, now 27/06/19

Postponed due to unavailability of 61306.
Mayflower has developed an issue with her boiler and cannot be repaired in time

 

Oh darn, wonder if this will effect the trip to WSR on the 16th

 

I wonder what the problem is. Whatever it is I'm sure the WCR guys can fix it.

 

They are working to reschedule the trip on 27th June according to the email sent to passengers.

 

That's odd, they already have a tour from Stratford to Lincoln on that day being hauled by Mayflower, unless they run 2 tours, but don't WCR only have one rake of coaches for steam dreams.

 

Hopefully it's a minor matter but somehow I doubt it. Have train tickets and hotels booked to travel out of Liverpool Street on 11th April behind the B1. Is there a possibility to use Britannia if the B1 is not ready I wonder. If not I hope the trip is postponed, a diesel hauled trip.....Uggh!

 

I don’t think Britannia is a loco on WC books so probably no.

 

Here is the full statement about this trip from the SD timings page:
"Update 01.04.19 16:
It is with great disappointment that we must inform you that we have taken the difficult decision to postpone Thursday’s inaugural trip from Chinnor to Weymouth to the summer. This is due to news received today of the unavailability of our rostered steam locomotive B1 61306 ‘Mayflower’.
Mayflower has developed an issue with her boiler and unfortunately it will not be possible to repair it in time for our trip this Thursday. The fault came to light today when the locomotive arrived back at its London base, having just returned from a trip last Saturday. With the locomotive still hot and at working pressure, there is not enough time to cool the boiler and carry out the necessary repairs ready for our train starting from Chinnor on Thursday morning.
Despite best efforts from people within the industry, none of the reserve steam locomotives requested on our specification to Network Rail are available to be used. They are either undergoing the final stages of winter maintenance or do not have the required gauging clearance in place to move them down to Chinnor to be able to substitute for Mayflower at this short notice. The only other alternative would be to run this trip with a diesel locomotive, which we feel would be disappointing as this was the inaugural trip along this route.
We are working with our Train Operator, as well as The Chinnor and Swanage Railways to reschedule this trip to a new date and will be in touch with passengers later this week with further information.
We are very sorry to have to make this decision and apologise for any inconvenience or disappointment caused by the postponement of what promises to be a very special trip".

 

It doesn’t sound too serious then, just a few days to cool down then a fix. It does take a while for a boiler to cool down

 

The Oxford Mail have a short piece on this.

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/1...innor-to-weymouth-steam-train-trip-cancelled/

 

Interesting that they say that no alternative steam loco was gauged to be moved to Chinnor. Would it have therefore been possible to start the tour at Princes Risborough instead?
I couldn't really see the point in starting a tour at Chinnor anyway - how may people would actually board the train there (especially with a return scheduled for after midnight)? Furthermore the Chinnor section was going to be diesel hauled anyway!

I wonder whether relying on Mayflower to do most of the SD programme is such a good thing anyway.... I remember that in the early days Steam Dreams owned 35005 but when that failed they had to use a number of different locos instead. Marcus actually commented at the time that the variety of locos being used seemed to attract repeat customers. At least 35005 was big enough not to need diesel assistance.

 

That's the problem with putting all your eggs in the 70mph Class 5 needs diesel assistance basket.

 

The fact that the loco is a Class 5 wouldn't be so bad if they didn't include so many coaches in the rake. Take Vintage Trains for example - you'll rarely see one of their trips with more than 8 coaches, which will be fine for a Class 5 unassisted. Steam Dreams seem to be focused on putting on as many coaches as they can in order to increase the number of passengers they can receive money from. It's a business model that obviously works for them, or they wouldn't do it, but it won't be to everyone's taste.

 

Receive money from or keep the cost down? Don't be too hasty to criticise, without the likes of Steam Dreams there would be no steam.

 

The Stratford to Lincoln tour has been cancelled, pathing issues on the GE apparently.....

 

Oh I didn't realise, so looks like it's only next Thursday we'll get steam on the ge.... Oh well. Cheers for the info

 

Hasnt it had problems with a mudhole in the past?

 

Yes it has.

 

That's interesting, the email sent out to passengers said
"We are working with our Train Operator, as well as The Chinnor and Swanage Railways to reschedule this trip to the new date of Thursday 27 June. We are planning to run the original itinerary again with our mainline train running all the way through to Swanage (instead of Weymouth) at the end of the Swanage Railway, giving over two hours at the seaside resort on the south coast. We will write again in the coming days to confirm the options available to you once the 27 June date is confirmed, as engineering checks and final agreements are still being finalised."
I do hope it is 27th June as that's one of the few Thursdays that I have free in the summer.