RTC 2021

35018 on the CME on Saturday according to the tickets.

Hopefully it will go better than the 22nd May run.

Andrew

 

I would hope any loco owner, support crew member or volunteer would consider their locomotive 'precious', no matter what the name or number plate shows.
Hopefully the problems are simply down to a 'bad tender full' and 60103 will be back to good health soon, just as she demonstrated on Sapperton.
Note David Smith has gone on the record as saying coal supply isn't an issue for West Coast and they have been importing for a while. Overall quality has been good, (don't forget this supplies Fort William), but it is very difficult to guarantee quality when it is coming out of a hole 1000's of miles away.

 

End of Southern Steam Times (steam sections)
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U54870/2021-07-09/detailed
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U54869/2021-07-09/detailed
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U54868/2021-07-09/detailed

Bournemouth Express Times
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U54838/2021-07-03/detailed
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U54839/2021-07-03/detailed

 

IIRC she wasn't sounding too healthy on that tour after climbing Sapperton on her way back into London, very Asthmatic!

I bet the HRA are having a field day with all this talk of dodgy foreign coal!

 

Wasn't the Bournemouth Express originally going to be from Waterloo? Looks like it's changed to Victoria instead. I was going to make a last minute booking on it if I could, but I'll have to miss it as I can't get down to London that early on a Saturday morning and I'm not ready to start doing hotels again yet.

 

It’s difficult ti work steam out of Waterloo if it’s a decent length train, the main platforms are fairly short , meaning the front of the train is out beyond the signal. That’s why they normally start from the Windsor side or the old Eurostar platforms, in both cases it means going round the houses via Staines

 

Just to point out that getting a path out of Waterloo or returning to Waterloo involves a lot of negotiations with SWR for retiming of public services. ( From memory, the 2017 Bournemouth Belle needed over 20 retimings of SWT, Cross Country and freight services.) Victoria normally needs a couple of platform swaps without any retiming exercise. There are also proven paths in and out of Victoria via Stewarts Lane Jn. Johnb is correct about the platform arrangements using platform 19 at Waterloo. Steam using the former Eurostar platforms is unlikely with enclosed roof and a sophisticated fire alarm system. Special fire alarm arrangements had to be made for 35028 visiting the Eurostar terminal before it opened.

As we hopefully realise, the profit is effectively the last coach on a charter train so there is always commercial pressure to run the maximum possible formation. Southern destinations are an economic problem as the region has slowly been rebuilt around the concept of 12 x 64 foot / 20 metre coaches since the 1930's. With few stations having run round facilities a top and tail loco is needed, so with that the train loco and support coach any promotor is down to 9 revenue coaches. As the dining element is often the prime market, the train is down to seven coaches of accommodation when allowing for two kitchen cars.

As a rhetorical question, is it worth all the extra work to start from Waterloo instead of Victoria to get a 30 minute later start? Will it make a difference in filling the train? That is the sort of question tour promoters have to balance before they start considering operational constraints.

Cheers, Neil

 

Too bad really, he often comments about others...
It certainly doesn't look like a loco that not so long ago had millions of pounds spent on it, scruffy, rods knocking, regulator blowing through....

 

I agree with you Neil, unless you can go mainline to Woking then Waterloo has no benefit over Victoria if you have to go via either Richmond or Hounslow and Staines. The highlight of the DCE when it used to go back into Waterloo was the evening blast up the mainline (its planned path) from Woking.
I was also told, although not sure if true, that the locos in the old Eurostar platforms are without special dispensation, classed as too heavy.
Of course platform constraints at Weymouth stop the train being more than 10 coaches and two locos, so not possible to lengthen this tour, if bookings were high, like some have been recently.

 

It certainly makes me wonder what the 4 million was spent on. I thought it sounded a bit rough on Sapperton last week, perhaps time it was retired to the museum. In my opinion they should have spent a few hundred grand on cosmetic restoration, and the rest on building a new A3 , preferably without the awful deflectors, and double chimney (as built).

 

I doubt it. Sounds more like someone who hasn’t a clue and lives under the rickety rackety bridge.

 

I know it's just under a month away, but I'm booked on the Welsh Mountaineer, what locos are allowed down the Conwy Valley, as I've never been on this tour or seen it before?

 

It was good to meet you at Southampton last week, Neil. While you have highlighted one problem with running main line steam profitably over former Southern Region routes, there are some exceptions - i.e., locations which don't require a tail gunner. Salisbury, with plenty of platforms and a turning triangle not too far to the east is a good example. Yeovil Junction, of course, has a turntable and Canterbury West has a siding where stock can be serviced without too much in the way of reversals and trains can then return to London via Deal and Dover. Unfortunately, the Bournemouth line doesn't come into this category - at least, it won't until the Swanage Railway installs the ex-Hither Green turntable, but after 31806's successful outing last Sunday, hopefully the late July/August/September RTC trips to Weymouth can be run without requiring a diesel although this probably still won't allow the number of carriages to be increased due to the platform length at Weymouth.

While we all know that it's Joe Public (and particularly wealthy Joe Public who travels Premier Dining) which enables main line steam to be profitable and therefore the destination must be the paramount consideration for tour organisers, it is a pity that if you want unassisted steam on the Southern Region, 35028 with the Pullmans on the Surrey Hills circuit (at least outside leaf fall season) seems to be the only regular offering, as it is rather expensive, to put it mildly.

 

The 8f, Jubilee, and Scot have all been there in recent years. Betting odds would probably favour the Scot this year. It's worth scrolling back through What's Going On to read of some past journeys.

 

Done the W.M. tour twice 2017 with 46115 and 2018 with 48151 as a show pony with a C.47 tucked behind but the 8F still doing the lions share of the climbing from Llandudno jct to Blaneau F. I know earlier tours up the conwy valley used to have the B.R. standard 4MT 2.6.4. tanks and one got short of steam and got stuck on the Conwy valley line, I think it was 80079 or 80080 also the K4 61994 has also black 5,s and 76079 have done it.
Davo 56F

 

Wonder what's rostered for the 3rd, as it's only 60mph max., whereas the 9th is 75mph. I had assumed a pacific for both. RTC's site says its 35018, which "will be able to run at its maximum speed"...