Saphos Trains

The William Shakespeare return passing Stafford.

 

On arriving into Crewe from Shrewsbury direction crossed 46100 tender first, presumably going for turning.

 

Many thanks. I'm well overdue for some Royal Scot haulage. Might see you tomorrow. I imagine I'll be the only single traveller on the train!

 

Royal Scot Today fresh from the paint shop.

 

46100 Royal Scot + 35465, 3125, 3045, 80044, 3100, 3148, 13227, 17159, 3330, 1203, 5991 + 47.614(47.853)

1Z70 07:00 Crewe to Salisbury
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U63172/2021-09-04/detailed#allox_id=0

1Z74 16:20 Salisbury to Crewe
Realtime Trains - 1Z74 1620 Salisbury to Crewe

 

Royal Scot between Kenilworth and Leamington.

 

Heyford, Oxon this morning.

 

46100 sounded nice on the Melksham branch...

 

46100 in North Oxfordshire today.

 

A great day out yesterday, although being in a Mk2 right at the end meant I barely heard 46100 all day. Nevertheless, the onboard service and the condition of the coaching stock was up to the usual Saphos impeccable standards. Here's a quick shot I grabbed shortly after arrival at Salisbury.

 

The Magna Carta excursion from Crewe to Salisbury was the fourth Saphos trip I've been on and I find it hard to fault them on any front.

We joined and left at Stafford and as promised, there were no shared tables. In our part of coach H most tables had just the window seats occupied. Odd ones were empty, and one had just one passenger - @bleeder4 ?

The stewarding was professional and attentive - all were masked and the young lady covering our coach came round several times taking orders for items from the buffet which were brought to our tables.

As for performance, I don't do timing beyond looking occasionally to see if we are on time, and as anyone who has looked at RTT will see, the outbound leg was more or less to time, though the return leg was slightly less so. The delays didn't seem to be due to any one event; just odd minutes here and there, though as we couldn't see the signals, there is no way of knowing whether we were checked, or perhaps the schedule was a little optimistic. To Saphos's credit, I'm as sure as I can be that the 47 on the rear was never fired up to help us along. We slipped to about half an hour down at worst, the last few minutes lost by a stop for several minutes at Oxford when we were due to pass straight through. I'm guessing we had to make way for a service train having lost our original path. We made up almost twenty minutes of the deficit by not having to wait at Kenilworth Jnc to take the single line to Coventry as the service we were due to wait for had passed through on time.

We then made up most of the lost time through a combination of recovery time (of which there was very little on the return leg compared to the outbound run) and a bit of sharp running.

My phone didn't show anything over about 70 outbound, nor on the return until the stretch between Wolverhampton and Stafford, when we got within sniffing distance of the maximum allowed 75 for a while.

It meant a most enjoyable - though long! - day ended for us a mere five minutes or so later than scheduled.

It must have been an even longer day for all the staff, and I reckon the Scot covered over 400 miles on the day. RTT shows 201m 32ch outbound, and I reckon the return via Swindon was a few miles longer. So many thanks to them all for their sterling efforts.

Thanks also to those who have put up photos and videos of the tour.

Finally, a study of the driver shortly after arrival at Salisbury...

 

Normally we'd have been in the standard coaches but having a birthday on the day we pushed the boat out and went for the full dining. Goodness me it drained the bank account somewhat BUT it was absolutely worth it. As you say the attentiveness of the staff was fantastic as was the food. We really felt like we were been treated like royalty. We were first coach behind the support and the 3 cylinder noise was deafening at times and quite a lot of the coal finished up in our drinks....that's not a complaint by the way. Back home I was trying to work out the mileage using David Maxey's Mile by Mile which was quite difficult round the Birmingham area. I note you appear to have got a distance covered from RTT. Although I use this all the time I am not aware how to track mileage. Are you able to enlighten me please. Incidentally by my dodgy arithmetic I made it 195 on the way out and 210 on the return but as every mile counts I'd appreciate your help on this one.

 

Glad you enjoyed it.

Regarding mileage, I dont know the ins and outs, but sometimes RTT shows mileages and sometimes it doesn't. I recall some comment a year or two back on why this is but can't remember the details.

I assume where they show they are accurate, but I guess our timing fraternity can answer this point.

This link shows them for me...

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U63172/2021-09-04/detailed#allox_id=0

but the return leg doesn't.

Edited to add: The above link shows mileages on my tablet but not on my phone, yet I'm not selecting the desktop option on my tablet. The plot thickens...

 

It's a little ironic that the destination was one where turning the loco would have been easy but wasn't needed.

 

Thanks for that. Indeed, I was looking at RTT on the phone having not fired up the computer. I clearly hadn't allowed enough for the round Birmingham section but as we returned the same way I just need to add the home section via Trowbridge. I make it 217 for homebound making 418 altogether.

 

46100 'Royal Scot' and support coach. 5Z45 Crewe HS - Southall.
Approaching Rugby 09:35.
Realtime Trains - 555E 0757 Crewe H.S. to Southall Loco Services Ltd
Movement in preparation for the 'Severn Valley Enterprise' railtour Wednesday, 8/9.

Update: Crewe Holding Sidings - Southall
BR green 47.805 plus 9 coaches. Crewe Holding Sidings - Southall. <BJ>

 

In the last few days I have regrettably had to cancel my only booking to travel behind steam in 2021. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic together with my medication regime has placed travelling (and lots of other activities) out of bounds.

I would like to place on record my thanks to Saphos Trains who have been understanding and accommodating in allowing me to cancel bookings during the last 18 months. My thanks to them for continuing to operate mainline steam and for letting me watch from the trackside – try stopping me! I wish them well in these difficult times.

I will be back!

 

RTT timings for tomorrow's trip with 46100 from Paddington to SVR:

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U63215/2021-09-08/detailed
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U63216/2021-09-08/detailed

And here's the SVR's WTT for tomorrow:

https://27531490-b169-4b56-b65b-b3d...d/acbe94_7d3fef27b06d401cbc8de3479b109056.pdf

Arrives into SVR at 10:57. Then departs for Bridgnorth at 11:40 hauled by 34027.

46100 then hauls the train from Bridgnorth, departing at 16:15 and arriving back at Kidderminster at 17:15 to meet it's path onto the mainline at 17:29.

Interestingly, the SVR WTT has the charter's loco listed as 34046 but we all know it's 46100 as it went down to Southall today.