Vintage Trains - 2021

Well it seems a little strange on having a fully booked train , and no seat allocations??? How do they know how many people can fit in each carriage??

I understand About the buffet car, as this is a relatively short trip, plenty of time at Worcester to grab a coffee.

is there any more spaces available on the morning train?? I’d love to be behind clun castle

 

Interesting.
Looks like Vintage Trains are taking no chances.
A couple of ‘provisional’ paths have appeared on RTT just in case ‘things go wrong’.
Seems like a sensible idea.
Pity a few of the other TOCs don’t do something similar.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U53019/2021-11-20/detailed
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:U53021/2021-11-20/detailed

 

Does the lack of seat allocations just increase unnecessary close contact of people as they all mill around trying to get a seat. I assume there is not a compulsory mask policy so it seems a little strange to me.

 

On Saturday's Welsh Marches trip, there were no seat allocations given in advance, only coach letters, but when boarding, the coach steward had a seating plan and directed each passenger to a particular table, upon which there were post-its stating who was sitting in which seat.
Don't know if the plan for the Lickey trains is the same, I'm sure they were still taking 'bubble' bookings for them at one point.

We weren't given instructions to wear masks, though a lot of people, including me, put them on when moving to/from their seat.

 

The turning moves are both labelled as ECS on RTT so I assume passengers will have to disembark during the layover at Worcester. In the case of the morning train, that's from 09:46 to 11:34, so people have a couple of hours to stretch their legs in Worcester. For the afternoon trip it's a break of nearly 3 hours.

 

The diesel should already have arrived from Tyseley, so the train should be topped and tailed for for the reversals over the triangle. Would that make it be OK for the passengers to stay onboard?
If not then, the passengers must detrain while the stock is turned and the coaches stored presumably in the dmu sidings where the loco shed was, in the middle of the triangle. Gives them a chance to see and photograph the train en route which they certainly deserve.

 

VT / WCR were the first to operate unassisted through New Street with 6201 about 9 or 10 years ago. Many of their charters used to go through New Street including a pair of panniers after climbing the Lickey.

It required a bit of sweet-talking and some special operating procedures, but it was definitely possible.

 

Similar to the pre-2019 arrangement for standard class on The Shakespeare Express.

 

Passengers cannot be carried as the train reverses at Tunnel Junction and heads back over points which aren't provided with a facing point lock. To allow passengers to remain onboard would require a Mobile Operations Manager to clip and scotch the points which would tie them up from their normal duties for the majority of the day and they would need to run around a very large site securing points and potentially causing conflicts with LTP traffic which Milton Keynes won't allow.

 

Just boarded at Tyseley. Clun Castle on load 6.

 

Can we assume that will be the same for the Duchess ?

 

Load 6? Yes, the maximum that can be taken on Lickey during leaf fall season without assistance.

 

63 mph Bromsgrove, 33 minimum

 

Turn your volume up and enjoy the sound of a Great Western Castle on approach to Bromsgrove and then the flattening of the Lickey !

 

Stunning

 

My video of the morning run on the Lickey:

 

Thank you both for the wonderful footage, it certainly sounded nice from the guards van today! I think we smashed the Lickey to bits and the comparison to a 170 asthmatically struggling up compared to our mighty Castle roaring away is almost stunning!

 

I found an old thread about a previous unassisted run up the Lickey with Leander on 25.3.06, also with load 6:

https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/leander-on-lickey.834510/

For comparison with 7029 today, Bob Meanley reported the speeds on that occasion as 18mph at Stoke Works Junction, 55mph at Bromsgrove and 19mph over the top, which is a damn fine effort with a Class 6 locomotive.

Now let's see what a Class 8 locomotive can do.

Nick M.