Saphos 2023

Thought I would give this thread a bump.
Did 45231 return to Crewe like 60007? Other options would be 34046, 61306 or 70000 for the tours scheduled early this year involving London.

 

Steam Railway says 60007 should work the May, June & two July Welsh Marches trips, as well as all but the final English Riviera, so she will be based at the WSR from early May until end of August.

She will then work the Fellsman trip on 20th September, Christmas White Rose on 12th December and TBA Steam Dreams trip to Edinburgh.

 

Still at Southall but swapping with 61306 shortly .

 

Taking a guess
Mayflower will presumably do the following saphos runs as well.

Steam on London
Golden Arrows,
Cotswold Explorer, Great Western Envoy

 

I doubt it will be doing the Golden Arrows. The website says Braunton or Britannia and sticking the arrows in front of an apple green B1 would just look silly.

 

Braunton is still down at Southall isn't it?
If I had to guess, if, and only if, 34046 is scheduled to work the Golden Arrows during April, then there's every possibility that it'll be rostered onto the other Saphos excursions during that time.
I stand to be corrected, of course.

 

LSL policy recently has been to have 2 locos at their out-stations when there's a series of trains from similar starting points (e.g. Bristol in recent summers) with each able to cover for the other if there's a problem. If the plan is to have Braunton on the GA trains but she develops a problem, expect to see Mayflower instead.

 

Thank you. That policy is good and it has been several months since 34046 did a tour. It didn’t have any Christmas tours. It should be in London. Lakes Express was its most recent activity.

 

I thought when Saphos was launched one of their selling points was that trips were too long and they were not going to to that. The upcoming Cumbrian Coast Tour from Rugby seems more like a Pathfinder duration day.

 

It's a long day out for the middle of February when much of the scenery will be in the dark. May or June though would be quite attractive.

 

Just received tickets from Saphos for 01/03/23 WME. The letter advises steam (70000) won't be coming on til Hereford due to increased TfW paths between Crewe and Shrewsbury. Very disappointing. It's memsaab's birthday.....she won't be happy. On the return, steam is scheduled to continue to Crewe.

 

There's an 0846 Crewe-Shrewsbury on RTT. The Manchester-Carmarthen and Manchester-Cardiff services used to stop at Nantwich and Wem and even the small stations on request. They're non-stop these days so Crewe-Shrewsbury local services run in between them.

 

That's the one that starts at Holyhead isn't it? I was on the Midland Pullman on Saturday and got chatting to the train manager. They had a lot of problems getting a path for that trip. As of Saturday they had rejected NR's proposed path 3 times, as they all involved leaving Holyhead well before 5AM.

 

Any suggestions as of yet what might be at the head of this?

 

Royal Scot been unofficially quoted (dont shoot the messenger), though 70000 was out on test runs a couple of weeks ago, though 2 Royal Scots within 15 minutes at Carlisle would be nice (46115 already confirmed for WCME tour)

 

Looked good through Oxenholme, lots of people out to see her, only a few stayed for the CME.

 

The Lakelander with 46100.

 

46100 Royal Scot with the Lakelander seen from Scout Green through to Shap Summit

 

Docker Viaduct:



Approaching Salterwath:



Richard

 

Working today's 'Lakelander' No. 46100 'Royal Scot' approachins Shap summit passed a large gallery and onto Carlisle for a meeting with 'Scots Guardsman'