Steam Dreams 2023

60007 hauling the four-day Edinburgh tour which:
1. Is both ways via the ECML.
2. Has no Fife Circles in it on the days in Edinburgh (so far).

 

The 16 March Bath trip is not showing on the SD web site - has it been cancelled, did it never exist or is it just fully-booked, I wonder?

 

It's a strike day.

 

Right, thanks - so cancelled? Some run on strike days depending on who's striking.

 

Such as station staff -Pick-up and destination stations need to be open. VT Lickey trips cannot run because Worcester Shrub Hill will be closed.

 

News just breaking now that all RMT strikes have been cancelled. I assume the strikes by TOC staff are still on though.

 

Only NR strike cancelled according to BBC, so stations still likely shut. Funny I always thought 18/3 was only ever a TOC strike day but very difficult to keep up now.

 

Thursday 16th was both TOC and NWR, the 18th was just TOC.

 

I share your concerns. If this trip had been organised Pre-Covid would there have been such a disparity in prices?

 

But the first class fare is the same at £185. Saphos/SD aren't really in the standard class market are they?

 

Deltic Kings x to York, both ways.

 

I think it was going that way even when Marcus was running it - it was on his watch that they introduced the tablecloths and free drinks etc.. and it became Premium Standard rather than just Standard.

 

Yes, it did start to go that way under Marcus.
At first the premium standard was impressive but unfortunately after a number of trips we noticed that things were starting to go downhill a bit. There was no consistency with the promised "free teas or coffees". On some trips we were served several times, on others we had one throughout the whole day.
The final trip (and final straw) for us with SD was a run to the Bluebell with 34046 in 2014 IIRC. On the return run the lights blew up in our carriage and we had to spend most of the journey back sitting in the dark. The batteries in the emergency lights we were given all went flat pretty quickly and the SD stewards suddenly disappeared at this point for the rest of the trip never to be seen again! After sitting in the pitch black carriage held outside Aldershot for ages and no information to tell us what was going on we decided enough was enough at the prices they were charging.

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One thing that isn't clear is what coaching stock are they planning to use for Steam Dreams tours this year? Are they trying to share the Saphos set as far as possible, or is it the Statesman set or the dreaded Inter-City set?

 

Still no times on RTT yet for the Settle & Carlisle tour this Saturday with 46100 assuming it’s still running that is ?

 

Times on SD website https://www.steamdreams.co.uk/page.php?pageid=12 scroll down

 

Just short of a 17 hour day from Euston. How long before these things become overnight?

 

Thanks for that Paul .