Great Britain XV: 15 - 23/4/23

Will be the first steam in preservation to visit Felixstowe? Reading the updated description my guess would be it won't be a long visit, just a single (and short!) platform there with nowhere outside of the Port to stable the train. If you wanted a destination for the passengers to get off and look round, Harwich would seem a better shout to me. Maybe that wasn't possible, or they have decided to go with rare track instead which is fair enough.

 

There was a trip down the branch in early May 2002 to coincide with the 125th Anniversary of the lines opening, seen here at Derby Road........




I'm sure there has been another one since then, but can't remember the details. I certainly didn't go out and photograph it if it did!

 

Excellent, thanks for sharing. UK Steam has it as 05/05/02 - https://web.archive.org/web/20160623120045if_/http://uksteam.info/tours/t02/t0505a.htm
I do remember these tours in the early 2000s that went down the Clacton and Harwich Branches, never realised one popped into Felixstowe as well.

 

31806 is available but isn't booked.

 

Optional day to Aberdeen on the GBXV Now generally advertised as a day trip.

 

RTC blurb for the day trip says return via Stirling.

 

as stated -
Now generally advertised as a day trip. (On the RTC day trip pages and not included in the basic GB ticket price)

 

Now finishing at Liverpool St vice Kings Cross, in the email just received.

That will do nicely.

 

It must have been a while since steam went to Liverpool Street.

 

Last steam there was Ollie Cromwell during the so called beast from the east.

 

Liverpool Street arrivals must be pretty rare, can’t recall any in the last ten years or so.

 

Which tour? Beast from the East was the weekend of March 18 2018 and neither Six Bells or UK Steam show tour into Liverpool St around then.

 

Beast from the east was February 2018.
The Cathedrals Express, 70013 Oliver Cromwell, 22nd February 2018.
Liverpool Street to Norwich.
I filmed the train at Diss but, unfortunately, Cromwell suffered a mechanical failure soon after:



A picture of 70013 at Liverpool Street.
(Picture by Loose grip 99).

 

Beast from the East was from Thursday 1st March 2018. I remember it as it was St Davids Day and I had to go to work (which didn't happen as was a red weather alert)!.

 

Poor memory on my part based on snow here in Swanage.
However as @D1002 stated Cromwell failed at Diss and the tour terminated at Stratford. Liverpool Street arrivals, rather than departures, seem far more uncommon. Not helped of course by Tangmere failing at Norwich on a trip and it coming back behind a DRS 47 on June 9 2013.

 

61264 also had a couple of unintended one way trips to Norwich - a hot box on one trip and a bufferstop collision on another occasion.

 

I remember that tour. Shame Tangmere failed as she was going so well when I filmed her on the down run at Manningtree:

 

Also Mayflower on 4-7-2019 terminating at Ipswich as the end consequence of wrong routeing in and out of Norwich earlier in the day.

 

Liverpool St seems to put a hex on steam tours. Cromwell again Aug 15 2009, unable to water as planned from memory the MOM or whatever they were then did not turn up with the key to allow the tanker access at the water stop. Ended up going to the next station and watering from a car park. By then most pax had returned on a service train and the tour itself terminated at Stratford.
Hope the GB has better luck.

 

In fairness to all of you (based on a channel 5 documentary on over Christmas!), the 'beast from the east' caused several snow events that affected different parts of the country over the course of a couple of weeks - so you could all be right!

My memory was going to a concert in Cardiff and having to book into a hotel on Merthyr when it became clear we would never make it back up the A470. That was the beginning of March, but other parts of the country had snow sooner.