Steam Dreams 2024

SD has re-vamped its website and has published a list of tours for the first half of the year. Most don't have a specific loco allocated to them, but the list of potential locos does include 60532, although not 6024. There are some interesting starting points, including one train from rather than to, Windsor and a trip to Bath which kicks off at Horsham, heading off down the Arun Valley (Mid-Sussex) line and then westwards along the coast . A through train from Shoeburyness to the Bluebell Railway is another interesting working and the early season (6th March) London-Bath via Salisbury train will bring the welcome sight of No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley to Southern metals for the first time in quite some time.

No sign of the Kent & Surrey Hills circulars which ran this year but there's nothing yet listed after 15th June, so these could well be added later. They seemed to sell well this year, by all accounts.

 

£15 for a three minute coach transfer to Sheffield Park Gardens entry not included. Nice work if you can get it (and I thought the Sandbanks Ferry was expensive)

 

What struck me was the the number of workings with steam haulage one way only. At a quick count, I think was 6 out of 16 trains. At least it is being stated somewhere amongst the purple prose and not buried in a T&C statement.

Cheers, Neil

 

Does anybody know why 'Steam Dreams' is still a brand?

Looking from the outside in, on the whole it just seems like Saphos under a different name, with operations only coming from the south east and London, as Steam Dreams was prior to being sold off.

Is there any difference in the experience between Steam Dreams and Saphos?

 

There is a potentially interesting debate there. Is steam one way for the same mileage better or worse than steam both ways either on and off mid journey or even that steam throughout if the steam mileage is the same miles? Newcastle to Kings Cross is probably the longest at about 270 miles which is about the same steam mileage one way as a trip to Bath from Victoria covers in both directions.

 

Different booking team? They also seem to still do some things that Saphos, Statesman etc. don't like their Santa trips and the trip earlier this year to Ireland.

 

It's out via Chertsey, Woking, Guildford and Surrey Hills, reversal at East Croydon. Steam works back from Sheffield Park to West London in the evening.

 

Will be great to see 60007 on the SWML!

 

But they also both run the same trip as well. Some of the pick ups may be different but the Worcester trips as an example have Maidenhead and Reading pick ups for both.
Must be cheaper to close one booking office website etc and run it all out of one place.

 

The main difference is SteamDreams tours are typically based in and around the south, Saphos doesn't come far south very often other than their golden arrow trips. SteamDreams has also been it's own company long before Saphos was a thing and so they have their own business with their own staff as far as I am aware.

Really, in my opinion, the only things they have in common is the coaching stock and locomotives since LSL bought them.

 

Well of the tours listed on the Saphos website 19 are in what I call SD territory, 18 in Saphos territory and one from the West Country. So not sure I agree, but yes a few are GA's.

 

The booking team are the original Steam Dreams booking team. They're based in Guildford whereas the normal LSL booking team is based in St Erth. When the business changed hands there may have been a clause in the contract that the original staff had to be kept on for x amount of time.
The staff on the trains are the usual LSL staff though. If you go on any of the Saphos trips, then you will see the same staff on a Steam Dreams trip. eg, on the Emerald Isle Explorer the train manager was Sandra, who is also the Saphos train manager.
The on-board classes are different though eg in Steam Dreams First Class you don't get the snack boxes that you get in Saphos First Class.

 

I am not talking about pick up points but the actual tour routes and steam hauled sections, Saphos picks up from the south often diesel hauled. I only count 9 which 7 are the golden arrow tours I talked about.

Living in the south-east, SteamDreams are the steam tours I have a chance of seeing most regularly, the only other company being RTC but they do not come south of Reading as often. I only get a chance of seeing a Saphos tour maybe once or twice a year in what I would call local to me (not including when they pick up passengers diesel hauled in the early hours of the morning)

 

Worth noting SteamDreams have added a lot of the rostered locomotives for the 2024 trips with SNG doing it's fair share and 46100 noted as doing the trip to Bluebell along with some others.

Currently 61306 is down for doing the least amount of trips with I believe SNG doing the most! Bit of a switch up from 2023

 

Slight caveat from the members page 60007 is only confirmed for the first three of those and the first two are subject to maintenance/repairs being completed in time.

Just keeping an eye out for 60532 appearing at some point........

Andrew

 

Did Steam Dreams' planned NZ tours evaporate than when they were taken over by the Hosking empire?

Edit: corrected "than".

 

Were they not planned back in a time before the world had heard the word Covid?

 

No, but it kept being put back( and not just of covid), so probably lack of interest due to the cost.