The Waverley Season Starts Tomorrow

The P S Waverley sets out from Glasgow for Oban at 07.00 in the morning

This means that for an all too short weekend the West Highlands are home to two surviving LNER steam machines,and they will even be within a couple of miles of each other on Sunday, when Waverley calls at Fort William

I did try to get the two companies to talk to each other, but it was too late as timetables had already been put to bed - but the Jacobite is already doing five day a week sell out business - 62005 on today, and a cracking trip it was too.

The West Highlands - steam - the Grog and Gruel - it doesn't get any better

 

Can't wait until it reaches East Anglia \/

 

im going up on the fort william sleeper on sunday night,
then back thurs nt from INV
i wonder if i can nab a sailing?

 

wow it's sailing past my flat on 25th september !

 

I emailed Steam Railway to see if they had any interest in including her season starting in the news or to do a feature on the last railway steamer but had no reply. A shame - she is an important part of the UK's railway heritage in addition to our Maritime heritage.

Looking forward for my paddles on her this season - the trips offer great value.

Chris

 

What a good idea..

I noticed that 25th Sept trip is Dover to London Bridge..

How cool would that be to have a steam trip out from London to Dover and return by Steam ship?
there has to be a future oppourtunity here for these two to work together..imagine:

Manchester - Liverpool - Manchester by steam loco / ship, or an IOM Packet express run, or even a highland steam trip to Glasgow - FW - Mallaig (Waverley) Kyle - Inverness - Glasgow, with even a reverse direction trip at the same time ?

I checked out the Waverleys website today and the ship is impressive, i'm considering this as a day out with my wife at somepoint this year.

 

'The Waverley Boat Train'. I know where you can find a headboard for that!

I used to enjoy the time she'd be in Swanage for a few hours, a wonderful looking machine, and the crew were always a friendly bunch of people to boot.

 

Let's not forget that the SS Shieldhall's excursion season also starts soon, on June 13th:

Trips: http://www.ss-shieldhall.co.uk/programme.htm

Home page: http://www.ss-shieldhall.co.uk/

 

I'm booked for one of the trips out of Poole in August!

Chris

 

Waverley will return to Swanage this season after a few years not being able to use the pier - not sure of the reason's but its great to see her calling there again.

 

Spread the word !! They need ALL the help they can get this year if they are to continue operating the ships!

Her fleetmate Balmoral does a number of trips in the Bristol Channel with a 'railway theme'. You can cruise from Clevedon to Penarth followed by a trip on the Brecon Mountain Railway and from Penarth to Clevedon to link to Bishops Lydeard for the WSR to Minehead. Return sailing is via ship from Minehead to Penarth.

 

What a start to a season - 422 on to Oban from Glasgow

Two sell outs - a mill pond to Tiree on Monday and a surprise rendezvous with Saga Ruby - the only British built ocean going cruise ship still with us off Tobermory.

Yes - the railway fraternity needs to understand that, as was our motto - "There's more to railways than trains" much, much, more!

 

Arriving at Avonmouth today to commence her Bristol Channel visit. Poor forcast for the weekend - typical. ](*,) ](*,)

 

And she looked equally fine at anchor(?) out in the Bristol Channel this afternoon, as seen from the very agreeable surroundings of Clevedon Pier.

 

She arrived around 0700 and spent some time anchored off to await her lock in time - I had to go to Walton Bay Radar station today so had a nice view of her from there. No lock out time yet but likely to be Sat morning.