RTC Portsmouth Flyer - 13/06/26

I usually go up the Spinnaker Tower when I'm in Portsmouth, and watch the comings and goings in the harbour, see what navy ships are in etc. You can get good photos from up there.

 

Clearly, one visits the home of the greatest team the world has ever seen...
https://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/fratton-park/stadium-tours
(Longest holders of the FA Cup...[1])

[1] don't ask when...

 

Yes I can understand that being the case in some circumstances, but this weekend sees a major timetable recast owing to engineering, with many trains from London diverted over the Chertsey route. As that includes the steam special, I would have thought that it would have to be integral to the overall service timing changes, and therefore not done as an afterthought.

 

The timetable looks odd (don't ever recall Portsmouth to Woking trains, and in a given hour there are points where you get two down trains between up trains. There also don't appear to be any fast trains passing through). I wonder if there are issues somewhere.

 

As I mentioned on the RTC thread the confirmed timings are on the RTC website they just have not been loaded onto the system yet it appears. Those travelling have their joining and arrival times, so I guess job done!

 

If you look at RTT for today looks like everything stops at Haselmere where the water stop is.
MTDR I guess.

 

NR saying no trains between Surbiton and New Malden. Everything seems to be going via Feltham. Fitting a special in will be a challenge.

 

Yes, passengers have the timings they need, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been a challenge to fit the special in, given the abnormal service situation. In fact, given that the timings are significantly different from the provisional ones, it may be that it has been tricky. It wasn't/isn't a problem at all (not even "tiresome") to await RTT details, and I only asked out of curiosity (as I said in my first post) about the very variable lead time the process produces, and certainly not from any sense of entitlement to be given line-siding timings.

 

From my experience most timings (these days even the regulars like a CME sometimes ) are different to the provisional ones.
Cambridge Dictionary defines provisional as:
"for the present time but likely to change:"

I stewarded a Central Wales where the prov time was 07:15 from Slough and the actual around 05:20 from memory.

 

Ouch!

 

Just came here to say the same, thanks to those who helped out.

Interesting that they don't have times for every station (unless they are using the little-known Godalming avoiding loop...).

Mike

 

A couple of slightly interesting features of the run are; a call at Barnes "for staffing reasons", and the fact that it reverses at Fareham signal E281 - there can't be many trains in the UK (albeit a tour) that are scheduled to reverse while not at a station and while carrying passengers. On the return, it and a service train, also from Portsmouth, are both scheduled to leave Woking at 2015 in parallel. The steam is shown as using p2 so it will have to cross to the slow once its 'companion' from p1 has cleared and follow it round to Chertsey.

 

Have not a lot of the York tours reverse at Gascoigne Wood on the way back south? Plus of course most DCE's & Swanage Belle's used to reverse in Southampton UDGL.

 

Check later today/tomorrow and the path will activate and all the other stations will appear.