Steam Dreams 2024

The tour doesn't depart from Bath until 18:54. If the train had been on time, passengers would have had well over 6 hours in the city. I would have thought that a reduction in visiting time wouldn't have been too much of a problem. [BJ]

 

What I managed to get of Mayflower this morning. With it being a rare route for steam it was always on the radar, but one wondered if it was going to happen! At Motspur Park the Class 47 was doing all the work but that was to be expected given the need to preserve water. I then headed for Christ's Hospital, a job that should've been easy at the time of the morning the train was due, but with more traffic and the reduced water stop at Warnham I landed there just as Mayflower was coming, so all I managed was a grab handheld shot of it wizzing through:



Also, to clear up what happened, the train reversed at Streatham South Jn after it was realised it couldn't go through Wimbledon (not the TL platform anyway) and went as far as Kensington. It then proceeded to Clapham Junction Platform 5, to then reverse to Queenstown Road, to then eventually reach the SWML fast lines through Clapham Junction and eventually reach Wimbledon and Motspur Park.
I think on any other day, the tour would've very nearly been cancelled, but as it's only steam hauled one way (no concern over turning and servicing the engine at Bristol), 6 hours in Bristol and a diesel hauled return (which is quicker anyway), plus the fact that this trip was essentially done as a way to move the B1 to the WSR for their upcoming gala, it did go ahead, so kodus to everyone involved for getting it to run as planned.

 

Yes, it was touch and go! My question is; was the Wimbledon block planned or impromptu, and if the former, how was it missed in the planning? We may never know. At one point, 'Traksy' showed two 3Z06 trains around Queenstown Road, so that was when I wondered if it had split to allow the steam and support coach to go west while the rest returned to base. I wonder if anyone managed a shot of it going down the SWML fast line - a very rare move?!

 

Realtime Trains showed nothing else as calling at Tooting that I could see anywhere around the time the tour was due, so could well have been a planned block that has slipped through the planning net somewhere (he says as pure speculation)

 

My video from the ECS run.

 

Indeed, but NRE has no engineering works in the area. However, there is an engineering train at West Sutton so it looks as if some form of work is going on, perhaps emergency. Still NRE makes no mention of either engineering or service disruption there... RTT seemingly has no trains on the route today (not just cancelled but none planned) so my guess is that an engineering block has been missed somewhere (inc. NRE!). Not good.

 

It is a strange one as neither National Rail or Thameslink themselves mention it in the engineering or disruptions works pages. Journey Planners just come up with No Results Found" for the TL services on the Sutton Circuit. No mention of any RRB's either.
Did notice there was a point failure at Westbury that has been cleared so that may have had an impact if it had run on time.

 

It’s very odd as if you search for Tooting station on Southerns website, then live departures/arrivals it does say no trains this weekend due to engineering works, gives you a link for National Rail Enquiries for more information, but as others have said there is nothing showing for this weekend on National Rail Enquires engineering work or disruption page.

 

my friend is on the tour today and there was no info or updates given at Horsham, they were just left waiting for over 2 hours on the platform, if it wasn’t for Railcam diagrams he’d have had no idea what was happening! Safe to say there were a lot of unhappy passengers.

 

It feels like something has slipped through the planning 'net', meaning there is engineering works but they have not shown up for planning tools, etc., (or for the public!) resulting in this special coming a cropper. Unusual, I'm glad to say, and also very fortunate that it is a one-way steam working, meaning it seemingly proved less prone to abandonment. Must have made quite a sight on the down fast at Earlsfield!

 

Good grief, that's extremely poor! It beggars belief that Horsham station staff, with hundreds of passengers hanging around for hours, wouldn't have had a modicum of initiative! Where were the SD staff, too, I wonder? At least they could have walked around and told people. Were all the staff actually on the ECS perhaps, ready to alight there and then assume stewarding duties? What a mess overall.

 

Not the first time that has happened since LSL took over and the former SD stewards were 'moved on' in December 2022. The LSL hospitality team travel on the ECS to the starting station. I don't believe there are any full time SD office staff present anymore like there used to be in regular communication with the ECS to keep the passengers informed.

I think they have been quite slow to respond to the importance of meet and greet for the high end, non enthusiast market they are now focusing the business on.

 

I suspected something like that. Doesn't excuse the Southern station staff's absence of announcements though, who appear to have been hiding for two hours!

 

From my experience they are often clueless too!

 

Before the take over Steam Dreams used to use another twitter account On_Train which they would use for updates on just these sort of days. But it’s not been updated since December 2021. It’s still live on Twitter, one of my photos is its cover photo, potentially now never to be changed!

 

It also occurs to me that this would have been a minor issue in days of yore, as the train could have been sent via Sutton without all the endless reversals (and would probably have been scheduled that way anyway). Nowadays every loco needs an encyclopedia of gauging data to be allowed anywhere!

 

I've now found the Sutton loop closure on NRE, buried in the Thameslink core closure, which I suspect many people won't have discovered easily (and neither did the planners!).

 

I have just checked the Engineering Access statement which shows the situation at CPPP (26 weeks before operation) and nothing is shown for the "Wall of Death" via St Helier. However the Thameslink core through Farringdon is blocked. Lots of traffic notes about longer distance services turning back at Kings Cross and London Bridge but nothing about the Sutton Loop service.

As it seems to be Thameslink custom and practice to direct passengers to local buses for the Sutton Loop, I guess it becomes a "no train period" and any additional possession therefore becomes non disruptive.

All in all, this charter found the holes in the planning process which aligned! The limits of the possession at Wimbledon are another matter, I do seem to remember that current isolations were problematic around Wimbledon West Jn.

Cheers, Neil

 

In today's wonderful compensation-driven railway (i.e. pay up after rather than get it right to start with), will SD be receiving compensation from NR for the routeing cock-up? Will SD be compensated by Southern for the virtual abandonment of their passengers for two hours at Horsham with no information? In the latter case almost certainly not, although it would be nice to think that 'Open Access' includes normal basic stuff such as severe late running information provision to whichever TOCs' passengers are at any given station. Who knows, but yet again, poor information is at the heart of the issue.

 

I think you are maybe being somewhat harsh on the station staff. They probably knew very little, if anything more than the passengers. There may have been one or two who did not care, but what did you really expect them to do? I am sure they would not know the phone number for LSL control, who probably themselves a lot of the time by the sound of it probably did not know what was happening either.
The learning point, which bearing in mind the original SD were even more sold on the idea than RTC were at one time, is to have a steward or rep whatever you want to call them at each pick up. Passengers to need someone to talk to (berate or shout at) who is from the company, not a non responsible third party.
For a company who claimed they wanted to move the railtour segment up market seems a poor omission of all your pax contact staff are onboard a stranded train.