The "Titfield Thunderbolt", Saturday 23rd June

Hi,

with 44767 George Stephenson currently undergoing boiler work at the Churnet Valley railway, 9466 will now be covering its diagram on the Titfield Thunderbolt on Saturday 23rd June. 9466 will be working the Norwich/Sherringham leg, along with 34067 Tangmere.

regards George

 

Anyone from Nat Pres on this?

Still awaiting times and tickets. RTC have a message on their site today apologising for the delay in sending them out but they are STILL waiting final confirmed times from Nitwork Rail.

:rant: Am getting peed off now with last minute timings for trips, fare for me to get to and from start point now double what it was last week providing I can use the trains that are suitable. Also had a 20% discount code from East Midlands trains provided I made the booking by midnight on 18th June, so thanks to the inefficiency of NR I have lost that. :mad2:

Seriously considering not booking any more trips this year now and spending my money on something else that I can enjoy and know will be at least as described.

Dave B

 

Yet again that old chestnut! Will they ever learn? They need taking to task urgently.

 

Some (partial) actual times on the RTC webpage Titfield Thunderbolt
Is it still top and tailed with steam Norwich-Cromer-Sheringham and return?

 

Probably not, also glad some of the staff are realising it. They are probably taking all the flak whilst the management just sit back. Same in all walks of company policies.
It seems they move location on a yearly basis. A similar thing happened here, Royal Mail moved out of their fairly new office in Reading & shifted everything to Swindon which now means everything for the Reading area has to go via Swindon even it is not on the actual route. Local mail probably travels to Swindon & back.

 

Having seen the partial times this trip looks like being a no go for me. Departure from London now 90 minutes earlier than original approximate times. FIVE HOURS to get to Norwich, must be one of the slowest charter times for a journey on that route but NO CONFIRMED RETURN times departing from Norwich or arriving back into London. The 1720 time shown for Norwich has to be the ARRIVAL time back from Cromer as it is very similar to th Broadsman timings in 2010.

Getting there I can do, even if it means getting up at stupid o'clock, but if it's going to get back to London after 11pm then that for me is a no go. It's bad enough having to pay more to get there than I could have without having to fork out extra for overnight accomodation on Saturday night. Apart from which I have other commitments for Sunday anyway.

Dave B

 

I think the 13.00 time at Norwich is departure, not arrival. 57 mins to Cromer would be about right with a Pannier on the front. Don't forget time will be needed to shunt and reform the train at Norwich each time as well, plus turn 34067 at some point. Even so, it's looking like a late return.

 

Are the bids for paths submitted to Network Rail on time? My understanding is that they are often received after the 'deadline'. If so, surely it's not surprising the confirmed timings are commonly late and NR are probably within their rights to reject it altogether.

I'm not sure who comes up with the 'provisional' timings, but even the casual enthusiast could see in this case that they wouldn't work. There was a clash at West Runton with the Greater Anglia service train for starters...

I understand there have also been last-minute complications with the loco servicing arrangements. I would have thought this would have been agreed weeks ago.

I'm sure there is work to be done by all parties to improve the planning and operation of mainline charters (not just steam), but I'm certain not all of the blame can be laid at Network Rail's door, whether in Leeds, Milton Keynes or elsewhere.

 

I agree. KX to Norwich was 4 hours 15 min on C.E. on the 21/8/11 via the same route(the return on the same trip was just for 3 hours) so with the stock shunt 13:00 does look like a departure time.

 

Travelling back south on the A1 around 5 o'clock this afternoon, we saw a pannier tank on the back of a low loader heading east but it was too fleeting a glimpse to positively identify. We presume it was 9466 rather than 1501.

 

It seems the arrival times on the return cannot be confirmed until the day, according to the letter with tickets today. Never heard that on any trip I've done. What the hell is such a problem with this? Main line from Hitchin on a Saturday evening? Who knows, certainly not RTC or us punters.

 

What a farce! Needs some action from some government transport body/watchdog or something.

 

RTC website has been updated and shows a 22.43 arrival back at KX.

 

What a joke. Ive already booked on a service train to get back, good job I did.

 

It's bad enough this timing farce was happening in May, but here we are a month later and in some cases the situation is no better so it's quite clearly not been a short term issue, NR Charter Dept need to explain themselves, its wholly unacceptable that passengers have no idea if they can get home that night or not.

 

Well I can't get home the same night not if I just use service trains. It'll be after 2am the next morning if I drive to Peterborough for service trains. That's a Ihr 20 minute drive starting at 4.45am Saturday morning and the same return drive starting around 1am Sunday by which time I'll have been awake 21 hours. My other alternative is a 30 minute drive to Grantham at a more reasonable 5 30am start and then bail at Ely on the way back to get back to Grantham just after 11pm. Only snag with that is the train fare is a lot more than a Peterborough to Kings Cross return and you lose out on some steam haulage.

This has definitely put me off doing any more trips at present, especially ones that start and end in London.

Dave B

 

Groks212 - Bear in mind that there are Engineering Works again this weekend north of Hitchin on Saturday and Sunday. Noticed it this morning on the posters.

 

91110 'BBMF' down fast Hornsey 08.06. Another Battle of Britain down slow 08.09.