Tin Bath Feb 14th 2016

Agree with your sentiments and the last point in particular. Nobody in their right mind who wants to see steam continue on the ML is going to keep on unnecessarily about either the RTC or WCRC (who both do a brilliant job at one level). However the RTC is not master of the detail that they can control, in my opinion.

I really thought that when they revamped their website that this was a sign of someone having taken a grip of their on-line information and would update/revise it daily as things change, just like every other reputable site I can think of. But here we are a week after it seems that WCRC has done the maths on the Tin Bath resulting in steam coming off at Bolton and the RTC site is still boldly claiming:
"We continue steam hauled through Altrincham, Northwich, Hartford Junction and Warrington Bank Quay before stopping to set down passengers at Wigan North Western and Preston, where we expect to arrive at around 21:30."

Maybe they are correct, the provisional times are wrong and WCRC is sending a diesel from Preston to Bolton for nothing. Maybe it doesn't matter as I think the trip is full, or nearly so, and all those who have booked get hooked by the T&C that allow virtually any change to be made without redress. Make no mistake. I'm looking forward to the trip in its latest incarnation but this kind of practice does get in the way of all the good that the company does. I guess that us long suffering passengers are fairly forgiving people at heart!

 

44871 was put back together in similar circumstances at NYMR recently.

 

This looks like WCRC and the RTC trying to make the best of a bad job. You have to admit that the moment that the locos were coming off at Bolton there was hardly any point in going back to Preston via Manchester and Altrincham in the dark with diesel (in well over three hours) when you could slip across to Preston where the diesel would be waiting to run Wigan and Manchester people home. I also presume that by taking that route WCRC may have worked out it would be possible to get the locos back to Carnforth without a top up. And it's also an earlier finish at Carnforth for the steam crews.

I'm affected by this as I will miss my advance ticket train home from Manchester unless I can dash back across from Preston at additional cost to get my train. (You do wonder whether everyone might prefer to go home from Preston by service train to Manchester and to Wigan!). But anyway, this is a classic case of:
1. The aspiration of the RTC to produce a steam trip with interest for the enthusiast, which they did.
2. Manipulation of the route by NR.
3. The 'art of the possible' by WCRC trying to make it all work, service the locomotives and get home within the working day of the crew.
4. A final sensible tweak once it became clear that the return loop of the trip would not be with steam.

A typical case study, I think, in how the moment you attempt something out of the ordinary, a whole combination of factors will get in the way to screw things up. What is clear to me is that the whole charter business time line is the culprit. NR doesn't provide enough information far enough in advance to help the TOC plan the operational side with confidence. I guess that NR won't do the work until they know the trip will run but there really needs to be a conversation about all this. It's a pity that the ORR doesn't have a role in getting NR to provide a better advance service, or perhaps it does?

 

Now there's a surprise and the journey north for a trip behind Leander goes in the bin.The same email says that the change from a Jubilee to a Black 5 has meant that for gauging reasons the route has had to be revised to the direct route from Blackburn to Preston.

So it seems that the route that two Jubilees were originally going to take from Blackburn down to Bolton (where they would come off) cannot now be taken by a Jubilee and a Black 5 because of a gauging problem. So does Leander fit somewhere that the Black 5 does not? With the greatest of respect to all involved in getting this trip to run at all....and thank you very much, Ian Riley, for making one of your locomotives available........ isn't that explanation a load of nonsense?

The irony is that had they said that for operational reasons, with the locomotives now coming off at Bolton, it had been decided to take the train back directly to Preston and run the drop off by diesel in the opposite direction, I would have thought that as eminently sensible, whatever locomotives were on front.

By the way, no apology from the RTC in the email. I suspect that by now, ND & Co are heavily hacked off at the mauling that this trip has had at the hands of various parties and the usual combination of 'unexpected' glitches.