Weymouth Seaside Express 2012

With Nunney Castle looking to be out of action for sometime and uncertaintly about Braunton, will the Weymouth Seaside Expresses happen? Be nice to have some input from the operators about the plans for replacement locos.

 

I am just guessing that Tangmere shall be replacing Nunney Castle on the July 1st run after duties the prior day on the outbound Royal Wessex.

 

Where are the pool for the dorset coast expresses kept? Are they all together? As these are also RTC tours will this pool come to the rescue?

 

The DCE locos are kept at Yeovil.

James at SVN

 

Any times available yet?

 

Isn't the WSE pool the same as the Royal Duchy one? If so, 34067 will be kept busy until 34046 makes an appearance - assuming there aren't replacement locos in the pipeline.

 

Well with a week to go before the first Weymouth Seaside Express UK Steam still shows two locos that are not available.

 

I emailed RTC for clarity on this issue on 22 June to which they replied they "we don't have the loco pools for our summer trains at the moment". Not reassuring at all given the length of time these trains have been advertised with the first due to run 1 July as pointed out above.

 

i also phoned last week and was told they should know this week;my guess is tangmere;


all the best
jane;

 

The first train seems to be fully booked, so hope they can find a loco...

 

I agree. Tangmere is rostered for the outward leg of The Royal Wessex to Weymouth on Saturday 30th. Based on previous such trips, I guess she will bank Ollie as far as Dorchester or Wareham on the return. Provided a support crew is available, she could run to Bristol Saturday evening - or perhaps to Yeovil Junction for servicing overnight, then to Bristol early Sunday morning. Her next booking (on UKsteam.info) is probably the return Dorset Coast Express on Thu 5th July. The risk is that if she develops a problem on the Royal Wessex, there's almost no time to fix it before Sunday morning.

We know Tangmere is guaged for the route and able to handle the load. The alternatives are Bittern (possibly not gauaged) or 44932 (fit? strong enough?).

 

Agreed. Tangmere seems the most likely candidate. Given how long the planned locos have been in available however, I would have thought RTC etc would have done the necessary to confirm the answer to this question by now rather than leave things to speculation. A situation all too common with steam tours at present, and the topic of many a discussion on this forum already. Imperfect though the world of main line steam maybe, a promoter that organises their tours around having locomotive pools should have filled the gap in this one long before this in my view.

 

I believe the train loading requires a Class 7 to avoid a box on the back so I wonder how many other available Class 7 locos are cleared for the route.

 

For info - On the RTC site Dorset Coast Express is not shown as starting until 19th July - no working listed for 5th/12th July DH

 

So what Class 7 locos are guaged for this route? UK Steam at last has chnaged to TBA. DCEs are on UK Steam for 5th and 12th July still. With days to go this must worry.

 

If Castles are cleared i'd be suprised if anything else that was a Class 7 wasn't, Bulleids and BR standards are gauge friendly and only other class 7 I can think of is 46115.

 

I still think that Tangmere shall be the motive power for the 1st Weymouth Seaside.
RTC has a trip on Saturday June 30th from London to Weymouth. Power for that shall be 34067 London to Weymouth, 70013 Weymouth to London.
Would this position Tangmere for the first Weymouth Seaside Express?

 

That is a possibilty for the first but there are many weeks to fill.

 

Tangmere could do the first three.The Dorset Coast Expresses do not start to the 19th and Tangmeres next trip is on the West Somerset Steam Express on the 21st (according to UK Steam).

 

I worry about the climb to Evershot if the rail is wet. The line is only used by sprinters and is likely to be greasy. <BJ>