Fantasy Great Britain III

I've been giving this some more thought. Both the Edinburgh - Aberdeen and the Exeter - Salisbury routes are hard to find steam paths over. In both cases, I think it's Sundays only at the moment. To accommodate this, I've come up with a different sequence, covering 9 days instead of 8. So, what to do with the extra day? Let's see a bit more of Wales than previous GB tours.

Using so many locos, and so far from their home bases, means lots of light-engine moves. These could be reduced a bit with a few imaginative "positioning" tours (or rather, replaced with diesel l/e moves!) Locos could perhaps make "guest appearences" at other preserved lines, such as WSR, B&KR or the Strathspey Rly, offsetting stabling fees against steaming fees, before and after.

Positioning:
850: (Ropley -) Guildford - Reading - (Salisbury or Westbury?) - Exeter. Loco to WSR?
5043+5029: Tysley - Oxford - Bristol
44871+76079 (Bury -) Blackburn - S&C - Edinburgh (Locos to B&KR?)
61994 Edinburgh - Aviemore. Loco to Strathspey Rly?
6100: Crewe - Glasgow
70013: (Southall -) Paddington - Swansea


Day 0, Fri:
60007 l/e NYMR - York;
60019 l/e Ropley - London

Day 1, Sat:
60019: Kings Cross - York; 60007: York - Berwick - Edinburgh

Day 2, Sun:
60007: Edinburgh - Aberdeen; 44871+45407: Aberdeen - Inverness
61994: l/e Aviemore - Inverness

Day 3, Mon:
61994: Inverness - Kyle & return

Day 4, Tue:
44871+45407: Inverness - Perth - Glasgow
61994 l/e Inverness - Aviemore.

Day 5, Wed:
6100: Glasgow - Beattock - Ais Gill - Preston.
45305 l/e Tysley(?) - Bury

Day 6, Thu:
45321+45305 l/e Bury - Preston
6100 l/e Preston - Crewe
45231+45305: Preston - Crewe - Shrewsbury - Knighton - Swansea

Day 7, Fri:
70013: Swansea - Carmarthen; Fishguard - Severn Tunnel - Bristol (diesel Carmarthen - Fishguard)

Day 8, Sat:
5043+5029: Bristol - Par (for Eden Project) - Exeter. Locos to WSR

Day 9, Sun:
850: Exeter - Salisbury - Waterloo; (l/e Waterloo - Ropley)


Positioning:
60007: Edinburgh -(Ais Gill or Berwick?)- York; (l/e York - NYMR)
45305+45321 Swansea - Knighton - Shrewsbury - Crewe; 45321 l/e Crewe - Bury; 45305 l/e Crewe - Tysley
5043+5029: Exeter - Lickey - Tysley (Locos from WSR)
61994 Aviemore - Edinburgh.
70013: Bristol - ???, depending where she's going next!

Some of the chosen locos are vacuum brake-only, so this would need to be a WCRC operation, as in previous years. Sadly, this precludes 60163 and 61264 atm.
I hear that some of the loops on the Central Wales route are out of use at the moment, so extra paths don't exist until they are fixed. The alternative would be to go via Hereford, maybe stopping at Cardiff rather than Swansea
70013 and 45305 are in the care of the same group, the 5305LA. Would they be happy to provide two support crews on consecutive days?

 

Good suggestion, Ralph. Or even, let 6100 take it to Crewe unassisted?