Tornado Railtours - 2019

True. DB seem to have lost the plot. Wonder if they lost steam drivers in their redundancy programme? Rumoured they let too many drivers go.

 

They're deleting my comments on their A1SLT Facebook page which tells a lot !

 

Would possibly explain the somewhat sudden re-engagement with WCRC and the frankly odd choice of test run last week?

 

Think that was a needs must thing and glad WCR stepped in.

 

Hear hear. I really hope DB keep going though with both the A1 Trust and the MN Society, (a) because of their excellent drivers and (b) because being linked up to a big TOC enables them to offer trips which others might see as beyond their scope. What happened on Sunday at Berwick was not great but being able to call up a 67 from Tyne Yard within TOC must have made a huge difference to the recovery time. Other TOCs running an operation like that might insist on an insurance policy on the back.

 

Agreed. Does this mean that DBC are pulling out of Bristol for steam purposes I wonder? The Torbays are going to be operated by WCRC this year somebody posted a few days ago.

 

What comments have you made

 

Nothing scandalous. I replied to one of his comments, and my reply has been deleted as well. It was just about the possibility of the Devonian being cancelled.

 

Exactly the same. TOC'S, Booking agents, loco trusts etc don't like it when passengers/customers are more in the know than themselves !

 

DBC only supply the train crew. Support crews and stewards are down to the loco owner & tour operator.

 

All very strange. I first picked this up when UKR told me that they had heard rumblings that 6th April would not run.

 

The Devonian has been removed from the Railtours list on the A1SLT website.

 

They've removed it from their list of events on Facebook as well. Still on the UKR website at the moment but we'll see what tomorrow brings. If it's definitely off then I'll be doing the 7029 trip that day instead.

 

So, I should get an email by Friday at the latest. Pretty piss poor all round.

 

Email from UKRT confirming the cancellation, citing no available DB crew as the reason.

 

Same also said in the current issue of the Tornado Telegraph.

 

From what I can gather they're pretty good at removing things that might not be to their liking.

 

That boiler was built in East Germany wink wink nudge nudge

 

I've just noticed that Tornado has been marked for next Saturday's Cumbrian Mountaineer as a replacement for 60009

 

From the TBEL website. <BJ>
''We work in partnership of West Coast Railways and Riviera Trains Ltd in the operation of all our trains''.