Vintage Trains 2025

My pic from the cathedrals express tour of 45596 Bahamas at Gloucester taking on water ready to go on the last leg up the ex Bristol birmingham midland line and the photo shoot opportunity I had a very much enjoyable day travelling behind 45596 Bahamas to Swansea high St station and covered some new steam route mileage between Cardiff Central and Swansea. Anyway I hope everyone else including nat pres members like Shireman had a memorable day out travelling to Swansea on 45596



Davo 56F

 

It was nice to catch up with you during the day. I certainly enjoyed the trip, glad you did too. I'm sure our paths will cross again at some point!

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/182835155@N03/54646129048/in/dateposted-public/

45596 climbing Lickey on Saturday evening.

 

Email to say it's 7029 on the Cathedrals XP to Newcastle in October. Might book York-Newcastle.

 

Surprised to see the following tour not mentioned on here yet - sounds an interesting itinerary - and a great chance to have a proper GWR loco departing from its home terminus in the capital.
Tour timings look a bit odd - but I'm sure there is plenty of devil in the detail!

https://vintagetrains.co.uk/farewell-to-steam-special

Another real tempter!

 

Seems the date is wrongly advertising the Saturday 6th September on that page. the calendar says 1st November

 

That's a typo - within the main body of the tour advert its states its scheduled for the 1st November

 

If the return journey goes through Gloucester and then north to Birmingham, how does it set down at Widney Manor before New Street? Are the return timings in the wrong order?

 

47773 to Paddington and 7029 starts from Paddington ?

 

Nathan wouldn't the V.T. farewell to steam express train after coming up from London Paddington and Bristol go via Yate and after it's called at Gloucester go on the stroud line to Didcot and then on to Widney manor?

 

Would like to think it’s steam haulage from Birmingham to Greenford for reversal into Paddington so 7029 is facing the right way for Bristol

 

That's what the website says (may have been updated recently).
"The train will be steam hauled throughout, except where the train is turned on the Hanwell/Greenford Triangle with it then being diesel hauled into Paddington so Clun is then facing the correct direction out of London."

 

I only checked the website as I wondered on the cost, way to many add on costs from Dorset, plus no guarantee that I would be well enough or my wife or father anyway.
So you can pay £1640 for a compartment for 6 plus
Please note these prices do not include booking fees.

I know we have discussed the reasons before on other threads, but if I was planning to book that would really wind me up.

 

It now says "The train will be diesel hauled from Birmingham to Paddington", although the line about turning on the triangle is still there. The email they've just sent out about it says the same thing as well.

 

This looks like a "must-do" tour, if only to ceremonialise the event which this trip is marking. Worth noting the GMT reality that darkness will have fallen by the time the tour reaches Bristol TM.
It would be nice to know whether it is intended that Clun will operate with a tail gunner throughout, or whether all or some main line sections will be hauled by Clun Castle without assistance (but with diesel "shadow" as with last year's Z48 run from BTM to Paddington). Bearing in mind that VT are normally proudly forthright in promoting an unassisted run (as with Shap Mountaineer), the tour description is a little ambiguous on this point (- other than the Greenford-Paddington pilot)

 

Booking fee in this instance would be a mere £98.40. Hmmm…
It has been the case that you could circumvent the booking fee by making a telephone booking- not sure if this is still the case.

Nick M.

 

Agreed that clarification is needed on this point, for the avoidance of doubt. For £165 Tourist Class, I would only consider booking if it was unencumbered steam out of Paddington.

 

Ceremonialise? what a dreadful word. Where did that come from?

 

Well, according to that well known source of reference for vocabulary and usage, The Oxford English Dictionary, its been around since 1858; but maybe I should have spelt the word with a"z" rather than an "s". According to the OED its use is rare - fewer than 0.01 occurrences per million words in modern written English so I suppose that makes my original post pretty unique?
Just to be clear, I deliberately chose that word to convey something of the sense of occasion and significance that Vintage Trains is attempting to dignify with this bespoke excursion - completely in keeping with their pre-eminent skills in catering for the enthusiast market and its specific tastes.

 

It's an easy mistake to make. I'm forever using the word but still have to think twice how to spell it. [BJ from Zummerzet]