Clan Line in 2021

I confused Al the RTC site still says Golden Valley both ways where is the update to the Cotswold Line one way?

 

Organised many rail tours have you?

 

You know as well as I do that NR can be the fly in the ointment where rail tours are concerned but why let that get in the way of a dig at RTC?

 

Whatever.

 

I don’t think it really matters to the average passenger. They have a fair steam mileage with the best engine on the mainline that no one was expecting. If they have the same driver as we had on the return from Weymouth then a good run will be guaranteed. The latter is highly likely as he’s the only Southall steam driver who has signed the routes to Worcester.

 

Never know what to expect on the Venturer. In 2018 we did 2 'anticlockwise' Venturers, outward via Oxford and Evesham; return via Sapperton. In 2019 we did 2 'clockwise' Venturers; outward via Sapperton and return via Evesham and Campden; and one Sapperton both ways. Last February it was Sapperton both ways.

 

Is SNG ready then? Wow!

 

Think you'll find the website will be updated shortly to say Outward via Oxford and Evesham (unfortunately). Hate that way around as we invariably get held below Wolvercot Jn. for trains on the single line section to Charlbury. Hope we get lucky.

 

RTC website now updated to show Cotswold outward and Golden Valley return.

 

Provisionally timed out of Didcot Parkway at 09.09, just three minutes after the departure of the local stations to Oxford service that arrives OXF at 09.23, it looks like the Cotswold Venturer will be guaranteed a slow transit over the 13 miles onward to Wolvercote Junction. Particularly so as there will then need to be some leeway in the Venturer’s schedule to accommodate the passage of the 0850 Paddington- Great Malvern IET, due to clear Wolverote Jumction at 09.49½ ahead of the Venturer over the North Cotswold Line.

After its call at Hanborough, the GMV service is due to clear the single line section at Charlbury Junction just before its Charlbury arrival at 10.01 ½. The entry of the next southbound service to the single line section occurs 10 minutes later, with departure of the 08.48 Great Malvern-Paddington service at 10.12. So on paper, with four signals controlling entry to, the 10 intermediate route miles of, and exit from, the single line section, the GMV’s ten minute headway in front of the Venturer should be enough to ensure no conflict of priorities over the single line section.

Perhaps the recent extension of the Down Oxford Relief Line to just 0.43 miles short of Wolvercote Junction will help in this respect, to ensure that the Venturer is queued to follow the GMV service on as tight a leeway as possible. But it does all look rather tight, so perhaps 1020 Shireman’s apprehensions are well founded. And if it does go wrong at Wolvercote Junction and the Venturer loses its path to any priority given to the southbound IET, then there could also be a further consequential conflict at the Evesham West-Norton Junction (almost) ten mile single line section, offering no prospect of recovery of preceding delays to the Venturer.

I guess in the end it will all be down to how tightly the threading of the Venturer through the busy service pattern at Oxford is managed – especially if a water stop is going to be factored into this segment of the outward journey, as I would have expected. I shall follow this one with interest.

 

UK Railtours' trip to Norwich on 28th August appears to have been cancelled.

 

Bum

 

I thought the isolation period was 10 days, the tour is more than 10 days away