21st Century Steam Ltd Tours (Tornado Rail Tours)

I’ve no idea, never got beyond vac myself. Perhaps one of our more up to date members can enlighten us @Steve ?

 

They've removed the Scottish trips and the pullman off the website but ribblehead rambler is still on there

 

and moved to 21st September
Just rung them up and a email should have gone out over an hour ago, did anyone receive it?

 

Just received it at 12pm

 

what did it say please

 

Wednesday 24th July 2024
Dear Passenger

Further to our letter of 14th June, I am sorry to again postpone the date of ‘The Ribblehead Rambler’. We are committed to running this train as Tornado’s return to the main line, and thank you for considering traveling on the new date which is: Saturday 21st September.

We have worked hard to achieve the rescheduled date in late August, however we are not confident that can be achieved and would rather make the changes now to give as much notice as possible to our passengers. If you’re happy for your booking to be transferred to the new date, you do not need to do anything. If you would prefer a refund, please contact the office on 01325 488215 or email enquiries@21stcenturysteam.co.uk

The closing phase of Tornado’s overhaul has not been straight forward, with engineering and certification challenges to overcome, both building time into what we had hoped to be a compact schedule of work. The world first fitment of ETCS digital signalling equipment to Tornado has necessitated a significant change to the braking system on the locomotive, and some unforeseen design issues in this area of work have caused delays to the locomotive returning to operations. These are now finalised but have caused several weeks of impact to the schedule. There is now a plan in place which sees the locomotive running on heritage lines in August, including its visit to the Nene Valley Railway, and then returning to the main line in September, ready for this tour to Carlisle.

We hope to see you on board with Tornado in the near future to deliver on our promise of a wonderful day out by steam train!

Kind regards
Graeme Bunker-James

Commercial Manager
21st Century Steam

 

Many thanks

 

According to the website it says the Aberdonian's will return in 2025 which I find interesting because:
1. Who will provide coaching stock? SRPS now tied to LSL.
2. Who will operate it? West Coast probably don't want to operate it and DB Cargo would severely struggle to resource it.

 

One expects that those conversations have already taken place. Or then again...

 

Back in June it was supposed to be Vintage Trains

 

But that wouldn't have been the case with the Aberdonians would it? I know that Vintage Trains would have operated the Ribblehead Rambler and the Caledonian but I'm not aware that there was any plan for them to operate the Aberdonians.

 

Apparently the Pullman has been cancelled and passengers refunded. I’ve lost count of how many times this has been rescheduled but there will be a whopping cancellation fee to pay.

 

They run trains on Sundays so Scottish trains on Saturdays even if they can resource them will be impossible.

 

They are out of options. DBC, WCRC and LSL can’t or won’t operate Tornado. SRPS coaching stock now tied into LSL after being let down so badly by A1SLT. VT operates its core trains in midlands on Sundays, so no Saturday operations possible in Scotland.

 

So they have really messed themselves up, and possibly this could effect 2009, as funding becomes harder to find, I can actually see, the trust having to go cap in hand to another operator, who has the resources and coaching stock But the price will be a very high one, loss of several board members, and people from with in a parent organisation taking over much of the running, but it might be the best outcome for the trust, as it would ensure its survival I am referring to LSL, who would then have A1, A2, and a4 locomotives for its Scottish operations, and longer term, sort out the boilers with copper fireboxes in the place of the steel ones.

 

I can think of one person who could sort out this mess - Mark Allatt. I hope he's reading this.

 

Some might suggest that that would require them to show a hitherto-unknown level of transparency and honesty... but who would buy it?

Well, all I can do is sit back and hope my investments in 2007 come to fruition. I'd love to be able to take my mechanically-minded godson onto the footplate of it one day, point at bits and say "I funded those"

Now, back to my Covid bed...