Bittern charter (KX-YRK) for Brighton Belle project - 25 Jul

This is mentioned in the latest "Railway Herald" (page 12), but there is no info on the Steam Dreams website which is handling the bookings.

Bittern will be running with its second tender for the first time on a public train.

Anyone got any more info?

Richard

 

E-mail reply from Steam Dreams today.

"This tour is on behalf of the Brighton Belle Trust which seeks to recreate a 5 car Brighton Belle unit. The tour will also see Bittern’s second tender used for the first time on a revenue earning service.

The outline timings are; London Kings Cross 0918hrs, York 1345hrs with a pick up at Potters Bar around 0945hrs. The return should leave York at 1700hrs and be back into London around 2100hrs.

Prices are Standard; £75.00, First Class; £109.00, Premier Dining; £169.00 and Pullman Style; £199.00."

Sounds a good tour

Andrew

 

Sounds good and running with the second tender cuts out the hanging around whilst watering which can be only be a good thing. Some mainline trips I have been on have taken up to an hour for a water stop and have then been looped due to losing the booked path. I noticed that the price for standard class is £75 which seems average for a mainline steam run of this distance. This extra water tender thing might catch on :-#

Neil.

 

The second tender may avoid the need for water stops, but there will still have to be pathing stops and, if the above times are correct, a lot of them! 4 1/2 hours for 188 miles at an average speed of 40 mph! By way of comparison, on The Coronation, 60019* was only allowed 4 hours from KX to York - with two water stops and a pathing stop at Donny!

My fear is that, instead of water stops, during which times several service trains can pass and allow then a long non-stop run, the train will be timed to simply hop from loop to loop.

 

The fastest booking recently was the one way KX-Edinburgh with 60163 on 25th April 2009 load 10/360tons with a time of 3hours and 8 mins and only one water stop at Grantham of a booked 13 minuates!!! Running time to Grantham 95:42 and from Grantham to York 75:42.There was nothing higher than 78MPH.This proved it could be done quickly,but you won't get a clear shot up the East Coast if you stop at Potters Bar or Stevenage.Expect the slow somewhere.

 

With an 09.18 departure from KGX plus stops at PBR and SVG I think you can expect quite a bit of slow line running. There are earlier slots available out of KGX and can allow fast line running all the way to at least Huntingdon or even Peterborough depending which slot is used. Personally I'd prefer an earlier start with more fast line running.

 

The very well put together website for the project is here - http://www.brightonbelle.com/index.php? ... &Itemid=28

 

any info on this run? no times yet on uksteam.info
mark

 

A mate of mine has been working on 60019 over the weekend. Regulator very stiff apparently. Matters have improved but further work required as still not right. He's on the support crew too on Saturday but as of yesterday morning he'd seen no times.

 

I thought about this one but the timing is much too pedestrian. After the Coronation and the Top Gear run I don't have any enthusiasm for it. Easy to become spoilt!
Cheers
Alan

 

thank's for the update spamcan81.
mark

 

My pleasure. If nothing's on the web by Friday morning, I'll give him a call to see what's occurring.

 

The times will be available at uksteam.info later today. The outward journey is 4hrs 21 min with at least two pathing stops in loops. But the return journey is indeed non-stop, apart from Potters Bar to set down passengers. Overall time York-KX is a very respectable 3hrs 35 mins.

David

 

I've got the full times south of Retford but if the whole shooting match will be on uksteam later then no point in repeating here what I have.

 

So the return trip averages a little over 50mph non-stop. That is dawdling for an A4.
Cheers
Alan

 

Return run is booked non stop except for the PBR set down. I would expect quite a bit of slow line running in lieu of pathing stops. On the other hand there is quite a bit of scope for early running if circumstances allow her to go on the main.

 

If the last 60019 trip is anything to go by,the train may run early as far as Peterboro but once you come under King Cross power box you will probably wait somewhere until the booked time.I may be wrong but thats what happened on 4th July.We shall see.

 

Not always. Went out last year to see her through Hitchin. Arrived 30 minutes early but she'd already gone through. A combination of unscheduled fast line running plus an early exit from Connington got her to KGX almost an hour early. Sometimes KGX box does play ball.

 

So will it pass its FTR exam?

 

Who knows? I'll phone my mate in the morning for an update.