RTC 2026

I note RTC have posted already a large number of tour up to September 2026.
However, there seems to be no mention of Dorset Coast Express excursions to Weymouth nor of The Swanage Belle trains.
Have the residents of Dorset upset those working in Kings Lynn? Have this year's bookings not been up to scratch? Are operating arrangements becoming too complicated perhaps?
Or, must we just wait and see if other tours are added during the months ahead?
"Worried of Swanage"!

 

They are adding trips slowly - As of this morning there wasn’t any Blackpool trip 22nd Aug, NWCE 12th July, Tynesider 4th July, etc so they’ve gone on today.

 

Both Belle's were a sell out, DCE loads have tailed off a little over the years from my experience.
I suspect Kelly and the team have yet to announce them.

 

Interesting. Their 'West Country Explorer' inclusive holiday in August 2026 does however feature a return leg back to L0ndon from Weymouth on 13th August using the 'Dorset Coast Express'!

 

It looks like the Down Dorset Coast Express will have lots of empty seats which will then be filled at Weymouth with home-going passengers from The West Country Explorer excursion.
These latter passengers will also have a fair but of luggage with them - hope the racks are empty.
I'm not sure I see the economics of that part of the operation but, presumably, it all makes sense to those who are organising it which is what matters.

 

That West Country Explorer usually uses a WSE to Minehead on the proceeding Saturday and then the DCE back from Weymouth on a Thursday. Used to be a bit rushed when the DCE was on a Wednesday. Never seen it load to more than an FO, and as @RalphW says luggage either goes in the brake, or I have also seen it on some empty seats in their FO.
Two good tours to steward as you at least can guarantee to have a seat to sit in one way.
Not sure what the "luggage rules" are, but my wife recently did a 17 day coach tour to Italy where the luggage requirements were like a low cost airline in terms of weight and pieces.

 

Slightly off topic, but I notice that the contract to provide ECML "thunderbirds" from January next year has been awarded to Colas . West Coast currently do that work, and as the value of the new contract is just under £9 million, that's not going to help with funding the fitting of CDL.

 

However that may well be because the general feeling is they will gain the WCML Thunderbird contract instead

 

Some new trips added for 2026. One being the White Rose on 11th July and this bit in the description caught my eye but not to read too much into this yet.

"Our train will be hauled from London to York and as far as Peterborough on the return journey by A1 steam locomotive ‘Tornado’."

I'm assuming a typo, Tornado pulled this years White Rose on a similar date so they just copied and pasted last year's description onto this one. Is a slight possibility that things were made up with the Trust and WCR, the former was certainly willing to give the partnership another go but hey who knows.

 

Just a direct copy and paste from last year. Same route, etc everything

 

Tornado has now been removed from any mentions on the trip.

Can only assume as you said it was copied and pasted from this year and they forgot to remove the allocated loco mentions.

 

Looks like RTC are tapping into the diesel market. Maybe filling the gap left by Pathfinder?

https://www.railwaytouring.net/diesel-day-trips

 

With Pathfinder type timings if you look at the Cornish trip.

 

Not quite - this one is advertised to return on the same day it started!

 

Very nice. I think I'll definitely book on the Newquay one, as I've never done the Newquay branch loco-hauled. I was booked on the Pathfinder one, but it never happened as the new signalling they were installing on the branch wasn't ready in time. 27th June will be interesting in Penzance though. Statesman are going there (2 x Class 47s), UK Railtours are going there (2 x Class 50s) and now Railway Touring Company are going there as well (2 x Class 37s). All picking up at the same stations as well.

 

Sorry, that's ridiculous - do these promoters talk to each other?! This trip was a Pathfinder favourite and they have clearly cherry picked following their departure and jumped on the band waggon. - will be amazed if they all run.

The diesel market is very fickle at the moment and there were multiple cancellations last year due to poor bookings, 3 trips from the same pick ups to the same destination, on the same day does no one any favours.

 

I'm pretty sure having two or even three railtours to Penzance on Mazey Day has been pretty common over the years. I haven't checked back on Six Bells or anything, but from memory that June Saturday has often involved a long evening somewhere after work photographing multiple diesel tours come back through Devon. So on that basis, I have to assume the market has been able to sustain more than one on that day - but I didn't realise this year's trio was all from the same pick-up points until acorb mentioned it above.

I imagine Statesman will do fine from its own regular customer base, but UKR and RTC won't have regular Mazey trip returnees in the same way Pathfinger might have. Both 50s and 37s ought to do OK (50s through Cornwall in particular) in terms of their own followings, but these tours need to rely on the general public primarily so it will be interesting to see how it works out.

 

To be fair, I've just noticed the UKR one isn't yet open for bookings - it's still in the "Save the Dates" section of their website. Perhaps they won't run it now that the RTC one is live, we will have to see.