RTC: Tynesider - 4/7/26

Unfortunately the criticism is aimed at the wrong target. When things go wrong and it looks as if there were problems with the service trains too, our threadbare rail network seems unable to cope with it. In addition to that I do wonder about how much modern signalling accounts for some of the seemingly odd routing decisions, a signaller in front of a screen perhaps 60 miles away is not the same as local knowledge. Hopefully WC aren’t losing interest in their charter business, mainline steam would be very much poorer without them.

 

There is definitely an element of network issues I'm sure John, that's part of the "hassle greater than reward" I was alluding to. It must be tough to retain an appetite for success when the challenges grow ever greater. Essentially the business is much the same but the circumstances have changed and the stock has deteriorated, double whammy, requiring huge expenditure. If the rewards aren't seen as justifying it .......

 

One observation from yesterday was how the Air Con worked very well with a Class 86 up front but very poorly with a Class 47 pushing from behind. I'm only glad it wasn't 35 degrees!

 

E3137/86259 Les Ross/Peter Pan to York & 34067 Tangmere to Newcastle with 'the Tynesider' Saturday 4th July 2026











47826 on the rear


later the 86 parked up for the day in P7 at York, saw this in the side window




If you to see more photos of the Tynesider at York see here
https://railway-photography.smugmug.com/Days-out/2026/July-2026/Tangmere-and-Clun-Castle/i-34h4KmJ

Neil

 

There is an old saying when thing go right you tell a couple of people, when they go wrong you tell everyone. In the case of the Tyneside things went wrong and it’s created a lot of comment but let’s look back at the Great Britain a complex itinerary that ran almost like clockwork. It required the cooperation of several parties and who knows what went on behind the scenes at NR, WC and RTC to make it work. From the amount of management time that Kelly and her team must be involved in it can’t be worth doing from a purely business point of view but thankfully I think she was quoted as saying ,see you next year’.
Let’s stick with the positives in main line steam operation, there are a lot more of them than negatives.

 

Agreed John, but there are the WCR disciples on here (can think of 3) who are blinded by their allegiance.