Saphos 2024

Totally correct & by all accounts LSL do it well and it is a business model that works for them - I wish them good luck, it all helps keep steam alive. Perhaps if I have a major milestone to celebrate I would consider booking, but I don't have one or two of those every year.
But there is clearly a market from the comments on here for a more economy offering. This is the opportunity for others to fill and West Coast & Vintage Trains need to fill this area with their own models that work. From the recent Mayflower thread @Michael Whitehouse stated they sold nearly 500 tickets for that trip. I look forward to booking on something similar next year if it is offered - but as much as I like GWR castles, something else would be nice!
This is why competition is important and why despite West Coast's somewhat inexplicable business decisions in the last 18 months, the sector does need them.

 

Of course it should be allowed, as it is in other countries. I haven't travelled on main line tour since the ban came in as there is no fun in just sitting in your seat for hours on end looking out of the window. I can do that on a regular train.

 

I spent years hanging out of train windows and knew from a very young age to always look in the direction of travel. Only ever got caught by flying cinders and once by my mate's notebook when he dropped it from the next window and I tried to catch it.

 

That depends. If you are a solo passenger the comparison was £165 standard versus £ 245 first non dining. Now the £165 is withdrawn and the entry price for a solo traveller in non-dining is £270. Which for me is a 60% price hike in exchange for a more comfortable seat and a snack box. Glad I forked out for an excellent day out in standard Mk1 buffet behind SNG this year.

 

Or safer on the driver's side of a Great Western loco.

 

Yes indeed!

 

Given that I’ve seen glasses of beer passed from one train to another during a parallel run and people shake hands across the gap, the talk of wider spacing doesn’t come into it. And remember, carriages are wider in Germany anyway.

 

Fascinating. Given the railway's constant efforts to improve safety, I am not in the least surprised that hanging out of windows in the UK is not allowed. The example I would give is the death by (almost) beheading of the railway enthusiast (Bluebell Railway volunteer) on a Gatwick Express unit at Balham many years ago. No doubt he thought he knew everything and was invincible. We've all done it, of course, but avoidable accidents like that (and others) will obviously lead to restrictions. What overseas operators require is another matter. It appears that there are enough people in the UK who are prepared to pay for main line steam travel without expecting to be able to lean out of the train. I suspect it's all a matter of generational behaviour and 'it never did me any harm' syndrome.

 

That reminds me of the occasion one summers morning a couple of years before covid. We were taking 60103 and support coach from York across to Carnforth. As we left Leeds at about 06.30 the support crew chef has just made up the bacon butties and was handing them around. Right alongside us was a Pacer whose driver was keeping pace with the A3. The guard in the back cab was level with the support coach kitchen, eyes beaming with envy, so the chef passed a butty across to him out of the window. Moments later we parted company as the Pacer swung left at Whitehall Junction, with the guard on the phone to the driver excitedly telling him "You wont believe it but I've just been given a bacon butty........."

Seems like only yesterday, but it wouldn't happen now

Peter

 

There is also the small matter of Network Rail’s ability and willingness to maintain the swept envelope - also a factor in that tragedy.


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Yes, the overhaul of Blue Peter is probably a factor in the price increase. Plus The Statesman set is out of action next year due to all the coaches being overhauled, so that will no doubt also cost Mr H a lot of money, which he'll be trying to recoup through ticket sales.

 

Which also means higher demand for the other LSL brands.

 

You also get a window seat and bucks fizz plus sparkling wine!

 

Yes, I see the pricing as essentially demand driven. It looks to me as though they think the market will stand around £500 for two for a day out non-dining and £900 dining. Are they right? Time will tell, but my impression is that they rarely have run less than full in the last couple of seasons. Until the load factor drops off and they start doing special offers, you have to think they know what they are doing.

It all looks astronomical to me but a night at a top place is in that ballpark-- have a look at the Waterside Inn at Bray for example.

 

Indeed so, and, as I understand it, it wasn't even a 'swept' (as in vegetation) issue, it was a signal post that was too/unusually close to the track.

 

Getting to today's run, I see that something went wrong around Willesden and it is now nearly 40L through west/south London. Just curious as to the cause.

 

Plus I guess there is always the chance (maybe very slim) that they decide to run some trips diesel free with a generator car. That will mean in a lot of cases a far shorter train but with no reduction in most of the costs

 

Still 40 late at Bickley-in-the-Forest. And was running parallel with a train on the down main that was moving up to a red signal to allow the Brit to cross over in front, presumably to aid its run down via Maidstone East. So a last-second change in how I took the photo to eliminate the emu from view. Couldn't do anything about the triffid imitating vegetation though - my long-handled loppers won't reach that far!

Always nice to see the Brit, even though I had hoped to see Braunton on the front.

Bryan B