If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

Steam Dreams 2016

Discussion in 'What's Going On' started by Paul42, Sep 12, 2015.

  1. Steve Franklin

    Steve Franklin New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2015
    Messages:
    99
    Likes Received:
    553
    Gender:
    Male
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Cheers James!
     
  2. BillyReopening

    BillyReopening Member

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2012
    Messages:
    830
    Likes Received:
    581
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Freelance Trumpet Player // IT Engineer
    Location:
    South West
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    That doesn't sound right at all....
     
  3. chessie1

    chessie1 New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 17, 2009
    Messages:
    197
    Likes Received:
    103
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired
    Location:
    Hants
    Have to say WCRC played an absolute blinder in organising getting 34052 from Southall to Bristol yesterday at such short notice. When the problem with 34052 was finally sorted they really came through with sorting things out and salvaging what could have been a very disappointing day for a lot of people.

    BTW did anyone else notice the gentleman inside the railway boundary taking pictures yesterday? No, you probably wouldn't have done...he was wearing a camouflage jacket.

    Just the job for trackside.
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2016
    Paul42 likes this.
  4. steamvideosnet

    steamvideosnet Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2011
    Messages:
    1,968
    Likes Received:
    2,476
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    Southampton, UK


    My video from yesterday at Cholsey.

    James
     
  5. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

    Joined:
    May 30, 2009
    Messages:
    21,064
    Likes Received:
    20,773
    Location:
    1016
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I am just reflecting on the fact that I have yet to travel on one of their charters in 2016 and this is a first time that has happened in any year. It's definitely not to do with the on-train experience that is very civilised in Standard and the member discount keeps the cost down a bit. But I'm getting to the point where I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get my 2016 subscription back in travel savings. Exactly how many trips have they run so far this year with just a steam loco at the head of a rake of coaches and nothing else? Have they, in fact, now given up on the very thing that at the beginning was one of the USPs of their programme?
     
  6. gricerdon

    gricerdon Guest

    I haven't travelled with them for some years now which is one of the reasons for my pure steam record. As has been said before they really should rename themselves to something more appropriate though Diesel Nightmares might be going a bit too far?
     
  7. Paul42

    Paul42 Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2006
    Messages:
    5,921
    Likes Received:
    3,827
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    East Grinstead
    I have also been wondering if I would get my members club subscription back this year, I have only been on one trip 60103 to Salisbury and that was booked last year( I have been on between 2 and 5 trips a year with them over the last 4 years).

    I would like to go on the trip to Matlock, but with 6201 advertised having a wheel base longer than the turntable, and concerns that its axle loading might be too heavy for the bridge at Matlock Riverside I am not prepared to book at the moment.

    SD have been unlucky on a number of ocassions, and I doubt anyone one could have forseen how gauge unfriendly 60103 would be. One of their problems is that they like to book a few locos for a lot of trips, and this year they were reliant on 6201 and 61306 coming back from overhaul. I think SD should at the planning stage, book locos actually working the majority of trips.
     
    green five likes this.
  8. Paul42

    Paul42 Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jul 17, 2006
    Messages:
    5,921
    Likes Received:
    3,827
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    East Grinstead
    I looked back on the trips I had with them ( I have been on 2 - 5 a year) and the last time I had diesel assisting steam for a major section of a a trip, ( excludes 2nr trips where Steam failed FTR) , with them before the trip with 60103 this May, was March 2012 with Tornado over the Devon Banks, While I had 3 RTC trips within that period ( Excludes trips to Seaford and Holt which diesel was known about).
     
  9. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2009
    Messages:
    8,068
    Likes Received:
    5,163
    This thread has been quiet for a while. They're currently advertising Princess Elizabeth for 23rd and 28th August. What are the chances of those trips happening with that loco? If not that loco then what?
     
  10. Steamage

    Steamage Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Sep 14, 2005
    Messages:
    4,736
    Likes Received:
    1,107
    Location:
    Oxford
    I guess that depends on the outcome of the test running at the MRC this week and the mainline test runs next Wednesday. See the Lizzie thread in Steam Traction.
     
  11. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

    Joined:
    Apr 16, 2009
    Messages:
    8,068
    Likes Received:
    5,163
    Thank you: I had missed that.
     
  12. daveannjon

    daveannjon Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 31, 2006
    Messages:
    1,059
    Likes Received:
    372
    Location:
    Waiting for the Right Away
    Well there was a post on the Peak Rail thread saying the 28th was diesel hauled due to bridge weight limits, I imagine that could only be the one on Peak Rail over the Derwent as all the bridges on the Matlock branch were uprated a few years ago. Even if that was OK there is still the problem of only a 60ft turntable at Rowsley.

    Dave
     
  13. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

    Joined:
    May 30, 2009
    Messages:
    21,064
    Likes Received:
    20,773
    Location:
    1016
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    You do have to wonder why people at Peak Rail knew at the back end of July (according to the post on the Peak Rail thread) that the Steam Dreams trip would be diesel yet here we are just over a week away and Steam Dreams still have it advertised as 6201 on their site.

    Either WCRC have not yet told them (unlikely) or SD have not yet got around to telling everyone who has booked (bad form).
     
  14. JDTTRAINS

    JDTTRAINS Member

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2013
    Messages:
    578
    Likes Received:
    520
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Station Team Leader, Thameslink
    Location:
    Bedfordshire
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Times came through a days ago, looking at the movements for the day from Derby, it looks as though 'Lizzie' is taking the trip from KGX to Derby and return only, before taking a turning maneuver from Derby - Derby via Toton Centre and Loughborough, with a diesel doing the sections to and from Peak Rail. Trip also looks to be going via Grantham vice Loughborough, both ways. I guess it's down to engineering works?...

    http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...8/0000-2359?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt&toc=WR
     
  15. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

    Joined:
    May 30, 2009
    Messages:
    21,064
    Likes Received:
    20,773
    Location:
    1016
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Given the complexity of things at Peak Rail and other restrictions that seems like a good compromise and a trip with 6201 to Derby and back in itself is a good offer, so credit to everyone for finding a solution. I presume that a diesel will have to be taken along for the Peak Rail section. At least the two hours at Rowsley should be enough to reverse the train. When Braunton went there, the servicing and turning didn't really have enough time.
     
  16. thickmike

    thickmike Member

    Joined:
    May 16, 2006
    Messages:
    226
    Likes Received:
    198
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Happily Retired
    Location:
    Northants (near the GC bit)
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Hi - anyone know what's happened to the 24th September Banbury - Kingswear trip - it seems to have disappeared off the Steam dreams site (which probably answers the basic question) so next question is why?

    Thanks

    Mike
     
  17. mike1522

    mike1522 Long Time Member Friend

    Joined:
    Oct 9, 2010
    Messages:
    1,992
    Likes Received:
    232
    Location:
    Fort Worth, Texas
    The unavailibility of Braunton and/or other locos?
     
  18. John Petley

    John Petley Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2007
    Messages:
    2,849
    Likes Received:
    2,361
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Researcher/writer and composer of classical music
    Location:
    Between LBSCR 221 and LBSCR 227
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Some new Steam Dreams tours, with day trips up to early June 2017 and some multi-day excursions, up to September, are now up on the website:- http://steamdreams.co.uk/Executable...SVR01&DB=SteamDreams&Division=A&ActionCode=TC There's another series of trains hauled by Flying Scotsman in May and early June. Very few specifics on the website regarding motive power, but page 40 of the latest brochure suugests that Mayflower will be the principal loco used for the early 2017 trains.

    There's an intriguing gap between 60103's West of England trains on 26th May and a couple of Salisbury-based trains on Wednesday May 31st. Given this gap includes a bank holiday weekend , it would not surprise me if Scotsman puts in an appearance as a special guest on a heritage railway during this period, but I'm only speculating here - certainly no insider information!
     
  19. gwr4090

    gwr4090 Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2005
    Messages:
    2,847
    Likes Received:
    222
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Scientist (Rtd)
    Location:
    Dorset
    60103 Flying Scotsman will be travelling to Minehead on Tue 23 May in a one way move, and then doing two circular main line trips from the WSR via Bristol and Westbury on Fri 26 May. I guess it will be in use on the WSR around then, before the Salisbury trips on Wed May 31st.
     
    free2grice likes this.
  20. Big Al

    Big Al Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator

    Joined:
    May 30, 2009
    Messages:
    21,064
    Likes Received:
    20,773
    Location:
    1016
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Well. I've now seen enough of the SD programme this year, and travelled on none of it unlike in previous years, to reach a view.

    If SD is happy with what they are doing and their balance sheet looks good then that's fine and I genuinely wish them well in the future. The people involved deserve continued success but what they now offer has morphed into something quite different from how they started out.

    The SD set of coaches poses a problem. If they cannot sort out a complete dual braked set then given that the southern routes have few steam paths, never mind another one for a diesel to shadow, then next season will be like this one.

    The alternative is to plan with WCRC for pure steam plus a diesel shadow and price accordingly. Either that or run the normal mixed traction trips and identify the few that will guarantee steam.

    July 2017 will be an interesting one for them for example.
     

Share This Page