Steam Dreams 2022

Don’t think you can blame LSL.
Reason for the cancellation:

"It is with great disappointment we have had to cancel our trip from Shoeburyness to Portsmouth tomorrow due to unforeseen last minute resourcing issues resulting in a lack of available crew in the Southern region. We do sincerely apologise to all passengers for any inconvenience caused".

 

Think you can, they are the resource they couldn't get. Almost certainly no-one at LSL signed off on the route.

 

Cancellation at the last minute implies that they expected the necessary crew(s) to be available and then someone was suddenly unavailable and they have no-one else qualified to take over. Whatever the reasons, it bodes ill for SD's future.

 

Indeed - for whatever reasons, the SD operation has been dire since LSL took over. Passengers may not care about previous unreliability, or they may do, and returning patronage may dip severely. It's been a very poor summer for the SD brand.

 

I get the impression that Mr Hoskin isn’t the least bit interested in the Steam Dreams operation and just wanted to add a B1 to his collection.

 

Could be - however, this all may come back to bite him, as the number of disappointed passenegers continues to climb. It doesn't take much research to discover the who the parent company is. I wonder how secure the 18 September Chichester trip with 34046 is, being in the "Southern Region". RH, BTW, has the London leg of that still as being with 61306 whereas the lunchtime run is shown as being with 34046! How hard is it to update these connected trips together?

 

[
I used to do loads of SDs trips but don't bother anymore.... let down once too many times sadly...
It seems most of the trips scheduled here in the South East don't happen for one reason or another....

 

It's interesting that the 22nd September trip from London to Portsmouth has also disappeared from the SD website, It has, however. has added a few new tours for the Christmas period and has promised that the Royal Windsor and Sunset Steam specials will return in 2023 but you do wonder what sort of future is being planned for SD. The Hosking set-up clearly wants to run tours in the south of England - the development of the Robertsbridge site including the turntable is sufficient evidence for that statement. All the same, it has previously run excursions around former SR lines under the Saphos banner - the unfortunate Golden Arrow with Britannia which stalled on Bearsted Bank and the somewhat happier occasion in September 2020 when I met you photographing Braunton from a footpath crossing the Redhill side of Nutfield station. What, apart from 61306, has been gained by acquiring SD? Not much, I would venture to add, except a mailing list of potential passengers quite a few of whom will have been most unimpressed by recent events.

If these cancellations prove one thing, it's that even with the financial resources and facilities available to the Hosking empire, it also needs a lot of time and planning to arrange a seamless takeover of another company.

 

They're certainly taking a beating on their Trip Advisor page.

 

True, especially if the operating environment and ancillary requirements are as complicated as they are on the railway.

 

I agree, the takeover earlier this year did seem to come out of blue and seemed to happen very quickly, the Saphos train set does very much seem to be a work in progress and the speed that it’s grown at as been rather remarkable, maybe time for a period of consolidation?
Maybe take a leaf out the West Coast book to a degree and keep quiet about it until it’s done?

 

When LSL first started out they did hire in crews from DB. I think they now have sufficient crews of their own to cover the regular Saphos routes but I doubt that they have many who have route knowledge of the Southern lines. A video of a recent trip shows the familiar figure of Wayne Thompson boarding an LSL trip at Eastleigh.

I'm not sure that hiring crews from DB will always be an option though - how many steam men do they have left? As far as I can see the only regular steam work DB have now is the Belmond Pullman.

It seems incredible that LSL took over Steam Dreams at a moment's notice, then tried to run a service with no suitable rolling stock and no suitably qualified crews. No wonder so many trains have been cancelled.

The situation isn't good for enthusiasts in the South this year is it? Only RTC now seem to offer anything like an authentic steam train experience. What happened to UK Railtours? They don't seem to be doing steam this year.

 

I think you'll find that this is steam hauled. <BJ>
THE MEDWAY VALLEY CHRISTMAS PULLMAN – UK Railtours

 

I’ve not really thought of the number of steam crews DB have in the south but I think it’s five drivers, I’m even less sure about firemen but they often roster two drivers who share the work. Unlike West Coast they also have a traction inspector on the footplate. I think they may still hire crews to Vintage Trains and they will also supply them for Tornado in the north.

 

Enthusiasts are one thing, but 'ordinary' passengers are another, and the latter will probably be less forgiving than the former.

 

It does look to have been pretty shambolic since day 1 when they seemed to think the deal involved stock that SD didn't actually own which suggests that the due diligence was pretty non existent, I do wonder whether, considering their longer links, WCR were also in the running to purchase SD's and LSL did a quick deal to ensure they got SD, especially considering they have been trying to get hold of WCR as well?

I cannot comment on the accuracy of the comments but their Inter City brand seems to have similarly upset a few posters on WNXX

 

Depends what there is to forgive! Enthusiasts may be more forgiving if their train is cancelled, but ordinary passengers are more likely to forgive there being a diesel on the back!

 

I was referring to the very short-notice cancellations.

 

DB will be investing in steam with the Aberdonian trains. This gives me real genuine hope that DB will invest in steam crews for the future. With regards to LSL a number of young fireman (one woman too!) have been passed out recently. At least one fireman is now a driver too but whilst that is good for their regular duties I don’t know about trips in London and the South East. Route knowledge is almost certainly the biggest problem. Saying that LSL did operate in Scotland for the first time in June but I must say that short notice cancellations never look good.