The Great Britain V - 2012

In the Great Britain IV thread, DUKE71000 posted the proposed outline for The Great Britain V:

It's a facinating plan, raises a number of interesting questions about "how would they do that", and of course, is likely to change a little or a lot before it actually runs. It fills in two significant gaps left by previous tours: the West Highland line and the Settle-Carlisle. That still leaves a choice of routes in Wales, Southern England and East Anglia to explore in future GB tours, not to mention various Midland and GW routes.

The Edinburgh - Skye - Glasgow section is likely to be the highlight of the trip and the most "interesting" operationally. My guess is that this section will need to be split over 3 days (days 2 - 4), like this:

Day 2 Edin-Inv / Edin-FW
Day 3 Inv-KoL-Inv / FW-Mal-Fw
Day 4 Inv-Glasgow / FW-Glasgow

I think I've also seen a suggestion that the loco used on the Kyle line will be chimney-first out of the Kyle, for a change.

The suggestion of the final day being Bristol - Gloucester - London is interesting, too. I guess that means a reversal at Gloucester and thence over Sapperton.

All speculation and supposition at this stage, of course, but (as some of you already know) I enjoy this kind of "thought experiment"!

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

Is there any chance that us photters living down in the south east might actually get a GB V tour coming down this way next year?

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

I think RTC run these trains to attract the paying participants and not for the benefit of Linesiders.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

Phew, it's lucky TBF is away. Or maybe he's not, maybe he's now poring over mileage and gradient charts, and road maps, and will be along shortly to tell us why it can't be done...... :bored:

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

That's the best laugh I've had all day.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

Get yourself some decent hills and it might be worth coming down there. Anyway, you've got 34067 and 70013 around Kent at the start and end of The Cathedrals Explorer in a couple of weeks.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

As much as I would love to see that I guess it would be a nightmare any tour along the south coast with reversals needed at Brighton and Eastbourne plus a path along the single line section to Ashford, though the Sussex Belle tours seem to use that stretch now.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

Yes that's true unfortunately. My theory would be steam hauled from Victoria down to Eastbourne, then the tail-end diesel could haul it from Eastbourne to say Hastings then steam hauled from Hastings through Robertsbridge back to London. I'm sure that could work for a potential GB V.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

I'd settle for more steam around scotland, apart from the West Highland, it's a bit pot luck.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

I imagine that the choice of route will be governed by two factors: what will attract customers to sign up for a 9-day tour and what can practically be achieved at a price the passengers will pay. The promoter will be looking for routes that are not normally viable as day tours, but are when you don't have to worry about distance from catchment area. This could explain why the GB tours have spent relatively longer in Scotland than the south of England. I'm slightly surprised that one hasn't been to Aberystwyth or Carmarthen yet, but maybe they're saving that for GBVI?

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

I too would like a section in Sussex but as David H and Alts1985 say there would be potential problems with route paths/availability etc. Though I can't complain as RTC makes me happy with its Haywards Heath/Three Bridges to Bath and Bristol trips.

We should have a good selection of loco's 2 Bulleids with 34046 and 34067 (or if we're lucky 35028), 2 Royal Scots with 6100 and 46115, 2/3 A4's, Black 5's plus 6023, 5029 or any of the Tyseley locos.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

I think the GWS are still saying 6023 will return to the mainline in Autumn 2012, if so then it won't be on GB5

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

How many foreigners does the GB actually attract - from what I've heard the majority of people who were on this year's train were from America and the continent. Can anyone on the train confirm this and how do they hear about it?

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

It was no way near the majority but there were a sizable contingent from abroad. There were a small number of Americans and a large group from Germany but there were certainly more of us 'British' on the train.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

This is an excellent idea and operationally not unlike how the Caledonian Sleeper operates now. Would so love to do one of these but alas it is a little out of my price range. One day!

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

I agree. I have been on a number of multi day tours( 2-5 days) so I could travel on lines including the West Highland line, and to Kyle.The outline details of GB V appeals and if travels along the Central Wales Line rather than the West Marches I would seriously consider it.Please can it be before Steel Steam and Stars 3- 21st -29th April. Hopefully it will be Nunney Castle on the final leg? -( 80th Anviversery of Tregenna Castle's record run on " The Cheltenham Flyer " next year).Rather than go to Penzance what about Kingswear? so we can have steam both ways with ideally Nunney Castle on its own.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

Proposal for GB VI

1. St Pancras - Hope Valley - Buxton - Manchester.
2. Manchester - S & C , Beattock - Perth.
3. Perth - Aviemore and return.
4. Perth- Dundee - Tay Bridge - Forth Bridge - Newcastle - Tyne Valley - Shap - Carnforth/Lancaster
5. Carnforth/Lancaster - Ravenglass - Carnforth - Chester - Shrewsbury
6. Shrewsbury - Aberystwyth and Return.
7. Shrewsbury- Central Wales Line - Bristol
8. Bristol - Kingswear and return.
9. Bristol - Castle Carey - Weymouth - Waterloo.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

Oh well more time to savour the prospect I suppose though I did see Steam Railway say that it may under go mainline testing this winter not sure if this is true. But still quite a selection of locos to choose from.

Oh and silly my I forgot the two Brits 70000 and 70013 would be available as well.

So thats

70000
70013
34046
34067
5029
6100 (hopefully be back soon)
46115
4492
60009
60007
44871
45407
45305
45231
61994
Maybe even 4472.

Any more anyone would like to suggest as thats all I can think of off the top of my head.

 

Re: The Great Britain V - 2012?

45231...