Tornado

Unfortunate that A1 Trust managed to get the day wrong, and request you book via VT before VT have added it to their booking site.

 

Try this:

Booking The Christmas White Rose to York Christmas Market for 12/10/25 - Vintage Trains

 

12th of October? Bit early, isn't it?

 

Maybe they have an American on the staff?

 

Ducks not in a row, I agree. But the main thing is, a month ago we were saying ' Where is Tornado's main line work coming from?'. Now with 45596 and 7029 out for months and 5043 on restricted duties, there is a glimmer of an answer. Good.

 

Open the link....Wednesday, December 10, 2025

 

I did not see any implication that VT would be running trips for RTC in the post you responded to.

 

Considering they can't spell "harbour" properly...

 

With some shops apparently stocking Christmas items already, I’d say that VT are behind the curve with this one.

 

The Tornado trip is Weds 10th Dec, so the Trust did get the day wrong. The other confusion over dates seems to have arisen because VT have their own long advertised trip to York with a Castle on Weds 3rd Dec and the Tornado one does not appear on their website, as I assume the one on the 10th is A1 Trust promoted.

Dave B

 

Dave, the Trust’s email stated SATURDAY 10th. Wednesdays are a totally different proposition for our working friends.

 

I've already said they had the day wrong and was aware of what the email said, clicking on the link took me to Fareharbor webpage where I saw the correct day was Wednesday. By the way, are you attending the Convention this year?

Dave B

 

You are right.

 

No, I’ve not been for a few years now, it would be bad for my blood pressure.
Although conversely I guess it might be bad for theirs too when it came to the Q&As

ps Trust have now emailed a correction ref day/date. As you said. Wednesday 10th.

 

Surprised there hasn't been more fanfare about the completion of the mainline link - a solid achievement - but 60163 has gone back to Darlington via the mainline connection for the first time:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1GKckECDhy/

 

The mainline link was always there, the piece missing was a signalling solution to run it, when at hometown the trust were quoted .5m around 2007 to instigate one, no new points were laid. Existing was brought back into use.

 

I passed on a visit to Shildon the other week, they were laying new track in to make the connection so it is a bit more than just bringing it back to use.

 

Some years ago, in Modern Railways, Roger Ford priced a Signalling Equivalent Unit (SEU) at £¼ million, a SEU being 1 signal head or 1 point end.
So £½ m only got you 2 point tends , or 2 signals (1 in and 1 out).
I shudder to think what 1 SEU costs today
Pat

 

Some years ago when the NYMR decided to reinstate platform 2 at Whitby the original plan was to lease the land from Network rail and install what would, in effect, have been a private siding. AIUI the plan was costed at £700,000 using contractors. However, Network Rail decided that it wanted to be in control of all the station and decided they would do it all themselves using their approved contractors with the NYMR paying. The cost of doing the job went up to £2.3m with NR charging £700k in management fees. Anything done by NR costs a lot more than it would do in outside industry.