MAIN LINE MISCELLANEA
● The A1 Trust’s ‘Aberdonian’ can now be truly said to have joined the list of regularitinerary trains, with the announcement of a second season a bit bigger than the first.
Next year is to see six of the Edinburgh-Aberdeen and return trips, all on Thursdays: July 23 and 30, August 13 and 20, and September 3 and 10.
This year has seen five trains – an introductory one plus four more – all of them providing work over the Forth Bridge and along the east coast for Tornado; the Trust has mooted that the tours could in future be hauled by its under-construction ‘P2’ 2-8-2, Prince of Wales, which could run under its alternative title, Duke of Rothesay.
Trustee Graeme Bunker says the increase to six trains “is based on a progression and not wanting to overdo it. We want to build a strong operation over time which remains financially viable. Clearly, we will run as many (within reason) as the market will stand.”
What about another Trust repeat operation, the ‘North Briton’ over the Settle-Carlisle?
Graeme says this train is being reviewed: “It’s not been as strong, and it’s harder to make a repeat work with one engine.”
The ‘S&C’ will, he says, “still be a part of our programme but [with] likely a different approach going forward.”
April 4 is to see an ‘S&C’ train – originating in East Anglia.
● If climbs are your thing (and why wouldn’t they be?), then I’ve good news about a former regular-itinerary train making a comeback after a pause of some years.
Could it be because 2020 is a leap year that the Railway Touring Company has found space in the diary – on February 29 – for a ‘Cotton Mill Express’? This is a proper North West spin through Lancs and Yorks – starting at Lancaster with pick-ups in Preston, Wigan (North Western), Manchester (Victoria) and Blackburn. That’s not really what this is about though, but rather the slogs over Miles Platting (1-in-47 at its steepest), Standedge (1-in-125) and Copy Pit (1-in-65).
The ‘Cotton Mill’ isn’t the only train RTC has planned for February 29 (a Saturday) either: there’s also one of the now-traditional ‘Winter Cumbrian Mountain Express’ trips. This one and the other Shap/‘S&C’ trains in the series on February 1, 8 and March 28 are Euston starts, with the change to steam at Carnforth (and on the way back to electric at Preston). Meanwhile the January 25 ‘Winter CME’ begins, with steam, from Manchester Victoria.
● These days, the ‘Winter CMEs’ aren’t the only option for steam in the colder months to Ais Gill. West Coast’s own ‘Pendle Dalesman’ neatly straddles RTC’s offering by running on February 12 (ex-Carnforth) and 26 (ex-Manchester) as well as dates later in the year. Steam comes on at Hellifield for a Settle-Carlisle ‘out and back’.
● There’s no confirmation, but rumours, that an LMS 4-6-0 could feature on the Vintage Trains ‘Polar Express’. Last year’s debut season of the Moor St-Tyseley shuttles used the now out-of-ticket Rood Ashton Hall; 84E’s only home-grown steam main liner is currently 1950-built double-chimney 4-6-0 Clun Castle.
This year’s series is slightly bigger than 2018’s, with 72 trains over 18 days (compared with 68 trains over 16). The trips have also been revamped for their second outing, with the dropping of Standard/First in favour of just one class – ‘premium’ – which includes various souvenir goodies.
Trains run four times a day Thursdays/Fridays-Sundays starting on November 22, with some tickets at £29 but most trains at £49.
● Vintage Trains isn’t the only outfit offering pre-Christmas trains of course, or even the only one choosing to do so with ‘repeat itinerary’. West Coast Railways is following up with the third season of its ‘Santa Specials’ – as we reported way back in SR489. The trains are circulars from Lancaster, running on November 24 and December 1, 8 and 15. Of those, the first three take the West Coast Main Line via Shap, while the last runs via the ‘Little North Western’, Clitheroe, Blackburn and Preston. Adult tickets (if you can still get them by the time you read this…) are £30.
● Could Bahamas haul a charity trip to help some of its namesake islands to recover from Hurricane Dorian? That’s what its owning group is trying to achieve – and fair play to the guys over at Ingrow shed for that.
There’s support from within the railway, the Bahamas Locomotive Society’s John Hillier reports; as “a starter” his group plans to donate No. 45596’s hire fee and there are “similar indications of support from others.”
It’s not all fixed yet - but the group is looking for a date early in 2020, probably for a London start with the Stanier 4-6-0 “taking over somewhere further north.”