… BUT BUCK PLANS NEW CHRISTMAS SHUTTLES
This year’s ‘Windsors’ are no more – see story above – but their spirit lives on in an idea that has echoes of London steam from Marylebone in the 1980s: ‘Santa Specials’.
Steam Dreams is planning a series of Christmas-themed trains in late November/ December, starting not from the former Great Central terminus but from Victoria. The idea is for four Windsor-esque out-andback shuttles (“For the purposes of this, it’s a circular”), followed by evening dining trips. Although following a similar pattern to the ‘Sunsets’ those however will run under a different moniker… “because it’ll be dark!”
As of July, precise dates/prices/routes for the Christmas shuttles are “still in the mix”.
What is already clear though, is that they are “very much aimed at families – just as the preserved railways do.”
This is also planned to be “in addition to our normal day trips over the Christmas period… so we’ll be running a lot of trains.”
Nor is this idea a result of having to give up on the Windsor trips for 2020, as you might think: “We have always planned to run these on the basis of the success of the
Windsors, and it’s something we intend to carry on with.”
More perhaps even than Marylebone, these trains pay a certain homage to jaunts in “Bernard Staite’s time” that started from Kensington Olympia. But aside from the spectacle of Victoria rather than the more hidden away ‘Kenny O’, David judges that the latter is no longer a natural starting point as in years past – it is now far busier given the sheer number of Overground trains that use it.
When it comes to engines, ‘Mayflower’ is perhaps naturally first choice, with intended back up from an Ian Riley ‘Black Five’ as reserve. One thing David’s Thompson 4-6-0 won’t be doing by the time of the trains though, is masquerading as fictional ‘B2’ No. 61674 Ipswich Town. That idea has seemingly caused quite a stir since it was announced in SR506. However, the Steam Dreams boss says, it “won’t be this year”.
As for today’s pandemic-related uncertainties, David offers a defiant attitude as he prepares to launch his new series: “You’ve got to make a decision – we’re going to go for it, that’s all there is to it.”