The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
My my! It’s full steam ahead at Waterloo
Daniel Puddicombe is chuffed to bits to see a return to this stylish and historic way to travel
It has been a long time since steam trains have regularly run in and out of London Waterloo station – 52 years to be precise. So commuters over the past few Tuesday mornings could be forgiven for thinking they were imagining things when confronted with the sight of a steam train puffing its way out of the station on its way to Windsor at a new service departing just after 8am.
The new journeys have been introduced by The Steam Dreams Rail Co (steamdreams.co.uk) and consist of three trips to Windsor every Tuesday and a picturesque evening jaunt through the Surrey Hills with the option of a full dining service.
Unlike the vast majority of steam charters that run on the mainline, the new series – called the Royal Windsor Steam Express and the Sunset Steam Express respectively – are aimed towards tourists and first-timers, rather than railway enthusiasts, with the mantra being that it is an inexpensive way to travel in style.
Prices for the Windsor trains, which take a little over an hour and are one-way only – with passengers required to buy a return ticket for a South Western Railway service train back to Waterloo – start from £35 for standard class, rising to £85 for a champagne brunch option.
The evening circular, which runs for four hours and takes in 83 miles worth of line, is priced from £49 in standard and £99 in Premier Dining, which includes a three-course meal silver-served during the journey.
“Express” is a loose interpretation of the word for the Windsor trains – on the morning service I travelled on, the speed did not exceed 40mph. The evening circular, however, allowed the locomotive – the 1948-built LNER B1 Class “Mayflower” – to stretch its legs once it had wound its way out of the capital, with steam drifting past the windows at all times.
Stepping aboard is like stepping into a time warp; the “B1” hauls restored BR Mk1 carriages – all with opening windows, allowing you to hear the locomotive at work – which in the dining classes are dressed up with linen tablecloths and stewards.
On the evening trip, the food keeps on coming, to the soundtrack of the clitter-clatter of the wheels on the track, the wail of the locomotive’s whistle and the rhythmic beat from the two cylinders upfront.
The food isn’t bad either: everything is cooked and freshly prepared by the company’s head chef in the kitchen car. The menu on the evening tour I was on consisted of a sharing platter of smoked salmon, mackerel and horseradish tian; the main, chicken breast, potatoes and vegetables in a creamy sauce; and the dessert, chocolate sauce, berry compote, raspberry and caramel crisp. It’s as good as you’d get in a London restaurant, with the added bonus of a