UK Railtours hopes for May restart

UK RAILTOURS was set to reschedule its March and April excursions as this issue went to press because of the ongoing Coronavirus lockdown.

In the firm’s latest newsletter, manager Elizabeth Morris said: “Given the seriousness of the situation we find ourselves in, it is unlikely that we will be unable to operate our March and April trips as planned. Therefore and sadly, the effected tours will be postponed to dates later in the year, hopefully beginning in May.”

Elizabeth was hoping that a return to the rails might materialise on May 1, with the ‘Doctor Syn’ excursion across the marshes to windswept Dungeness on the Kent coast. Departing Derby, the tour is due to pick up at East Midlands Parkway, Leicester, Kettering, Bedford and St Albans.

Leaving London, the trip is routed via Brent, Kew, Clapham, Factory Junction, Nunhead and Lewisham, passing Dartford and Gravesend for Hoo Junction, before running across ‘The Hundred of Hoo’ to terminate at Grain, a passenger station closed 1961.

Heading back to Lee, the train joins the South Eastern Main Line and heads to Ashford, Appledore and the freight-only nine-mile branch to Dungeness, which runs over the world’s largest expense of shingle, the line passing the derelict station at Lydd.