Main Line News
■ Vintage Trains to celebrate 1971 Return to Steam and Lickey bankers
■ Tornado makes Settle and Carlisle line ‘home from home' in 2021
■ The return of No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester moves ever closer
■ April showers save the day for ‘Jacobite' steam
■ WheelSkate helps rescue ‘Black Five' No. 45231 The Sherwood Forester
A TOUR on the exact 50th anniversary of 1971's pivotal ban-breaking Return to Steam trip, banked GWR Castle-hauled steam trips up the Lickey Incline and new Saturday ‘Shakespeare Express' services are among the highlights of the post-lockdown revised Vintage Trains programme for 2021.
The Birmingham Snow Hill to Stratford-upon-Avon‘ Shakespeare Express' season will start on July 17, running on 13 dates, including nine consecutive summer Sundays from July 18.
It will offer choices of breakfast, traditional Sunday lunch or pubstyle Sunday lunch and afternoon tea options from £49 in Coach class. Non-dining ‘enthusiast' trips will also be available in Tourist class at £25.
This summer will also see, for the first time, four Saturday trains operating on a different schedule, out and back on the North Warwickshire Line via Henleyin-Arden.
On selected Saturday evenings, the theme will be Murder on the Shakespeare Express, to include fine dining. An afternoon Mad Hatters Tea Party will also run for children.
Trains call at Birmingham Moor Street, Tyseley and, on the outward journey to Stratford, at Henley-in-Arden. On Sundays, the return journey will be at express speeds up to 75mph via Solihull, non-stop to Tyseley.
Locomotives will be either WR 4-6-0 No. 7029 Clun Castle or newlyoverhauled No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. In the event of hot weather, Network Rail may require a diesel to be added to the train to mitigate fire risk.
Visiting engines for 2021 will include LMS Princess Coronation Pacific
No. 6233 Duchess of Sutherland and two of Michael Owen's Class 20s. Tyseley's own Class 47 No. 47773 The Queen Mother, fresh from a mechanical overhaul and repaint, will also haul a tour.
Resorts
Wednesday, August 4, will see the Class 20s double head ‘The Jolly Fisherman' to Skegness for four hours at the seaside. Picking up at Coleshill Parkway, Nuneaton, Leicester and East Midlands Parkway, the trip heads through Nottingham and Sleaford to the East Coast.
The two Class 20s are back in action on Wednesday, August 11, with the ‘Saint Tudno Express' to Llandudno, picking up at Walsall and Wolverhampton.
The ‘Weston Venturer' on Wednesday, August 18, will be topped-and-tailed by the Class 47 and Class 20s and picking up at Birmingham Snow Hill, Stourbridge Junction and Worcester.
A third seaside jaunt, on Wednesday, August 25, is ‘Scarborough Belle' topped-and-tailed by the Class 47 and Class 20s. Departing from Tyseley Locomotive Works, the trip will run via Tamworth, Burton-upon-Trent, Derby, Clay Cross and Pontefract Baghill to York where passengers may leave the train. After a short stop, the train continues to Scarborough.
On Saturday, September 25, Tyseley celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Stephenson Locomotive Society's special trains originating from Birmingham, which were organised by its Midland branch secretary, Arthur ‘Cam' Camwell. These trains became an annual event as they regularly featured the last of a GWR class and visited Swindon Works.
The 70th anniversary SLS Special will be headed by Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, continuing the tradition set by Cam as it is the last of its class to be returned to main line service in the heritage era.
From Tyseley Locomotive Works, the tour heads to Birmingham Snow Hill (pick up), Kidderminster and Worcester to Cheltenham and then onwards past Stroud, heading for the Golden Valley and up the Sapperton Bank past Kemble to Swindon, stopping to allow visits to STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway or the shopping centre, both of which are located in the heart of the old Swindon Works.
Returning, Earl of Mount Edgcumbe will sprint along ‘Brunel's billiard table' to Didcot where the train runs northwards towards Birmingham, with a photographic stop at Banbury on the way.
Anniversary
On October 2, 1971, GWR 4-6-0
No. 6000 King George V departed Bulmers Railway Centre in Hereford for a run to Birmingham and broke the BR official 1968 main line steam ban on October 2. Fifty years on, Tyseley will mark the occasion with a ‘mirror image' return anniversary journey to Hereford, on Saturday, October 2, a new addition to the previously-announced itinerary.
From Tyseley, the Return to Steam 50th Anniversary Special passes Birmingham New Street en route to Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury, where, taking the avoiding line, it heads along the Welsh Marches line via Craven Arms to Hereford for a three-hour break for city sightseeing.
The return to Birmingham will follow the original route taken by No. 6000, continuing south, avoiding Newport to join the South Wales Main Line, for a sprint through the Severn Tunnel to Swindon, a water stop at Didcot and a
photographic stop at Banbury.
A week later, Duchess of Sutherland
will head the ‘Welsh Marches Express' from Tyseley via Birmingham Snow Hill, Worcester and Gloucester, joining the Welsh Marches line short of Newport and heading to Hereford for a three-hour afternoon sightseeing break. The tour returns via Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street.
The ‘Midland Bristolian' on Saturday, October 30, promises a GWR/LMS main line spectacular, also behind Duchess of Sutherland.
The full-day excursion covers Great Western and Midland main lines and starts at Derby with diesel haulage by No. 47773 for a run to Burton-on-Trent, Tamworth (High Level) and Coleshill Parkway (all pick-ups), before pausing at Dorridge (no passenger pick-ups at this station) where Duchess of Sutherland
takes charge, and the Class 47 moves to the rear of the train. The excursion is then due to operate via Oxford and Swindon to Bristol Temple Meads for three-and-a-half hours of sightseeing in the city.
The trip returns direct to Derby via Cheltenham Spa and the Lickey Incline. No. 6233 leaves the train at Derby and the Class 47 returns the empty coaching stock to Tyseley.
Due to the requirement to take a banker over the Lickey Incline and not wishing to stop at the foot of the incline to gain such assistance, No. 47773 will be at the rear of the train throughout the journey from Dorridge.
Banker
Saturday, November 20, sees ‘The Lickey Bankers' featuring two separate runs with both Castles, each train banked by Jonathan Jones-Pratt's WR 0-6-0PT No. 9466, currently on hire to the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway (and which was briefly at Tyseley in late April for work on its cylinders).
Two identical trains will start at Tyseley, with Earl of Mount Edgcumbe heading the morning trip, picking up at Birmingham Snow Hill for a fast run to Worcester. There the train will turn heading for Bromsgrove where No. 9466 will join the train, authentically banking it up the legendary 1-in-37 incline to Blackwell. The 94XX class became the banking engines when the Lickey was transferred to the WR in 1958.
The train returns to Tyseley via Birmingham New Street, another rare steam location, and Clun Castle will take the same route in the afternoon.
On December 5, Clun Castle and Earl of Mount Edgcumbe will head a special to the Melton Mowbray Victorian Christmas Fayre, while passengers have the option of staying on board for a trip Corby and back twice across Grade II listed Harringworth Viaduct, the longest masonry viaduct across a valley in the UK.
Saturday, December 11 sees No. 5043 head ‘The Merchant Venturer' to Bath Christmas Market, boarding at Solihull, Dorridge, Leamington Spa and Banbury, with the option of thee hours in Bristol. On December 18, Clun Castle and No. 47773 heads from Tyseley Locomotive Works, picking up at Coleshill Parkway, Tamworth High Level, Burton and Derby to York St Nicholas Fayre and Christmas Market.
➜ The Tyseley Locomotive Works annual open weekend – will take place on October 23/24, with Clun Castle, Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, Duchess of Sutherland and 0-6-0PT No. 7752 in steam.