Heritage Railway

Summer return for programme of diesel tours?

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NOT having run an excursion since January 2020, Hastings Diesels Limited, operator of unique DEMU No. 1001, circulated a questionna­ire in April seeking the views of shareholde­rs and supporters with regard to the return of its tours.

The circular from company secretary Francis Wallace read: “Now that the UK is beginning to emerge from the worst effects of the coronaviru­s pandemic, we are giving careful thought to restarting our programme of railtours during the second half of this year, public health restrictio­ns permitted.”

Short trips

“We have tentative dates of July 3, August 7 and September 11 in our diary. We envisage fairly short trips within the former Southern Region area so we do not spend too long confined within the trains.

“It is likely that most of our customers will have received one, if not two vaccinatio­ns before July and we propose the following anti-virus precaution­s. We would ask customers and staff to confirm that they have carried out a home test for the virus with a negative result within a 24hour period prior to any tour, and staff should wear masks while carrying out customer facing duties.

Positive response

“Seating would be allocated so as to leave vacant spaces between groups as far as possible. Some train windows will remain open to provide adequate ventilatio­n, and sanitisers would be available in each carriage.”

Spokesman Richard Griffin reported that a favourable response had been received by the May 15 deadline for replies.

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