Bahamas will head Windsor shuttles over two days

LMS Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45596 Bahamas will feature in Steam Dreams’Windsor shuttles programme this year.

Making a rare appearance in the former boat train platform 2 at London Victoria, Bahamas is booked to work both the 9am and 2.20pm departures and the 6.30pm evening diner on Tuesday, June 28.

The afternoon train provides the option of passengers visiting Windsor or remaining on the train for a ‘circular’ lunch, which is apparently already proving popular with the booking public.

It almost goes without saying that the evening dinning trains are filling well in advance of trips around the Surrey Hills route.

The second date for Bahamas is Tuesday, August 24, while additional bookings for the Jubilee were, as we closed for press, being negotiated.

Steam Dreams chairman David Buck said he was pleased with the build-up of demand for seats on excursions to date.

Most passenger enquiries were from people living near departure points rather than overseas tourists.

Excellence

“We had a good trip to Bath on April 5 and the visit to the Settle and Carlisle line on April 9 was excellent, with B1 No. 61306 Mayflower working solo from Hellifield – not bad for a class 5 engine,” he said.

The train to Brooklands for the Sunbeam racing car centenary on May 17 has been bolstered by the addition of an afternoon ‘Hampshire Hills’ lunchtime tour, starting from Woking.

A second train to Bath departs Shoeburyness on May 26, stopping at Southend East and Barking. Then on June 9, the B1 heads out of Ealing Broadway, taking the Marston Vale Line and stopping at Bletchley, the restored station at Ridgmont and Bedford, with Chesterfield or Chatsworth the destination.

The Marston Vale Line between Bletchley and Bedford is a surviving remnant of the former Varsity line between Oxford and Cambridge, most of which was closed in the late 1960s. The line celebrated its 175th anniversary last November.

David said: “We are delighted our trip coincides with special 175th anniversary celebrations.

“Mayflower has not hauled the Marston Vale Line in recent history and to experience the locomotive over this beautiful line will magnificent. It is always exciting to bring steam to a new route.”

Rare routing

Stephen Sleight, transport team leader (rail) at the Marston Vale Community Rail partnership, said:“We are very pleased to welcome a rare steam special.”

Mayflower is due to make its first solo crossing of the Forth Bridge on June 17 when Steam Dreams makes a four-day trip to Edinburgh.

Bournemouth and Weymouth are the destination on June 23, the trip starting from London Victoria, calling at Staines, Woking, and Basingstoke.