New year, new tour programmes

Main line railtour promoters announce their planned itineraries for the year ahead.

AS winter begins to recede, many rail tour promoters have now confirmed their excursions for at least the first half of the year, while others are still working on the fine detail following DB Cargo’s decision to focus more on contracted operations and less on ‘ad hoc’ charters.

Early in January, Pathfinder Tours published its new brochure and one of the key offerings will be a repeat of the popular ‘Cambrian Coast Express’.

A choice of five dates will be on offer – two in April, one in May, and two more in September, with five different originating points. All tours take place on Thursdays and will use Mk.2 Riviera Trains stock hauled by two EE Type 3s from Shrewsbury to Pwllheli and back.

The outline details are:

April 4: Start at Reading, picking up at Didcot Parkway, Oxford, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Dorridge, Birmingham New Street, Wolverhampton, Telford Central and Shrewsbury.

April 18: Start at East Midlands Parkway, picking up at Loughborough, Leicester, Nuneaton, Coleshill Parkway, Birmingham New Street, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury.

May 16: Start at Cardiff Central, picking up at Newport, Cwmbran, Pontypool & New Inn, Abergavenny, Hereford, Ludlow, Craven Arms and Shrewsbury.

Sept 5: Start at Bristol

Temple Meads, calling at Bristol Parkway, Cam & Dursley, Cheltenham Spa, Worcestershire Parkway,

Bromsgrove, Birmingham New Street, Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury.

Sept 12: Start at Swindon, picking up at Kemble, Stroud, Cheltenham Spa, Worcester Shrub Hill, Kidderminster, Stourbridge Junction,

Tame Bridge Parkway and Shrewsbury.

All tours will include off-train options at Barmouth, Minffordd, Porthmadog and Pwllheli.

In between these Cambrian tours, Pathfinder has planned a ‘Spring Cornish Explorer’ for May 4, which will be hauled by a pair of West Coast Class 37s from Dorridge, Warwick Parkway, Leamington Spa, Banbury, Oxford, Swindon and Bristol Temple Meads to Penzance. Offtrain options include the Eden Project or the Lost Gardens of Heligan and Truro.

A week later, a ‘Golden Arrow’ is set to run from Birmingham New Street to Canterbury West via Oxford. A West Coast steam loco is due to haul the train from West London, returning via Dover, Folkestone and Tonbridge – with diesel traction back from the London area.

Destinations

June 1 will see an excursion from Tame Bridge Parkway and selected stations to Swindon continue to Torquay and Paignton for the English Riviera Airshow. The following Saturday, June 8, the ‘Lakes Express’ starts at Bristol Temple Meads and runs via the Welsh Marches route to Carlisle, where steam takes over for a trip around the Cumbrian Coast line.

June 29 is the annual ‘Mazey Day Cornishman’ trip from the West Midlands to Penzance, which this year will be hauled by a pair of Class 50s.

The Locomotive Services Group encompasses several rail tour promoters – InterCity, Saphos Trains, Steam Dreams, Midland Pullman and the Statesman – and all have announced comprehensive programmes.

Under the InterCity brand, use is being made of Class 40

No. D213 (40013) Andania,

LSL’s AC electrics, Crewe Diesel Preservation Group’s Class 47

No. 47712 Lady Diana Spencer and the Mk.2 push-pull set.

On February 9, a Class 90 will work from King’s Cross along the East Coast Main Line to Leeds, Skipton and Bradford Forster Square, with photo opportunities at the latter two locations.

Class 40 No. D213 is booked to work from Crewe over the Highland Main Line to Inverness, and then back via Aberdeen and Dundee over the weekend of February 24/25 on the ‘Whistling Highlander’.

Then over the weekend of March 29-31, the Class 47 and push-pull set will venture to pastures new. Starting at Crewe, the ‘West Of Scotland PushPull’ will visit Oban, Gourock, Wemyss Bay, Ardrossan Harbour and Largs.

Tours to destinations by Saphos follow formats of previous years and feature the ‘Golden Arrow’, ‘Cotswold Explorer’, ‘Welsh Marches Express’, the ‘Settle & Carlisle Fellsman’ and ‘White Rose’ tours. Saphos Tours start from a range of regional towns and cities and normally feature a mix of heritage diesel traction and steam, although some excursions many be steamhauled throughout.

There are 34 tours in the Saphos programme between

March 13 to October 9. Visit saphostrains.com for full details.

LSL’s deluxe HST in its ‘Blue Pullman’ style livery has 37 booked trips between March 5 and October 23, and like the Saphos tours will be visiting destinations which have proved popular in years past. The

HST set will be visiting Whitby, Torbay, Blackpool, Oban and Fort William, as well as Torbay. While most are day trips from regional start points, there are a couple of weekend tours in the mix.

Also, Statesman Rail is offering a range of luxury tours throughout the year, and its programme can be found at statesmanrail.com

Off the beaten track

Still to finalise its programme for the first half of the year, UK Railtours (UKR) has three confirmed excursions which are booking now. These include the ‘Gateway Galloper’ on

March 23, an ‘Off The Beaten Track’ tour which starts at King’s Cross and picks up at Potters Bar, Stevenage, Huntingdon and Peterborough. It is set to visit Chaddesden sidings Derby, the Mapperley goods branch and East Midlands Gateway freight terminal, from which the tour takes its name. Class 66s will top-and-tail this train.

April 13 is a second ‘Off

The Beaten Track’ tour from Paddington and picking up at Slough, Reading, Swindon and Bristol Parkway. At Newport, the traction will change to a pair of Class 66s top-and-tailed before avoiding Swansea en route to visit the Robeston freight line to its operational limit, and then to Milford Haven for a break before returning to London.

UKR’s final confirmed tour at the time of writing is on April 27 when‘Merchant Navy’No. 35028 Clan Line will celebrate its 50th anniversary of its first main line trip in preservation by hauling the Belmond British Pullman from London Victoria to Bath via Salisbury.

While details were not confirmed as this page closed for press, UKR was planning a tour with the Hastings

Diesels DEMU for April 20, and was finalising other trips to destinations as varied as Berwick-upon-Tweed and the West Country.

Finally, the Railway Touring Company (RTC) has planned another programme of steam tours to popular destinations over some of the country’s classic rail routes. These include ‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ trains on February 10, 17 and March 16, with other excursions to Bath and Gloucester

(February 10), York (February 24), Chester (March 2), Stratfordupon-Avon (March 9) and Edinburgh (March 24).

On Wednesday, March 27, RTC is running a train from King’s Cross to Whitby. This will feature the rare sight of a Class 86/2 on the ECML working from London to York – not forgetting the rare sight of steam running the length of the Esk Valley; steam having taken over at York.

As RTC is an exclusive user of locos and rolling stock provided by the West Coast Railway Company, so the revocation of West Coast’s exemption to use hinged door rolling stock (see Headline News) could affect some tours. RTC managing director Kelly Osbourne told The RM it is proceeding as planned with its tour programme and is in regular dialogue with both West Coast and ORR.