Great Western Coffee Shop

What looks like being the first special train on the Cotswold Line post-redoubling will be a Pathfinder tour on Saturday, September 3, taking Deltic 55022 Royal Scots Grey from Crewe and the West Midlands to Weymouth via the Cotswold Line, returning via Bath and Bristol.

More at http://www.pathfindertours.co.uk/index.php/tour-calendar-reader/events/the-dorset-deltic-explorer.html

Any precedent for a 55 on the Cotswold Line willc? I can see it bringing out the crowds even if there is though - if I was still living in Oxford I'd be sorely tempted by this tour.

Disturbing to look at the live departures from Foregate Street this morning and see a special to Carlisle!

Not aware of a previous Deltic visit to the line myself but someone else may have the answer.

looks like my first trip to yeovil pen mill for this one then

I do remember going to Shrub Hill one wet Sunday morning many years ago to see a Deltic hauled special, which I think had travelled over the Cotswold Line. The engine may have run round there. I know there were hundreds of spotters who'd descended on Shrub Hill that day.

That'll be a question to ask 'Captain Deltic' aka 'Alycidon' aka Roger Ford of Modern Railways. Pretty sure he'd know....  ;) ;D

Steve, could this have been it?

55018 Ballymoss via the Cotswold Line, then running round at Shrub Hill - January 1978 and running westbound rather than up Chipping Campden bank, which the September trip will be doing.

http://www.napier-chronicles.co.uk/18_29-1-78.htm

Great find there, willc!!!

Will, this evening I trawled through early editions of CLPG newsletters and then some notebooks of my own, and under 'Railway Diary 1978' I'd written 29 January - Deltic at Worcester.  So Yes, the same one!

Curiously on April 8th, I wrote '40 042 Paddington - Hereford @ Malvern' - another special?

Looking at the timings on Pathfinder's website, it seems that outbound, the train will run from Worcester to Cheltenham and Gloucester etc, but will return via Oxford and then Cotswold Line to Worcester. 

Yes, operating reasons apparently led to the change. It's now due into Shrub Hill at 19.55, so looks like an Oxford departure time following shortly after the 18.21 HST to Foregate Street. Weather forecast looks okay, so should still be a chance for photography.

Here's the full revised timings:

Bsngstk   17:51   17:53         
Bmly       18:01         
ScoteJn      18:09         
RdngOrJ      18:11         
RedgWJn   18:14   18:17         
DidctEJ      18:34         
DidcotP   18:36   18:39         
DidctNJ      18:41         
KnngtnJ      18:48         
Oxfd               18:51         
WvctJn       18:53         
AsctUWd      19:06         
MInMars      19:18         
Evesham      19:37         
NrtnJn       19:48                  
WorcTJn   19:59   20:12         
DrtwchS      20:24         
StkWksJ      20:34         
Brmsgrv      20:37

With Moreton show and this charter squeezed in, it'll be a busy day on the Cotswold Line!

The charter managed Wolvercote Junction to Worcester Shrub Hill in 56 minutes with twelve fully laiden carriages.  Not bad at all.  An example of what kind of journey time could now be offered between Oxford and Worcester with a limited stop train not needing to mess around with tokens.

Picture of 55022 kicking up the dust at Charlbury at http://www.hondawanderer.com/


Or perhaps just an illustration of the potential to improve journey times across the board, in line with the CLPG's goal of getting a standard two-hour London-Worcester journey time - including all the usual stops - though that will never be enough for some people.

 :o ::) ;D