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Title: Steam excursion - except there's much more diesel than steam! Post by: grahame on May 01, 2025, 08:34:55 https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2025/05/steam-locomotive-34046-braunton-to-pass-through-dawlish-this-saturday.html (https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2025/05/steam-locomotive-34046-braunton-to-pass-through-dawlish-this-saturday.html)
Quote The tour starts with a diesel locomotive at Poole, where it will depart at 06:34. The train will then pass through Bournemouth (06:47), Brockenhurst (07:17), Southampton Central (07:40), Eastleigh (07:56), Salisbury (08:50), Warminster (09:16), Westbury (09:25) and Taunton at 10:23, where 34046 Braunton is attached. With 34046 now on the front of the train, 34046 Braunton will pass through Tiverton Parkway (11:15), Dawlish Warren (11:52), Dawlish (12:10), Newton Abbot (12:16), Paignton (12:34) and Kingswear at 13:15. [personal opinion piece] So that's about 4 hours behind a diesel, half an hour for a loco change, an hour and a quarter behind a steam engine on the main line, then a final section on a heritage line where you could travel behind a steam engine anyway. Title: Re: Steam excursion - except there's much more diesel than steam! Post by: PhilWakely on May 01, 2025, 13:13:42 Many moons ago, on 14th February 2009, as a 30-year long-service award, my company paid for myself and my wife to be pampered aboard a British Pullman dining experience behind Bulleid Merchant Navy Pacific, 35028 'Clan Line' (if I'd paid for it myself, I'd have needed a second mortgage!). You barely noticed that you were behind a steam locomotive! The onboard experience was the attraction (I won't say the scenery - unless you enjoy the south London suburbs and Surrey Hills!).
Rather more recently, I treated my daughter (who is an avid Harry Potter fan) to a weekend around Glenfinnan. As part of that weekend, we boarded a Scotrail Class 156 unit and travelled from Fort William to Mallaig and back. We saw exactly the same scenery as the tourists on board The Jacobite at a (huge) fraction of the price. We witnessed The Jacobite cross the viaduct from a couple of lineside vantage points. As an avid railway photographer, I would gladly phot a steam excursion from lineside, but as a participant of a railtour, it really does not matter what the motive power is. This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |