27th October 2002

Pathfinder Tours
The Gratis Grids

Route:
1Z56 : Crewe to Stafford
1Z99 : Stafford to Crewe

Notes:
(1) Tour was abandoned at Stafford owing to atrocious weather conditions. The train was severely delayed even getting to Stafford by a combination of track circuit failures and trees that had been brought down by the high winds sweeping the country. Birmingham New Street had been closed as had much of the route the tour was due to cover, hence the decision to abandon it. Although the train left Stafford to head back to Crewe at 11am, it only made it a short distance before being held at signals for over an hour whilst the line ahead was cleared of trees/debris. The train eventually made it back to Crewe, travelling "under caution" at 15mph. Arrival back at Crewe was about 7 hours after it had left, having covered just about 50 miles.

For reference the booked route had been:
2 x 56: Crewe - Stafford - Wolverhampton - Birmingham New St. - Tyseley - Leamington Spa - Banbury - Bicester North - High Wycombe - Greenford West Jn - Ealing Broadway - Acton Wells Jn - Kensal Green Jn - Camden Road - Dalston - Stratford - Shenfield - Colchester South Jn - Colchester Down Goods

56's top-and-tail: Colchester Down Goods - Colchester Town (reverse) - Thorpe-le-Soken - Clacton

2 x 56: Clacton - Thorpe le Soken - Colchester - Shenfield - Stratford - Primrose Hill - Acton Wells Jn - Ealing Broadway - Greenford - South Ruislip - High Wycombe - Princes Risborough - Banbury - Leamington Spa - Tyseley - Birmingham New Street - Dudley Port - Wolverhampton - Stafford - Crewe

It is worthy of note that this trip was a re-run of the aborted Bank Holiday Monday tour using class 58's - this from the Pathfinder Website: "

Sources : Andrew Wilson, Jonathan Wilcox, Martyn Brailsford,
John Lancaster & Steve Cassidy!

Timings : Booked & Actual
(by Martyn Brailsford)

Key;
a : arrival time
d : departure time
/ : passing time

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