28th December 2002

Past-Time Rail
The Wandering Minstrel

Route:
1Z27 : Northampton to Hereford
1Z28 : Hereford to Crewe
1Z71 : Crewe to Northampton

Notes:
Originally advertised to run:
Northampton - Birmingham New Street – Bescot, (attach steam loco / reverse) – Kidderminster – Hereford – Newport (Break/Reverse) – Lydney – Gloucester – Worcester Shrub Hill (detach steam loco) – Birmingham New Street - Northampton

Source: Adrian Knight

Tour Review
(by Adrian Knight)

December 2002 marked the 3^rd year of travelling on regular railtours.  Over the last 3 years I have travelled on day excursions, freight line trips as well as “Spin and Wins” but never a full day steam trip – only the shuttle types like the Shakespeare Express and Dawlish Donkey.  Hence when I saw Past-Times trip behind Christmas and New year I decided to give it a try.  Along with scoring the Kettle, I would also score the Soho East to North curve.  As usual with a large proportion of railtours, the route was changed but in my favour, whilst not doing the Soho curve instead I would get the Abbey Foregate curve and Oxley curve so I wasn’t too bothered.

With an advertised pick up time of 08:35 at Birmingham New Street in the brochure, this was amended to 07:43 – Merry Christmas and a happy New Year Railtrack / Network Rail.  Also the kettle would now be attached at Hereford and as a prolonged stop was not advertised here, is 1hour 24 minutes the longest time ever scheduled to detach a loco from one end and attach another at the rear?

Anyway I arrived at New Street to find no sign of our tour on the monitors however I found out it was due off platform 3 where a large number of people were waiting.  The train rolled in around 15 minutes late – The taxi company forgot about taking the driver from Bescot to Northampton still the run down to Hereford was slackly timed including an Operational stop resulting in an on-time arrival in Hereford.  Traction was 47776 – one of my last 5 operational 47/7’s required so the day was off to a good start.

Union of South Africa had left the Severn Valley sub 5 am and was waiting for us at Hereford.  Although I was sceptical about the long wait here at least it gave some time to get some breakfast and a quick walk around the town.  Surprisingly the town centre was not that busy – maybe they aren’t early risers in this part of the country?

We departed on time with a good performance from “Number 9.”  I was surprised with the ease of acceleration with Load 12 in tow.  We were brought to a stand at Dorrington signal box for no apparent reason – maybe the signal man wanted some photos as our coach was adjacent to the signal which wasn’t at danger?

The Kettle seemed to eat up the miles and all to soon we approached Bushbury Junction after completing both required curves.  We were held here for a few minutes due to being early and allowing diverted Virgin West Coast trains to pass us as the Trent Valley is closed on Weekends.

Whilst stationary I didn’t notice any trouble from the “travellers” which Gary encountered on the Grid-Iron Grinder back in January.

After getting over the junction it was time for our Water Stop.  This was completed earlier than scheduled and we were allowed out a little early.

Fragonset 47488 was unusually stabled at Stafford.  On departure from Stafford a class 90 on a northbound run was playing cat and mouse with us edging past us and then falling back before finally surging past us on the fast lines.  It brought back memories of the Christmas Cracker tour when a Virgin HST did the same except another driver in the cab was actually taking pictures of the 40 as they sped past!

Arrival in Crewe was on-time after passing some grafitted freds at the LNWR depot.  We had 1 hour 26 minutes to sample the delights of Crewe.  Visited “Salt and Vinegar” for some food and on my return to the station was just in time to see 37174 arrive with 47767 (one of now only 4 operational 47/7’s required) dead in tow on top of an empty MGR train.

37174 ran round and departed South with the wagons and 47767 went onto the depot.  The regular stored locos were noted along with 90028 and a royal 47.

Departure was 9 late after the kettle was late arriving back into Crewe after its run round and water requirement.  It was now dark so not much was noted on the return.

The raffle was a bit unusual in that they waited until the Wolverhampton area.  The lady announcing the results confused everyone by announcing the serial number of the ticket along with the actual number very fast.  People with winning tickets were also asked to go to the staff coach to claim their prize and the numbers were not displayed so people could check if they had heard correctly which Pathfinder do.

We were back on-time at Darlaston Junction just before Number 9 was to leave us but as so often the word farce had to enter into the same sentence as loco change.

Just before Bescot Junction we ground to a halt with the road being given into the up goods yard for our loco change.  Driver gets out and onto the phone and the route is re-set so we proceed into the down goods yard.

Remember the Trent Valley is shut so extra Virgin services are running along this stretch along with the CENTRO services.  Well our 47 was waiting in the up yard and so had to wait for a path to cross to the down yard resulting in a fester of 46 minutes vice 28 allowed.

For those passengers who joined at Kidderminster, Droitwich Spa, Worcester Foregate Street and Hereford a service train connection departing 19.26 had been arranged.  Suffice to say arriving at 19.41 they missed it.  It seemed this move was doomed from the start as the Royal Mail lost the service train tickets in the post and so everyone travelling had to follow a man holding a Violin case at Birmingham New Street who had an authority letter and would explain to the conductor the situation when they boarded the train!

With a 9 minute wait at New Street booked to allow us to follow the all stops CENTRO service to Coventry and a further 9 minute wait at International, the tour departed only 8 late from International.

Verdict: A good day out - I scored both the diesel and the kettle along with 2 bits of track.  Main Line steam is defiantly the best way to enjoy the bigger engines instead of them being caged on preserved lines with a maximum speed of 25mph.  I would definitely consider doing more in the future.

Adrian Knight

Timings: Booked & Actual
(by Adrian Knight)

1Z27:

1Z28:

1Z71 :

Key;
a; arrival time
d; departure time
w; Water stop
*: operational stop
/: passing time

Mileages worked out from Quail maps
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