Create your own railtour!

[Iskra]

Quite simply- if you could run your own railtour, what would you do? As a minimum please let us know your traction/rolling stock, routeing, pick up/set down points, destination, where applicable the stations any breaks/off-train options take place at and what classes of travel are available (ie standard/first/first premium/premier dining). You are of course welcome to provide as much detail as you wish beyond this and if your tour is going to do anything innovative please do let us know

Whilst I chose to post this in the speculative section rather than the railtour section, please can we keep your suggestions realistic. So please abide by the following rules:

1) Your traction/rolling stock must exist or have a realistic chance of operating on the mainline in the not too distant future.
2) It needs to be operationally feasible, taking into account route availability of locomotives, obvious pathing constraints, the distance travelled needs to be sensible compared to the speed of your traction, the lines your tour travels on must be realistically usable, electric traction can only travel on electrified lines etc
3) A market needs to exist for your tour, whether that be track-bashers, day-trippers, steam buffs, dedicated followers of class xx etc.
4) It needs to start and originate from a point where there is a sizeable enough catchment area for the tour to sell-out.
5) Multiple day or even night tours are fine as long as they abide by the above rules.

I look forward to hearing what you can come up with!

 

[A S Leib]

I'm not sure about rolling stock, but I'd go for a sleeper train leaving at around 21:30 picking up at Edinburgh, Newcastle Central, Carlisle, Whitehaven, Barrow-in-Furness, Lancaster and Preston before going to Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon, then staying overnight. (On current passenger services that route looks like it would take around eleven hours; I'm not sure whether or not Preston and Lancaster are far away enough to justify stops, but passengers wouldn't need to leave immediately upon reaching Warwick. Lack of capacity or platform length might be a significant problem for Stratford and some of the next stops though.) The second day would be going to Hereford, Great Malvern and Worcester, followed by another night away. Day three would be Blenheim and Oxford, then heading to Winchester; day four, Portsmouth, before heading back north on day five.

Limiting it to a day, I'd go for Warrington Bank Quay (~05:40 / 23:30), Crewe (~06:10 / 23:00) and Shrewsbury (~06:50 / 22:20) to Swansea (~11:10 via Heart of Wales / 18:40 via Cardiff), Carmarthen (11:50 / 18:00) and Pembroke Dock (13:00 / 16:50).

For both, I'd have standard and first classes.

 

[AzureOtsu]

I'd go for the hove shuttle! on a 313! soon to be a very realistic and cost effective possible heritage attraction

 

[D6968]

I have several ideas but one came to me last night, not particularly long distance but could be interesting, basically 2 versions of the ‘Welsh Mountaineer’ that RTC do but starting from the West Midlands using the Saphos Stock based at Crewe.
Option 1 starts with an ECS move from Crewe to New Street, then from New Street pick up at Wolves, Stafford/Shrewsbury and Crewe/Chester before change of traction at Crewe/Chester before heading along the North Wales Coast and up to Blaenau, trip on the Ffestiniog and back same way as the outward journey.

Option 2 would be similar except this version is a little complicated and maybe a little unworkable.
ECS from Crewe to Brum etc except this version goes to Shrewsbury, the train then splits there one portion heads off to Chester and the Coast to Blaenau,the other heads out along the Cambrian to the other end of the Ffestiniog at Porthmadog with a set down for say Towyn and the Talyllyn.
Both sets of passengers have a trip on the Ffestiniog then board the other portion before heading back to Salop and as the outward trip. (I have a feeling this option is the unworkable one though!)

 

[LOL The Irony]

Class 185 on a Sheffield - Glasgow return stopping at Stockport, Piccadilly, Bolton & Preston.

 

[Gathursty]

I'd park an 11 car Pendolino* in the Stourbridge Town branch and charge people to walk through the train between stations.

If not long enough, get a driver to move forwards and backwards the few yards necessary.

 

[LUYMun]

I always thought that the previous railtour operated by Hastings Diesels Limited had a peculiar name (The Worcester Sauce) in connection to the service going to Worcester.

As a result, I present to you the "Pineapple Belongs on Pizza" railtour, featuring three units of Class 142 Pacers heading up from Brighton to Manchester Piccadilly. Complimentary catering would offer pineapple pizza as the main course.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

The South London Quail Basher. Depart London Bridge (terminal) - Forest Hill down fast to slow crossover, Norwood Junction, the lines around the side of Selhurst Depot to Selhurst station, Clapham Jct (slow lines), cross over to Fast lines, Wandsworth Road, South Eastern lines, turn left at Brixton then head towards Blackfriars.

Reverse in bay platforms and either via London Bridge or Denmark Hill to Lewisham, then Plumstead or Bexleyheath to return via Sidcup and take Lee curve. Reverse at Orpington, then to Bromley South via the fast line connection onwards back to Wandsworth Road and then Clapham Jct platform 13 before the spur at Streatham North Jct and on to Wimbledon. Reverse at Chessington south and back via Raynes Park slow to fast crossover and Wimbledon fast to slow then Southfields to Clapham Jct.

Class 700 RLU.

 

[Techniquest]

I have been going to and fro with contributing to this thread. However, as with so many other things I'm letting impulse lead the way. So I've not really any idea how practical it would be, but let's have a go:

For reasons of bias, I'd start my HST charter locally in Hereford. Pick-up stops at Leominster, Ludlow, Craven Arms, Church Stretton and Shrewsbury, before then running non-stop to Crewe for one last pick-up.

From there, a fast path would be requested for the journey to Scotland, ideally taking in the through roads at Carlisle as a Brucie Bonus. Turn off once there to go through Carstairs, then head up through Mossend and onwards towards Stirling, before reaching Perth and ideally using some non-passenger through route to avoid blocking up platforms.

Upon arrival at Inverness, it would be an overnight stay. With a reasonable start time the next morning, it would then be over to Kyle of Lochalsh for the scenery, and after a good leg-stretch/supply run it would be back over to Inverness but, of course, aiming to use the station avoiding line this time. Yes, the charter continues on around to Aberdeen and down to Dalmeny, before then uses the link line over to Linlithgow and the day ending at Glasgow Queen Street, possibly even using some unusual track in the area before another overnight stay.

The final day of the trip again starts at a reasonable hour, this time at Glasgow Central. This leg would also be requesting a nice and fast path, to really stretch the legs of the HST, routing via Shotts to Edinburgh before a fast run down through the Newcastle and York areas. The station avoiding lines at York would be requested, of course.

From York, the fast run would continue down to Doncaster before branching off for Sheffield and the Hope Valley line, before branching off onto the non-passenger line to Navigation Road. Carrying on down to Northwich, it would be down the east-facing curve onto the Middlewich line to Sandbach then onto the first drop-off in Crewe and the other stations as the pick-ups back to Hereford.

A few long days of travel in there, granted, but it would be quite a trip!

Another one that comes to mind is another HST charter, again starting locally for my own biased ease of getting to the start point. It would be a long day, due to the desire to have a decent bit of time in the destination, and to maximise speed it would be pick-ups at Leominster, Ludlow, Craven Arms, Church Stretton and Shrewsbury again. To maximise seat filling, I'd also offer Crewe as a final pick-up, before heading east to Derby and towards Sheffield.

At both, non-platform lines where available would be requested, just because I haven't done the through roads at Sheffield and I want them! After that, it would be aiming to go via Doncaster for some top-speed running to York. A local pick-up would be offered before turning right for Scarborough. Ideally 4 hours there would be requested, more than enough time to have an explore by the beach etc.

The way back would be perhaps more exciting, heading south via Bridlington and using the Hull avoiding line before charging onwards to Selby and up to York. Dropping off those who joined at York, it would then be over the Pennines via Leeds and Huddersfield, taking in the line via Denton before some speed between Stockport and Crewe, dropping off there and at the outward stations.

That will do, I mean I could spend literally hours making different charter plans but those would be two of my first choices. I could easily plan some very different charters, oh and I forgot to mention one thing that would make my charters incredibly different:

To both answer my own desires, and make the trains as family-friendly as possible, there would be a strict dry-train policy implemented.

 

[172007]

Bewdley to Stratford O A and return. One AM and one PM once a week when the SVR is running. I immagine if various mainline registered locos and rolling stock where used for variety people would come and also provide a nice day our either end. Stops could be Kidderminster marine, Stourbridge, Rowley Regis etc ... so the busier stations. Only difficulty would be stopping ordinary passengers from boarding.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Mine would be all about the locos and use every available Class 73.