It was a brilliant tour!
We left Littlehampton as per usual, and we were informed that the engine hauling us (the none-yellow one) had a problem, so we went to Ford, reversed, and the other loco took us to Ardingley Stone Terminal, Haywards Heath. The actual Hastings unit took us (six carriages) and a loco all the way to Newhaven Marine, and back up the SML to London Bridge!
Newhaven Marine was a sad state of affairs, though a sentence in the railtour souvenir booklet implied that the building is being done up soon!
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Just to add - 66 was fine, 73 failed (I noticed nothing on the run it did Bridge-Bognor Regis), it did sound very bad on the brief run back to Ford.
Time-wise, we left Bridge near enough on-time, we lost about 10 mins on the way to Bognor, and lost a further 10 having to go to Ford to change ends. That culled our time we had at Newhaven Marine - we had just 2 and a half minutes! We left Brighton a few late (IIRC), but got a very good run on the Slows to Gatwick, and on the Fasts via the Quarry thereafter, and I think we got in to and away from Bridge near enough on scheduele. I alighted back at Orpington, where it was promptly put behind the Hastings stopper!
