Railway Touring Company Seaford line trip

Crawley Ben · 23 Mar 2014

Morning all

The Railway Touring Company have advertised a new trip from London Victoria down to Seaford via the Newhaven Branch. Locos advertised for use are Oliver Cromwell working TNT with a class 33 diesel loco. Tour is priced at £90. Full details can be seen in the link below. A rare 'treat' if you ask me.

http://www.railwaytouring.net/uk-da...way-150-years-celebration-special-steam-train

Ben

RailUK Forums

yorksrob · 23 Mar 2014

I've a very big soft spot for the Seaford branch.

Cracking line, full of character.

Crawley Ben · 23 Mar 2014

yorksrob said:
I've a very big soft spot for the Seaford branch.

Cracking line, full of character.

My wife booked me a seat on the tour this morning as it's 'local' (45 mins or so away). I've never travelled on the branch, or behind either of the two booked loco's. A terrific trip to look forward to, hope the info is of some use to others on the forum?

Ben

STEVIEBOY1 · 23 Mar 2014

yorksrob said:
I've a very big soft spot for the Seaford branch.

Cracking line, full of character.

Yes, this does look to be a very interesting and rather unusual railtour which I shall book I think tomorrow.

yorksrob · 23 Mar 2014

STEVIEBOY1 said:
Yes, this does look to be a very interesting and rather unusual railtour which I shall book I think tomorrow.

I remember doing the branch in the 2BIL/4SUB in the early 90's.

Happy days.

STEVIEBOY1 · 24 Mar 2014

Crawley Ben said:
My wife booked me a seat on the tour this morning as it's 'local' (45 mins or so away). I've never travelled on the branch, or behind either of the two booked loco's. A terrific trip to look forward to, hope the info is of some use to others on the forum?

Ben

I May see you on board this train.

Crawley Ben · 24 Mar 2014

STEVIEBOY1 said:
I May see you on board this train.

Indeed you may sir. Really looking forward to zooming down the Brighton main line. The trip behind the steam & diesel loco, and the Seaford line itself are all firsts for me. Should be a cracking day, I hope everyone enjoys it

Ben

GatwickDepress · 24 Mar 2014

Looks like I may be going as well.

Fincra5 · 24 Mar 2014

I'm always working down those blooming lines

I'm actually tempted by this tho!

Timothy Turtle · 24 Mar 2014

I was surprised to see that this tour is even doing a trip into Newhaven Marine. I thought that the Marine had been out of use for a long time. Has this now changed? If so, does anything use it?

Crawley Ben · 25 Mar 2014

Fincra5 said:
I'm always working down those blooming lines

I'm actually tempted by this tho!

I'm sure you would find it a nice change to be a passenger as opposed to being the staff member

Ben

MidnightFlyer · 26 Mar 2014

Timothy Turtle said:
I was surprised to see that this tour is even doing a trip into Newhaven Marine. I thought that the Marine had been out of use for a long time. Has this now changed? If so, does anything use it?

There was a tour down there back in autumn (I'll guess November) 2010 that did the Newhaven Marine branch - it was on an old Hastings Unit and naturally it was just an in and out job - no alighting or photo opportunities!

Fincra5 · 26 Mar 2014

Newhaven Marine (from working ECS in there) is basically nothing. The platform is there but not in use, whats left of a canopy is just the shell.

samogers · 26 Mar 2014

Timothy Turtle said:
I was surprised to see that this tour is even doing a trip into Newhaven Marine. I thought that the Marine had been out of use for a long time. Has this now changed? If so, does anything use it?

There's one train a day ECS to Lewes leaving at about 20:15

Fincra5 · 27 Mar 2014

There are two

One in the Morning, ECS from Lewes, then back to Newhaven Town to start a service.. the evening one is in service to either Lewes or Newhaven Town, after which its ECS into the Marine and ECS to Brighton.

infobleep · 27 Mar 2014

With tours like this I understand why they need to use diesel trains. However would it in theory be possible to put a steam engine at the other end to do the reverse hauling?

I think it's great that Southern have allowed this. There is also I believe a manual crossing gate with keeper on the Seaford branch, if they haven't been replaced. So that will add to the experience.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

STEVIEBOY1 · 27 Mar 2014

Timothy Turtle said:
I was surprised to see that this tour is even doing a trip into Newhaven Marine. I thought that the Marine had been out of use for a long time. Has this now changed? If so, does anything use it?

As there are some ECS Movements at Newhaven Marine, I presume that the 3rd rail must still be there and is electrified. ?

Apart from these, the only trains that seem to go there appear to be some railtours from time to time. I went on one that called there in April 2004 or 2005 I think, it was arranged by Hertfordshire Railtours/UK Railtours and was called the Blueberry Fool, from London, calling at most of the Sussex Coastal Branches.

EltonRoad · 27 Mar 2014

infobleep said:
With tours like this I understand why they need to use diesel trains. However would it in theory be possible to put a steam engine at the other end to do the reverse hauling?

Yes - The Esk Valley trip last Saturday was topped and tailed by 61994 and 61264, and The Wansbeck this Saturday is also topped and tailed by K1+B1.

The steam trip to Oban last year was topped and tailed by Black Fives, needed as the climb out of Oban is 3 miles at 1 in 50.

SussexMan · 28 Mar 2014

infobleep said:
There is also I believe a manual crossing gate with keeper on the Seaford branch, if they haven't been replaced. So that will add to the experience.

No manual crossing gates on the Seaford branch. There is a user operated (authorised users only) at Southease and one at Tidemills which is locked (next to the abandoned Tide Mills stn where the platform still stands). The railway once branched down to Tidemills.

Are you thinking of the one at Havensmouth next to Normans Bay stn? I haven't driven across there recently but thought I saw lights installed when I passed close by. I assume it has remained manned due to some historic agreement in an original Act or something and the fact that it is technically a private road (although no one takes much notice of that!).

infobleep · 28 Mar 2014

It may well be Havensmouth. I can't actually remember.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

STEVIEBOY1 · 30 Mar 2014

EltonRoad said:
Yes - The Esk Valley trip last Saturday was topped and tailed by 61994 and 61264, and The Wansbeck this Saturday is also topped and tailed by K1+B1.

The steam trip to Oban last year was topped and tailed by Black Fives, needed as the climb out of Oban is 3 miles at 1 in 50.

Hope the Esk Valley & Wansbeck trips you mention here both went well. ? I was on that trip from Oban last year, the whole tour was very good. There was quite a lot of shunting, that had to be done before and after traversing the Oban branch at Crianlarich, which was interesting to watch, as they changed locos there from the one that bought us from Fort William and back onto Glasgow, to the two locos that top & tailed us to / from Oban.

Timothy Turtle · 18 Apr 2014

I see that this tour is being repeated on the following day (8th June), albeit from/to Waterloo - must be proving to be popular.

STEVIEBOY1 · 20 Apr 2014

Timothy Turtle said:
I see that this tour is being repeated on the following day (8th June), albeit from/to Waterloo - must be proving to be popular.

Yes, I am booked on the Saturday trip from London Victoria. i wonder how they will route this on the Sunday from Waterloo onto the LBSCR route?

MidnightFlyer · 20 Apr 2014

STEVIEBOY1 said:
Yes, I am booked on the Saturday trip from London Victoria. i wonder how they will route this on the Sunday from Waterloo onto the LBSCR route?

Not possible at Clapham Jn as far as I can see but they could head via Stewarts Lane, Herne Hill, then either via Streatham Common or Crystal Palace to Croydon or Norwood Jn respectively.

STEVIEBOY1 · 24 Apr 2014

MattE2010 said:
Not possible at Clapham Jn as far as I can see but they could head via Stewarts Lane, Herne Hill, then either via Streatham Common or Crystal Palace to Croydon or Norwood Jn respectively.

I suppose they could use the little used eurostar connection to get from SWT land to the Southern? South Eastern?

GatwickDepress · 2 May 2014

The Sunday 8th June trip is now starting from Kensington Olympia at 0920.

STEVIEBOY1 · 4 May 2014

GatwickDepress said:
The Sunday 8th June trip is now starting from Kensington Olympia at 0920.

Yes, I saw that, I guess that will infact make it easier to get onto the correct route now.

GatwickDepress · 4 May 2014

STEVIEBOY1 said:
Yes, I saw that, I guess that will infact make it easier to get onto the correct route now.

It has the added bonus of making it a PITA to get there from MKC, what with the engineering works on that day!

Crawley Ben · 23 May 2014

Ladies & Gents. Courtesy of Real Time Trains

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U63082/2014/06/07/advanced

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U63083/2014/06/07/advanced

Hope this info is of use? Look forward to maybe seeing a few from the forum on this tour?

Ben

GatwickDepress · 23 May 2014

Thanks for the links, Ben. Here are the timings for the Sunday trip (which I'll be on!) as well:

1Z42 0922 Kensington Olympia - Eastbourne
1Z43 1641 Eastbourne - Kensington Olympia

Railway Touring Company Seaford line trip

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