• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

[BLS] Chiltern Railways Depot Tracker

Status
Not open for further replies.

barrykas

Established Member
Joined
19 Sep 2006
Messages
1,579
The Branch Line Society, in association with Chiltern Railways, are organising a tour in aid of the Railway Children on Sunday 26th May.

Tickets are £50 for Adult BLS members and Chiltern staff, £40 for BLS members under the age of 16 and children of Chiltern staff, £60 for Adult non-members and £50 for non-members under the age of 16.

The tour is scheduled to depart Marylebone (Platform 1) at 11:05 and visit the Tunnel Siding, Wall Siding, Wembley LMD, Wembley Turnback Siding, Gerrards Cross Turnback Siding, Aylesbury Depot and Sidings, the Thame Branch, Aylesbury North Goods Loop, the Civil Engineers' siding at Princes Risborough and Bicester North Turback Siding, arriving back into Marylebone in time to catch the 21:00 Birmingham train for those who need to.

The Booking Form can be found on the Branch Line Society site.

Note that the planned stock is a 4 car 168, so capacity is limited to around 260 seats as seats without windows (primarily at the ends of coaches) will not be allocated.

Refreshments will NOT be available on board, and no alcohol may be consumed on board.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Cherry_Picker

Established Member
Joined
18 Apr 2011
Messages
2,796
Location
Birmingham
Considering the groans that normally occur when somebody has to take a train to the wall, asking Chiltern staff for £50 to do this seems rather optimistic! :D
 
Joined
31 May 2012
Messages
124
DMU + loops + sidings = back to the future ?!
As for the absence of catering and the banning of booze - BOO ! This be ridiculous given the length of time on board.
Will give this upheaval a miss - like so many other recent BLS 'jaunts' !
 

barrykas

Established Member
Joined
19 Sep 2006
Messages
1,579
Considering the groans that normally occur when somebody has to take a train to the wall, asking Chiltern staff for £50 to do this seems rather optimistic! :D

You may well think that, I couldn't possibly comment...But I suspect the phrase "I'll do it for 12" may be uttered ;)
As for the absence of catering and the banning of booze - BOO ! This be ridiculous given the length of time on board.

I would imagine that the alcohol ban is due to it running through working depots, and the lack of catering is down to the Chiltern catering crews being based in Birmingham and only working the loco-hauled on a Sunday, the first of which arrives at 12:15. As such, there wouldn't be any of the 168 specific catering trollies at Marylebone for them to use.

Cheers,

Barry
 

CyrusWuff

Established Member
Joined
20 May 2013
Messages
3,944
Location
London
Just to bump this...Tickets have now been sent out and Chiltern will now be providing a trolley service on board. In addition, the alcohol restriction has been lifted (though, presumably, the provisions of Byelaw 4 will still apply).

The train in question is running under multiple headcodes:
  • 1Z21 1105 London Marylebone - Gerrards Cross Siding
  • 1Z65 1320 Gerrards Cross Siding - Aylesbury
  • 1Z66 1500 Aylesbury - Great Missenden
  • 1Z67 1710 Great Missenden - Aylesbury
  • 1Z68 1733 Aylesbury - Bicester North Turnback Siding
  • 1Z72 1952 Bicester North Turnback Siding - London Marylebone
 

oversteer

Member
Joined
26 Jan 2011
Messages
725
I think this is the most eccentric railtour I've ever seen! I had no idea ones like this were run.
I like the idea, but wow, that's a long time to spend on a 168!
 

CyrusWuff

Established Member
Joined
20 May 2013
Messages
3,944
Location
London
It's a BLS speciality. The last one of theirs I went on was the "Red Nose Rambler", in aid of Comic Relief, back in March 1999, which comprised 4 hours on a brace of 313s.

But I digress! As mentioned by the OP, the tour is in aid of Railway Children, so it's all for a good cause.
 

The Planner

Veteran Member
Joined
15 Apr 2008
Messages
15,838
Grrrr, some of those schedules are awful again.... no reversal in 1Z68 at High Wycombe <rant>
 

theblackwatch

Established Member
Joined
15 Feb 2006
Messages
10,714
Apparently this train ran well and to plan although I'm sure someone who was on board will confirm. I gather the next trip of this type is planned for September 8th, using a Class 185 unit.
 

QJ

Member
Joined
5 Mar 2009
Messages
395
Location
Basingstoke Down Yard
A good tour with many happy travellers on board. It ran roughly to time all day and Chiltern Railways staff fully entered into the spirit of the occasion. Lots of money was donated to the Railway Children charity and I won a prize in the first of the onboard raffles (only trouble is it will cost me a fair few bob to make use of it) :lol:

There's nothing wrong with a good old fashioned DMU tour to reach the parts loco hauled tours are not likely too. Just like the old days without the window rattle.

Looking forward to the next one. All day in a 185. Lovely.
 

Dampflok

Member
Joined
22 Sep 2009
Messages
126
Location
Haddenham, Bucks
I spent much of the day chasing this train around after being contacted by Chiltern staff involved in the organisation of the special in order to get some shots of it in some unusual locations for a passenger train.

It was great fun, though something of a logistical nightmare, and took a bit of planning to get round the locations. The train was quite often running early and considering the potential for things to go wrong this was quite an achievement.

There is now a dedicated collection on my site at:

http://plumbloco.smugmug.com/Trains/Branch-Line-Society-Chiltern/29669189_JnTrKh

and here's a sample shot:



168 107 entering the turnback siding at Wembley Stadium.

Some of these shots should eventually be displayed on the Branch Line Society website as well.

I was not able to get shots at the Tunnel Siding, Aylesbury depot headshunts and Aylesbury North Loop (to do so would have meant being unable to get to Great Missenden in time for the crossover there). I was also not able to get to Bicester for the turnback siding there.

Cheers, Geoff
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top