31st May 2010

Railway Touring Company
The Swanage Belle

Route :
1Z82 : Victoria to Swanage
1Z83 : Swanage to Victoria

Notes :
(1) 44871 replaced 34067 & 70013, neither of which were available due to mechanical failures.
(2) 35509 only in the formation when 44871 was on the train, 14099 only in the consist when 30777 was on the train.
(3) Banked by 37516 from Victoria to Grosvenor Bridge.
(4) John Clifford comments: The tour was originally advertised as returning to Victoria. The tour started out on time but the first problem encountered was at Brentford where we were held for over 20mins caused by a door problem on a unit in front. At Staines we had to pull up, presumably to let passengers get on, then there was a signal stop at Egham for a few minutes. This meant that we got to Woking nearly half an hour late. A few minutes were gained but we spent 40mins at the water stop near Mount Pleasant Crossing (at signal E707). Watering was done from a hydrant so it may have been 'slow'. By this means we roughly achieved 'Railtour Standard Time'. There were no more problems and Swanage was reached 56 min late. All this has caused the Swanage Railway some problems as well so we left over half an hour late. We had picked up about 10mins by Basingstoke but this was lost by signal checks afterwards We left Basingstoke on the slow line, crossed to the fast line at Winchfield to pass a stopping train, then back to the slow line at Farnborough. By dint of a slow schedule from Woking and finding that a Weybridge - Waterloo train was held at Addlestone Jn to let us go ahead, we were only 4mins late at Waterloo.

Sources : various including Scott Spencer, Mike Hunt & John Clifford

Timings (Booked & Actual)
(from Scott Spencer, Mike Hunt, Nick Bartlett & John Clifford)

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