27th March 1993

SEG Railtours
The Spirit of the....

A tour consisting of a series of three trains (A, B & C), named and formed as follows :

Route (Train A) :

Route (Train B) :

Route (Train C) :

Brief Review :

This tour was originally scheduled to be run on Saturday 2^nd January 1993, with the three trains advertised as follows:-

Train A (4-EPB) : Blackfriars - Bromley North - Grove Park (No 28 Up Siding) - Blackfriars,
Train B (319/0) : Blackfriars - Gravesend - Lee Spur - Bromley North - Smithfield Sidings - Blackfriars, and
Train C (465) : Blackfriars - Rochester - Sevenoaks - Blackfriars.

When the tickets were despatched on December 20^th (with approximate timings), the sequence of the trains had changed to B, A and C. Three days later, the tour had to be postponed by NSE due to last minute problems with gauging work at Greenwich, which would have prevented train B from running.

A month later and the tour was rescheduled for March 27^th with the three trains now scheduled a follows:-

Train A (319/0) - Victoria - Orpington - Grove Park (No 28 Up Siding) - Smithfield Sidings - Blackfriars;
Train B (4-EPB) - Blackfriars - Gillingham - Sole Street - Catford - North Pole - Clapham Junc (Plat 17) - Kensington Olympia - Clapham Junc (Plat 3) - London Bridge;
Train C (465) - London Bridge - Rochester - Sevenoaks - Victoria.

On March 18^th, final details for the tour were despatched with yet more changes. Train A would go from Orpington to Ashford due to rearranged engineering work. Train B would be the 465 unit and would cover Grove Park No. 28 siding. Train C would be the 4-EPB but would go no further than Kensington Olympia on that line as the route as far as North Pole had not yet been immunised and the power circuits tested!

And finally we reach the tour itself. Regrettably there were no detailed timing sheets available, tour participants having to make do with hand written sheets pinned up in the units forming the various trips. From this I obtained the attached details (see below). Overall, an excellent day out with immaculate timekeeping (not bad considering the problems that were experienced planning the tour).

Source : Nigel Benning

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