15th December 2007

Steam Dreams
The Cathedrals Express

Route:
1Z85 : London Victoria to Chichester
1Z86 : Chichester to London Victoria

Notes :
(1) Banked by 37248 from Victoria to Grosvenor Bridge.

Sources : John Clifford

Tour Review
(from John Clifford)

The outward part of this tour produced an unusual route to get us to Chichester. However, since we followed stopping trains for much of the first part our progress was slow. There was a superb climb out of Dorking but after Horsham we were checked by the preceding Mid Sussex line stopper. By not observing the pathing stop at Barnham we reached Chichester on time.

The booked move for the ECS was for the train to go to Fratton & the engine to turn by going Fratton - Havant - Fareham - Fratton. It would then bring the train to Chichester & shunt into the yard to allow 2 following trains to pass. The fact that I am mentioning it means that it didn't work quite as intended. An earlier train had terminated at Chichester & had gone into the yard. This meant that our tour train couldn't get into the yard until the other train was moved. Eventually it was & put onto the down line so our tour could back into the yard. This allowed the following 2 trains to pass but we left late. Meanwhile the down line was, of course, blocked so delaying trains towards Havant.

The Mid Sussex line has a number of restriction for loco hauled trains so our progress was slow at times. This, coupled with the engine slipping, meant we reached the water stop at Horsham over half an hour late. Since we were again booked to follow stopping trains in the London area we managed to recover most of the lost time & arrive only a few minutes late.

John Clifford

Timings (Booked and Actual)
(from John Clifford)

Back to "The Railtour Files"