The first tour of the month was Belmond's British Pullman to Highclere Castle from London Victoria dropping off passengers at Newbury Racecourse and picking up at Andover. It is seen here passing Egham on the outbound and then again at Egham on the return.
The first tour of the year for D6515 and the London Transport 4TC coach set on the first of the Branch Line Society's Star Wars themed tours.
After the Return of the Shedi and May the Fourth be with you tours, the Branch Line Society was back out with the London Transport 4TC coaches for a tour to Swanage for their diesel gala. The Jurassic Crompton started at Eastleigh working along the solent and up the Portsmouth Direct to Woking and on to London Waterloo. Reversing at London Waterloo, the tour headed down the South Western Main Line through Woking, Basingstoke and Southampton to Wareham where the Swanage Railway have their mainline connection.
At Woking on the return from Waterloo, 33012 "Jenny Lewis RN" was coupled to the front to lead the tour to Swanage.
The turn around time at Waterloo was not particularly long so I went to Queenstown Road (Battersea) to see it pass on the fast lines that are alongside the station.
The third and final Royal Windsor Statesman originated at Carnforth. It was hauled by 47805 on the way to Windsor and by 47712 on the return.
The coaching stock was Locomotive Services Limited's Statesman Pullman set with a single BR Blue and Grey Buffet Mark 1 coach.
The journey to Windsor was uneventful with the service keeping within a 10 minute window either side of the scheduled time, even requiring it to be held at Hounslow/Feltham Junction to allow a Reading service to arrive at Feltham first.
The return journey departed on time from Windsor and reached the Hounslow loop just as the line was reopened after an incident closed it earlier in the afternoon.
The first of a two day tour celebrating 60 years since Clun Castle achieved the fastest run from Plymouth to Bristol during the Great Western High Speed Railtour in 1964.
The first day of the tour was primarily for getting passengers and rolling stock from Birmingham Snow Hill, near Vintage Trains base at Tyseley, to Plymouth.
The first leg of the tour was to get Clun Castle from Birmingham to the Great Western Mainline and along to Bristol where it would be serviced before continuing on to Plymouth.
Clun Castle and 47773 are seen here completing the last pick up of the tour at Oxford.
It was then possible due to a half hour wait in the loop south of Oxford to overtake the tour by travelling back to Didcot Parkway. The tour avoided Didcot and headed straight for Swindon waiting at Challow for half an hour which allowed the tour to be overtaken again. This made it possible to see Clun Castle pass though Swindon, the place it was built in 1950.
After passing Swindon, the tour headed to Bristol Parkway before turning towards Bristol Temple Meads. From Swindon, it was possible to get to Bristol Temple Meads just before Clun Castle's arrival on a direct service though Chippenham and Bath Spa.
The tour stood for a while at Bristol Temple Meads.
After a short break for photos, 47773 lead the train out to Bristol East Depot where the train would be serviced and prepared for the run to Plymouth.
One of the key selling points for this tour was the amount of running where Clun Castle would be without 47773 on the rear of the train. For the run from Bristol Temple Meads to Plymouth, 47773 ran ahead to Plymouth with Clun Castle not far behind.
After servicing, Clun Castle moved back to Bristol Temple Meads to pick up its passengers to take them to Plymouth.
After another short break while passengers boarded, Clun Castle lead the tour out of Bristol Temple Meads for the unassisted run to Plymouth.
The second day of the two day tour celebrating 60 years since Clun Castle achieved the fastest run from Plymouth to Bristol during the Great Western High Speed Railtour in 1964.
This day was the return to Birmingham via Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington over the route that Clun Castle followed in 1964.
When Clun Castle arrived into Paddington it was quite quiet with not that many people taking photos of its arrival.
However it soon became far more busy as passengers moved from the concourse to the platform to get photos and then boarding their train from the adjacent platform.
47773 arrived later than 7029, as it had shadowed the tour to allow the run from Plymouth to London to be unassisted (apart from the moves in and out of Bristol).
After 47773 arrived, the train sat for three quarters of an hour in platform 8 at Paddington while the train crew had a break and passengers took photos.
At 18:53, the tour departed London Paddington for the Greenford branch so the train could be turned as Clun Castle has a lower top speed when running tender first.
Due to the timing of the Greenford shuttle from West Ealing, the tour spent about 30 minutes on the Greenford Branch allowing it to be overtaken and seen with Clun Castle leading at Hanwell.
The tour then entered Hanwell Bridge loop so that 47773 could run around and pilot Clun Castle for the rest of the journey back to Birmingham This stop allowed for teh tour to be overtaken again and seen from Southall.
The Hanson Hanse was the first of a few tours around the south of England with 50008 "Thunderer" and the London Transport 4-TC set.
The first section of the tour was from Eastleigh to Reading and along the Great Western Mainline to Acton. From Acton the tour used the North London Line to travel around London to the East Coast Mainline, the tour reversed at Hornsey for 20007 to lead into Kings Cross.
The first location I saw 1Z55 was West Hampstead. The lighting wasn't ideal with the shadows from the surrounding buildings and the sunlight within the station but the view down the line is very good.
West Hampstead was also a good choice of location because it has connections to the Jubilee line to Finchley Road where there is interchange to the Metropolitan Line to Kings Cross. This allowed for a quick journey to Kings Cross to see 1Z55 arrive.
The tour sat for about 20 minutes at Kings Cross.
For a few minutes after arrival it was possible to get a photo with one of the oldest mainline registered locomotives alongside one of the newest electric intercity units. 20007 was new in 1957 and 805005 was introduced with Lumo in 2021.
After waiting its allocated time, the tour then set of for the destination of Kings Lynn via Cambridge and Ely.
The return to Eastleigh was more direct, with the tour using Ely North Junction and March to turn so 50008 was leading the return. The route use Stratford to get back onto the North London Line with Acton as the link to the Great Western Mainline and the route to Eastleigh via Reading.
This more direct route made the return leg of teh tour harder to see while also seeing the return of the Footex to Manchester. However, part of the route between Cricklewood and Acton uses the Dudding Hill Line that pass over the West Coast Mainline at Harlesden. Therefore by standing on the bridge outside Harlesden station over the WCML, the tour could be seen passing over the Dudding Hill Line bridge.
For the second time this year West Coast Railways operated a Footex service to Wembley, this time from Manchester and without Locomotive Services Limited also providing a similar service.
Just like in February, 86259 "Les Ross"/"Peter Pan" was on the London end with 86401 "Mons Meg" on the country end.
Platform 16 was used at London Euston to stable the train rather than Wembley or Willesden yards. This allowed for a close up look of both locomotives at their former London Terminal station when they were operated by Intercity and then Virgin Trains West Coast.
At 19:00 the 86's departed from London Euston to pick up passengers at Wembley Central before continuing on to Manchester Piccadilly. The timings of the Overground made it possible to see the train pass South Hampstead and then board the next Overground to further up the WCML to see it again.
The Overground gave just enough time to get to Bushey, where I had seen the tour in the morning.
An unfortunately time pass of the Southern service from Watford Junction to East Croydon meant that this was the best I could do for 86401. 86259's photo came out well so it was not a complete loss.
The final tour sighting of May was a well timed trip to Staines to see the return of Steam Dreams Windsor to Norwich tour.
