Belmond's Golden Age of Travel by Steam tours have returned with Clan Line heading out of London to Dover Priory via Bromley South, Faversham and Canterbury East. After a short break in Dover the tour returns via Ashford and Tonbridge.
The place I visited to see the tour on the outbound journey was Denmark Hill.
As the return journey arrives during daylight and Clan Line is back leading, I headed to the Ebury Bridge on approach to Victoria to get Clan Line in front of Battersea Power station.
Following Clan Line into London Victoria was DB Cargo 67024 in Belmond livery. The tour runs without a support locomotive so one has to come from Stewarts Lane to Victoria to collect the train and take it back.
The tour sat for a hour in Victoria which allowed time to walk back and get some photos of 35028 waiting to be taken back to Stewarts Lane.
At just after 5pm, the train returned to Stewarts Lane depot so the coaches could be prepared for the diesel hauled tour to Maidstone on the evening of the 14th June.
As the summer approaches Locomotive Services Limited's companies begin operating tours to the seaside destinations in Dorset.
The coaching stock was the same as the Royal Windsor Statesman in May, with the blue and grey mark 1 buffet, but also included was one of the ScotRail branded Mark 3 coaches from the Push Pull set.
The addition of the Mark 3 caused some problems later on in the tour as it was identified that is is not cleared to run on third rail lines due to long swing link bogies that might contact the third rail. This resulted in the service being held at Poole and the Mark 3 coach being shunted into the sidings beyond Poole. The tour continued to Weymouth with a large delay.
The return of the tour was slightly delayed and did not collect the Mark 3 coach at Poole.
17th - 21st June 2024 was Royal Ascot and West Coast Railways operated their Northern Belle set on one of the rare trips it makes to the south.
Steam Dreams Sunset Steam Express evening tour from London Victoria to Chertsey and back via the Surrey Hills loop.
The first Swanage Belle of the year was eventful with 44871 leading the tour. 44871 was doing most of the work when passing Egham, but by the water stop in Winchfield, the crew were instructed to use the class 47 as the main power source due to the risk of line side fires.
The disruption from the fires was sufficient enough that 44871 was left at Swanage and 47826 hauled the tour back as far as Clapham Junction direct up the South Western Main Line. Using the direct route through Winchester rather than reversing at Southampton and going round the loop through Romsey and Andover to Basingstoke. This reversal was to allow 44871 to lead but this was not needed with 47826 leading the full return journey. THe tour was also diverted through Surbition to Clapham Junction from Woking to make up the time lost due to missing paths due to the delays.
For the second trip for the Northern Belle to the south was to Kew Gardens from Manchester Piccadilly. The tour was to Hounslow with coaches taking passengers on to Kew Gardens.
As the tour used many more coaches than Hounslow is capable of, the rear coaches and 57313 were the other side of the bridge beyond the station. Therefore the only photos of 57313 are from the departure of the ECS to Southall.
The arrival of the tour back at Hounslow was not quite as good for photos as the inbound was, delays on the Hounslow Loop meant that there were services arriving at the same time as the tours arrival and departure. Therefore the only reasonable photos are from when the tour was stationary and there are no photos of 57313 from the opposite platform.
