Statesman Rail's tour to the seaside destinations of the Dorset Coast along the South Western Mainline was the first tour sighting of August. It is seen here passing Eastleigh on the way to Weymouth from Peterborough.
The most ambitious tour of the year so far was Locomotive Services Limited's North West Wanderer tour thorugh their Inter City brand. This was a tour to show off the variety of the LSL diesel fleet with three loops around the north west of England with locomotive exchanges at Preston.
The first leg of the tour was operated by one of the newest editions to the LSL diesel fleet, 50050 "Fearless". The locomotive only did its first mainline test for LSL the day before on the 9th.
The locomotive for the second leg of the tour was 45118 "The Royal Artilleryman" was already positioned on the rear of the train.
The tour was only a few minutes late into Carlisle despite 50050 having engine issues on approach to Carlisle.
After a 45 minute break in Carlisle, the tour returned south back to Preston over the Settle and Carlisle with 45118 "The Royal Artilleryman" leading and 50050 "Fearless" on the rear.
Due to the tour's short time in Carlisle and the timings of the services on the Bentham Line between Lancaster and Hellifield and the Settle and Carlisle, it was difficult to see the tour on the Settle and Carlisle. Therefore I returned to Lancaster and photographed the Northern Belle and rode the Heysham Port service while the North West Wanderer was returning to Preston.
After the couple of hours trip through to Hellifield, onto the Ribble Valley line and round to Preston on the East Lancashire line, the next place I saw the tour was on the arrival back at Preston for the first locomotive exchange.
The original plan was for 50050 to return to Crewe at this point in the tour and for 40013 "Andania" to take over but the engine issues resulted in 40013 double heading the train with 50050 behind.
As the train was being prepared to depart Preston for the third leg around the East Lancashire and Ribble Valley Lines back to Hellifield, I boarded a Blackpool North to York service to get to Blackburn ahead of it. The sight of a 40 and 50 double heading a train was impressive through Blackburn with 45118 still on the rear of the train to add to the unusualness of this leg of the tour.
After a stop in Hellifield the tour continued around the Bentham Line back to Preston. I was able to get back to Lancaster to see it heading around the curves into the station. For seeing this leg of the tour it was possible to get to Carnforth to see it but it was not then possible to easily get in front to see the next leg.
On arrival back at Preston, 50050 was uncoupled from the train with 40013 and they both returned to LSL's depot in Crewe. This was necessary as the next leg, and final round trip, of the tour was going to be operated by two Class 37s. The train would have been too long with more than the standard number of coaches already in the consist.
After the 40 and the 50 had departed for Crewe, the Class 37s should have been attached but a signalling problem at Wigan had delayed their arrival with the Class 20s for the final leg.
After the signalling problem was resolved, 37521 and 37409 "Loch Awe" arrived into Preston, dropping off the Class 20 pair on the way in, and coupled up to the train.
This final round trip from Preston took the train back down the East Lancashire Line to Salford and Manchester though Blackburn before returning on the Manchester to Preston line via Bolton.
My original plan was to see the Class 37s pass though Lostock Hall as the Northern Belle was passing though the other way just before. The tour's delay leaving Preston was about 50 minutes which didn't give enough time to move down the line after the Northern Belle pass so I remained at Lostock Hall.
From there I had planned to get to one of the stations between Bolton and Preston, Leyland was my aim but the delay meant that there was far less light than there would have been. Therefore, I returned to Preston to see the Class 37s arrive and the Class 20s take over for the return to Crewe.
When I arrived back at Preston, the Class 20s had been moved to Platform 4c allowing for some close up photos while waiting for the Class 37s to complete their loop and there was good amounts of light.
The light levels continued to decrease rapidly, so it was quite dark when 37409 and 37521 arrived back at Preston.
After the train arrived the final round trip, the Class 37s were uncoupled from what was now the back of the train and 20118 and 20132 were coupled to the front. The resulted in a tripled headed train of two Class 20s and a Class 45.
Shortly after being coupled up, the train departed dropping passengers off along the way at Wigan and Warrington before the final stop at Crewe and heading back to LSL's depot.
While following the North West Wanderer, it was also possible to see the Northern Belle on a Steam Special around the Settle and Carlisle from Leeds
Due to the locomotive exchange at Carnforth Steamtown it was possible to see the outbound Northern Belle twice. The first sighting was at Lancaster where the train passed lead by 57315 with 57313 "Scarborough Castle" on the rear.
After passing Lancaster, the tour stopped at Carnforth Steamtown for 34067 "Tangmere" to take over for the remaining journey to Carlisle. It was possible to get ahead again and get to Oxenholme, Penrith or Carlisle before Tangmere so I went to Oxenholme Lake District so I could get back to Lancaster for lunch and the Heysham Port service.
The return of the Northern Belle was over the Settle and Carlisle and round the Ribble Valley and East Lancashire lines to Preston where 34067 would be exchanged for 57315 for the rest of the journey back to Leeds. While waiting for the North West Wanderer at Lancaster, 57315 passed on the way to Preston.
To see the North West Wanderer and the Northern Belle before the Northern Belle exchanged I headed to Lostock Hall where the tours were planned to pass within a few minutes of each other.
I had hoped that there would be time to move to the Manchester to Preston via Bolton line to see the tour after the locomotive exchange. The delay of the North West Wanderer tour held the Northern Belle outside Preston so the plan didn't work in the end.
Clan Line was back out for The Railway Touring Company after the End of Southern Steam tour with the Cotswold Venturer tour to Worcester Shrub Hill from London Paddington. The planned route for the tour was to use Longhedge Junction to access the Windsor side of Clapham Junction before going to Reading via Richmond, Staines and Wokingham. After Reading, the planned route continued to Swindon and then through Kemble and Cheltenham Spa to Worcester Shrub Hill.
The tour started slow with a broken rail between Earley and Reading stopping the tour in the Twickenham area while Network Rail investigated the problem. After a 24 minute delay, the tour was re-routed through Addlestone and Woking to Basingstoke, where the tour reversed to get to Reading via Bramley and Mortimer.
As a result of the diversion and reversal at Basingstoke the tour was 56 minutes late arriving at Reading with 47812 leading.
After departing Reading with 35028 leading again, the tour didn't make its planned stop at Challow to reduce the delay down to 29 minutes. After passing Swindon, the tour continued to reduce the delay down to 10 minutes at Cheltenham Spa. The tour was then held at Norton Junction for 15 minutes and building the delay back to 23 minutes at Worcester Shrub Hill, arriving at 14:13.
After dropping passengers off, the train continued into Worcester Depot, just beyond the station, for a break and preparation for the return journey.
At just before 4 o'clock, 47812 arrived back into the Shrub Hill while running around the train to be on the rear for the return journey.
About 20 minutes later Clan Line arrived into Shrub Hill, after reversing at Foregate Street, on its turning move with its support coach "Mercator".
At 17:05, Clan Line lead the train back to Worcester Shrub Hill to pick up passengers for the return to London Victoria.
Just after 17:10, Clan Line began the journey back to London with the return of the Cotswold Venturer following the same route to Reading, via Cheltenham Spa and Swindon.
The return trip was smoother than the outbound arriving at Reading 7 minutes late before returning to London over the originally planned route via Wokingham and Staines.
