I have got a ticket for this railtour on Monday 4th May from a fellow enthusiast who has fallen ill with food poisoning. He gave me the ticket for free but as today is Saturday, there was no way of getting the ticket to me by tomorrow! So, I rang up James Palmer, (owner of Retro Railtours) who said that it would be fine for me to join the tour at Huddersfield instead of Crewe! He is a really nice guy and he has done a lot of work to say he is only 18.
The tour itself rins from Huddersfield calling at selected stations until Shrewsbury where it then goes to Bristol and Bath Spa non-stop. It will be hauled by two Class 56s and a Class 57 from Bristol to Bath.
I will post pictures etc afterwards, providing I get on the tour and all goes to plan.
Teleman
Great stuff Will , all i have to go to is a car boot sale , but on the brighter side we are selling things . More space for railways
Will
What a tour it was! I got into town at 0630, just missing the ECS move from Crewe (57 hauled) through Huddersfield to a junction further up the line. The tour was meant to arrive at 0640ish but a Transpennine unit had been given the path so that we wouldn’t hold it up. Already running about 5 minutes down, 56312 and 56311 rolled onto platform 1 with their distinctive rumble. Coaching stock was comfy MK3s from Cargo D in various liveries.
Unfortunate for us, we were in coach B which sounds good at first, until you find out that this is at the back. However, this meant that we were at the front on the way back . We left Huddersfield, not hearing any thrash as we were so far back, and into the first of many tunnels to follow! Within 10 minutes, we were ahead of our timetable and entering Standedge rail tunnel (one of 4 bores between Marsden and Diggle). The next stops were Stalybridge, Stockport, Wilmslow and Crewe where we picked up more friends on the way. As the timetable was so slack, we had waits of up to 15 minutes at certain junctions while we waited for it to catch up.
Now we had hit Crewe, the tour really got under way. The speed was higher and the weather was slightly better. We had a short burst of countryside between Huddersfield and Marsden but we went under most of it! And now we had past Manchester and Crewe, it started to get more scenic. Our final pick-up point was Shrewsbury – a very nice station and a nice curve to film the grids on. Right, non-stop to Bristol! The route from here was winding in and out of Wales to Pont-y-pwl and various other unusually spelt places.
A few hours later, we were on the approach to Bristol Temple Meads. Here, we got off and paid for a normal ticket to Bath for some milage on stock we don’t get up North.
We boarded the tour at Bath and went back to Bristol. The departure from Bristol was absolutely amazing There was copious amounts of clag and plenty of tones to satisfy us. The thrash was immense!
We stayed ahead of the timetable all the way back to sunny Huddersfield, dropping people off along the way. Overall, a fantastic tour and well done to Retro Railtours (mainly James) for organising such a good trip. After calling at Hudds, the train headed back to Crewe, (to arrive at 1am) where it would leave at 4am to work a Virgin loco hauled service between Brum and Euston. If you’ve actually managed to get this far, thanks, and sorry for waffling.
Retro’s next tour is planned to be in August, from Huddersfield to ‘a Cumbrian destination’ which is still undecided. It will, no doubt, end up being yet ANOTHER tour to Carlisle. I am hoping to join this tour.
He is a really nice guy and he has done a lot of work to say he is only 18.
. More space for railways 
There was copious amounts of clag and plenty of tones to satisfy us. The thrash was immense!
