The BeerTrain

Having moved north from London to Cheshire over a year before, I was somewhat out of position to get involved in the ongoing restoration of our loco 33111 at St.Leonards, Hastings. In the early days of owning the loco I would often spend my Saturdays, or even whole weekends, helping to restore the loco at St.Leonards Depot. After moving to Cheshire I then came up with the idea of forming a Railtour Company, through the 33/1 Preservation Group of which I was a founding member, to raise funds for the loco's restoration and have some good days out to boot! Thus 33111 Charters was born. Over a few brainstorming sessions in The Albion, Crewe, under the glare of Big Al, the Landlord, we came up with a plan. We needed to run a tour that at least made money, no good trying to raise funds for the Group then actually costing it money! To that end I decided that we would have to do something different if we wanted to get that result, something to entice the residents of the North West to book...

By the time you read this we should hopefully be in the grip of reasonably temperate English weather, so in order to get in the spirit of it all, what I suggest is that you crack open a can of soup, put on a scarf, and sit in front of an open freezer door. CD's of dashing troika bells are, of course, an optional extra... Wednesday 6th February 1991 When it snows anywhere in the world, life tends to carry on as normal. Even in the UK, the Scots regard it as the frozen equivalent of water off a duck's back, and the "Eee it's grim oop North" merchants carry on regardless. But when it snows south of Watford it's a.... NATIONAL CRISIS! Thus when the snow started falling on Wednesday, 6th February 1991, our splendid Third Rail network fell apart as can only be expected when the elements have the dashed awful cheek to mess about. It's just not on! I was on a work course all week in the Hilton hotel in Basingstoke, and hearing news of the gradual collapse of rail ...