The BeerTrain

Following on from the success ( and Total Riot!) of our 1st tour "The Multiple Marauder" of 10/08/96, a 2nd tour, once again planned by myself using my home in Nantwich for all bookings etc. Once again we needed some points of interest to attract the crowds so the initial plan was to start from London Kings Cross and go ECML to Grantham then via Nottingham to traverse the Robin Hood line up to Worksop, a first over the route for the class. We would go round the curve Shirebrook East Jn to Shireoaks West Jn then via Sheffield (run round) then up to York for more new class 33 track through to Scarborough. After a 90 minute break a class 56 would haul us to York (Run Round) then via Harrogate, Leeds & Hambleton Jn's to Doncaster where we would swop back to our pair of class 33's and run via Gainsborough Lea Road to Newark then back on the ECML. I again did the timings for this, the tricky bit was the Harrogate Loop where due to the length of the platforms we would ha...

What can I say about 1990? It was Crap for Crompton's for a start. NO booked workings, I would like to say we were feeding on scraps but for many months there just weren't any! On 17th February I leapt from Carlisle to Eastleigh for some Eastleigh-Romsey-Southampton-Fareham shuttles, running due to Engineering work, only for 33110 to fail 1/4 of a mile outside Eastleigh station on the first train! The next few months didn't get any better, it was a pretty bleak Spring. With nothing happening on the 33 front I planned a week on a Priv All Line Rover, just to enjoy a bit of proper Bashing.            (# = Required Loco) Saturday 02/06/90 I was just ending my 6 months probationary period on BR, in the TEB at Paddington, I already had a permanent post waiting for me at Waterloo, as a CO3 Ballast Timings Clerk. My Rover started Sunday, I was intending to head North out of Euston tonight using the "valid from 2200 the previous day" rule which allowed you to start...

It was with great sadness and shock that I heard, on Sunday 9th May 2021, of the untimely death of John "Zuzzy Hell" Sandham. He was running for a train at Cardiff Central station, Unit bashing, when he sadly had a heart attack & Died - doing what he loved most, Trains. John with only ONE bag shocker! Stockport 10/04/82. Photo used with courtesy of fgrsimon Though known to most of the UK's Bashing fraternity from at least the early 80's, if not before, I only got to know John from early 1987 when we were both solidly bashing Crompton's on the Southern. As one of those few who were regularly out daily, like myself, we would often share a Compo on the overnight moves. Woking Tea party If we were on the 2238 Weymouth to Waterloo we would nip to John's house for a quick cup of tea before going back to the station for the 0245 ex Waterloo to Portsmouth & Southsea. Similarly if we did the 2345 out to Woking we would have a few cuppa's and relax at his ho...

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...