THE eagerly awaited return of Jubilee No. 45596 Bahamas to main line action remains on course – despite some unexpected delays to its commissioning process.
In addition to confirming plans for its flagship for the first quarter of 2019, owning group the Bahamas Locomotive Society, has also revealed that further requests for the year ahead are currently being considered.
The double chimneyed Jubilee is all set to operate two railtours in the coming weeks – the first being on February 9 from Oxenhope to Carlisle and return, with a second train booked to traverse the same route on February 16.
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John Hillier, BLS spokesman, said: “The first tour sold out literally within a few hours – only a handful of dining seats remained. As a result, the tour operator, the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, decided to run a second tour. West Coast Railways offered to run the additional train on February 16.
“The Settle and Carlisle route does of course present something of a challenge for our Jubilee’s first run, but there will be a diesel at the rear and we have limited passenger coaches to nine, despite having considered taking an extra coach. Let’s hope that the weather isn’t too bad!
“This will be the first time that a green Jubilee has travelled over the Settle and Carlisle since August 1994 – and that last trip was with No. 45596. It’s an occasion that has been eagerly looked forward to for years. With our KWVR base at the southern end of the route, our thoughts obviously turned to the S&C for Bahamas’ first main line trip for 25 years.”
John added: “The headboard on the February 9 trip will carry the logos of the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Railway Magazine, Heritage Railway’s sister title in recognition of the support received from its publisher Mortons and the HLF, which we are extremely grateful for.”
As this issue went to press, approximately 100 seats remained available in standard class and a dozen in first class for the ‘Bahamas Railtour 2’ trip.
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