hello,
my wife and i will be spending two nights in grantown on spey in the end of May, then getting to Aviemore to take the train to Edinbourgh. My questions:
1. can we take the strathsprey steam train one way from broomhill to aviemore?
2. if so, can we take our luggage on the train? we will have one large and one small suitcases.
3. I don' t see the train schedule for may on their site. As a matter of fact, i only see february. does anyone know how often the train runs out of Broomhill? (I know most people take it round trip from Aviemore).
Thank you
dan
Posted by
Lake District, England
5748 posts
Q1 yes; Q2 yes- in fact more space on those old cars than on most modern train cars.
Q3- you need to wait. They open for February half term, then close again to Easter. The same as most heritage lines
Summer timetables will follow sometime in March. They run between 4 and 6 times a day
The first service will be late morning, roughly 11am.I
Sometimes the first train may be a heritage diesel railcar. Not all trains are steam.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
thank you for your incredibly quick reply; your information is very helpful. In reading your response to # 3, it did raise a follow up question for me about the scheduling. You indicated not all trains are steam; is that indicated on the schedule so we could choose the correct train if we want to ride the steam one? thanks again
Dan
Posted by
London
566 posts
I've ridden the Strathspey Steam Railway several times and it's great. It's fun to combine it with a visit to the RSPB osprey hide at Boat of Garten.
On the subject of heritage diesel traction that Stuart will appreciate, I used to love when I stayed on the caravan site at Aviemore and you'd hear the class 37 hammering up the valley from the south for miles around.
Posted by
London
566 posts
I'm sure Stuart knows a lot more about it than me, but there's small print on the timetable to say that they reserve the right to run diesel traction at any time. My reading of what Stuart said implies that they may run a diesel locomotive for the first workings in the morning while they get a head of steam up on the steam engine. I'd expect they try to run steam the rest of the day.
Posted by
Lake District, England
5748 posts
Yes, it'll be on the timetable as to whether steam or diesel is planned to be used. But that can be changed due to fire risk in a dry period or other reasons. No heritage railway ever promises steam, even the Jacobite from Fort William to Mallaig.. That can be and is diesel hauled at times.
Even steam engines break down sometimes as well.
Yes, as Gerry implies, volunteers don't always get up at silly o'clock to raise the steam, like they did in the old days.
Posted by
Lincolnshire, UK
1834 posts
During very dry spells, preserved railways often attach a diesel to the rear of the train so the steam loco doesn't have to work as hard, so reducing the risk of sparks from the funnel igniting the trackside and causing a fire. (The Strathspey Railway was doing that when I visited last summer.) You get the best of both worlds then as some people do actually like diesels!