9 days, 10 steam locomotives from New York

robertjohndavis · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:10 am **Posts:** 2499

10 steam locomotives, 9 days
New York - Portland - Montreal - Buffalo - New York

What if I told you an incredible 9 day steam trip on mainline railroads is being planned? Somewhat of a circle trip, it will originate at Grand Central Terminal and terminate at Penn Station, New York. Much of the trackage will be mainlines, with some stretches of rare mileage.

10 mainline passenger steam locomotives will power the trip (with electric service in and out of New York).

Sound crazy? Yep, it sure does if the starting point is New York, but change that to London and you have a pretty apt description of the Great Britain V excursion which left London's King's Cross station yesterday morning and will arrive back at Paddington Station in 9 days.

http://www.railwaytouring.net/train-tours/great-britain-v

I got to see one of the locomotives from yesterday's leg, the Oliver Cromwell, being readied on Friday. Cromwell took over from Bittern, which covered the first 200-so miles of the trip from London to York on Saturday.

It is nice to know that somewhere mainline steam is not just welcome, but commonplace. I doubt there are 10 operational mainline passenger engines cleared for high speed service in the US, no less a gaggle from which 10 could be chosen. It is quite a scene in the UK.

Mark Z. Yerkes · **Joined:** Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:47 pm **Posts:** 486

Cardiac arrest aside, I'm surprised 60163 Tornado isn't a part of this.

Bob Davis · **Joined:** Sat Aug 28, 2004 3:25 am **Posts:** 1025

It left King's Cross and didn't have to use Platform 9-3/4 (Harry Potter reference). The excursion just sounds like magic. And I would presume it goes through "Old" York.