What if I were to tell you that a private tour operator had "rented" a mainline steam locomotive, contracted with the owner of 11 matching passenger cars, brought on a caterer experienced in serving on-train meals from the snack bar to full silver service gourmet dinners and sold a train where all but two cars were extra fare classes? And not only that, but their trip would run on a Thursday leaving Hoboken Terminal (NJ) at 8:45am (late rush hour) picking up passengers at commuter stops along the way via Bound Brook and West Trenton, and run via Philadelphia to New Hope, PA with the last stretch of the trip on the shortline New Hope & Ivyland. After passengers had 3 hours to explore the shops and restaurants of New Hope, the train would be pulled by a diesel back to Philly (no turning facilities at New Hope for the whole train) where the steam locomotive would again take over unassisted and follow an alternate route back to Hoboken. Any passengers who boarded at suburban stops on the way out that would be missed on the way back would have free shuttle service provided to their original boarding point. All steam-hauled segments would have no diesel and feature hours of 60 mph operation. Water stops would be made on the mainline at designated stations with fire crews on hand to pump and deliver the H20. Coaches would have opening windows, including in the vestibule doors where responsible buffs would be welcome to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of mainline steam. And you could order a beer, wine, port or other treats on the train.

Sounds like a dream?

If you replace Hoboken, Philly and New Hope in the above paragraph with London, Southampton and Swanage you'd have a pretty good description of what my family enjoyed last week in London on a trip to the Swanage Railway along the southern coast in the Purbeck region. The train was pulled by a Black 5, had a rake of 11 Mk1 coaches and ran on a tight schedule mixed in with regular trains. The caterer, Gravy Train, was fantastic from the first sip of Bucks Fizz to their private label ale and all the vittles in between.

It blew me away to see British mainline preservation in action. I will share images on Facebook and video on YouTube, but I have to say for now the experience of leaving London's Victoria Station and rolling through busy Clapham Jct was awesome enough, but the continuos high speed running was something I haven't experienced since C&O #614's romps out of Hoboken.

It was incredible to see a vintage steam loco and full matching rake cutting through the twilight.

It is a rare sight in the US, yet is something that happens multiple times a week across the UK.

Rob

If it ran up/down the IC suburban in chicago I see the possibility, or on the South Shore, or some of the regular cpmmuter lines out east, but its a differrent animal here.

Trying to remember if 4449 when it went to Owosso if they picked regular passengers, it was technically designated an Amtrak train due to logisticis. But it wasn't a -regular- train.

This and the German Plandampfs in another recent thread would be akin to a regular Amtrak passenger waiting at, say the station in Culpepper, VA some weekday morning for the Lynchburg-DC Amcans and finding the scheduled train arriving with NW 611 and a matching string of Tuscan coaches for the trip to WUS (could happen since they undercut the First St. tunnel for Superliners and the VRE bi-levels). Or, for those further West, waiting for the Saluki in Champaign, IL and being pleasantly surprised to find MILW 261 and her matching orange MILW consist (complete with beaver tail obs) there for the morning commute to CUS. Yes, on another plane of existence, in another galaxy, far, far away...

No, not on another plane, but in another country with a different management and management attitude.

And it's not just in this field, but in many other fields of business and government. Heck, I would dare say that at least some government bodies might have a more enlightened attitude than some businesses.

Tell me this is still the best country in the world.

How did we lose what I would describe as a creative edge? How did we become so afraid of things, even when you have the proof to back things up (like minimal risk of exposure to lawsuits due to accidents for excursions, vs. known and spectacular incidents involving hazardous materials)?

My wife and I had a similar mainline experience on a steam train from Cape Town to Simon's Town in South Africa. Our train operated on a busy suburban line, albeit on a Sunday afternoon, a track speeds with open window coaches. It was a throwback to the Southern excursion program in the 1970s.

Wesley

In our situation, I am convinced that in some cases, the current management is embarrassed by the past.

The past reveals how inferior the present is, including present management.

There is reason for hope.

The mainline steam programs in the UK are not part of a continuous operation since the days of steam. They had their dark years, too, where steam was banished solely to heritage lines. The current heyday isn't even a decade old.

Government and private companies work hand in hand on the UK rail network and it creates opportunities.

True and the rail networ is only one area where the government and private sector cooperate.

One of the underlying factors that supports what goes on in the UK is the level of participation that the citizenry has in preservation. The folks who are involved in historic preservation have worked to weave their interests into the local and regional culture. The UK has a great tradition of volunteer organizing in many other fields, the most important arguably being the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The RNLI operates almost all of the lifeboat stations in the British Isles and has more than 4,000 volunteer lifeboatmen alone. Many of the lifeboat volunteers are at least second or third generation lifeboatmen (the service has been in continual operation since 1700). Her Majesty's Coast Guard actually performs very few rescues at sea and the RNLI has (I believe) fewer than 200 paid staff (including seasonal lifeguards employed by local councils and paid lifeboatmen). And this is just one of many volunteer organizations (albeit probably the largest).