Vintage Trains is an operator of heritage railtours in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of Birmingham Railway Museum Trust, and is based at
Tyseley Locomotive Works
Tyseley Locomotive Works, formerly the Birmingham Railway Museum, is the engineering arm of steam railtour promoter Vintage Trains based in Birmingham, England. It occupies part of the former Great Western Railway's Tyseley depot, built in 19 ...
, the trust's other subsidiary.
Mainline locomotives
Vintage Trains operates many steam and diesel locomotives on its
mainline railtours.
Steam locomotives
Locomotives listed here are not all owned by Tyseley Locomotive Works as some are owned by private societies, but are made available to operate on the mainline by their respective owners (assuming they have the appropriate mainline certification).
All engines used on VT's tours are operated under vacuum braking, engines which do have dual/air braking fitted can be used on VT tours but only operated under vacuum braking (71000 being an example as it's fitted with air brakes).
Diesel locomotives
Loco numbers in bold mean their current number.
Also, in previous years, Vintage Trains has operated charters using electric and diesel traction that has not already been mentioned above, now back at other locations, including
Class 86 86259 ''Les Ross'',
Class 47 47580 ''County of Essex'',
Class 50 50049 ''Defiance'',
Class 50 50007 ''Hercules'' and
Class 20 20007. The company has also used various other diesels, such as
West Coast Railways
West Coast Railways (WCR) is a railway spot-hire company and charter train operator based at Carnforth MPD in Lancashire. Using buildings and other facilities previously owned by the Steamtown Carnforth visitor attraction, in June 1998 the com ...
' own
Class 33 and
Class 47 diesels.
Mainline rolling stock
Rolling stock listed here is not all owned by Tyseley Locomotive Works as some is owned by private societies, but is made available to operate on the mainline by their respective owners (assuming they have the appropriate mainline certification).
Vintage Trains Community Benefit Society
Until late 2017, Vintage Trains operated its railtours with
West Coast Railways
West Coast Railways (WCR) is a railway spot-hire company and charter train operator based at Carnforth MPD in Lancashire. Using buildings and other facilities previously owned by the Steamtown Carnforth visitor attraction, in June 1998 the com ...
providing the crews, WCRC being the only charter operator available who would operate vacuum braked trains as none of the engines based at Tyseley are fitted with air brakes. But from 2018, it was announced that due to a falling number of crews being available, WCR said they were unable to provide footplate crews to operate VT's trains and as a result of this, the early 2018 railtour programme which had been planned including the planned debut run of
7029 Clun Castle had to be cancelled.
In late 2016, Vintage Trains lodged an application with the
Office of Rail & Road to operate trains in its own right. To come up with the £800,000 required for the licence, a share float was launched with
Adrian Shooter
Adrian Shooter (22 November 1948 – 13 December 2022) was a British transport executive.
Career
Shooter joined British Rail in 1970 as a management trainee. He became maintenance engineer at Bletchley in the mid-1970s, then depot manager at ...
named as chairman. Vintage Trains Community Benefit Society was set up in late 2017 as a publicly owned company and in order to fund the company began recruiting members of the public to become shareholders in the company by purchasing shares (minimum available for purchase being £500 per share). The licence was granted with its first train being a test of a
Class 230 between
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
and
Bletchley
Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated in the south-west of Milton Keynes, and is split between the civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley.
Bletchley is best know ...
on 27 September 2018 for
Vivarail
Vivarail is a British rolling stock manufacturer, founded in 2012 and based in Southam. Vivarail's main project is the conversion of retired London Underground D78 Stock into two new classes for National Rail services. It was led by former Chil ...
.
[Vintage Trains Ltd runs its first official train '']Rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
'' issue 863 10 October 2018 page 10
References
External links
Vintage Trains official site
{{British Railtour TOCs