Vintage Trains

Vintage Trains

4965 Rood Ashton Hall hauling a Shakespeare Express service through Lapworth in July 2016
Overview
Reporting mark	TY
Other
Website	www.vintagetrains.co.uk

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, the trust's other subsidiary.^{[citation needed]}

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).

Number	Name	Class	Livery	Owner	TOPS No	Max Speed	Location	Photograph	Present Status	Mainline Certified	Notes
4936	Kinlet Hall	GWR "Hall" 4-6-0	BR Green, Late Crest (on completion)	Jon Jones Pratt	98536	60 mph	Tyseley		Under Overhaul	No, to be certified
4965	Rood Ashton Hall	GWR "Hall" 4-6-0	GWR Green	Tyseley Locomotive Works	98565	60 mph	Tyseley		Stored	No, to be certified	Withdrawn from service in September 2019
5043	Earl of Mount Edgcumbe	GWR "Castle" 4-6-0	BR Green, Early Emblem (on completion)	Tyseley Locomotive Works	98743	75 mph	Tyseley		Under Overhaul	No, to be certified	Fitted with double chimney.
5080	Defiant	GWR "Castle" 4-6-0	GWR Green	Tyseley Locomotive Works	98780	75 mph	Tyseley		Stored	No	Funding for overhaul underway by "The Defiant Club".[1]
6880	Betton Grange	GWR "Grange" 4-6-0	BR Green, Late Crest (on completion)	The Betton Grange Society	98580	60 mph	Tyseley		Under Construction	No, to be certified	New build of next member of class being completed at Tyseley. Will use loaned tender on completion, will be mainline certified at later date.
7029	Clun Castle	GWR "Castle" 4-6-0	BR Green, Late Crest	Tyseley Locomotive Works	98729	75 mph	Tyseley		Operational	Yes	Fitted with double chimney.
7752	-	GWR "5700 Pannier Tank" 0-6-0	GWR Unlined Green, Great Western lettering	Tyseley Locomotive Works	98452	45 mph	Tyseley		Operational	No
7760	-	GWR "5700 Pannier Tank" 0-6-0	GWR Unlined Green, Great Western lettering	Tyseley Locomotive Works	98460	45 mph	Tyseley		Stored	No
9600	-	GWR "8750 Pannier Tank" 0-6-0	BR Black, Early Emblem	Tyseley Locomotive Works	98457	45 mph	Tyseley		Stored	No
45305	Alderman A.E. Draper	LMS "Black 5" 4-6-0	BR Black, Late Crest	5305 Locomotive Association	98505	60 mph	Loughborough		Operational	Yes
5593	Kolhapur	LMS "Jubilee" 4-6-0	LMS Crimson Lake	Tyseley Locomotive Works	98693	75 mph	Tyseley		Stored	No
45596	Bahamas	LMS "Jubilee" 4-6-0	BR Green, Late Crest	Bahamas Locomotive Society	98696	75 mph	Haworth		Operational	Yes	Only surviving jubilee with double chimney. Returned to mainline on 15 Jan 2019.[2]
6233	Duchess of Sutherland	LMS "Princess Coronation" 4-6-0	LMS Crimson Lake	Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust	98834	75 mph	Butterley		Operational	Yes
71000	Duke of Gloucester	BR Standard Class 8 4-6-2	BR Green, Early Emblem (on completion)	Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust	98802	75 mph	Tyseley		Under Overhaul	No, to be certified	To be based at Tyseley following overhaul.[3] Will temporarily wear the name Robert Riddles for one month on completion in 2020.

Diesel locomotives[]

TOPS Number	Class	Name	Livery	Owner	Status	Location	Photograph	Notes
47773	47	-	BR Two-Tone Green	Tyseley Locomotive Works	Operational	Tyseley		Repainted in May 2021.
50033	50	Glorious	BR Blue Large Logo	Tyseley Locomotive Works	Operational	Kidderminster		On three year loan to the Fifty Fund.[4]
20142	20	Sir John Betjeman	London Transport	Michael Owen Railtours	Operational	Tyseley		On hire to Vintage Trains from July 2019 onwards.[5][6]
20189	20	-	Blue	Michael Owen Railtours	Operational	Tyseley		On hire to Vintage Trains from September 2019 onwards.[7]

Also in previous years Vintage Trains has operated charters using electric and diesel traction that hasn't 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,^[8] Class 20 20007. The company has also used various other diesels, such as West Coast Railways' own Class 33 and Class 47 diesels.

Mainline Rolling Stock[]

Rolling stock listed here is 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).

Vintage Trains Community Benefit Society[]

Until late 2017, Vintage Trains operated its railtours with West Coast Railways 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.^[9]

In late 2016, Vintage Trains lodged an application with the Office of Rail & Road to operate trains in its own right.^[10] To come up with the £800,000 required for the licence, a share float was launched with Adrian Shooter named as chairman.^[11][12][13] 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).^[14] The licence was granted with its first train being a test of a Class 230 between Bedford and Bletchley on 27 September 2018 for Vivarail.^[15][16]

References[]

External links[]

• Vintage Trains official site