Railtours
This page and contents last changed on
Wednesday 13 January 2021
Ongoing Disruption
Since spring 2020, the pandemic has brought disruption to our plans
for the year, as with every organisation. Our early-April railtour to
Alton was cancelled, and all further proposed
outings were never actually advertised.
Our cost profile is very different to that of a Heritage Railway: our
fixed costs are relatively small but our operating costs per journey are
astronomical. Running a quarter-full socially-distanced railtour is
simply out of the question.
As the public health situation evolves, in due course we will
eventually be in a position to recommence planning outings. Please see
also our Coronavirus update
(October 2020), and its successor
dated January 2021.
In the meantime, the best that we can offer is a look through this
website with its extensive railtour archive, and a watch of our 32
cab-ride videos
featuring outings during 2016–18.
Plans for future railtours
We had outlined plans for railtours during 2020 as shown below, prior
to the advent of the pandemic. When we are in a position to recommence
planning outings, we will take up where we left off with the following
ideas as our starting-point:
- Worcester via the Cotswold Line (originally outlined for May)
- Skegness (originally outlined for June)
- Portsmouth (originally outlined for August)
It is a condition of holding a ticket for any outing on our train that
passengers abide by the letter and spirit of our Code of Conduct (updated January
2021).
We continue to endeavour to keep our passengers safe by not allowing
them to lean out of our train’s windows. This notice (updated January
2021) contains further information.
It may be possibile for you to bring your folding bicycle on
the Hastings DEMU, with prior written approval; our guidelines on
carriage of folding bikes will help you to determine your bike’s
suitability for carriage.
We can recommend a dip into the HDL Railtour archive, which contains
details of all the previous “days out” which HDL has operated
to date.