HDL 100 Not Out railtour
Saturday 20 September 2025

Saturday 20 September 2025: HDL 100 Not Out railtour

Our fifth outing of the 2025 season will be our one-hundredth railtour since we returned our Hastings DEMU to the main line in 1996 (all of them are listed on our website)!

This 426-mile railtour calls at 5 destinations, of which 4 are in the historic county of Warwickshire: Oxford, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon and Birmingham Moor Street.

We will pick up passengers at our usual stops from Hastings to Tonbridge, then Bromley South, Kensington (Olympia) (on the return leg we cannot reach Olympia but will call at Clapham Junction instead), and Reading.

Facilities and refreshments

Our Buffet car will be open all day for the sale of hot & cold food and drink at reason­able prices. A trolley service of hot & cold drinks and refreshments will operate in Standard Class areas.

In First Class an inclusive at-table service of drinks and light refreshments is offered through the day, with sandwiches at lunchtime and cheese & wine in the late afternoon.

Fares

Standard Class fares	seat in trailer coach (Buffet/C/D)	£95	£85 from Reading
	bay of 4 seats in trailer coach (Buffet/C/D)	£360	£320 from Reading
	seat in motor coach (E)	£102	£92 from Reading
First Class fares	seat in trailer coach (B)	£122	£112 from Reading
	seat in motor coach (A)	£129	£119 from Reading

Part-fares

We are aware that some of you may wish to make a booking just between Oxford / Leamington Spa / Warwick / Stratford-upon-Avon / Birmingham. We can now (9 Sep) take such bookings; special fares apply for such journeys, please enquire by email.

Route and Timings

Route

From Kensington (Olympia), our outward route will be via the Poplar spur which leads from Acton Wells down onto the Great Western Main Line, and thence to Reading. After a crew-change stop at Didcot, we set down at Oxford, Warwick, and Leamington Spa, before turning left at Hatton to run south into Stratford-upon-Avon. There we reverse, to run via Henley-in-Arden to continue northwards through Tyseley and into Birmingham Moor Street.

Our return journey is similar to the outward, except that we cannot use the route through Acton Wells, and so from Reading we will run via Staines and the Hounslow Loop, calling at Clapham Junction instead of Kensington (Olympia) before regaining the Atlantic Lines at Factory Junction.

A sketch-map of the route has been prepared by Alan Pink. We have also produced a gradient profile. To illustrate the detail of our scheduled route, annotated extracts from Network Rail’s Sectional Appendix have been produced for the outward and return portions of this railtour (updated 3 September 2025).

Timings

Finalised timings have been published. Compared to our original estimates, the times are very similar on the outward journey, while the return has had to start 30 minutes earlier in order for us to be pathed on the single-line section from Bearley Junction to Hatton. We had been led to expect that this trip would be routed via the Hatton North Curve, but the finalised timings show us taking the more westerly route via Henley-in-Arden both ways instead.

This page and the leaflet have both been updated to show the finalised timings. To avoid any confusion, please ensure that you check these finalised timings prior to arranging your itinerary.

Station	Outward journey (read down)		Return journey (read up)
Hastings	depart	07 02	return	22 18
St. Leonards Warrior Square	depart	07 07	return	22 15
West St. Leonards	depart	07 12	return	22 10
Crowhurst	depart	07 19	return	22 03
Battle	depart	07 25	return	21 56
Etchingham	depart	07 38	return	21 41
Tunbridge Wells	depart	08 00	return	21 13
Tonbridge	depart	08 12	return	20 54
Bromley South	depart	08 45	return	20 09
Kensington (Olympia)	depart	09 22	—	—
Clapham Junction	—	—	return	19 43
Reading	depart	10 34	return	18 16
Oxford	arrive	11 23	depart	17 38
Leamington Spa	arrive	12 09	depart	16 47
Warwick	arrive	12 16	depart	16 30
Stratford-upon-Avon	arrive	12 50	depart	15 59
Birmingham Moor Street	arrive	13 47	depart	15 00

Booking

Booking is now a simple 3-step process:

1. Please check our Seat Availability Guide.

2. Fill in our new online booking form right here in your web browser.

3. Make payment — either via Faster Payments in your online banking, or by cheque; directions for both are given in the booking form

The previous methods of booking which rely on the PDF leaflet are still available, should you wish.