Steam Train to the English Lakes

A Very Special Rail Tour

Several years ago we took our daughter and her husband and their new baby son for a day out to Windsor on the Royal Windsor Steam Express for their (the parents) joint birthday treat. This was a one-way Pullman-style service with a decent brunch and was operated by Steam Dreams, and ever since then I have been on their mailing list to see what else they had to offer. Meanwhile we had been considering a short break in the English Lakes for the autumns, so when Steam Dreams advertised The Lakes Express this looked like just the deal. Consulting my wife we opted for the Pullman Dining class, and of course we also needed a hotel in London the night before departure (for it was from London that the train was to leave) and ideally another night these on return, just in case of late running; although as it happened I had a meeting in London the following day, so staying was not a bad idea anyway. It was clear that this was not going to be a bargain break, but it would be a relaxing, if short, holiday. It was booked and paid-for many months on advance but we plenty of other exciting trips taking place earlier in the year, and indeed in the summer, so we were not too edgy waiting for the date to come around. In the event it came as a very welcome break after some frenetic activity which shall not bore you with here.

To London by train

The day did dawn on a Monday in September, although essential business did delay our departure to London until late afternoon, but it was a lovely warm, sunny afternoon when we set off with our wheeled suitcases to our local railway station to take the first train of a real adventure. The little Cross Country train to Peterborough was almost on time and easily made our on-time connection, an LNER train to London Kungs Cross. The LNER journey was in First Class (affordable on an Advance ticket) and we had our customary glass of white wine as we began relaxing after our stressful time: the sandwiches and fruit we kept as supper later that evening.

We were aware before leaving home that much of the Underground's workforce was on strike for most of the week and knew that transferring to our hotel in Pimlico was going to be a struggle. Having considered bus and taxi we decided simply to walk: wheeled luggage makes this sort of thing quite feasible, if time-consuming. Walking through London is always a pleasure, although given that so many others were also walking, and that by now the travel-home peak had begun, this was tempered on this occasion by rather crowded pavements in places (although by no means everywhere). We stopped for coffee on the way and in due course arrived at the Best Western Buckingham Palace Road hotel - which is not actually in Buckingham Palace Road at all, but a block away, nearer Eccleston Square. Having done all that walking we did nothing else that evening but eat our supper from the train, shower and have an early night. Annoying as the strike was (and frankly, for once, I had little sympathy with the cause this time - and do let me know in the comments if there's something I am missing here), the experience did add to the sense of adventure which was to mark this holiday. I cannot pretend it was a good night's sleep, although it was alright; the corollary of being handy for Victoria station for the morning was that we heard, and felt, passing trains much of the night!

To Oxenholme Lake District by The Lakes Express

And so we woke and, with breakfast to come on the train, made our way down to Victoria station and joined the little queue to hand in our luggage. Our train would be taking a circuitous route to the The Lakes, and our main luggage was to be conveyed by road van direct to our hotel while we enjoyed the ride unencumbered by suitcases. Then we waited for the train to arrive, a long rake of crimson-and-cream livered British Railways Mark 1 coaches hauled by a vintage diesel locomotive in mock BR steam locomotive lined black livery. At the rear, which would become the front when the train departed, was another vintage diesel in British Rail Scotrail livery.We were to be diesel-hauled as far as Crewe from where the A2 pacific Blue Peter, one of the most powerful British steam locomotives, would take us to Carlisle via the spectacular Settle and Carlisle route when the black diesel loco now on the rear would take us in the other direction southwards to Oxenhome for the Lake District. Meanwhile our luggage would have plenty of time to be driven to our hotel and would await our arrival.

We had our allocated seats in one of the coaches near the from of the train, a "club duo" pair of single seats facing across a table, and being a Mk 1 coach, the table was aligned with a nice big window with a ventilator we could (just) open as needed. The table was set with a linen tablecloth and crockery ready for breakfast, a promising champagne glass, and substantial booklets giving details about the journey and the holiday ahead. As people took their seats there was a great deal of excitement in the air. Unlike our several Great Rail Journeys holidays that use service trains, this was a whole train, many coaches long, on which everyone was going on more-or-less the same holiday, although our expectations will have varied. 

As the train left, so the champagne saucers were filled with Bellini, a peach juice and Prosecco cocktail, and the next stage of the adventure began. Now Victoria is not the most obvious London terminal to use if you are taking a train to Carlisle! Although north of the Thames, all the tracks out of the station head south, straight over the river, which is not a good start, but this was not a train in a hurry, it was a journey worth savouring and an adventure in itself, a journey of discovery, if you like. I have visited London very much in the last few years (regular readers are probably fed up with it!) and have begun to form a mental map of its railways, but I had not twigged exactly which way we would go. Some parts of the route were not normal passenger routes either, but I had guessed that it would include the line back over the river northbound in Chelsea and up though Kensington Olympia and Sheperds Bush to Willesden Junction where we were to join the West Coast Main Line from Euston. By now we had enjoyed the first course of breakfast, a really good Bircher Muesli, and eagerly awaited our cooked course for which the order had been taken. For whatever reason this took an age to appear, so much so that they served the pasties first, which kept us going a bit, until eventually a very delicious English Breakfast arrived. So delayed was it that that the mid-morning coffee and pastries followed more closely behind it than the cooked course had followed the starter!

After the dawdling around the south and west of London the run up the main line was pretty swift, exploiting the performance of the Class 47 diesel locomotive that was hauling us on this leg of the journey. Although we were on the slow tracks most of the time, our speed was still over 80 mph, and this was not a route we have ever had much cause to use, it was good to see the view from the train for the first time over most of it. Occasionally there were trackside photographers capturing images of this vintage diesel engine with its vintage coaches. 

Soon we were drawing into Crewe where we had a chance to leave the train for about twenty minutes while the locomotive change took place, 47 709 coming off and 60532 Blue Peter backing down with its crew coach to couple on in its place. While all this was happening we could have a walk up and down the platform to walk off some of the breakfast and pastries in preparation for the lunch and dinner that was still to come! The anticipation of haulage by such a great locomotive over such an interesting route was immensely exciting, and we were not in the least disappointed. The weather remained dry and sunny all afternoon and it was just a brilliant day in every way. If your only experience of riding behind a steam locomotive is on short heritage lines with their low speed limits, then you really need to do one of these mainline steam journeys, especially if you are too young to have experienced them as normal railway life. Here we were on a train of carriages built in the 1950s and 1960s and hauled by splendid locomotive from the late 1940s performing like a main-line express train of its era and reasonable speeds over long stretches of double track. Once on the Settle & Carlisle line we were climbing the long 1 in 100 to the summit of the line with Blue Peter working hard (and her fireman stoker working even harder) to keep the speed up. Smoke and steam passed continually by our window as we made the climb. All this after an interesting wander through Warrington, Wigan and Blackburn to get as far as Settle in the first place! What a journey.

Meanwhile a light lunch was served. There was no danger of eating between meals on this journey, for there was insufficient time between meals to get anything else.

All the time we could follow the description of the journey in the brochure provided to every passenger, and most of the time we could track our location on our iPhones. (From time to time I tracked my luggage, too, which had an AirTag in it, and was pleased to see that while we had been taking this interesting route around both London and the north of England, our cases had made it to our hotel.) A couple of times the train made an extended stop for the locomotive to be watered. The water troughs which used to be provided to allow expresses to top up their tenders without stopping had long ago been removed and so steam trains on the main line now have to be stopped to take on water.

It was not long after the table had been cleared following lunch that it was set again in preparation for dinner. Champagne and canapés were served at about the time one might normally expect a cup of tea ... but it was not long before the starter appeared and dinner had already begun! Slow roast shin of beef with vegetables were absolutely wonderful, with the wine we had ordered from the wine waiter earlier (there is an allowance included for the drinks but we spent just a touch more so that we could have port with the cheese). Curiously the cheese course was served after the main course rather than at the end of the meal.

After the cheese course had been consumed we arrived at Carlisle and there was another opportunity to take some fresh air and exercise while another locomotive change took place. This one was rather simpler and quicker because the train was reversing here and training behind us all the way from London was the vintage diesel locomotive which had brought the empty coaches into Victoria first thing in the morning and it would now become the train locomotive with would take us on to Oxenholme. Blue Peter was detached, with its staff coach, and a tail lamp added to that end of the train. and after a few moments we were all back on board as the train set off southbound for the Lake District.

The dessert course of dinner was served as we headed to Oxenholme and soon we were preparing to leave the train to be taken by road coach to our hotels. There is a railway station at Windermere, but it would not be able to deal with such a long train as this one, nor the number of passengers it would disgorge all at once and the coaches needed to take them on. As it was, we were a bit of a strain on Oxenholme station! We said our farewells to the train crew who had looked after us so admirably and made our way outside where there were two road coaches taking passengers to the MacDonald Old England Hotel for which we were bound, and Steam Dreams tour managers met us and made sure we were all on the correct coaches for our hotels. As we were  driven the half-hour to the Old England Hotel in Bowness the sun set and we arrived just as dark was falling.

We were handed our room cards at the hotel reception and directed to our rooms where our luggage awaited us. The whole operation had been executed extremely efficiently and we had had a brilliant day. If we'd had to go home the following day it would still have been worth coming, and we had three more exciting days to come. The weather was not expected to remain sunny and dry but we were prepared for whatever was likely to come. But first, a short stroll to the lake, a shower and a good night's sleep.

A lake cruise and another steam train

The weather forecast for our first full day in the lakes was very promising for the morning, but with rain later, so we decided to get going early - we should not need a huge breakfast after the Pullman dining of the previous day - and have a great day out. We walked down to the Bowness quayside, immediately next to our hotel, and bought combination tickets for a lake cruise to Lakeside Pier and a ride on the Lakeside and Haverthaite steam railway. With the tickets safely in my pocket we had time for a short stroll around the most local streets and found ourselves exploring the parish church of St Martin, the same dedication as our own church at home in Stamford. A service was scheduled to begin soon, but we had a boat to catch so could not stay and walked down to join the queue to board MV Teal waiting at the pier.

It had been a dull morning although bright enough, but as Teal slipped away from Bowness and started southwards along Windermere the sun broke through the cloud and we enjoyed sunny weather with blue skies for most of the rest of the morning. We sat on the open top deck and watched the glorious Windermere scenery, mostly woodland dotted with occasional houses, until the boat docked at the quay at Lakeside. The whole operation, the boat, the quays and the boat/rail interchange at Lakeside, had been planned and developed by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway to provide a holiday route to Bowness; it no longer worked like that because the railway from Lakeside no longer goes more than the few miles to Havethwaite whereas originally trains at Lakeside went to and from major towns and cities all over the country. The trains and boats, though, are still carefully planned to connect, and we had a leaflet with a combined timetable which we had used to plan our trip. A slick connection at Lakeside took us to Haverthwaite and there, so we had been told by the ticket clerk at Bowness, we would find a good tearoom to pass an hour before getting a later train back rather than  going straight back on the next train ... We took her advice, with coffee and a scone, but we did also visit the locomotive shed and went for a walk through the steeply-graded woodland over the tunnel at the end of the station: quite an adventure!

Back on the platform after our scramble through the woods we returned to Lakeside and boarded the next boat back to Bowness. The weather was clouding over now and becoming a little windier, but we sat outside again and partook of a glass on Prosecco to watch the scenery on the other shore of Windermere: less hilly and slightly less wooded with more human habitation.

Once docked at Bowness we caught a bus to Grasmere: these are open-top buses on route 599 and run every twenty minutes, but as the drizzle had started we did not sit in the open section on the top deck but towards the front in the small enclosed area. The view from there was amazing, even in the drizzle. Although we have been that way before by car - many years ago - there is no doubt that a bus gives a far better view of the lakeland scenery, and safer, too than trying to drive while looking at it. 

We had a walk through Grasmere to William Wordsworth's grave and ate a local ice-cream before taking a bus back as far as Ambleside. Ambleside is bigger than I remember it from previous visits and our walk through the town centre included just a little shopping before we took another bus back through Windermere to Bowness where we returned to our room to prepare for dinner. Dinner at the hotel was included in the Steam Dreams package and we had had a choice of timing, opting for 18:30 as that is similar to our dinner time at home and with summer now over we would have the last of the sunshine over dinner, watching the sun set over the lake. This time, because it was raining, we also saw a spectacular rainbow.

Sunshine and showers

The following day the weather forecast was not so good but we determined to travel on to Keswick anyway, and if there were time to go perhaps to Kendal as well. When we arrived at the bus stop and saw the heavy traffic we knew there would be problems, and our first bus, the 599 which had served us so well yesterday, was late but got us to Windermere rail station where we were to change to the half-hourly 555 for Keswick. Ominously there was an enormous crowd waiting for the 555, and fortunately there was a canopy to shelter from the occasional heavy downpour. A glance at the bustimes.org bus tracker showed that the bus was 42 minutes late ... the one behind it was twenty minutes late and the one behind that just two minutes late, so although this was a great nuisance to start the day I imagined that within an hour everything would be more-or-less back to normal. How wrong I was! Apparently a lorry had overturned on the M6 past Kendal and caught fire, so the motorway was closed northbound and reduce to one lane southbound. Now there are not many roads in Cumbria and all the others were choked with the displaced traffic; further, alternate 555 buses are scheduled to use the M6 between Lancaster and Kendal so even without the congestion they would be slower. Then there were bus drivers who could not get to work. The whole thing was a complete mess but the company ran what buses they could and we did get, through rain and shine, to Keswick where we had a cup of coffee and another local ice-cream ... The rain came and went; the sunshine came and went, it was more like April than September, but only a fool comes to the Lake District for the weather!

Eventually we boarded a bus back to Windermere and abandoned the idea of carrying on to Kendal given that it was the epicentre of the continuing chaos on the roads. The M6 was still closed and expected to remain closed for the rest of the day and the traffic had not improved. We had not seen the town centre at Windermere, so we decided to walk back to Bowness, looking at Windermere as we went, and we visited the most amazing ice-cream parlour on the way ... so many locally-made ice-creams! We ordered "single" scoops, just as well (see picture).

The umbrella was up and down like a yo-yo as we walked down to Bowness and to our hotel.

And so back to our room and in due course to dinner once more overlooking the lake. Again, the dinner was really good: wine not included at the hotel but was available to order and the house white complemented the meal nicely. This was our last evening at the Old England Hotel but there was still a lot to look forward to. The rain and the traffic had been an issue, yes, but it had still been a great day and we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves; again, an adventure. And tomorrow we would be back on the train and re-acquainted with Blue Peter for the trip back to London.

Home via Chester

We packed our cases and left them outside our room for the porterage company to collect - these would be waiting for us at London Victoria when we arrived - and made our way to breakfast for the last time then joined the coach which took us south along the lakeside to Newby Bridge and then west to Barrow-in-Furness where we waited for our train. It was quite late, having been held up by a service train on the way from its depot, but when it did arrive it was a magnificent sight, with Blue Peter hauling it at this stage, ready to take us on the first leg of the journey. Soon after leaving Barrow the Champagne was poured and then a light lunch served, the sort of service we had now come to expect in Pullman Dining Class on The Lakes Express!

Blue Peter took us to Carnforth and then south along the West Coast Main Line through Wigan and Warrington before turning south-west towards Chester where was had over two hours to enjoy the town while the train was taken away to return later with another vintage diesel locomotive at its head. we spent our time simply wandering around and looking at the interesting architecture, although we did pop into the Cathedral gift shop to buy a gift we needed - we had actually visited the Cathedral properly on a previous occasion.

Once back on the train we were soon served dinner as we sped south to London and from Crewe it was the reverse of our northbound journey a few days before, including the line through Northampton (which serves as the slow tracks at this point) and the stretch around west London which incorporates some sections not normally used by passenger trains. The train was now on time, having left Chester at the planned time by reducing the length of our stay there - I don't think anyone complained because we did not want to be any later getting to London.

We bade farewell to our Pullman hosts and to the tour managers who had looked after us so well, promising that we would see them again on a future trip. It had been a short holiday but an absolutely brilliant one in so many ways. It had also come at a time when we really needed a break and fulfilled that need perfectly.

Our holiday was not quite over, though, of we were still only in London and I had booked a hotel there for one further night so as not to be pressured to catch the last train home to Lincolnshire. By now the Underground strike was mercifully over (though I have no idea what the outcome of the negotiations might have been) and we made our way via Hammersmith to a hotel in Shepherds Bush, conveniently close to our son's family home where my wife was to spend the next day, Saturday, while I attended a meeting in Southwark (no, not the Unite the Kingdom demo!). Later I collected her and the luggage and we took the Underground to Farringdon were we joined the next Thameslink service to Peterborough which made a neat connection to a Cross Country train for Stamford. We enjoyed the walk across the meadows and through town to arrive at home after a fantastic week, thoroughly refreshed and ready to face a very busy week ahead.