steam tour? you're kidding!

["Darren Yates" <dyates@pnc.com.au>]

It may well have been marketed as the steam tour for the enthusiast, Bevan,
but I wouldn't call a tour where half the journey is by diesel one for
"steam enthusiasts".
Being dragged through the night by diesels to nowhere, then to be dragged
back to Goulburn for breakfast is not the best way to utilise one's spare
cash.
If you're going to do a steam tour, make it all-steam not just a token show.
A tripple-header up Molonglo Gorge would have been great but a day trip to
Bathurst behind two chartered 38s would certainly have been better and I
think would have had more support.
It goes back to the problem that the RTM has not managed it steam resources
well enough to enable full steam tours to take place any longer.
Argue all you want, but the fact remains: the RTM does not have a steam loco
that can go from Sydney to Goulburn.... and THAT is a shame for steam
enthusiasts.
-----------------
Cheers,
Darren Yates
Firebox Recordings [http://www.firebox.bluemountains.net.au]

Bevan Wall wrote in message <364cea36.3499927@NEWS.OZEMAIL.COM.AU>...
>On Fri, 13 Nov 1998 13:26:09 +1100, "Darren Yates" <dyates@pnc.com.au>
>wrote:
>
>>Anyone know why this tour was cancelled?
>>It would have been a ripper...
>>-----------------
>>Cheers,
>>Darren Yates
>>Firebox recordings [http://www.firebox.bluemountains.net.au]
>>
>>
>
>
>The tour was cancelled due to lack of patronage. This tour was
>basically for the steam enthusiasts, and the fact that it could not
>pull enough passengers is probably a sign of the times - as discussed
>recently on this group, the number of steam enthusiasts (especially
>those who are keen enough to pay relatively high prices for a ticket)
>who can recall steam in regular service is slowly dwindling, while
>there is an increase in the general tourist traffic who make the
>diesel hauled dinner trains, etc, much more profitable. Could we be
>witnessing the beginning of the end for steam hauled tours organised
>for steam enthusiasts as distinct from the steam tours that cater for
>the "general public"?
>
>Bevan wall