The romance and glamour of taking a trip on an original steam train is hard to resist, and all the more so when paired with fine dining and opulent surroundings. Octavia Pollock took a trip to find out more.
As we grapple with strikes, delays, ‘obstructions’ on the line and overcrowding, it is hard to imagine train travel that is comfortable and cosseted, where cheerful staff serve real food on real plates. Yet this utopia is exactly what’s promised by Steam Dreams, one of the heritage steam railway companies whose engines and carriages criss-cross Britain each year, running original steam engines hauling restored and refurbished period carriages. How could you resist the chance to give that a try? So, over the summer, I booked in on the Garden of England Lunchtime Tour, to indulge in a touch of the Golden Age of travel.
My companion and I met at London Victoria, breaking free of the commuter hordes to join a well-dressed coterie on Platform 2, awaiting the arrival of Royal Scot. Waistcoated guards stood at each door as we boarded and, in the Art Deco-style Hippocrene Bar, built in 1973 and now refurbished, a barman poured glittering streams of Champagne Hautbois into engraved-glass coupes. In the real world, 10am might have been considered a little early for such a treat, but we weren’t in the real world.
Maybe just the one… or two.
As we puffed out of the capital and steamed east, we made our way, somewhat unsteadily, to our seats, which were well upholstered and piled high with cushions. Settling in, our glasses were refreshed and menus issued: a journey with Steam Dreams is exceptionally well fuelled.
How chefs can rustle up plates of delicate crab, melting Kent Downs lamb and crisp apple tarts — with local apples straight from the orchards through which we passed — on a jolting, swaying train, I do not know, but the lunch we enjoyed was worthy of a top London restaurant. I am full of admiration, too, for a waiter who can pour wine into a glass on the move without spilling a drop.
A pause at Canterbury allowed for a welcome interval between starter and main course, as well as a chance to admire the gleaming paint and polished brass of our locomotive. Royal Scot, LMS 4-6-0 Royal Scot Class 46100, is a splendid machine, the first of her kind and built for speed in 1927 for the London Midland Scottish Railway. In 1933, she was chosen to showcase British mechanical prowess at the Chicago World’s Fair, being transported across the Atlantic and displayed there from May–November.
Afterwards, she puffed her way across the US and Canada, even over the Rocky Mountains. Back in the UK, she was rebuilt with a new design of boiler in 1950, but was retired from British Railways in 1962. The stage beckoned again — this time, that of Butlin’s in Skegness, where she became a static exhibit. Thanks to the Royal Scot Locomotive & General Trust, however, she was restored and ran once more on the main line in 2016.
Octavia Pollock awaiting departure at London Victoria for the tour of Kent.
Now a star of Steam Dreams, the views Royal Scot’s windows afforded were idyllic, the vineyards, orchards and lush fields of the Garden of England rattling past our windows. Unfortunately, however, this being high summer after a wet spring, the actual tunnels were often succeeded by leafy ones that added to the sense of being in a world apart. Fortunately, a smart leaflet elucidated the trip, describing our route in full, from passing Shortlands station, near which Enid Blyton once lived, to catching a glimpse of HMS Cavalier in the Historic Dockyard on the River Medway.
The tunnels are identified, from the 297-yard Chatham Tunnel to the 954-yard Saltwood Tunnel, and the viaducts, including Bekesbourne and Kearnsey. Stories, too, are told, such as when workmen digging the Lydden Tunnel in the 1850s found coal at 180ft, sparking a search for more, and when Charles Dickens survived the derailment of the train in 1865 when it crossed a bridge over the River Beult that was under repair. It adds so much to a journey when one knows what one is looking at, so full credit to Steam Dreams for providing such well-written detail.
For views, the company offers several other trips that may offer more frequent panoramas, including tours of the Sussex coast, trips to Bath and to Chatsworth in Derbyshire, journeys to Carlisle across the Ribblehead Viaduct, to Castle Howard in North Yorkshire and down to the Devon village of Kingswear, just across the estuary from Dartmouth.
For those too busy to spend a whole day, they also put on evening trips which take in the Surrey Hills, Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll worked. And at the other extreme of the ‘free time’ spectrum, they is a journey with an itinerary that would satisfy anyone: a five-day Welsh Dragon tour which criss-crosses Wales from Cardiff to Snowdonia. All you have to do is don your best hat and gloves, listen for the guard’s whistle and settle in to your compartment, with nothing to worry about but whether or not to accept another glass of Champagne.
The Garden of England lunchtime tour costs from £85, with Pullman Dining seats at £225. The Welsh Dragons five-day steam holiday costs from £995. Several Christmas market itineraries run towards the end of the year, and bookings are now open for 2025 — to reserve a place, visit www.steamdreams.co.uk.
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