The Anniversary Tour – 2018
Steve Ollive was welcomed back here on 17th March to present his coverage of the 2018 Anniversary Tour in which he and a small group of RCTS friends, including Richard Morris, travelled on the luxury British Belmond Pullman followed, once on Continental Europe, by the Venice Simplon Orient Express train and then having reached Venice they returned home by way of Vienna and Prague. Steve highlighted the sumptuous facilities on board the train although in those days en suite showers had not even been thought of. The scenic and wending climb up the St Gotthard Pass included the passing of Wassen church three times. Having arrived in Venice they spent time doing the sights before travelling through to Vienna again sightseeing which included the visit to the tram museum that included a 1970’s U-Bahn car. Then travelling on again to Prague for more sightseeing before returning back to London via Frankfurt- am-Main and Brussels. Naturally the group spent time at the principal stations they visited seeing the variety of European expresses in the many operators’ liveries especially those on the Regiojet services. Prague’s impressive Hlavni Nadrazi station included the sight of the City Elefant double decked multiple units. A Pendolino variant was noted on the Leo Express linking Prague to Bratislava. A train change at Dresden enabled sighting of freight haulage with such different operators such as Captrain and Metrans.