Hi Gav,
We really enjoyed our day trip on the train. The steam loco hauled us around the north west, from Carnforth up to Carlisle, down to Settle and across to about Clitheroe. The Diesel loco hauled us for the beginning and end stages of the journey.
The scenery is as beautiful as they claim in the brochure. The food was frankly superb, far better than we had expected.
If we were to do the trip again, we wouldn’t start at Gainsborough. We’d start at Doncaster, which is where the lovely scenery begins. Starting in Coventry and going to Carlisle, you will be on the West Coast mainline all the way to Carlisle, then back via Settle.
It’s not cheap but it is one of those bucket list trips that we greatly enjoyed.
Sounds like you did the same one we are planning on doing.
I was confused about diesel / steam locomotive so good to get an understanding of how it works.
I’ve seen the price and it’s about £900 for two people but like you say it’s a bucket list thing to do and it’s fine dining which likely makes up for a good chunk of it.
Only issue I have is I don’t want to be stuck sharing a table of 4 and a dedicated 2-table is another £90.
Worth checking with them re seating. When we went, there were only 2 people per table. This was for Covid / social distancing reasons which may still apply.