The Branch Line Society is offering the chance to view inside the Eastern Rail Services operation at Great Yarmouth and enjoy the highly unusual experience of being hauled by a Class 08 0-6-0 diesel shunter.

The experience is being held on Saturday, 3rd May, to raise funds for Martin House Children’s Hospice, and is the culmination of a charter train operated by GBRf that starts from Great Yarmouth at 07.30 and picks up at Shippea Hill, Great Yarmouth again at 09.55, and March, and travels via Peterborough Two Way Goods, Claypole Loop, Grantham, Highdyke, Whitemoor Yard, March, Ely, Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket, Bacon Factory Chord, and Westerfield to a break at Ipswich from 17.30-18.56.

From Ipswich, the charter travels via Claydon, Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Ely, Shippea Hill, Brandon, Trowse, Norwich Low Level, and Acle to arrive back in Great Yarmouth at 22.39.

As well as being hauled by an Eastern Rail Services Class 08, which may be 08822 and 08870, haulage on the main line will include GBR locomotives from Classes 57, 66, and 69.

Much of the route will be along lines rarely covered by locomotive-hauled passenger trains, as well as plenty of loops and places of interest. A 90-minute break at Ipswich will leave plenty of time to enjoy a meal or drink at one of the local hospitality venues.

The train will include its usual hand-pulled real ale bar and a buffet car of drinks, snacks and light refreshments.

Martin House Children’s Hospice, located at Boston Spa near Wetherby in West Yorkshire, provides hospice care for children and young people across West, North and East Yorkshire with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses, either at the hospice or in their own homes.

Prices for the tour start at £134, and it is only open to Branch Line Society members. Further information is online at https://www.branchline.uk and for Martin House Children’s Hospice is at https://www.martinhouse.org.uk/

The Branch Line society regularly organises rail tours to raise funds for MArtin HOuse, and last year they included tours to Drax power station, which raised over £30,000, and a Star Wars-themed rail tour which railed £11,000.