In October, Castle Class No. 7029 Clun Castle will visit Newcastle-on-Tyne for the first time in 58 years.

On Saturday, 18th October, Clun Castle will haul Vintage Trains’ “The Cathedrals Express” from Birmingham to Newcastle.

The last time Clun Castle visited Newcastle was in September 1967 when it hauled the Newcastle Rail Tour, on a charter for the Gainsborough Model Railway Society, which travelled along the East Coast Mainline from Newcastle to Peterborough.

Since then, Clun Castle has travelled far and wide throughout the UK and along parts of the East Coast Main Line from London King’s Cross to York, but has never travelled on the East Coast Main Line as far north as Newcastle.

Starting from Birmingham New Street at 7.00, the train will pick up at Coleshill Parkway at 7.20, Tamworth at 7.40, Burton-on-Trent at 7.55, Derby at 8.35, and York at 11.15, before continuing north to Newcastle where arrival is at 12.45.

At Newcastle, there will be over three hours for tour participants to explore the city before the return journey departs at 16.25, with return arrivals at York 17.55, Derby 20.35, Burton-on-Trent 21.05, Tamworth 21.20, Coleshill Parkway 21.40, and Birmingham New Street at 22.00.

Adult tickets cost from £115 for Tourist (Non-Dining), with a reduced price of £55 from York.

Clun Castle was built in May 1950 at Swindon Works to a Great Western Railway design, and is notable for hauling the last official steam-hauled passenger train from Paddington on 11th June 1965, and the “Farewell to Western Steam” rail tour, also from Paddington, in November 1965.

In 2024, Clun Castle commemorated its then-fastest-ever non-stop run from Plymouth to Bristol in 133 minutes, 9 seconds, with a top speed of 96 mph.

“We think it’s fitting that in the year Clun celebrates her 75th birthday, and the modern railway its 200th, that we are able to take this historic locomotive back to locations she’s not visited in over half a century.”

Alex Knudsen, Sales & Marketing Manager at Vintage Trains