Cravens Railtours | Epping Museum

Railtours

Zone 1

Between 1995 and 2003 we ran a number of very successful rail tours over a wide range of the Underground network. In conjunction with London Underground, Cravens Heritage Trains provided the Sunday morning service on the Chesham branch and we took over running the Mill Hill shuttle service.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Central London Railway (CLR) we ran a whole night rail tour back in 2000. It was the success of the rail tours which enabled CHT to take out a lease on the demised Epping Signal Cabin.

More recently in 2014 the Cravens unit revisited her old stomping ground and made a guest of honour appearance at the Epping-Ongar Railway. Not running under her own power, the unit was top 'n' tailed by a pair of Schoma diesels to mark 20 years since the closure on 30th September 1994 by London Underground of the Epping to Ongar extension of the Central Line.

The Cravens unit seen here at Hainault during one of the popular Railtours

As the expansion of Automatic Train Operation spread across the tube network, the non-ATO Cravens was restricted as to which lines it could run over. The Bakerloo, Piccadilly (for the present) and parts of the Metropolitan lines are all still non-ATO. These routes are used by the London Transport Museum's famous 1938 stock offering up the possibility of CHT following similar routes for Railtours in the future.

Inspections and assessments are being carried out to determine if the unit could once again see active service.

Top to bottom: The Cravens unit at Watford in 2000, Aldwych in 2002 where it appeared in the film 'Dead Gorgeous" then star of the show at the (now) Epping-Ongar Railway North Weald station in 2014.

Click one of the 'destinations' on the map at the top of this page to go to a chosen subject, or the arrow below to go direct to the Cravens home page