Railtours
This page and contents last changed on Sunday 1 December 2024
Saturday 18 January 2025: HDL Mick Tester Memorial railtour
Our first railtour of 2025 is named to honour our longstanding colleague Mick Tester, who passed away last summer. Mick personally saw to it that our train was beautifully turned-out both internally and externally.
This 256-mile wintertime trip is to the cathedral city of Winchester. Our route from Tonbridge is via Redhill and Guildford, with a reversal at Woking to join the London & South Western main line. Finalised timings are awaited — please see the leaflet for our estimates; our passengers should have 3 hours to visit Winchester.
| Standard Class fares | seat in trailer coach (C/D) | £69 | £59 from Guildford |
| bay of 4 seats in trailer coach (C/D) | £260 | £220 from Guildford | |
| seat in motor coach (E) | £76 | £66 from Guildford | |
| First Class fares | seat in trailer coach (B) | £96 | not available from Guildford |
| seat in motor coach (A) | £103 | not available from Guildford |
Route and Timings
We have not yet been issued with a finalised route and timings for this trip, but our best estimates are given in the leaflet.
When the finalised timings are given to us, we will publish them here.
Booking
Fares, estimated timings, further details and booking-instructions may be found in the leaflet; please check our Seat Availability Guide before making your booking. We support paperless booking, so please use it if you can.
Book by email: Please check our Seat Availability Guide, then complete the PDF form on your computer or device, save it, and email it to us. Payment may be made via the Faster Payments system in your online banking, using HDL’s payment details which are defined at www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk/payments; one payment per booking, please.
Book by post: If the above is not workable, you may still use the original method in which you check our Seat Availability Guide, then complete the form on your computer and then print it (or print it and then fill it in by hand); then post it to us together with your cheque made payable to Hastings Diesels Limited.
Update: Sunday 1 December 2024
Many seats have been sold, including part or all of every 'bay of 4' except in Coach E at the time of this update.
Please check our Seat Availability Guide for the most accurate and up-to-date information regarding seats that are available for booking on this railtour.
Terms & Conditions
Tickets are sold subject to our Code of Conduct and Booking Conditions. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Smoking or vaping are not permitted anywhere on our train, and e-scooters may not be brought onto the train under any circumstances. Bicycles cannot be carried, except folding bicycles with prior approval. Please consult our Accessibility Policy.
Plans for future railtours
Thank you for supporting our railtours.
Details of, and booking-instructions for, our future railtours will appear here when they are available; when that happens, those on our emailing list & our followers on Twitter will receive notifcation.
Possible dates for your diary (updated 13 November 2024)
5 April 2025: to Bicester and Oxford?
17 May 2025: possibly to the Bluebell Railway?
21 June 2025: possibly to the Norwich area?
20 September 2025: possibly to Warwickshire?
These outline plans are unavoidably subject to cancellation, modification or change of date (except where stated to the contrary), until a trip is properly advertised.
No bookings or reservations will be accepted for any outing shown in this panel, unless you have received a letter, a flyer, or an email from HDL pre-advertising a particular trip. This is to ensure everyone has a fair opportunity to make bookings.
Further information and resources
Code of Conduct
It is a condition of holding a ticket for any outing on our train that passengers abide by the letter and spirit of our Code of Conduct (updated May 2023).
Leaning out of windows
We continue to endeavour to keep our passengers safe by not allowing them to lean out of our train’s windows. This notice (updated January 2021) contains further information.
Booking Conditions
By travelling on an HDL railtour or buying a ticket to do so, you are deemed to be accepting our Booking Conditions as well as our Code of Conduct.
Accessibility Policy
HDL’s 1950s-built train may pose difficulties to certain classes of user: our Accessibility Policy describes what these are and how they may affect users.
Folding bicycles
It may be possible for you to bring your folding bicycle on the Hastings DEMU, with prior written approval; our guidelines on carriage of folding bikes will help you to determine your bike’s suitability for carriage.
Railtour Archive
We can recommend a dip into the HDL Railtour archive, which contains details of all the previous “days out” which HDL has operated to date; you may also find interesting our YouTube Channel which contains 32 cab-ride videos featuring outings during 2016–18.