The bar side of our railtours has come a long way since the days when Neil Bentley bounced beer down a Class 144 Pacer on the Penistone line. We now have hand pumps and beer equipment stored in many locations subject to last use, so that they can be taken to a railtour. The usual suspects are Andrew Rawlins, Neil Bentley, Alex Hargreaves, Tim Brawn and myself. With 'rent a bar steward' (pay rates = zero!) Iain Johnstone and Adrian Bullock helping when needed. Running the beers down the trains has included many victims over the years, the Queens of beer being Sue and (ask?) Alexa.

The beer was rather easy for BWC3 as we had decided, 12 months ago at the end of BWC2, to use the brilliant Fyne Ales again if it was a Scottish start or at least pick some up. Nearer the date, we need to sort out pint glasses, lids, beer, cider, cash floats, hand pumps, barrel tapping kit, the bar staff and then transport all this to Bo'ness for departure time. The logistics of gathering everything together for the day comes together over several WhatsApp messages and evenings talking over a beer (what else?) between the bar stewards. Every tour is different; for example, on BWC2 we sold six barrels of beer in a day and a half. Red Diesel Cider will sell out in a morning on some trains and will be unsold on others. We work with many breweries, especially Mallinsons and Brunswick, according to the train start or stock locations.

Generally, a new tour will be mentioned in passing by our Ops team (Kev Adlam, Neil Lewis, Andrew Cripps and Jerry Dickinson). Often this is on an earlier tour chatting about how a particular train is going. We find out a date, start and finish location aware that often it is set in stone, well, fluid stone, well, sort of movable, well, we will confirm later. While the Ops side need to move the coaching stock to and from a location, we must transport the barrels to and from the Brewery as, for some reason, they want the empties back. Once we know the rolling stock provider or its base location, we can make our plans. BWC3 went quiet while we were dealing with other earlier tours. In late summer last year, BWC3 was mentioned in passing as we talked with Jerry. It was hoped that we would use SRPS (Scottish Railway preservation Society) stock, which was still undergoing considerable work, so making Fyne Ales the main brewery. If the stock had to change come January or February, we could make plans as required.

Their 'Jarl' beer is very good but we also wanted something a little darker. Thus, after Andrew had a business meeting at the Great British Beer festival with Fyne, they confirmed they would look at some of the other beers closer to the time in the New Year. Remember, BWC3 chats are going on around other tour beer orders and sometimes there are full-on buffet requirements like the 4TC tours in the Spring and Summer of 2024. In Dec 2024, when BWC3 was our next tour that needed a bar, our planning ramped up, although the Ops side was still sorting the train and details. Which staff would be available? What coach would we have, hand pumps with vertical or horizontal abstraction, gravity pour or ...? We try not to bother the Ops side but sometimes the chatter is carried away and they are dealing with other things.

We did know that we didn't need to worry about catering, phew. (The phew being, for example, that the 4TCs don't have a supply of drinking water, so how many two litre bottles of water do you need to make tea and coffee for three days?) With everything pointing to a Bo'ness start, we could include the SRPS team on barrel delivery and other minor plans. Using Fyne Ales, we do not change the name of their beer, so the normal random generation of tour-related names at all times of the day didn't need to happen. Our beer names sometimes have logic or simple delusion. I have woken up to messages at 2am when someone has had a brainwave. For example, 'The West Highland Thistle Thrasher' has been a tour and beer name since 1998 and hasn't made it yet. You have been warned!

Anyway, rather quickly Andrew concluded that 10 barrels of beer with the cider would give us 800 pints for three days for about 300 participants. Next, the check list of who has what (and where) comes into play. The first thing we had for BWC3 happened to be pint glasses and lids. I had what was left from an order of a 1,000 stored at home, of which I had taken 350 with me on our 'Cappagh Capital Campaigner' in Aug 2024. 50 of these glasses returned to Cheshire, leaving 700 which we took with us on BWC3.

So, for this tour, those 50 glasses had 56098, 56103, 60028, 60055, 69008, 185124, 195002, 195010, 197106, 221130, 222012, 222218 and 802216 for haulage. Back to logistics, to save me carrying 700 glasses with all my bags, I decided to use other tours to transport them to Bo'ness. On 8 Feb, they joined 'The Capital Highlander' behind 37403 and 37409 at Carlisle; all 700 have done Carlisle - Inverness - Carlisle - Bo'ness. The glasses stored in the Mk1 brake meant they also ventured out on 'The Seven Counties Rambler'. If anyone had a pint on BWC3, the glasses all had 20096, 20107, 20118, 20132, 26038 (shunt at Bo'ness), 37401, 37403 and 37409 for haulage.

Fyne deliver each Thursday to Edinburgh and the train left on a Friday, so they could indeed deliver to Bo'ness. 'Fine' so far. The bar staff would be on site on the Thursday to prepare. Would the SRPS let us on site? Of course, that was a 'yes'. So mid-January into February, we knew we would more than likely be in the brake and compo area for the beer sales with the SRPS kitchen car still away being worked on (or we could be in the LSL kitchen car). More catch ups followed in person, in our chat group and the beer chat group, which includes extended team members and Ops team members. In February the beer order was placed. Iain would sort floats as normal (his former job was in catering at Wolverhampton). Alex would sort beer menus; Neil would run the at seat beer deliveries on the train as he wanted to beat his daily step counts. Tim was sorting the Whisky, Andrew the beer and cider, Jerry and Kev sorting, with much help, the rest of the train - leaving me, it sounds like, to sit back feet up at TfW working trains.

Thursday morning, with 24 hours to go, the race is on, the beer is at the brewery ready, the pint pots and lids are in the brake coach awaiting train formation and fitness to run. The float is in the West Midlands and the beer taps are in Yorkshire heading for the West Coast. The menus are in Yorkshire heading for the East Coast. Other beer items are near Stirling, I'm in Inverness waiting for a HST south and two of the team are attending work in Cheshire and Yorkshire. ('Work' has many meanings, attend will do.)

11am Thursday all is going well, except our bar staff are seen passing and missing each other between Haymarket and Edinburgh. Eventually our Bo'ness arrival, thanks to Neil McDonald's car, means that we have three bar stewards together but no beer and no train. Famous saying about 'piss up in a brewery'.

But nope, the SRPS engineering team is in full swing preparing the train, to allow it to venture 'forth' onto the mainline, and SRPS catering is sorting out the kitchen. It must be said the Bo'ness team put in a heck of a long day to prepare the train. A few unforeseen changes meant that we would end up with the air-conditioned Mk2 coach in the middle of the rake, allowing us to set up the bar in this area.

Shortly (and after we had made a trip to Tesco) our 10 barrels of beer arrived while the train was still being assembled. We then helped with several housekeeping jobs. All I will say is between the SRPS, a BLS steward, the GBRF team, TFW, Northern, Caledonian Sleeper and IT (computing), the set sat on the platform at 20.00 with fitness to run, formation, locomotives, catering, beer, cleaning, moping, wiping, labelling and tanking all done. We had been made very welcome at Bo'ness while they had some serious work to do, so respect to the onsite team. Of the two bar staff in attendance, one headed for the sleeper and the second for Glasgow to meet some of the other team members. [They either didn't get the memo or simply got lost as the tour was a Bo'ness / Edinburgh area starter, not Glasgow!]

At 20.00 Thursday, calls to the local pub found that they stopped serving food at 20.00 but it was agreed we could still order food if we arrived by 20.30. This time tired and happy we made the agreed last food orders in the excellent Corby Inn thanks to a lift from Allan of the SRPS.

Friday is finally upon us and James (SRPS) collected us from the hotel, after picking up Neil and Alex from the first Glasgow train, so three winning cars in 36 hours plus a lush breakfast café. The lady in the café, who never smiles according to James, smiled. I blame Andrew; I don't know what was said but she didn't half chuckle. Now we are back on the train with passengers arriving, tour stewards all briefed, BWC3 could get going. 37403 doing the honours on the first the five miles to Manuel. 37401 would now lead after the reversal, working its first train in ScotRail livery, which suits it well as we pull into Linlithgow.






The rest of our participants, including from the sleeper, and our last bar staff member with the whisky, have all made the train. We rounded the curve towards the Forth Bridge and 'PING', our first beer order, 'Coach A Seat 28 one Jarl please' 9.19am Friday Morning, so the bar was open. Now I have mentioned the Jarl again - it is the uniqueness of the friendships and togetherness that has built up over time. Jarl is not normally made bright (no sediment), so we needed seven casks of bright Jarl. The brewery had an idea that if they don't put finings* into the beer (to make it settler clearer), the beer wouldn't need to be made bright. They admitted the beer would have a very light haze to it but would not be cloudy or thick of settlement while shaken by the train. Out came the first ever Jarl un-fined ale and it was stunning in brightness and taste as ever you would expect, so the creation of this railtour 'Jarl' has been made.

[*Finings in beer are substances added to unfiltered beer to clarify it by removing unwanted particles like yeast and proteins, resulting in a clear and smooth finish. They work by causing these particles to clump together and settle to the bottom, leaving the clear beer above, a bit like clarifying a consommé.]






It must be said the Society bar and catering staff, plus our stewards, pay full fare for tours they help on. They might not normally want to book on a particular tour but if help is needed, they do. The Greendale Rocket to Wembley, for example - in the Mk2 buffet, staff missed 90% of the day within a wall of metal with no windows. The buffet and bars are open normally start to finish and that's what we choose to do.

A weekend on Class 47s is not my bashing first choice but we do it, with this train being 37s it was right up my street. My new track with a Class 37 included Inverkeithing to Thornton Jn via Dunfermline for one. 37401 took us on to the new Leven station P2 (even when there are two trains an hour from 19 May, P2 is little used). 37403 then became the first 37 departure from Leven and new track for me.

After a reversal on Thorton North Curve (thanks Kev, I completed the fifth circle for 37s), we headed via Ladybank to Perth. A typical bar staff occurrence happened here, knowing that we were next going north to Aviemore, I was more than confused when we departed south into the Dundee Loop at Perth. Finally at 13.09, some five hours after leaving Bo'ness and only 53 miles away from there, both 37401+37403 erupted to double head the train along the Highland mainline. From talking to other Class 37 enthusiasts, I've known since the mid-1990s, today was the first time these two have been paired together on the mainline since Jun 1999. The last time was the Holyhead to Birmingham International Sunday boat train. I happened to be on that run, alighting at my then home station of Stafford.









Our BWC tours are part of the Royal Scotsman training, so running on to the Strathspey Railway had been agreed. 37674 came on the rear at Aviemore. This fine St Blazey machine, famous for its silver bullet runs, now finds itself in the stunning beauty of the Cairngorm Mountain range. After passing Broomhill station (Glenbogle for 'Monarch of the Glen' fans), service trains stop in the run round loop. We slowed down but didn't stop at the loop, continuing to the physical end of the line at Dulnain Bridge. The wooden stop block was directly in front of 37403, next to the final parapet of the bridge on the far side of the river.

The only way to go further would have been leaving 37403 in the field. Another unexpected bonus and some 67ch past the end of the loop, my Class 37-map book was extended. It was now down to 37674 to lift the full train back to Boat of Garten for a leg stretch. Last time some of the bar staff were here was a lovely morning on the 2023 'Three Peaks Challenge' train. The staff stay on the train in Fort William to prepare the train and also food for the return after the walkers have climbed and descended Ben Nevis. Unfortunately, in Jun 2023 there was a landslip the week before the train closing the West Highland Line. Coaches were provided from and back to Kingussie, with the ECS going on to Boat of Garten. Great memories for those behind the scenes on some of these crazy things the stewards and bar staff do.









All too soon 37674 returned us to Aviemore, where we reversed for the final time that day, then headed north across Culloden Moor with the light failing, reaching Inverness in the dark at 19.35. While bar staff and passengers head to hotels, bars, pubs and food, it's only left for the Stewards to clean the rest of the train, the staff to fuel the locos and prepare for Day 2. I hadn't been to Wick and Thurso since 2003 (with 37416 and 37418). In 2025, while heading back from Wick, beer was discussed for next October - when would that first pint be poured for that one? But to finish, I'll leave you with at 6.20am on Saturday morning (Day 2) heading to Thurso, guess what? 'PING' Coach A seat 28 one pint of Jarl please love xx.

[For those who thought 'BWC' stood for 'Because We Can', we now know it's 'Beer, Whisky & Cider'!]