For the first time since the 1980s, the sight of a mainline Santa Special from London was back, with Steam Dreams running 4 days of trips, consisting of 3 Santa trips, and an evening Christmas circular.

The 2nd day of these trips, on Tuesday 14th December, paid particular interest, as they would be hauled by 35028 Clan Line, instead of 61306 Mayflower. This was the second time this year Clan Line would operate trains with WCRC, and her first Steam Dreams duty in 8 years.

The video begins with the unique sight of 35028 recreating steam days by backing onto the coaches at London Victoria, where all the trips started. With the stock coming from Southall, and Clan Line based at Stewarts Ln in Battersea, it was easier to have her meet the stock there. More unusally, she was seen without the MNLPS support coach, which unlike the Steam Dreams stock, isn't vacuum braked.

The first Santa trip was a circular via Kensington, South Acton, Hounslow, Whitton, and Clapham Junction, steam hauled throughout. This would see another rare sight, steam using the line from Hounslow to Whitton to turn around and head back to London, rather than head to Feltham, and we see the train on this very curve, captured from Stephenson Road.

The second and third trips would then be diesel hauled to Willesden via Clapham Junction, Barnes Bridge and South Acton, with steam then hauling the train back in reverse of that route. We see the second trip firstly at Chiswick, before next capturing 35028 disappointingly coasting up into Barnes Bridge, due to the signal after the station being red until the last moment. We stay at Barnes Bridge for the outward of the third train, before heading back to Chiswick for Clan Line to return it. What should've been a wait of no more than an hour, turned into 90 minutes as there was a points issue at Willesden, which was eventually rectified, and 35028 finally passed us around 53 minutes late.

The stock was then returned to Willesden for servicing via Kensington, and then travelled back to Victoria via the return route of the 2nd and 3rd Santa trains. The train was still nearly 40 minutes late as it passed us at Putney.

The evening circular saw the train make use of the Hounslow loop again, travelling firstly to Hounslow, looping back around to Whitton to return to Clapham Junction, then veering off to Kensington, South Acton, and rejoining the Hounslow loop again at Brentford for a second trip round the loop.

The crew managed to leave Victoria exactly half an hour down, and the performance from Clan Line made their intentions to make up time obvious, as Driver Bob Baines had the regulator wide open through Barnes Bridge station. This was followed by a bridge overlooking Barnes (don't get confused between the two). Finally, we were able to get one more shot on the island platform at North Sheen. Having been signal checked by the level crossing, Clan Line's 3 cylinder beat was audible once again, as she powered her train through the station and into the night.

All in all, a very mixed but rewarding day, one where we never found ourselves more than 20 miles away from the capital!

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