"Land Trains" which have now been withdrawn from the site:
ITV Meridian http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2015-04-07/stonehenge-land-trains/
by Andrew Matthews yesterday:
7 April 2015 at 1:44pm
Popular land trains suddenly withdrawn from Stonehenge.
"All five of the land trains at the popular landmark were suddenly withdrawn at once, last week for 'servicing' - just days before thousands of people were expected to visit the monument for Easter. Yesterday red faced English Heritage - who use the land trains to take tourists from the £27m new Visitors Centre to the Stones - had no idea when they would be returning. Each train carries about 45 passengers, the one and a half mile trip to the Stones. Tourists now have to make the trip in a fleet of buses."
English Heritage say: "They have all gone for the moment. They went about a week ago. We do not know when they will be back. "The land trains are being serviced and will be off site for several weeks while we also take the opportunity to look at design improvements."
Unfortunately, this comment from EH is untrue because the Land Trains have not been in use since January, following some very major problems throughout last year.....and if only they would read this blog, because we told them this would happen in this posting titled: "Uncle Simon's New Tin Shed.....dated 07/01/14....and to save you looking it up, here's what we said:
See the engine huff and puff!...
See the gear box fall out....oh dear! I hear today that the bonnet of one of the land rovers was up again yesterday, and you may even get the chance to use your mechanical skills!!
Wouldn't it have been nice if English Heritage had stuck to their plan to save the environment and decided to use the beautiful Clydesdale horse instead - and all that lovely manure they're missing out on, could be sold for even more money in the coffers!!Instead, what do we have?..... but.....Will, Till, and Lil,
the single decker buses all liveried in EH brown, plus, at busy times, English Heritage find it necessary to use Salisbury Reds too!!!!Now! we have a theory here at STAG H.Q. and it's this.......
In a secretive deal, English Heritage, having failed to get the Land Rover towed land train, to work efficiently, have clinched a deal with the operators of Hengistbury Head's www.visithengistburyhead.co.uk "Noddy Train" to purchase all of their rolling stock.
All of the redundant rolling stock from the latter, will be re-liveried in EH's brown colour; upgraded to accomodate the increased payload, seats widened, and trailers re-plated to deal with this increased payload, and pressed into service using the new tractor units "double header" Land Rovers using the new, Euro 6 compliant engines. Land Rover say they have every confidence the 6.0 litre turbo diesel engines will be ready by launch date of Octember the nurth 2022, and that any issues pulling the 42 tonne GVW carriages will have been resolved by the launch date!
