General Conditions

1. All seats are fully reserved and must be booked and paid for in advance.

2. Bookings made by telephone will be acknowledged verbally at the time of booking and an email confirmation will be sent. Bookings made by new customers without an email address will be confirmed by post, with a copy of our terms and conditions.

3. Payment for bookings made by credit or debit card will be taken in full using our secure payment gateway at the time of booking.

4. Transactions will be processed in pound sterling and will appear on your statement as ‘Pathfinder Tours’. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Pathfinder Railtours’ and will be banked three weeks before the date of running.

5. Privacy – We do not store credit card details nor do we share customer details with any 3rd parties. For full details please see our privacy policy (on our website or upon request). We will use any contact information provided to us for marketing purpose. If you do not wish to receive such information, please let us know at the time of booking.

6. Boarding Passes and confirmed travel information will normally be posted to you the week of departure. Please pay particular attention to the departure and arrival times then notified as these may vary from the projected times shown in any marketing material or our website by up to an hour either way.

7. Every effort will be made to ensure that the advertised routing, locomotive(s), coaching stock, timings and other particulars will be as published. Please note that Pathfinder Railtours (’the Company’) reserve the right to alter these at any time due to circumstances outside the Company’s control and as a consequence shall not incur any liability for any such alterations to any person who has bought, or contracted to buy, a boarding pass or passes.

8. The Company shall have no liability for information provided by agents and third parties claiming to act on its behalf unless such information has been confirmed in writing by the Company.

9. The Company shall incur no liability for delays, curtailment, alterations, mishaps or other events that may arise on the day of operation as a result of circumstances outside the Company’s control. In the event of curtailment of the rail operation, the Company will take every reasonable step to return customers to their joining stations, possibly using alternative means of transport.

10. If an excursion is cancelled by the Company a full refund will be made, but no other liability shall be incurred.

11. Boarding Passes are issued subject to these conditions and your application for, and use of, Boarding Pass(es) constitutes acceptance of these.

12. Any concerns arising during the excursion should be raised straight away with your carriage steward so that the matter can be rectified. If the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction a complaint form must be requested from your carriage steward and sent to the Booking Office within two weeks of the excursion date.

13. To comply with our Train Operating Company contracts, it is a condition of travel that passengers do not lean out or hold anything (e.g. cameras, phones, tablets, etc.) out of any train window at any time. Anyone caught window hanging will be given a warning and will be removed from the train at the next safe location, if they do not adhere to these regulations, which are imposed on us by the Office Rail Road (ORR).

14. Any Juniors (under 16 years) must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

15. COVID19 – We operate all our excursions in accordance with the latest Government requirements.

16. Due to the nature of our heritage carriages, we do not have the facility for wheelchair boarding. Passengers must contact our booking office before making a booking if boarding assistance is required.

Customer Cancellation or Booking Alteration

1. Travel and cancellation insurance is highly recommended for full protection and peace of mind.

2. We ask that any cancellations are made in writing by email or post to avoid any mis-understanding.

3. Any change made after a booking has been made and confirmed may attract an alteration fee of £10.

4. Refund requests will be considered in accordance with the following scale for day excursions, expressed as a percentage of the total value of the booking:

– 90% over 28 days before the date of running;

– 75% between 14 and 28 days before the date of running;

– 50% between 5 and 13 days before the date of running;

– NIL within 5 days of the date of running.

All refunds will be made by credit note, which can be used as full or part payment for future excursions and is valid for 12 months.

When four seats are required – please book a party of four as this gives you a discount of £40.00. We are not able to give REFUNDS if four separate seats are booked.

5. For Pathfinder Railtours weekend excursions a different cancellation policy applies, which is available upon request.

6. Parties of 10 or more may attract a group discount – please contact the office for more information.

Part Fares and Reduced Fares

‘Part Fares’ and ‘Reduced Fares’ are available at the discretion of the Company and will generally only be available between advertised joining stations.

Steam Locomotive availability

The Company will use its best efforts to provide the steam traction for excursions rostered for steam haulage for the sectors advertised, but this cannot be guaranteed. On occasion a diesel locomotive may be substituted mainly due to fire risk, drought, industrial disputes, restrictions imposed by third parties or locomotive failure. All steam locomotives are subject to a ‘Fitness to Run’ exam within 24 hours prior to running on the main line which sometimes leads to substitutions at the last minute.