Heritage charters pushing their luck? – Monday July 6 2009
Categories: RAILBlog
As a former editor of Steam Railway magazine (although blimey, it was a long time ago now….) and having had lifelong, hands-on and active involvement in steam railways (37 years this year…ouch), my heritage credentials are proven, I believe.
So, it was with a heavy heart that I found myself being critical of heritage specials on the main line earlier this year when new steam locomotive Tornado’s first jaunt to King’s Cross caused the worst trespass I’ve ever seen, in February. Youtube carried video footage of a Grand Central HST coming to a stand at Holme, so concerned was the driver about the number of camera-toting gricers milling about on and about the track. Websites showed pictures taken from the most dangerous trespass positions imaginable – standing between the down slow and fast, for instance, back to approaching 125mph traffic…..
And now, here we go again, this time with a diesel excursion. Check this out.
Don’t get me wrong, I love seeing vintage diesels at work on Network Rail, but as with steam engines, not everyone in the railway is in support of such activity and incidents like this (which do the rails no good at all) will hardly endear heritage excursions to those in command at Network Rail and within the operating community.
Heritage charters need to be whiter than white if they are not to attract undue attention from those who’d rather not be bothered by such trains on today’s railway.
I love excursions. They are part of the scene and provide great pleasure for a great many people. I’d hate to see them curtailed because of avoidable problems.
I want to continue to see (and hear!) Westerns doing their stuff on our main lines.
But not like this. I’m told this happened because the locomotive was running on one engine, and therefore powering one bogie only.
Comments
Jul 28, 2009
v poor example, you should be able to tell rom the engine noise when it is slipping you shouldn't need to be told!
Jul 13, 2009
Captain Sensible, I think you need to read what I actually said, and not what you seem to think I said, which was: "I’m told this happened because the locomotive was running on one engine, and therefore powering one bogie only." How on earth, from that, do you deduce that I was implying some kind of 'thrash'?! Blimey, and they say journalists are guilty of exagerration! If one engine was out, and the locomotive working on 50 power, it's not going to have the traction needed in some circumstances, and will slip. And that's what seems to have happened. At no point did I say or imply that any 'thrashing' was going on. I might have a view as to how long that slip was allowed to continue, but I didn't get into that. I simply commented that prolonged slips like that - for whatever reason - won't serve the cause of heritage specials any good and certainly don't do the rails any good.
Jul 09, 2009
Nigel, in this instance the driver was attempting to pull away (not as you implied, giving the loco some "thrash"), and when alerted by an engineer in the rear cab the driver immediately throttled down and applied sand to pull away. You may also be interested to know that a ScotRail employee alerted Network Rail to the 3 large gouges in the track, which could easily be mistaken for 3 detonators.
Jul 09, 2009
The Driver should have been removed from the footplate. Utter incompetence.
Jul 07, 2009
Nigel - completely unrelated, but thought it merited a mention if you haven't read about it already: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article6565083.ece I know that Glasgow Central is one of your favourite stations, but at last the adjacent Central Hotel is now being rescued! One of the great railway hotels in the country had scandalously been allowed to go to rack and ruin at the hands of an uncaring owner. Great to see it's back in good hands. Worth mentioning in the next RAIL?
Jul 06, 2009
That's quite horrifying to watch. I don't imagine it would do the loco much good to be driven that way, never mind the track. Surely in that situation the driver ought to apply power gradually and ease off again as soon as wheelslip arises? I'm quite surprised the loco was allowed to take a train up the incline to North Queensferry on one engine unassisted, if that was the case. I'm a former Haymarket driver, and if a first-generation DMU had more than one engine out it wasn't allowed up the hill and would be failed at Inverkeithing and shunted into a siding to await assistance, though schedules and lack of an assisting locomotive no doubt prevented that in this case.
Jul 06, 2009
According to an article about the Sunday Kyle - Bristol return leg of the three-day excursion, D1015 'Western Champion' developed a coolant leak on one engine at Perth. Onboard engineers rectified this by Edinburgh. According to the article, D1015 did run on only one engine between Perth and Edinburgh. No mention of the wheel slip incident in the article though. I can't imagine either NR or D1015's owners, DTG, being very happy at that footage, especialy if it was not reported by the train crew at the time. It isn't very good for the life expectancy of the tyres either!