Cumbrian Coast Express 9/4/16

Footage of 46100 storming through Oxenholme heading north yesterday then accelerating hard away from Green Road & Foxfield on the return. Also includes a shot of Northern Rock leaving Eskdale Green on the Ratty.

 

I see (in the close up photos) that "Grampa Simpson" got a ride out on the top lamp bracket again! A more pleasant run for 'him' yesterday than his trip along the North Wales Coast!

 

Some really great pictures.

A real shame for those passengers at Preston, that is disgraceful treatment, and how in 3 hours no-one could contact those passengers is even worse. I really don't get how it would take two hours on to add an extra coach on arrival at Carnforth. I could see that it would take two hours to prepare an extra coach and add it too the back of the support coach, but it takes longer for the two hours for a journey from Southall - Euston - Carnforth... What is the difference between attaching just a loco and support coach & a loco, support coach and extra carriage? I've still no bitten the bullet and booked for main line steam, and it is incidents like this that put me off.

 

The fireman was Danny Davin who works at Crewe in the week.

 

When I got home late last night there was a message on my answerphone from another elderly enthusiast (who doesn't have a computer) asking me to ring him to let him know what happened yesterday. He was booked on the CCE and was waiting at Preston, but following the untrue "cancellation" announcements went home before the train passed through.

We are both early risers & I have just spoken to him. I have never known him to be so angry in thirty+ years. When he had calmed down he went through various solutions to the problem all of which would have worked, all of which were entirely sensible and all of which were obvious to anyone but a complete imbecile.

Finally he offered one last solution which seems to me the most likely explanation. "Perhaps the bloke at West coast doesn't have that many brain cells, though I've always been told everyone however stupid must have at least two. In his case one must have contained a complete vacuum and the other was air only".

He is yet another customer RTC/WCR won't see again.

 

Can someone please remind us what compensation RTC have given to the stranded passengers when this happened before? Someone up thread mentioned Newbury, and there was also Filton on 30 November 2013. As a frequent customer of RTC (as well as other tour promoters) I did contact them at the time to ask what systems they were putting in place to prevent anything like what happened to the Filton passengers from happening again. I received no answer. Against my better judgement I have booked with them subsequently, but whether I will again after this latest incident will depend on what they do.

 

In situations like this, communication is everything and on this occasion communications failed miserably. The question is though, at what stage in the communication chain did it all go so badly wrong?

 

Doesn't matter really. It's clearly RTC's responsibility as the promoter who sold the tickets to customers. It wouldn't have been rocket science for the Train Manager to notice they were a coach short at Euston. Don't need a calculator as a count of nine can be done on fingers and thumbs!!! The coach seating sheets are normally distributed to the stewards on the platform before departure and even of they weren't they had hours to contact Control and Preston Station before the train was due there. No excuse.

 

Neither of us know what transpired when the coach problem was discovered but have you considered that a message was sent forward to Preston but it was miscommunicated to the waiting passengers? Some announcements were made apparently but unintelligible/inaccurate according to reports. Whatever one's viewpoint on yesterday's fiasco, without accurate inside info, what we post is all supposition.

 

Yes but Preston has always been a good station for steam and charters. The staff have always been helpful and there have been late running messages on the scrolling screens before now. It's possible but the fact still remains it was RTCs responsibility to get the information to their paying passengers.

 

Just to be clear, the lady from RTC told me she had given a script to the staff at Preston station. She did not like to hear that the screen simply showed cancelled and there was apparently an unintelligible three word announcement. I spoke to a chap in the information place on platforms 3 and 4 at Preston, he said 'oh we just heard a few minutes ago it's not going to stop'. So, to me it's like that old army story where information is completely degraded as it passes down the chain. Not good.

Judging by the timing of events I suspect that they did not finally decide what they were doing until the train reached Nuneaton or Crewe, when finding themselves with a full train they were between a rock and a hard place. Ralph will probably know but he's probably still recovering from putting people on buses to Newport.

 

I suppose that would depend on whether the signalling permitted that move and if the move with passengers on board were permitted. As Johnb says - in the current climate ?
But I would have thought the obvious would have been a short p/u stop at Oxenholme with the Preston passengers getting there by train or bus ? .
The lack of resilience on the modern railway is astounding.

 

A lady called Sue Millard has found a monopod which somebody left at Greenholme yesterday.

Please can any claimant add a comment here, including contact details?

Afraid I cannot email direct to those who leave comments on my site.

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/Northwesttrains/North-West-trains-2016/i-9fTvkqG

HTH

Andrew N

 

There is NO speculation that the train did not stop at Preston. Blaming another organisation for the misgivings of another is an unacceptable cop out. There was nothing preventing the train stopping at Preston and a rational discussion being held with affected passengers by the organising company. That they didn't smacks of cowardice. Making excuses is a waste of time. This was disgraceful. As others have posted, they had HOURS to come up with a solution.

 

Some of the posts seeking to shift the responsibility for particular outcomes are quite absurd. What should happen after an episode like this is some root cause analysis. Which may happen behind the scenes in due course to put some measures in place to deal with what is a foreseeable event. By that I mean rolling stock failures are always possible so a reasonable and proportionate contingency for such an eventuality should exist. It doesn't seem any different than dealing with a loco failure in many ways.

 

I hadn't noticed that! Thought it was a reflection on the shiny smokebox door.