Jacobite 2023

Many thanks John, much appreciated

 

Excellent piece of video as always, David.

 

Many thanks David, much appreciated. Always good to get north of the border, whatever the weather

 

Morning Jacobite was cancelled this morning according to RTT. Not sure why as I don’t believe train crew was the issue.

 

The life of a multi billionaire...

To meet a booking in Mallaig for 8am yesterday, No. 45407 went out with load 4 from the afternoon rake during the early hours. Unforgettable, we were blessed with sunshine after a fair amount of overnight rain, allowing for some rare scenes that were only last recreated on a single run in 2018.

I'm off to go put on a lottery ticket, I fancy chartering the train several times over for chances like this again


Black 5 No. 45407 'The Lancashire Fusilier' - Loch Dubh by Jonathon Gourlay, on Flickr

*Class 37 on the rear was just behind some bushes, the nose removed off the rear of the rake.

 

The Scotrail service and Royal Scotsman ran OK according to RTT.

Cheers, Neil

 

"Urgent safety repairs" according to a post on WNXXforum. Doesn't state if it's locos or stock, but does seem odd to lose at least three days of work.

 

https://orrprdpubreg1.blob.core.win...st-Railway-Company-Ltd-prohibition-notice.pdf

That looks like the reason for the cancellations

 

That was issued a month ago, and was solved rather quickly to ORR's agreement.

 

Possibly so but why now, that Notice is over a month old?

 

If you haven't fitted central door locking (for whatever reason) and are relying on secondary door locks and proactive stewarding as per your risk assessment then the ORR were always going to come and check. The time and date of the Prohibition Notice 00.01hrs on 15 June is some time ago yet the services continued. Perhaps the safety message to the stewards was reinforced and that was enough to satisfy ORR and to allow services to continue.

Could this break be for window bars to be fitted, secondary locks to be upgraded (or something else)? Presumably this issue was considered generic and hence the rescheduling of the Ffestiniog trip. WCRC appear confident that the issue can be overcome as the Jacobite is cancelled for only 4 days. I doubt if West Coast have helped their cause re the requirement for central door locking.

 

Silly to speculate re the Ffestiniog trip as on the RTC thread, it is reported that there is an operational issue with 44932's boiler.

 

It's been a couple of years since I last travelled on the Jacobite, but on my last ride I was able to stand at a door window from Glenfinnan all the way back to FW, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I took a number of photos with the sun catching the top of Ben Nevis (all limbs firmly inside hasten to add).
And yes, you would be concerned the carriage might capsize given the rush to the LHS to get the money shot when it crosses the viaduct!
I remember thinking at the time it was a little more relaxed up in this neck of the woods, sounds like reality has caught up unfortunately.
On another note, there were a number of occasions where vegetation was very close to the carriage, you certainly would have not wanted to stick anything out - human or gadget.
I suspect it will be a couple more years until I travel again, looking at the price of tickets for it now too.. Doesn't stop the many Japanese Potter fans though!

 

Cancelled for today and tomorrow as well now. Lack of stewards maybe? That prohibition notice said passengers were having to operate secondary bolts themselves.

 

Cancelled up to 20th July now
https://westcoastrailways.co.uk/news/important-travel-information-the-jacobite-1

 

26th