Spring/Summer/Autumn 2018 CMEs

Hobsons choice I suspect as the following NT service was already delayed (aren't they able to do that to themselves without assistance everyday?). So I guess you work the steam loco gently rather than wait ages for a rescue unit and screw up loads more services. Risk was assessed I guess and proved correct.

 

Thanks Henry , it got me out of the house LOL .

 

Very much so and some permission from network control may have contributed to the delay perhaps. The only alternative modes would be rescue loco from 10A via Hellifield wrong line or having had a tail loco but who could know a diesel might fail in those circumstances? No doubt added to the fun of the day for passengers and crew alike, alls well that ends well.
Was it the same 37 that continued from Hellifield or a replacement? Perhaps the one supposed to chaperone the 8F back to 10A took over?

 

Looks like 668 or 669 in @sgthompson video at Birkett and 706 at Horrocksford according to @Cal.N . The LE working from Hellifield back to Carnforth ran two hours late so I'm guessing they may have had to send another one out to rescue.

Whose job is it to assess the situation and report? The train manager?

 

I think TOCs have duty operations managers who probably manage and make decisions on out of course events.

 

My mates shot of Les Ross at Shap Wells .

 

The 37 that was with the 8F was ment to take it back to Carnforth the 37 at Hellifield was the one to take the train forward to Farington Jn. There is a full steam ban on the WCML,steam on the S & C is okay with a diesel i was told by a West Coast person on the train.

 

As the steam traction ban was imposed by Network Rail, any agreement of using the steam loco to effectively move the failed diesel would need to be authorised by NR Route Control. Any such movement would need to be agreed by the Route Control Manager or on call Operations Manger. ( The titles of the roles may have changed again, they do every few years.)

Cheers, Neil

PS This is just one tiny illustration of the duplication of decision making caused by privatisation. Some areas are lucky where NR and the main TOC for an area share a control office. ( Mainly south of the Thames!) I pity the controllers around Manchester or West Yorkshire....

 

Very informative and illustrates what a convoluted process must have been gone through in order for common sense to gain its' course.

 

37669 + 48151 + POB detached from the train at Hellifield & 37706, already at Hellifield took the train on to Farrington.

 

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/sea...1/0600-2000?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt&toc=WR

Timings for saturdays train from Crewe to Carlisle. Any ideas how this will be affected by the WCML steam ban?

 

Well it was bound to happen sometime :-
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ban-north-east-england-united-utilities-water

And isn't there a certain irony to the first hosepipe ban being in an area of normally high rainfall. Looking increasingly like the diesels are going to have a busy summer .

Unless of course it's the opening gambit to the national rain dance !

 

This steam ban would be so much more tolerable if we had a few Deltic's and Western's as replacements for steam !

 

E ticket for Cumbrian Mountain Express on Saturday has arrived

We will be steam hauled from Carnforth to Carlisle and from Carlisle to Preston around the Settle
and Carlisle line by 45699 Galatea, 45690 Leander or 8F No 48151. We shall be diesel hauled from
Crewe to Carnforth and Preston to Crewe.

Please note due to the current dry weather conditions this train will be assisted by a diesel
locomotive throughout, at the request of our operating company and Network Rail, in conjunction
with their policies at times of high fire risk.

 

Cue more froth about T & C's/paragraph positioning and wording!

 

Interesting. That's a relaxation of the previous "no steam on any part of the WCML" ruling. Good.

 

Booked on this ages ago and I will be travelling, what else would you be doing now that the football has finished. On and off at Preston (H/24F), originally chose Bolton - that bit the dust months ago, then it was Wigan NW for few extra steam miles - now it's cut your losses and the 15 miles to Preston. It is good news that assisted steam is going to be permitted north from Carnforth - but I'm not getting too carried away until I see it; things can change quickly. Good of RTC (WCRC) to narrow down the possible loco and there was me expecting 46115 or 6201 - more seriously 48151 - really? 63 miles in 77 minutes is only 49 mph and might be nearly possible for 48151 with vigorous assistance - but a late start from Carnforth (never, I hear you say) would be unrecoverable (is that a word?).

Oswald T Wistle (from the overcast dust bowl that used to be Darwen)

 

Time will tell. But the RTC office is not usually too clued up and I suspect they have simply copied earlier tickets. AN

 

The current paths on RTT support the info in the letter, i.e. no path to Carlisle via Hellifield for the assisted steam loco, plus an early evening path from Carnforth to Preston (to work the train back to Crewe?) and a path from Preston to 10A (to return the assisted steam?). As you say, Time will tell.

 

Think of all the different traction you're getting for the same price as normal, can't beat a bit of spin and win.