Winter CME's, February 2012.

Wow you went to Shap on the way back ! You win the bravery award !...
i only saw 4 people linesiding the return trip on Shap... But that's because most of it I couldnt see zip!

 

A 125mph train lost 19 minutes following a 60mph train up Shap - why should the 60mph be allowed to continue in front of it?

 

Excellent. I especially like the carriage lights reflecting off the snow at Shap.

John

 

?? Is that in reply to something?

 

The railtour was being followed by a Pendolino which was being followed by a Super Voyager.

 

It was your query at the end that puzzled me ..

. We were loooped so I don't understand it?

 

Well, all reight, but doan't let it 'appen again. :nono:

 

My question is aimed at those who think the railtour got a hard deal by being regulated against Virgin's WCML services.

 

All of which was followed by an Arriva 57, and the entire list you gave and the railtour was preceded by a a DRS 66 which was later occupying the loop before Penrith...meaning if the railtour stopped at the next available spot... It would've been blocking the platform at Penrith for the Pendo.. So it had to keep going.

It was a Bold decision to let the tour go at 1630, with the 1649 coming on time, but not the tours fault it was 1630 and not 1614, that was down to NR... That's 16 of your 19 minutes. The other 4 were waiting to get into Grayrigg loop, which wasn't ready to receive the train.

 

OK - do they exist?

 

Not just passenger trains though. At Greyrigg, we had two Pendos and a light-engine go past before we were allowed out.

Richard

 

Why would the railtour have stopped at Penrith?

 

It was odd waiting 15 minutes for a platform...
although an inbound Pendo took the route without stopping, 1 pendo also came out of euston.. nothing else came out during that time.

So the platform must still have been available.

 

Using your example...to let the Pendo past.. There was no where before Shap for it to pass.
unless your suggesting holding the tour until 1715 and an arrival after midnight, after the last service from Euston had left, and the underground closed ? On a night as it was, and unknown conditions around Bletchley ?

 

Maybe a bit harsh, the weather conditions were bad, and still emerging.

Tbh I think as it was everything turned out very well in less than stellar circumstance.
sure the risks were there and it could have gone wrong... But as it turned out everything went ok apart from a delay to our train... others were canceled outright, abandoned, turned back etc etc.....
my journey from Euston to Canary Wharf was the hardest part of the day...l and considering there was several hundreds of people milling around Euston when only 2 services were left that evening.. I guess many other travel plans did not go to plan.?. Noticeably we had no delay around Bletchley.. I felt for the engineers who were working to relay the tracks there in a snow storm.

 

Way, way back in the nineties I recall we were held outside Waverley for a quarter of an hour with 75014 while they emptied the station of everything going southbound - and these were the last long distance runners of the night.

We were then given access - but how were we to get home?

Cue me leading an angry group straight into the Railtrack glass box and demanding to see the night controller to bone him fact face about what he thought he was playing at and how some 400 folks were to get home! Clueless behaviour as regards slf is nothing new.

Needless to say he wasn't available - but the word was put out out.

We caught the 20.20 GNER to York which had a minus six minute connection into the 23.06 to Manchester. The guard came down and asked were we the trans Pennine contingent. When we confirmed it he gave us a big wink and said "don't worry lads - you won't have to wait at York until 02.00"

Off we went until near Morpeth some scrote heaved a rock through the driver's windscreen - into Newcastle - reverse of the King Edward Bridge so north end now leading - into York at 22.55 - home for shortly after midnight!

Well done railwaymen - no thanks to control!

So what changes???

 

Giving trains different priorities is nothing new, neither is it an 'attitude' but an historic and accepted way of minimising delays - no one has forgotten there are passengers on charters, but signallers have to look at the bigger picture and delaying one train-load of people on a day out is far preferable to delaying services which are interworked with others and timetabled through the various bottlenecks of the railway network, often forming other services later in the day - the affects ripple outwards far greater than delays to charters do.

Realistically, such delays and regulation of the service will never go away, so its a choice between the risk of being delayed or more conservative pathing, with earlier starts and later finishes over less congested routes. I think most people would prefer things the way they are, as imperfect as it is.

Chris

 

Some excellent comments on here about the tour, and having just re-read everyones contributions, its amazing what stands in the way of an easy flowing railway system; ie points failure; signal failure; platform availability; all frequently mentioned. I'm glad it was so enjoyed though (apart from arrival at Euston) but can someone remind me what the recommended max load is for the Black 5. She did seem to be handling the hills very well and whilst I really really don't wish to start a 'diesels on front' thing here, I assume she was trusted to get the job done, especially as other 'things' seem to be getting stuck !!! Once again, super write ups, fabulous vids, sure you're all looking forward to the next one .