The Railway Magazine – July 2019

GWR‘Castle’HST short set, led by No. 43187 with Welsh Dragon logo and

43170 at the rear, seen alongside the River Exe estuary at Powderham on

May 25 with the 17.36 Plymouth-Exeter St David’s train.PAUL A BIGGS

Testing of Hitachi Class 800 units for LNER continues north of the border, and on June 2, set
No. 800105 is on the approach to Arbroath.JIM RAMSAY

Operations Track Record

110 •The Railway Magazine• July 2019

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THE early May bankholiday
weekend saw the WCML closed
between Carstairs South
Junction and Gretna Junction,
with engineering work being
undertaken at various sites.
At Abington the work was to
replace four sets of switches and
crossings, with an associated
upgrade to the signalling system
and renewal of about 475 yards
of plain line.
The trains on site on Saturday,
May 4 included DBC Class 66
No. 66020 on the 6K01/05.13
from Carlisle NewYard; GBRf
Class 66 No. 66744 on the
6X04/05.44 from Carlisle New
Yard; DRS Class 66 No. 66433
on the 6K02/06.15 from
Carlisle NewYard; FL Class 66
No. 66593 on the 6K03/06.45
from Carlisle NewYard; DBC
Class 66 Nos. 66135 and 66057
top-and-tailing the 6X05/06.32
from Millerhill; and DRS Class
66 No. 66429 on the 6K06/05.56
from Millerhill.
On Sunday, May 5, tamping
was much in evidence at
Carstairs, with DR73932,
a switches and crossing tamper,
working on the Down main
line, and another unidentified
machine on the up line.

FURTHER engineering works in
the Cove area from about 11.00
on Saturday, May 18 resulted
in the line being closed until
around 13.00 the following day.
Trains involved included
on Saturday, May 18 Class 66
No. 66555 with the 6K11/07.23
Millerhill-Cove; No. 66105
with the 6K13/05.27 Millerhill-
Cove; and No. 66169 with the

6K14/10.22 Millerhill-Cove.

The following weekend the

WCML was closed between

Rutherglen and Carstairs.

ScotRail trains operated

between Glasgow Central

and Wishaw (via Belshill and

Holytown), with replacement

buses serving Motherwell,

Shieldmuir, Carluke and Lanark/

Carstairs. In connection with this

closure Class 66 No. 66007 was

seen in the Ravenstruther area

on the Saturday morning while

on ballast train 6K01/04.52 from

Millerhill.

THE northbound 06.15 departure

fromWarrington Bank Quay for

Carlisle on Saturday, May 24,

was failed in the platform, with a

directional fault, which meant it

could not be driven north.

The passengers were kept

abreast of the situation, and a

novel solution was found by

Virgin.They halted the 06.45 for

Euston in platform 1, with both

sets of passengers detraining

and swapping trains.

The northbound departed at

06.50, and ran wrong line for a

few miles, before crossing over

at the next junction.

The southbound departure

would presumably have

departed a few minutes late, but

no cancellations were necessary.

THERE were overhead line

problems on the West Coast

Main Line between Wigan

and Preston on the morning

of Friday, May 24, but by early

afternoon the line was open

again, albeit there was some

congestion because of the build-

up of late trains.

The 13.09 Virgin departure

from Crewe to Edinburgh was

a few minutes late, but it was

announced on the train it would

run through to Edinburgh.

However, on reaching

Preston about 40 minutes late,

passengers were told the train

would be terminating there.

No explanation was given,

and all passengers on this fairly

full 11-car‘Pendolino’were

deposited at Preston station

and told to wait for the next

Edinburgh train.

This happened to be a

TransPennine Express, so clearly

only a small proportion of the

‘Pendolino’passengers could be

accommodated.

SERIOUS disruption occurred

on the West Coast Main Line

on Tuesday, May 28, with all

movements between Symington

and Greskine at a stand because

of a loss of signalling.

The worst affected trains were

the 1M19/18.40 Glasgow-

Euston, which arrived at Preston

100 minutes late and was

terminated.

The 4M11/18.52 Coatbridge-

Crewe Basford Hall was delayed

by 191 minutes, the 9M62/18.52

Edinburgh-Birmingham New

Street by 115 minutes, the

4S44/12.13 Daventry (Tesco)-

Mossend Euroterminal was 166

minutes late, and the 9S80/14.43

Euston-Edinburgh was 91

minutes late.

NUMEROUS test runs of‘Azuma’

units have been reported,

including on May 5, No. 800106 on

an 11.45 Leeds-King’s Cross test.

On May 13, No. 801102 was

noted at platform 4 at King’s Cross.

Two days later No. 800108 was

observed standing at platform 7

atYork.

The following day, May 16,

No. 800108 was seen leavingYork

on the 5Q20 HeatonT&RSMD to

Retford testing/training run.

On the same day, No. 800106

passed throughYork with a

late-running 5Q58TyneYard to

Doncaster Depot testing/training

run.This was running 38 minutes

late at this point, passing through

York at 10.50 (booked time 10.12).

Three and a half hours at

Peterborough (also on May

16) produced the following:

No. 800201 on the 5Q70/09.26

Doncaster Carr-Peterborough,

Transport for Wales-liveried Class 158 No. 158830 crosses Barmouth

Bridge in the direction of Barmouth on May 11 with a working

from Machynlleth to Pwllheli. The damp sea air is discolouring the

historic bridge and a few coats of paint look justified.

GARY BRADSHAW