Trivia: Odd or Bizarre moments in the rail industry

[CaptainHaddock]

The Woodhead line, a transpennine electrified rail route between Yorkshire and Manchester, being closed down in 1981 then over 40 years later the government spending millions on electrifying a different transpennine rail route between Yorkshire and Manchester!

 

[gg1]

Building a single track route in the 21st century without passive provision for possible dualling in the future.

I'm referring of course to the Borders Railway.

 

[GordonT]

The scam involving some buffet staff in BR days who were bringing in unauthorised edibles, selling them and pocketing the income including significant profits which supplemented their wages.

 

[Bertie the bus]

Blackpool – Liverpool being electrified utilising Class 319s. Then in the space of just over 5 years the 319s being replaced by 331s which were replaced by 319s, which were replaced by 331s. My suspicion is these will (soon) be replaced by 323s and when they are withdrawn will be replaced by 331s.

 

[Train Maniac]

How about that time in the early 00's when they top and tailed cl 33s on the GOBLIN?

 

[JJmoogle]

That mad period of Virgin Fever where Richard Branson was always pretending to drive a train

Prescott overrulling a council to allow the construction of a Tesco over a tunnel, only for the tunnel to collapse mid-construction

The complete gap in rolling stock production that saw Slammers, Pacers, and (as much as it pains me) HSTs to last for years, or even decades longer as frontline trains than had ever been expected.

 

[yorksrob]

The complete gap in rolling stock production that saw Slammers, Pacers, and (as much as it pains me) HSTs to last for years, or even decades longer as frontline trains than had ever been expected.

I suppose the slammers lasting longer was a bonus

 

[43066]

I suppose the slammers lasting longer was a bonus

Yep, many of us remember them fondly!

 

[yorksrob]

Yep, many of us remember them fondly!

Indeed Real trains.

 

[Halish Railway]

The rather unbelievable incident in which someone tried to stop a Voyager moving with his bare hands.

https://x.com/IanHardie9018/status/1286711979391033346?s=20

 

[ruaival]

Penmanshiel Tunnel​

collapsed during electrification works in the late 70s and - if I recall correctly - required a complete rescheduling of all BR routes across the UK to accommodate the displaced East Coast passenger and freight movements.

It is an eery place when seen by bicycle, road or rail today; just adjacent to the now eiectrified ECML.

 

[Iskra]

TPE’s very short-lived class 68 & Mk3 service.

London Necropolis Railway

Freight HST’s

Tornado hauling Northern Rail passenger services

The Staycation Express was also executed a bit weirdly by not running at least Skipton-Carlisle.

Strictly limiting competition on a 'privatised' railway

 

[Deepgreen]

Bulleid Pacifics slipping even when starting off light engine.

Getting both Oxford and Bath part-ready for electrification - and then giving up.

They weren't the only ones - any loco could be made to slip with vigorous regulator treatment and I have seen many old clips of various classes doing so when running light engine.

The Killin branch, worked by gravity until its closure in 1965.

How about when SNCF ordered 2,000 new trains to only find out they were too wide for the platforms.

"Trains", or carriages?

 

[Dr Hoo]

British Railways paying Tony Hancock to make derogatory "Hancock Reports" about BR in order to discourage rail travel. He received about half as much as Dr Beeching got as chairman.

This was a campaign to put the 'Reshaping Report' and the wider state of the railways into context. It was published as an illustrated booklet by BR around the end of 1963 but copies are now very scarce. (There is a 'page-turn' video on youTube, with no commentary.)

Tony set out a series of 'what's wrong with the railways' comments and there was a point-by-point rebuttal about what BR was doing about it - more diesel traction and other modernisation, a developing 'inter city' product (although not branded as such), campaigning for staggered or more flexible working hours to reduce commuter crowding, modernising Victorian stations, encouraging passengers not to drop litter and so on.

Whilst the style may seem rather dated now the fact was that the public were more likely to engage with the issues when led by a popular entertainer rather than by a politician or a railway manager. The aim was firmly on education rather than dissuasion.

 

[Trackman]

"Trains", or carriages?

Trains themselves.
See the YouTube clip below with some explaining what went wrong on the BBC.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Trains themselves.
See the YouTube clip below with some explaining what went wrong on the BBC.

341 trains - 2,000 carriages.

New French trains too big for stations

www.ft.com

A mistake often made, by the BBC and others. (They recently said SWR are getting 750 new trains, there are actually 90 (or 75 if you accxept that most of the 5-car sets will spend most of their time running around in pairs)

 

[popeter45]

gatwick express replacing brand new 460's with 442's

 

[norbitonflyer]

gatwick express replacing brand new 460's with 442's

Hardly brand new - they were 12 years old. (Three times as old as the Nova 3s)

 

[Howardh]

Some good ones but Pacer trains has been alluded to, putting a train on a bus chassis which was screechy, bouncy, draughty, had third world toilets, often gave you a soaking; yet it's one hack of an argument that it saved many a line from closure.

But the most odd/bizarre bit must be that some fell in love with them...

 

[Western 52]

Published timetables- a work of fiction for many TOCs these days!

 

[MotCO]

Jeremy Corbyn sitting on the floor pretending the train was full when there were empty seats.

 

[Western 52]

Watching loaded coal trains passing in opposite directions simultaneously between Cardiff and Newport in the 1980s (and before).

 

[GordonT]

gatwick express replacing brand new 460's with 442's

Gatwick Express given TOC status despite its operation consisting of one service with a journey time of half an hour.

 

[Rescars]

Anyone remember the "wrong sort of snow" event in 1991? My train home took over five hours to get from London Bridge to East Croydon.

 

[Egg Centric]

Tickets. Technically not a "moment", but if we integrate then every moment gets more bizarre.

 

[Mat17]

Half of 101680 being repainted into Regional Railways livery with full branding in 2002, about four years after the company had ceased to exist and less than a year before the set was withdrawn and all because they didn't want a mismatch of liveries nor did FNW want to put their brand on it. The other half was left scruffy and full of rust patches.

 

[Tracked]

TPE’s very short-lived class 68 & Mk3 service.

Or, sometime around 2019: TPE advertising the need for bike reservations on Cleethorpes-Manchester services for the new trains they were introducing. None of which - at the time - were planned to be used on Cleethorpes-Manchester services. The less said about the year or so of training drivers on the 68's on the same line, involving lots of cancelled services, for around 6 months of actual use in service, the better

 

[manmikey]

Building a 225mph shuttle between old oak common and Birmingham Curzon Street

 

[norbitonflyer]

Watching loaded coal trains passing in opposite directions simultaneously between Cardiff and Newport in the 1980s (and before).

It was remarked at the time of Great Heck that there was an irony in a trainload of imported coal travelling across the largest and most modern coalfield in Western Europe - recently closed.

Some good ones but Pacer trains has been alluded to, putting a train on a bus chassis

Other way round - it was a rail wagon chassis with a bus-type body. (Not, as many alleged, second hand buses, but new bodies to what was by then a 13-year old design)

One bizarre event I recall reading about, but did not witness, was the result of a power failure at Dover Marine (as it then was). An MLV, on battery power, was pressed into service to ferry passengers up the hill to Dover Priory station where a train to Victoria was waiting. Standing room only, obviously!

 

[Tester]

One bizarre event I recall reading about, but did not witness, was the result of a power failure at Dover Marine (as it then was). An MLV, on battery power, was pressed into service to ferry passengers up the hill to Dover Priory station where a train to Victoria was waiting. Standing room only, obviously!

That is interesting!

Did it make more than one run?