659 late - is this a record for a passenger train?
I was 450 late, on an inbound eurostar, before. That was bad enough at the time. Can't imagine being 659 late!
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Caledonian Sleeper
- Thread starter Essexman
- Start date
I was 450 late, on an inbound eurostar, before. That was bad enough at the time. Can't imagine being 659 late!
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RailUK Forums
In that position I doubt any passengers will be caring what facilities Dumbarton has. Some of them will be prematurely thankful they're finally getting on a train only to be massively disappointed, some of them will wonder why they couldn't have stayed on the coach.
All of them will be very annoyed.
They would be better putting them on to the train at Dalmuir, which does have a car park alongside the platform used by the WHL train. Of course the coach will have much more comfortable seats than the train, since no coach operator would be mad enough to fit hard seats.
BTW, the late morning train from FW, mentioned by an earlier poster, will run all winter from this year.
BTW, the late morning train from FW, mentioned by an earlier poster, will run all winter from this year.
causton
Established Member
The driver of the replacement loco did did not have route knowledge up to where the failed train was, and the failed train was in the middle of nowhere so, (and this is genuinely what happened!) - the MOM went up on a Road-Rail Vehicle to the failed train, took the driver back to a road to drive them down to the replacement loco.
And then the replacement loco broke down and the first one started working.
All in all, 5/10!
Well, it had to get from Polmadie to Helensburgh Upper at that point it had to wait for the driver of the sleeper to make their way to Helensburgh to collect it (as the driver from Polmadie didn't sign beyond there) which required a Network Rail MOM to bring a road-rail vehicle to collect them as the nearest access point to the failed train was some three miles away over moor land, then they had to drive the loco back to the sleeper and hook it all together and then, seemingly, the rescue locomotive itself was not in the best of health...
causton
Established Member
Thanks for posting that at the same time, otherwise I feared nobody would believe us!
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
Good stuff. Not having it was basically throwing away custom from the South East (I'm not sure you could even make Birmingham), and there's clearly the demand because the coach is often fully booked.
It's quite a tale isn't it! I've heard that the initial plan was for the driver to make their own way to Helensburgh. Considering the remoteness of the location and the distance involved I can only imagine that the drivers response to that plan would not have been considered suitable for pre-watershed broadcast
causton
Established Member
EE Andy b1
Established Member
Good lord. I mean, that's just a chain of circumstances that's about as unfortunate as you can get. If anything proves that the universe has a sense of humour...
MrEd
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It's quite a tale isn't it! I've heard that the initial plan was for the driver to make their own way to Helensburgh. Considering the remoteness of the location and the distance involved I can only imagine that the drivers response to that plan would not have been considered suitable for pre-watershed broadcast
Must have been a horrendous shift for the poor driver, especially as he was probably trying his best to find the fault on the 73 for at least an hour. What actually happened to 73971, and at what point was it declared a failure? I’m wondering too whether the train still had ETS all the time that it was standing at Fersit?
MrEd
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If they’re at 25% staffing, then there are only two hosts for six sleeping cars and there is definitely no-one to work a lounge car, as the two hosts will be way too busy with check-in. This would definitely explain the unavailability of lounge car service and breakfast on the short-staffed Inverness portion that night.
I don’t actually think that there is much staff flexibility; all crew bases are fully stretched at the moment and there certainly aren’t many spare staff. Train managers are obviously limited by route knowledge, but occasionally the Scottish-based hosts work different services from those originating at their home base, particularly if a base is short-staffed - the Inverness-based hosts can occasionally be called upon to work the Aberdeen and Fort William portions, and Fort William and Aberdeen hosts can occasionally be called upon to work the Inverness portion, for instance. London hosts always start and finish in London but are generally rostered to work to all five Scottish destinations, generally on a rotation.
EE Andy b1
Established Member
If i was GBrf i would get a few more 73/9 re-builds done.
Biggest problem now is the rescue locomotive has to be dellner coupler fitted as Mk5 Sleepers are all dellner couplers.
Who came up with that great idea as these are not multiple units.
Biggest problem now is the rescue locomotive has to be dellner coupler fitted as Mk5 Sleepers are all dellner couplers.
Who came up with that great idea as these are not multiple units.
They are, just unpowered ones! What's worrying is - as happened earlier this year when there was a breakdown on the HML the rescue loco was delayed as it needed to be fuelled first - could you imagine Tracy island receiving the call for thunderbird 2 and saying, sure we'll save the world, just got to fuel it first!!
tsr
Established Member
As reported directly to me by the relevant Network Rail controllers...
No idea where you're getting that from, but they didn't even have one member of platform staff to dispatch off Platform 10, thereby clogging up the Up Bay, Down Slow and (briefly) the Up Slow with displaced trains. So I'd say they did run out of dispatch staff, and Network Rail advise they were dealing with the problem on the Caledonian Sleeper, so...
Apologies, the 37 question was rhetorical, I didn’t make that very clear though. Thank you for a most interesting post, love to read things like that.
To be fair, CS don't actually have any thunderbirds in the conventional sense; not like the strategically-placed, ready-to-go-as-soon-as-possible 67s on the East Coast, and 57s on the West (which, incidentally, are the only two operators with dedicated "thunderbirds" so CS aren't unique).
Of course, until the mk5 coaches land on the WHL, GBRF do have a 66 on hand at Fort William during the nights of sun, tues, thurs and sat that could help. Another sods law that it was a day the bulks had ran south in the morning.
I would guess the mk5 would maybe have an emergency coupler that would be used in future maybe? Anyone know at all?
Scotrail84
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There will be no other coupler fitted other than the current dellner making rescues impossible unless its a 73 or 92 to the rescue.
Scotrail84
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Scotrail84
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Thanks for the reply, I think that’s a bit short sighted especially for failures on single line, but hey ho.
Scotrail84
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I agree, this will happen again at some point.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
No, they aren’t. You are thinking of the TPE sets.
Aren't they! My mistake, I thought that the sets were split in two, had a computer each etc, that being the reason only half the train slammed the brakes on a couple of weeks ago. Because they were basically fixed formations, unpowered sets (8TC's - without the 'C'!)
I should really read the forum properly in future
I should really read the forum properly in future
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HamworthyGoods
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Rescues will be possible by other locos but will require an emergency adapter fitted to the loco. The train generally then has to run at a reduced speed, as it’s then no longer ‘through braked’ examples being when ECML 67s have rescued 365s.
Or as the 73s and 92s retain buckeyes you could use the ‘failed’ loco as a translator (you can set them up with dellner one end and buckeye the other)
Obviously it’s preferable to have a 73 or 92 rescue as they are fully compatible but that won’t always be possible. I presume 57/3s with Dellner couplings could rescue too?
Butts
Veteran Member
The way things are going a "pacer" would be a better bet from Euston to Inverness.......you could then extend the trip to two "nights of luxury"
Sleeping bags on the floor - which is probably more comfortable than the seats provided in said bus on wheels.
Sleeping bags on the floor - which is probably more comfortable than the seats provided in said bus on wheels.