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Bad day on the ECML 31/3/2022

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merry

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Well, it looks like a heap of problems on the East Coast today.

Item tangled in the wires Morpeth-Newcastle, broken train Newark-Grantham, and some fairly desperate measures to restore some service in the remaining bits!
I believe some other issues earlier as well. I'm sure someone on here will know what's really happened and tell us more!

Pretty much everything (except the 1730 Edinburgh and 1648 Sunderland) is cancelled until at least the 1830 Edinburgh (now expected at 1911).

Plus the LNER Website is tellling big porkie pies on at least some KGX live arrivals - snap taken 1630:

1648740903362.png
For sure the 1431, 1440, 1551 are not on time. Thankfully the National Rail site has real data:
1648741072824.png

As I've suspected for a long time now, TOC-provided running data is not to be trusted, even on station displays sometimes. At least without corroboratoin from primary sources like NR or OpenTrainTimes, etc.

Psrt of the desperate measures include cancellling the mid-afternoon Lincoln - KGX & restarting it from Grantham (presumably by using another service unable to proceed north).

Glad i'm not travelling today, certainly feel for those caught up in it - and who will be this evening.
 
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My wife has been caught up in this today. Took 1A28 1145 from Leeds. This was terminated at Newark for a cross platform leap onto 1E09 0930 Edinburgh to London Kings Cross. Three and a half hours late, and not at KX yet!
 
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greyman42

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dk1 said:
Cheers. I always think of S/B as meaning Signal Box.


Thanks. To be fair you don’t hear too much about GC 180s completely failing in traffic.
Click to expand...
I get the impression that the ones maintained at Heaton are more reliable.
 
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merry

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Looking at the services, thre was definitely some problem in the Inverness-Ediinburgh route today as well, 1E13 >2h late then terminated EDB 2h36 down. Adding insult to injury, the VSTP 1Z13 is now about 3h late.
Other stuff terminated short in the NCL area. As ever, some fairly random reason codes.
At least the SB traffic seems to be moving now. 1A21 approaching GRA a fairly impressive 241 late (that's 4h...!).

As @dk1 said, "one of those days". Very, very long delays though, wouldn't want to have been caught onboard.
 
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skyhigh

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dk1 said:
Thanks. To be fair you don’t hear too much about GC 180s completely failing in traffic.
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They seem to go in waves. A few summers ago they had major failures all over the place (and left GC with a major headache) but they seem to have been better recently.
 
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computerSaysNo

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merry said:
Looking at the services, thre was definitely some problem in the Inverness-Ediinburgh route today as well, 1E13 >2h late then terminated EDB 2h36 down. Adding insult to injury, the VSTP 1Z13 is now about 3h late.
Other stuff terminated short in the NCL area. As ever, some fairly random reason codes.
At least the SB traffic seems to be moving now. 1A21 approaching GRA a fairly impressive 241 late (that's 4h...!).

As @dk1 said, "one of those days". Very, very long delays though, wouldn't want to have been caught onboard.
Click to expand...
What happens with staff on these, I assume they're paid as overtime until the service actually terminates? What happens regarding breaks?
 
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InOban

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merry said:
Looking at the services, thre was definitely some problem in the Inverness-Ediinburgh route today as well, 1E13 >2h late then terminated EDB 2h36 down. Adding insult to injury, the VSTP 1Z13 is now about 3h late.
Other stuff terminated short in the NCL area. As ever, some fairly random reason codes.
At least the SB traffic seems to be moving now. 1A21 approaching GRA a fairly impressive 241 late (that's 4h...!).

As @dk1 said, "one of those days". Very, very long delays though, wouldn't want to have been caught onboard.
Click to expand...
The line between Inverness and Carrbridge was closed for several hours for a track inspection.
 
dk1

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computerSaysNo said:
What happens with staff on these, I assume they're paid as overtime until the service actually terminates? What happens regarding breaks?
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All staff will be paid right up to the end regardless of breaking Hidden hours etc. PNBs will be taken as & when but as not moving no doubt catering will be keeping them well supplied. When finally arriving they will of course be entitled to a statutory break & then continue when ready if working another service.
 
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55002

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The amount of time it took a rescue engine to get to the site from Peterborough was ridiculous. Almost 5 hours it took to move the 180. The loco was on move from Peterborough way at lunchtime. The modern railway is hopeless at rescuing failed trains. Resources obviously, in days of yore loads of locos and crew sitting spare. Passengers on 1A63 were transferred across to 1S18 1300 from KGX and let off at Newark if they wanted to continue to London
 
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FuzzyDuck said:
It came from Doncaster (67007). There was a 67 sent from Peterborough but stopped at Grantham.
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Yes just looked back, and see that now. Thanks. No wonder was delay from when I saw the first one at lunchtime
 
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merry

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This is a problem of having incompatible coupling, brake and control systems on modern stock fleets.
Iin days of yore, everything had buffers and a drawbar, with common brake pipes (only 2 types at worst: air or vacuum). Even if it meant isolating some brakes, a failure could be taken away moderately easily by whatever was at hand (and to be fair, there was usually something reasonably close, and somewhere to put the failed item quickly). Even the HST had recovery capability with a drawbar adapter. And traincrew were trained in how to do it (the film for HST recovery training is on Youtube).

Modern designs have been allowed to de-standardise, and that turns out to be bad on a mixed-traffic railway, if there is no common fallback capability to allow some kind of moderately rapid removal. Yes, saves money, and time, and if your fleet works together that's apparently enough. And with not many crossovers (even emergency ones), or sidings, it takes a lot longer to get something suitable into position to assist.

AIUI part of the some recent specs (might include the 800 series) is that a failed unit can be coupled to from either end by another, basic control provided over the connection wiring, and even if brakes etc need to be isolated and released on the failed unit, there is sufficent brake capability on the recovering unit that the combination can be taken to a point where it can be dumped out of the way, albeit at low speed. But it only works on like units. On a mixed route like the ECML we have many different fleets mixed up and no way to interwork, even for recovery.

Of course, innovation in train design is good, but a viable basic fallback compatibility between all stock seems to have been omitted in this process. Retrofitting such recovery capabiity into units would be desirable, but noting even different fleets with the same basic modern coupler (e.g. Dellner) apparently can't interoperate even in emergencies at low speed, it seems that ship may have sailed as 'too difficult / too expensive'.
For the future, the situatoin might be recovered by suitable regulation, and a national management, but for now I reckon we are stuck with the incompatibility.
 
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ainsworth74

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greyman42 said:
I get the impression that the ones maintained at Heaton are more reliable.
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It was always related to me that because GC have ten of them at Heaton and have plenty of slack in their fleet it's usually possible to find enough good runners that the ones that are running but are a bit dubious can be kept out of service for long enough that they can be bashed back into shape.
 
matchmaker

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merry said:
Looking at the services, thre was definitely some problem in the Inverness-Ediinburgh route today as well, 1E13 >2h late then terminated EDB 2h36 down. Adding insult to injury, the VSTP 1Z13 is now about 3h late.
Other stuff terminated short in the NCL area. As ever, some fairly random reason codes.
At least the SB traffic seems to be moving now. 1A21 approaching GRA a fairly impressive 241 late (that's 4h...!).

As @dk1 said, "one of those days". Very, very long delays though, wouldn't want to have been caught onboard.
Click to expand...
I was waiting for 1E13 at Stirling to go to Edinburgh. Two reasons - (1) I wanted a trip on an Azuma (2) The ticket was only £4-10. The platform display showed that it was running about 20 minutes late due to problems between Inverness and Carr Bridge.

A Scotrail Dunblane to Edinburgh came in, but as my ticket was only valid on LNER I didn't board it. Then 1E13 disappeared from the display totally... I asked a Scotrail employee about this and she told me it had been diverted via Fife <D

So I had to get on an Alloa - Glagow service, get off at Croy, cross the line and get on a Glasgow - Edinburgh service!

At least I got my £4-10 back, but as LNER had both my e-mail address and phone number, couldn't they have got a message to me?
 
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