Delays due to train failures in the BR era.

[randyrippley]

..........A later West Midlands excursion was to Ramsgate. On the return the 33 failed before Herne Bay and we were propelled to Herne Bay by the following EMU where its passengers were detrained. It then pushed the excursion train (ie. 33+11 coaches+8 car EMU) to the approach to Faversham station where a replacement 33 took over just the excursion for the run to Mitre Bridge via the Catford Loop............

33+11?

that's pushing it a bit, no wonder it broke down
Waterloo-Exeter was restricted to 8-9 (depending on season) for a reason, and it wasn't just the ETH rating

 

[IanXC]

Try thinking about that one again.....
ONE diesel engine, just like most of the BR-era trains. And don't forget having two diesels didn't stop the Warships from breaking down

Comparatively speaking though, how often are Thunderbirds actually required?

The HST and 91+Mk4 stock on the East Coast requires Thunderbirds relatively often, compare that to a Sprinter, Voyager or Pendolino, the instances of them requiring assistance are significantly fewer, and such assistance is provided by a classmate typically. Then also remember that fleets tend to be much more concentrated on one particular route than was the case historically, and I'm not entirely convinced that the present situation is any worse in reality.

 

[Ianno87]

I get confidence looking at the superb reliability of Hitatchi's Class 395 fleet. All being well, failures will be rare full stop.

 

[eastwestdivide]

33+11?

that's pushing it a bit, no wonder it broke down
Waterloo-Exeter was restricted to 8-9 (depending on season) for a reason, and it wasn't just the ETH rating

33 with 11 Mk1 coaches not so uncommon on those weekend Merrymakers to the Kent coast. And being summer excursions, no need for ETH.
They would typically be from a starting point on the LMR*, changing from a Peak near Cricklewood or an electric near Willesden. So the 33 was only for the trundle through suburbia and down to the coast. Would have been a fine site up the 1 in 100 of Sole Street bank on the return though.
Just picked up my notebooks, and literally the first excursion I found was 33065 on Sun 6 July 1980 passing Gillingham with 11 Mk1s (I was coach spotting back then, which is how come I know there were 11).

*those from the WR or ER tended to be a 47 throughout.

 

[Taunton]

I love the one with the Cravens tacked onto the Trans-Pennine. I've not seen that happen before.

Substitute cars (always at the ends) of Trans Pennine units were not unknown; a Met Cam driving car seemed to be the most common substitute. I believe they had the same 70mph limit and blue square coupling code. They seemed to do the whole day's diagram.

My first on-board breakdown was on the Plymouth-Taunton-Liverpool day train, in the short period when it was hauled by Warships from Plymouth to Crewe. It just failed in open country between Shrewsbury and Crewe. Given the lengthy run nearing its end, and the Warship's small fuel tank, my guess is it ran out of fuel. Within 40 minutes a Black 5 arrived from Shrewsbury, propelled it to a loop, ran round, and hauled it to Crewe.

In the early 1960s one of the Taunton station pilot turns was changed from a 57xx Pannier to a Hall, specifically because of the number of times a prepared loco had to suddenly go to assist. The Cornwall depots, with all those D63xx Small Warships (which were 10 times as unreliable as their larger cousins) must have had real fun.

If the failure was only the train heating boiler in winter, or just one of the twin engines of a hydraulic, the assisting steam loco on the WR had to be marshalled inside, behind the diesel, after too many experiences of large coal lumps blowing back from a loco tender and smashing the diesel's windscreen.

Waterloo-Exeter was restricted to 8-9 (depending on season) for a reason, and it wasn't just the ETH rating

Class 33 ETH controls were on the driver's desk, and in winter on the Salisbury-Exeter gradients were regularly turned off when climbing, and switched back on again when over the top.

 

[Cowley]

Great stuff Taunton, thank you.

 

[randyrippley]

....... The Cornwall depots, with all those D63xx Small Warships (which were 10 times as unreliable as their larger cousins) must have had real fun.....

Funny thing is, the only one of those I ever saw working was on a summer evening Pen Mill - Taunton service. It connected with a late running service from Weymouth and appeared to be an "extra" added at short notice because of the delay. Presumably a diesel was easier to roster at short notice, but why was it so far out of area?

 

[Confused147]

I remember a delay from about Autumn 2001 or 2002, hope somebody can help me why exactly we were delayed but travelled on the 21.15 Manchester Picc to Euston via Birmingham service, delayed twice, first at stockport for about 20 mins then again in Stafford on Platform 6 for about 1 hour 30 mins. I noticed there were loads of workers in bright orange jackets jumping in and out of the loco so I assumed an engine failure but didn't notice any loco swap and from Stafford the train ran smooth with no further delay. Didn't arrive into Euston until about 03.00.

 

[Cowley]

Funny thing is, the only one of those I ever saw working was on a summer evening Pen Mill - Taunton service. It connected with a late running service from Weymouth and appeared to be an "extra" added at short notice because of the delay. Presumably a diesel was easier to roster at short notice, but why was it so far out of area?

I'm too young to have seen them but they got around a bit I think. I know that they were used on the Hemyock branch and also around Bristol.
They always seemed to have been missing bits of lower bodyside panelling in photos.

 

[sprinterguy]

Try thinking about that one again.....
ONE diesel engine, just like most of the BR-era trains. And don't forget having two diesels didn't stop the Warships from breaking down

An entirely different kettle of fish (and wildly off topic, apologies folks), given that the diesel engine on the electric sets will be used only to rescue the train if stranded (and for depot movements), rather than being flogged continuously day in, day out. Plus given that the trains are expected to achieve 45,000 miles per casualty on diesel power failures are expected to be rare compared to heritage diesel locos even when they were in their prime.

 

[AJP62]

In the 70s Class 20s were pretty rare in Carlisle. However a pair were based at Beattock to assist up to the summit. On occasion these would appear in Carlisle hauling in a failed electric plus it's train, soon disappearing north while a replacement loco was found for the train.

 

[Taunton]

Funny thing is, the only one of those I ever saw working was on a summer evening Pen Mill - Taunton service. It connected with a late running service from Weymouth and appeared to be an "extra" added at short notice because of the delay. Presumably a diesel was easier to roster at short notice, but why was it so far out of area?

Well done. I never saw a diesel on that line. A Southern N 2-6-0 was as exotic as it got.

 

[Taunton]

Funny thing is, the only one of those I ever saw working was on a summer evening Pen Mill - Taunton service. It connected with a late running service from Weymouth and appeared to be an "extra" added at short notice because of the delay. Presumably a diesel was easier to roster at short notice, but why was it so far out of area?

Well done. I never saw a diesel on that line. A Southern N 2-6-0 was as exotic as it got.

The only one ever seen at Taunton was the last year of the local Exeter service, one would be on the mid-afternoon arrival. It changed over from a 43xx maybe one year before all the intermediate stations closed.

One afternoon this D63xx then shunted back through the station and into the siding just west of the coal stage. It must have still being driven from the opposite end cab. It hit the bufferstop at the end a tremendous whack, which was audible from our lair at the footbridge about 1/4 mile west. An amount of what appeared to be water was spilled out from some overflow pipe in the roofline with the shock.

 

[Cowley]

Well done. I never saw a diesel on that line. A Southern N 2-6-0 was as exotic as it got.

The only one ever seen at Taunton was the last year of the local Exeter service, one would be on the mid-afternoon arrival. It changed over from a 43xx maybe one year before all the intermediate stations closed.

One afternoon this D63xx then shunted back through the station and into the siding just west of the coal stage. It must have still being driven from the opposite end cab. It hit the bufferstop at the end a tremendous whack, which was audible from our lair at the footbridge about 1/4 mile west. An amount of what appeared to be water was spilled out from some overflow pipe in the roofline with the shock.

Blimey. That must have been quite an interesting moment to see, I can imagine the driver looking around in the hope that he wasn't spotted by anyone and then seeing all of you watching him.

 

[47271]

I've posted this before, but it's particularly relevant to this thread.

My first memory of rail travel as a very small child was on a broken down Edinburgh-Glasgow push pull, stuck in the Newbridge loop as I was informed later.

'This is due to a fault in the locomotive' is the phrase from the pa that still sticks in my mind.

Happy days.

 

[47403]

Mid 80s, summer Saturday. My mates and I took a zing up to Berwick for the Glasgow QS-Scarborough, the idea was to get this to Durham and catch the Scarborough-Newcastle back into Toon. Now I apologise, I no longer have the notes and I've totally forgot the locos, involved but the ones I use seem to be vaguely familiar. I apologise but if anyone can fill these blanks, I'd greatly appreciate It.

At Berwick, It didn't take long to realise something had gone a bit tits up, the PA announcing the train to Scarborough was delayed and the time just grew. About 50 down, when it was announced the train approaching is the delayed....... We looked up the line to see, a BR Blue, looked ex works 26, may have been 26040 dragging a dead 37114(I think), we were moaning like hell about missing out on the 37 on the Scarboro turn, now we're aboard a 26/37 combo heading south to Newcastle. I was reliably informed the 37 went pop just South of Craigentinny and the 26 had been scrambled from Millerhill. Into Newcastle the 26 and 37 were removed and replaced by an NB 47, sure it was 47205 or something like that. Anyway, a guy we knew, called.us jammy so n so' s, adding the Scarboroughs running mega late too, meaning suddenly, we had a chance after all. Onwards we went in hope, no mobiles, RTT or the like, we fully expected a 37 to roar past us en route. Even more so, when at Low Fell junction we got hoyed on the slow, a southbound zing flew past us but we remained on the slow, past Tyne Yard, when we ground to a standstill just after Ouston Junction.

About 5mins later, the 47 was declared a failure, within 5mins a 31, 31190, the 1 I do remember, was sent from Tyne Yard to rescue us. The 31 was attached.to the back coach and proceeded to push us into the loop just outside Durham Station. Another NB 47 was sent, from where I'm not sure, think it was 47238. As it was coupled to the front of the stricken 47 up front and then 31190 was detached, we had ignominy of watching our intended 37, think that was 37229 arrive and leave, whilst getting stick off those with heads out the window. Needless to say we bailed at Durham but 5 locos between Berwick and Durham was a fine haul. Still bugs me, I don't remember the numbers, especially on something like this. Nowadays it'd be caped at Berwick or dragged back to Edinburgh.

Also mid 80s, 47423 on an evening trans pennine Newcastle-Liverpool turn, in fairness 47423 was spluttering over the King Edward Bridge, we again got routed onto the slow. By Low Fell Junction, we'd stopped dead twice, only for the driver to revive 47423 again, we crawled past Tyne Yard and just ground to a halt, just past the South entrance into the Yard. The guard told my mates and I, the driver had declared 47423 a failure.

We sat there for a good half an hour, when my mate came from the window back into the coach, declaring, there's a 56 coming down the line, my mates n I, just said, aye right. Then about 30secs later 56115 went past light engine, we scrambled to the vestibule windows and saw 56115, run up to Ouston Junction and stop, before reversing towards us a shuntsman climbed from the cab and coupled 56115 on. Despite having tickets for Durham, we took it to Darlo and told the guy at the barrier, we'd got on the wrong train, showing him a Durham-Newcastle single, we got hoyed on a zing and he told the guard we'd got the wrong train, they're going to Newcastle, however we bailed at Durham, showing the guy on the barrier there our Newcastle-Durham ticket and hid till the zing had gone and then got on the platform and waited for the next trans pennine turn home.

 

[Cowley]

That first story sounds like one of those days when everything goes wrong LSG. I remember those days when there just seemed to be locos breaking down everywhere.

 

[AJM580]

Plenty of memories of railtour failures - here's the best one. 47806 on a charter from East Anglia to Kyle of Lochalsh fails at Dalnaspidal on the Highland main line. Behind our 12 coach train is the 16 coach overnight sleeper from Euston with 47593. This then couples up to the rear and pushes us to Dalwhinnie (total load for 47593 was 28 coaches & 1 dead duff). 47604 is ready and waiting to take us to Inverness where a bleary-eyed bunch of passengers disembark a few hours late. May 1991 was the date. Oddly enough I don't remember many failures on service trains, although when DMUs collapsed as they often did there was sometimes bonus haulage on offer. I had 31147 from Sheffield to Leeds both ways as a result one August day in 1989 as a result