East Coast Problems last night 5/11/11

[43167]

After attaching 67003 at Peterborough to 1930 Kings Cross-Leeds, it only made to Werrington Junction before it failed. Earlier it had been reported that loco had ETS problems earlier in the day, & sure enough, soon after departure, the ETS was lost. We ground to halt near the GBRF depot, ETS restored and we tried again, but then it went again and we ground to a halt a 2nd time.

Luckly we were still under the wires & 91115 was powered up so the lights and Air-con worked, then it propelled us back to Peterborough where the train was terminated because the signal boxes on the diversion route were closing for the night. This also caused the 2000 Kings Cross-Newcastle to terminate.

Despite both trains been very busy, the staff at Peterborough did find enough coaches and taxi's to get people home and deserve credit for doing so. Some went to the Grand Northern Hotel, and some off the leeds service decided to have a night out Peterborough.
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That wasnt a rant, just a report what happened. Got back to Leeds 2 hours late.

And I put it into perspecitve after what took place on friday night on the M5. 2 hours late, but we got home. Sadly 7 people wont ever be going home.

 

[MrPosh]

Train was packed with rugby fans piling back from Wembley, as well. Because of the time it was going to take to get back to Newark, I bailed at Peterborough and got a lift home. Pleased I did now.

 

[43167]

Train was packed with rugby fans piling back from Wembley, as well. Because of the time it was going to take to get back to Newark, I bailed at Peterborough and got a lift home. Pleased I did now.

I know. I was one of them.

 

[12CSVT]

This was just one of many farces involving the 67s yesterday.

67003 had failed earlier in the day at Newark with ETH problems prior to working 1535 Leeds - Kings Cross and was replaced by 67021.
Then 67022 had ETH problems (again at Newark) where it was booked to work 1645 Leeds - Kings Cross, evetually 67003 which was due to go to Doncaster for repairs went on the rear to provide ETH, the train eventually left about 40 min late, and reached Kings Cross 75 late.
Of the five 67s available for drags yesterday (001/003/021/022/026) three of them had faulty ETH cables at one end.

 

[142094]

Nothing new - I was at Carlisle one year for the 57 drags across the S+C and they tried for half an hour to couple to a Pendo - no luck and it was terminated there.

In theory it is a good idea and many people prefer to spend a bit longer on a diversionary route if they don't have to change from a train to bus - unfortunately when locos can't couple to the sets then you're buggered.

 

[43167]

I understand 1 of the Leeds trains this morning thats due to be dragged was cancelled due to lack of drag engine which was stuck at Peterborough.

 

[Tottenham Flyer]

I'm really sorry to go off topic here, but is 67021 back in traffic after its incident a few months ago then? The way I understood it, 021 was going to be out of traffic for a considerable amount of time.

 

[Aictos]

I'm really sorry to go off topic here, but is 67021 back in traffic after its incident a few months ago then? The way I understood it, 021 was going to be out of traffic for a considerable amount of time.

67021 is back in service as it was stabling outside Peterborough station yesterday afternoon ready for the Drags.

 

[amarkr]

Just to complete the picture the busses were to run from Petebro' to doncaster where an additional 225 was waiting to go on to newcastle. NRE were reporting delays of upto 200 mins caused by this failure.

Because of the scheduled (sic) early finish on the east coast I had already planned to take the later 20.55 from St Pancras and changed at Sheffield. Arriving in Donny at about 5 past midnight the 225 on Platform 8 had some passengers already on it but didnt look like it was going anywhere, so I presume that more coaches were yet to arrive. I did see a tweet from a Leeds bound passenger saying the coach he was on was only going to Doncaster so not sure how those headed for Leeds got on!

 

[43167]

I was on the 3rd of the coaches with passengers off the Leeds train. When it got to Doncaster. Everyone got off, & once it was sorted where everyone was going, the driver said he would take the Leeds passengers through. And the wakefield passengers went in the taxis that were waiting, as did the 1 man for Durham!!.

Coach driver was a top man.

Dread to think what the bill for the taxis & coaches would have been, when the overtime for the signalmen would have been considerably less.

 

[TheBigD]

There's about 20 locations that would have needed staffing/extended hours on the joint line alone. Probably a logisticle nightmare to sort at short notice on today's railway.