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Heysham Port Route Knowledge

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Gathursty

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Just a quick one:

How many Northern Railway / Transpennine Express** drivers can take the branch?

** Just in case they use the Heysham platform if they still do that odd morning service using Hest Bank North curve.
 
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1D53

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Only drivers/guards based At Barrow who formerly worked for Northern Rail Ltd sign Heysham to Morecambe (the former TPE drivers at Barrow don't. In terms of the two lines between Morecambe and Bare Lane all crew will sign both lines/platforms which is Barrow, Wigan, Skipton.
 

Gathursty

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Only drivers/guards based At Barrow who formerly worked for Northern Rail Ltd sign Heysham to Morecambe (the former TPE drivers at Barrow don't. In terms of the two lines between Morecambe and Bare Lane all crew will sign both lines/platforms which is Barrow, Wigan, Skipton.

How does a Wigan driver get to Lancaster?
 

Gathursty

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Travels pass Wigan-Lancaster TPE/VT or by Taxi.

I wonder how often Wigan is asked to come up to do the Heysham branch then.
Are Northern drivers not based at Preston or are you saying that some Wigan drivers and not some Preston drivers sign Heysham?
 

craigybagel

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I wonder how often Wigan is asked to come up to do the Heysham branch then.
Are Northern drivers not based at Preston or are you saying that some Wigan drivers and not some Preston drivers sign Heysham?

The old Northern didn't have a depot at Preston. I believe Transpennine opened one relatively recently.

Somewhat unusually, although only Barrow crews sign Heysham, I believe that on most days the service is booked for a 150, which Barrow don't sign! I know when I did the trip last year, the Skipton crew who brought it in from Leeds stayed on the unit to provide traction knowledge.
 

Loop & Link

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I wonder how often Wigan is asked to come up to do the Heysham branch then.
Are Northern drivers not based at Preston or are you saying that some Wigan drivers and not some Preston drivers sign Heysham?

They don't sign Heysham Port, but do sign Lancaster-Morecambe/Barrow. There's quite a bit of Morecambe/Barrow work.

Barrow sign Heysham but don't sign the booked traction as mentioned above.
 

trentside

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I just love the railway logic going on here. Barrow sign the route but not the booked traction, while Skipton don't sign the route but have to be conducted over it daily as the depot who's work it is can't work the train alone.

I'd say it could only be the railway, but not so sure these days!
 

Class 170101

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I just love the railway logic going on here. Barrow sign the route but not the booked traction, while Skipton don't sign the route but have to be conducted over it daily as the depot who's work it is can't work the train alone.

I'd say it could only be the railway, but not so sure these days!

No surprise at all and daft things happen all over the railway. One has only to look through this board :lol:
 

driver9000

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The old Northern didn't have a depot at Preston. I believe Transpennine opened one relatively recently.

The TPE depot at Preston opened in December 2012 as a Guards depot with Drivers joining in 2013. Barrow didn't feature on the route card for Drivers.
 

PHILIPE

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Why don't they do the obvious, either Skipton learn the roue or Barrow learn the traction. After all, it is booked work, unless the Skipton driver stays on when should be having PNB
 

headshot119

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Why don't they do the obvious, either Skipton learn the roue or Barrow learn the traction. After all, it is booked work, unless the Skipton driver stays on when should be having PNB

Surely if they are driving it on a daily basis Skipton men could just sign for the road ?
 

neilb62

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You can't sign the road after being conducted over it these days. You'd need the proper route learning time off roster and pass an assessment afterwards.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 

Loop & Link

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Why don't they do the obvious, either Skipton learn the roue or Barrow learn the traction. After all, it is booked work, unless the Skipton driver stays on when should be having PNB

Not allowed to, something about the transfer of ex-FNW/ATN work between the respective depots not allowed.
 

Ianno87

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Surely if they are driving it on a daily basis Skipton men could just sign for the road ?

But do the pool of Skipton drivers each get to drive Heysham frequently enough to reliably retain their knowledge?

One trip per day, stretched out over a large pool of drivers may mean this cannot be done (but might be possible with a smaller pool of Barrow drivers).
 

Loop & Link

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But do the pool of Skipton drivers each get to drive Heysham frequently enough to reliably retain their knowledge?

One trip per day, stretched out over a large pool of drivers may mean this cannot be done (but might be possible with a smaller pool of Barrow drivers).


Think there's only 1 link at Skipton and because they don't actually 'sign' the route it's not an issue.
 

Ianno87

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Think there's only 1 link at Skipton and because they don't actually 'sign' the route it's not an issue.

My point is *if* that they did attempt to sign the route and retain their knowledge, would it be hard to cycle every driver in the single link at Skipton via Heysham often enough to keep their knowledge up? Which I was suggesting might be an underlying reason for this situation, as it's easier for a smaller pool of drivers at Barrow to do instead.
 

craigybagel

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My point is *if* that they did attempt to sign the route and retain their knowledge, would it be hard to cycle every driver in the single link at Skipton via Heysham often enough to keep their knowledge up? Which I was suggesting might be an underlying reason for this situation, as it's easier for a smaller pool of drivers at Barrow to do instead.

If Northern go by the 6 month rule, then by my maths you'd need well over 100 drivers in the link before you'd not be likely to get over that route enough, so long as the jobs are areas out through the link. Are there really that many drivers at Skipton?
 

HMS Ark Royal

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The old Northern didn't have a depot at Preston. I believe Transpennine opened one relatively recently.

Somewhat unusually, although only Barrow crews sign Heysham, I believe that on most days the service is booked for a 150, which Barrow don't sign!

Should note that I had the service Friday and Saturday, albeit not the entire length, and it was a 142
 

SeanG

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Nobody would get to Heysham Harbour if there was a points failure like there was today. A pity for the handful of passengers wishing to connect to and from the ferry this Bank Holiday Monday.:(

Especially given I presume the boat was full for TT
 
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