Major Problems at Retford

[Ianno87]

Bear in mind that the trains caught up in today's delays were built by British Rail.

And there were considerably fewer trains on the ECML in BR days than today....

 

[Romilly]

The Aberdeen-Kings Cross train yesterday (so an HST) which leaves Newcastle at 1800 and York at 1900 called additionally at Doncaster at about 1930 and was then diverted "via Swinderby" (according to the on-train announcements) and arrived into Kings Cross 75 minutes late. Although it is unlikely that many Sunday-evening Scotland-London passengers will know where Swinderby is, I suppose it avoids having to say "diverted on a route that passes through the city of Lincoln but that does not involve passing through or calling at Lincoln railway station".

 

[glbotu]

I was on a northbound 91 in this. They were routing everything through the Down Passenger Loop. The power must have been on, as we stopped at Retford (not for pickup or anything, we just stopped), before accelerating again. I was pretty impressed with the fact we only had 62 mins delay by the time we got to Durham.

The train that took the wires down was only just out of Retford station, with the contact wire draped all over the DVT. They were just about to couple a 67 to it when I passed.