61653 HTAFC
Veteran Member
Similar in a way to the experience I had traveling from Machynlledd to Birmingham about 3 y ago.
Arriving at Shrewsbury in a Class 158 we were advised the train would terminate early and should change for Birmingham. An apparently identical Class 158 arrived on the Birmingham to Machynlledd working and everyone swapped trains.
When I queried this, I was told the unit we had just boarded was not ETCS equipped and therefore could not proceed onto the Cambrian.
No headlines that time.
The difference there is that (a) services cross at Salop so switching sets would be simple, (b) whilst still at Shrewsbury, there's no problem getting the unit back- it hasn't yet run beyond where it's supposed to. An equivalent would be if the non-ETCS unit had run through the Junction towards Welshpool and the driver only then realised "*****! No signalling!"
I'm guessing that was shortly after the introduction of ETCS, when not all ATWs had been fitted?