If I see a link to an ad that says "one weird trick" or "the secret method of saving thousands on your mortgage" or a similar "teaser" text, I automatically dismiss whatever it is as "gosh, I've known that for years", or "who are they trying to kid?", or "I smell a scam!"

how much do you want to put in the subject line...


BritishsteamtrainsbannedforrunningaredlightbutanothergroupisrunningthetrainswhileWestCoastisisinvestiagetdforpassingaredlight


I'll hit the thread thankyou

Sounds good to me! ;)

From your so far "Friendly" Moderator...

The original poster's title was somewhat sensationalistic... He was called on it and his dismissive response was rude... issue identified and over...

Can we please stop discussing the original poster's posting style and get on to discussing the effects on British Heritage railway operations?

Randy

DBS (DB Schenker) "appear" to be the other operator who has stepped in to cover the West Coast operations at the moment, but have seen nothing concrete to confirm that yet. They certainly covered one (non-steam) trip this weekend which was due to be run by WCR.

Of the other (steam tour) operators who use WCR, some of the trips have been "postponed" for the time being until the situation becomes clearer. I have seen 5 trips that fall into this category so far, two of which were due to run over the Easter weekend.

As the announcement fell just before the Easter weekend holidays, things will hopefully get a bit clearer in the coming week, once the various organisations are back to work as normal.

whatever the original poster's attention getting ways, its a newsy item regardless, and operating mainline excursions still means keeping with the safety rules, I don't want people over there discouraged to post up news concerning them here. They are doing some cool things there like building new steam engines, so lets not be that so ragged on this guy.

Very likely that, like Gettysburg, they THOUGHT they had good practices but facts proved them wrong. That's hard to detect.

As expected, main line steam tours have more or less been wiped from the board for the next month or so as a result of the WCRC suspension, despite the "will be covered by another operator" statement, as can be seen from this current listing of tours...

http://uksteam.info/tours/trs15.htm#apr

Apart from DBS presumably not having the resources to step in at short notice to cover other work, there is the problem of having the right type of braking system on the equipment. Not all of the steam operations use air brakes, as the old vaccum braking system is still current on the older stock used by steam charters, and I believe, DBS have said in the past they only wish to deal with air braked operations.

70000,

It looks like the GB8 tour is going to survive but with multiple changes in the locomotives and some route changes.

Is that how you read it?

There are folks travelling over from New Zealand to ride on this train.

Thanks,

TH

This news article provides some additional details. This looks like it could get rather involved and probably will take some significant effort to recover from.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... rails.html


I was not aware of how significant the near miss actually was. It nearly caused a collision that would have given the entire industry a bad reputation.

West Coast are listed as the operating company that this tour is being run under, along with using several steamers from their Carnforth based fleet, so my guess is that it will not run with steam, unless someone manages to pull rather a few rabbits out of hats. The Railway Touring Company, who have arranged it and taken the bookings, seem to be less than forthcoming on their website and are just listing trips as cancelled/postponed about a week before tours are due to run. Hopefully various things are happening in the background to get steam trips back on track, but it seems as if it may get even nastier in the coming weeks (i.e. Litigation), before any solution is in sight.

At the end of the day there are only a few operating companies that have steam within their remit, with WCRC being by far the major player covering something like 90%+ of the business.

Would someone explain how these trains operate? Are the train crews separate from the crews that restore the locomotives? I guess I'm confused on this.

You betcha.
My info might be a wee bit dated, but my understanding is that the TOCs (train operating companies, as opposed to Network Rail, the infrastructure overseer) maintain a staff of operating crew qualified both on the particular locomotive classes in use and over the certain routes where steam appears regularly (North Wales Coast, Settle & Carlisle, West Highland, Scarborough, etc.). Route qualification is as stringent in the UK as it has become in the States, especially with passenger trains running in excess of 70 mph at times. This isn't a case where the loco owner or restoration chief officer gets rewarded with the glory of "playing engineer" with a Road Foreman of Engines standing over him.

When a mainline steamer operates in the UK, you are pretty much guaranteed that it will be operated by a driver amd fireman who not only know the route like the back of their hands, but also probably know the intricacies of an LNER A4, a BR Britannia, a GWR Castle/King, a SR Merchant Navy, or a LMS Duchess or Black Five. Now, admittedly, the last of the pool of ex-BR steam men has disappeared, but another two generations has gone through this osmosis. Today there are probably more intricacies involved, such as "boomer" steam drivers available for hire by the TOCs for the weekends, but the point is, and has been, to have enough operation on regular planned routes to keep these chaps up to snuff--unlike, say, a 765 run over the Horse Shoe Curve or Middle Division once every couple of years.

Do the TOCs that run steam specials run other trains or just specialize in these trains?

And does this mean crews that work to restore and maintain the locomotives don't get to enjoy the fruits of their labor (a.k.a. Get to run or fire)?

The TOCs run "other trains" like Amtrak, NS, and UP run "other trains." They typically charter with tour operators just like Amtrak, NS, etc. do/did.

And, you know, there are an awful lot of folks that fix up old steam/diesel/etc. trains for reasons other than just to "play engineer." Indeed, if that's the only reason you're doing it, you're really in the wrong business/avocation.