Electric-hauled Sleeper to make Queen Street history
HISTORY should be made on April 1 next year, when an electric locomotive hauls a scheduled passenger train into Glasgow Queen Street for the first time.
Caledonian Sleeper’s ‘Lowlander’ train from London Euston is being diverted from its usual Glasgow Central terminus owing to engineering works north of the border.
The operator plans to divert the train into Queen Street, which was electrified last year, and which will start to be served by electric trains from next month when they start running from Edinburgh Waverley.
CS’s plans are still being finalised, but it hopes to operate trains on the newly electrified Edinburgh-Glasgow via Falkirk High line. This would also be the first electrichauled passenger train along that line, as CS has previously taken trains between the two cities via the Airdrie to Bathgate line during diversions.
It is understood that CS will likely use 87002 Royal Sovereign on the train, which will need to be reduced in length to seven coaches to fit into Queen Street. A Class 47 will be on the rear to enable shunting as the stock will come from Polmadie, which can only be reached by running away from the wires due to engineering works elsewhere in Strathclyde.
The first electric-hauled train will be the London-bound train on April 1. The ‘87’ will take it to Edinburgh, where it will meet the Scottish capital’s portion of the ‘Lowlander’ Sleeper, with the electric returning to Glasgow with that morning’s northbound train from London. The operation will be repeated on April 2.
Meanwhile, a sudden drop in Class 73/9 availability has been attributed to railhead conditions caused by an earlier than expected leaf fall. A CS insider told RAIL that this was a particular problem on the West Highland Line, and that severe damage had been found on wheelsets of several members of the current five-strong fleet (a sixth, 73969, has been out of traffic all year following a collision at Craigentinny).
This was expected to be partially resolved with the return of 73966/971 from Wabtec Rail’s Brush Traction Loughborough facility at the end of October.