❖ Railways reopen after lockdown
Steam returns as passenger services resume following easing of lockdown restrictions.
Vintage carriages are coming to the rescue of some of Britain’s preserved railways to enable vital social distancing as services resume after a four-month hiatus.
Owing to the need to abide by continuing social distancing regulations, rakes of pre-Grouping and ‘Big Four’ compartment stock are coming to the fore, instead of ubiquitous Mk 1 open coaches, to safely maximise passenger numbers as trains start running again following the easing of lockdown restrictions – inadvertently recreating the early years of the preservation movement when vintage carriages represented a greater proportion of rolling stock.
One such line is the North Norfolk Railway which, since reopening on July 8, has been using its Gresley ‘Quad-Art’ set. Passengers are not required to wear face coverings “because we’re running compartment stock”, following clarification from the Department for Transport on people travelling in ‘allocated cabins’, said NNR managing director Hugh Harkett (see p8).
He added that, so far, loadings have been encouraging with trains running at (albeit reduced) capacity: “We would have been pleased just to cover our direct costs, but we’ve also managed to cover our overheads as well.
However, we’ve done a forecast for the rest of the year and we’ve got a big hole to climb out of because we’ve not run for 13 weeks.”
In line with similar procedures being employed on other railways, the NNR is using a biological fogging machine to decontaminate its stock once every fortnight, but is wiping down door handles and other surfaces between every trip to reduce the risk of infection.
It is currently running a one-train service but because it also has its BR Mk 1 suburban rake, the line is considering increasing services to a two-train timetable in August.
Another line which will be almost exclusively fielding non-corridor stock is the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, which is set to reopen from August 19. In addition to its own BR Mk 1 suburban set, the line will field the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Trust’s sixwheel four-compartment first No. 279 and six-compartment third No. 1507, and five-compartment bogie brake third No. 1474, as well as the Vintage Carriage Trust’s Metropolitan nine-compartment bogie third No. 465 and Southern corridor brake third No. 3544.
The Oxenhope branch is also celebrating the “staggering success” of both its ‘Worth Saving’ and ‘Keeping the Railway on Track’ appeals, which between them have raised over £340,000, said KWVR fundraising coordinator David Pearson. “We were initially aiming for £200,000 but we’ve had a phenomenal response and both the public and members’ appeals have brought in roughly the same amounts. We’re okay now for the next 10 months at least – we’ve certainly got enough to see us through next winter.”
The Bluebell Railway will be reliant on its own ‘Met’ stock for its reopening one train service on August 7, which also concides with the line’s 60th anniversary.
Despite only offering an initial diesel-hauled service when it reopened on July 11, the Swanage Railway’s first weekend of trains got off to a “good start,” said Swanage Railway Trust chairman Gavin Johns. “We were pleased with the response from our customers. We followed the advice from Office and Rail and Road with a soft reopening, enabling our coronavirus preparations to be used and for staff to become familiar in maintaining customer safety. Our experience has supported our bringing forward the next stages in our plan with
the return of steam this next weekend [July 18/19], reopening a further station on Monday which will enable customers to make pre-booked end-to-end journeys.”
At the time of going to press, steam was scheduled to return to the ‘Purbeck Line’ from July 18, with Maunsell ‘U’ No. 31806 working non-stop between Swanage and Norden, while its ‘Save Our Service’ appeal had raised £238,937 towards its £360,000 target.
One of the first lines to reopen to the public was the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway, which started running on July 4 – the first day tourist attractions in England were permitted to reopen.
LHR Co. Ltd director Stephen Maher told Steam Railway: “We are using the Mk 1 compartment stock that we have, plus the remainder of the train will be Mk 1 TSOs.
Six coaches is the maximum we can manage in the existing run round loops and hence will define our maximum capacity; at peak times, this will still be rather less than half of what it was pre-Covid-19.
“As expected, the start-up has been relatively quiet, and this has allowed us to get used to the new operating methods to satisfy social distancing. It remains to be seen how many will wish to travel on a train over the coming ‘peak season’ but our view is still that we will not know if we can run profitably unless we give it a try. From the first few days, we are encouraged that it will be worthwhile and the customers to date appear very satisfied that it is a safe environment in which to enjoy a day out.”