Leaves still on the line

Back in the days of Class 156s and ‘158s’, both running between Perth and Inverness, some ‘158s’ had major problems with wheelslip stopping at Aviemore one day.

The signalman at Aviemore had the rails hand-cleaned. He then allowed us to come from Kincraig, knowing we were a ‘156’. Three-quarters of a mile before Aviemore, the driver applied the brake, and we immediately went into wheelslide. No matter what the driver did, we were sliding.

We approached the home signal at 20mph when it cleared, and we finally came to a stand ten coach lengths past where we should have stopped.

We were crossing a southbound train here, so there was almost a head-on collision. The Aviemore signalman decided enough was enough and phoned Control to say the line at Aviemore was closed until someone would sign the line was safe to be reopened.

The problem was disc brakes, leaves, and massive underfunding.

Michael Brackett, Perth