Derailment at Dalwhinnie

A SCOTRAIL HST, powered by 43012 and 43015, became derailed near Dalwhinnie on April 10 while performing clearance trials with fivecar set HA19. The train was running from Perth to Tomatin overnight. The return southbound run was 5S85 which, while travelling at low speed, derailed at the south end points at Dalwhinnie just before 0300. All wheels of the rear power car (43012) also derailed, as well as the rear bogie of the last coach.

There were no injuries but the track was damaged. Services on the Highland Main Line were suspended, with a shuttle service running between Inverness and Aviemore where passengers were transferred by bus to Perth.

Fortunately, the route via Aberdeen from Inverness was available since the repairs to the damaged viaduct parapet had been completed, offering an alternative route to Edinburgh. The HML reopened on April 15 following a recovery operation to remove the derailed train.

ScotRail had commenced test running of its first five-coach HST set on March 26, 43012 and 43152 taking HA19 (40619, 42255, 42568, 42256, 42029) on an overnight trip to Dundee via both sides of the Fife Circle. Pausing at each station on the way, this allowed platform positioning checks to be carried out. A similar set of tests was booked for the night of April 9/10 with 43012 and 43015 heading from Haymarket to Perth via Kirkcaldy and Ladybank and then on to Tomatin. However, the returning 5S85 0212 TomatinPerth suffered a low speed derailment at Dalwhinnie. Following re-railing, track repairs and a visit by RAIB, the set was allowed to return to Haymarket on April 18 for examination. Earlier, on March 31, 43015 and 43152 had been paired together to take additional TS 42023, 42207 and 42288 from Slateford to Inverness to await insertion into sets.

The incident is under investigation and Network Rail is working with the Rail Accident Investigation Branch to determine the cause.