Operations Track Record
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At about 17.30 on the evening of Friday, May 20, the overhead line equipment tripped out between Lanark Junction and Carstairs. Fairly quickly Network Rail staff established that one of the overhead cables had fallen to earth and that the up line was blocked. It is fortunate that the down line between Lanark Junction and Carstairs also has signalling for up movements to and from the Cloburn Quarry Loading point, which now sees at least one train a day. With power to the OHLE available on the down line, traffic in both directions could use the down line. The worst delay was to 1M18/17.30 Glasgow Central to London Euston, operated by Class 390 No. 390112, which was estimated to be about 80 minutes late when passing Thankerton.
It would be fair to say that the signalling team worked well to operate both up and down services over the down line, and as the evening progressed the delays reduced, with ScotRail’s 1C52/19.47 Glasgow Central to Edinburgh via Carstairs just 15 minutes late.
On Friday, May 27 serious disruption occurred between Glasgow and Motherwell following a person hit by train incident in the Cambuslang area. The 1M11/10.40 Glasgow Central to London Euston operated by Class 390 No. 390137 departed Glasgow a minute late and stood at Newton West Junction for about 90 minutes before being returned to Glasgow Central running via the Hamilton Loop and Mount Florida.
As all routes were blocked at Cambuslang, other services operated by Avanti and TransPennine ran via Mount Florida, King’s Park and Newton East Junction in order to access the West Coast Main Line. Class 397 No. 397009 working the 1M96/11.07 Glasgow Central to Manchester Airport was 42 minutes late passing Thankerton followed by No. 390141 working the 1M12/11.33 Glasgow Central to London Euston which was 28 minutes late passing Thankerton. ScotRail services operating via Cambuslang were cancelled during the period of the enforced line closure.
The main line between London King’s Cross and Peterborough was thrown into chaos on May 12 when No. 800104 working the 17.33 service to Harrogate developed a hot axle box fault at Potters Bar. After a period of time, the unit managed to move forward towards Hatfield and was then declared a failure.
The 18.03 service to Skipton with No. 800208 and the 16.42 Brighton to Peterborough with No. 700101 were trapped behind. After a while, the trapped services reversed back towards
Potters Bar to gain the down slow line where No. 800208 passed Hatfield 154 minutes late and No. 700101 96 minutes late. The 19.48 service to Bradford formed with No. 180112 was noted passing Potters
Bar some 45 minutes late.
Other main line services were diverted via the Hertford Loop.
On the morning of Sunday,
May 8, former c2c Class 387
Nos. 387306+387302 arrived at Didcot Parkway from the Reading direction as empty stock.
Observations at Bristol Parkway on May 19 included the 15.51 service for Gloucester running four minutes late with Class 165/1 No. 165101 in charge. Nine-car
IET No. 800309 headed the 16.04 GWR departure for Swansea which left one min late. The 16.15 service for Weymouth left on time headed by Class 166 No. 166204. At 16.33 the service departure for Cardiff arrived on time with IET
No. 800320 at the helm.
The 16.27 departure for
London Paddington, on which the correspondent travelled, arrived six minutes late. A further three minutes was lost en route due to a delay in the Chipping Sodbury area. Reading, where the correspondent alighted, was reached at 17.26, nine minutes late. The 17.50 GWR service to Gatwick Airport was well loaded with Class 165/1 No. 165130 in charge. The run was punctual until Redhill where a five minute delay was encountered due to congestion.
Class 769 Nos. 769937+769944 ran from Eastleigh Works to Long Marston on May 30, followed by Nos. 769936+769940 making the same move on June 10.
Movements of Class 720 reported included No. 720523 being delivered to Wembley from Derby by Class 47 No. 47749 on May 17. No. 720533 was moved back from Worksop to Derby on May 19 top-and-tailed by Class 47 Nos. 47739+47749. A further move from Worksop to Derby followed on May 25 when No. 720512 was top-and-tailed by Class 47 No. 47739 and Class 56 No. 56081.
Three days later, on May 28, Class 56 Nos. 56081+56091 top-and-tailed No. 720514 from Derby to Wembley. The pairing of Class 56 Nos. 56081+56098 delivered No. 720520 from Derby to Wembley on June 7. The same pairing took No. 720106 from Derby to Wembley on June 10 and No. 720582 from Worksop to Derby on June 13.
A correspondent travelled from Hertford East to Bishops Stortford and back on May 24. Most services were composed of the new Class 720 class units but a number of Class 317s were still at work. No. 317339 coupled to another unidentified Class 317 was seen at Harlow Town leaving at 16.00 for Liverpool Street.
No. 317502 was observed near Broxbourne shortly afterwards while Nos. 317504+317338 formed the 17.39 Hertford East to Liverpool Street. The 17.11 Liverpool St to Hertford East and 18.09 return was No. 317347.
The future of the stored Class 379s remains unclear with a possible move to GWR being the latest unconfirmed suggestion. On May 30, Nos. 379016 and 379019 were parked at the north end of Cambridge station.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was celebrated by Greater
Anglia by having the official emblem in vinyl applied to the cabside of Class 720 No. 720558 and as witnessed on June 7 at Manningtree to Nos. 745001 and 745106.
It was noteworthy that on
June 7, several of the Stadler ‘Stansted Express’ FLIRT Class 745/1s were working the Norwich-London Liverpool Street route and that the IP33/11.32 Norwich-London Liverpool Street Intercity service was worked by Class 755/4 No. 755419 and Class 755/3 No. 755325 coupled together making a unique sevencar set.
On May 9, the 5Q06/08.32 Kilmarnock to Yoker was worked by Class 37 No. 37884 which returned Class 318 No. 318264 after overhaul before working the 5Q08/13.59 Yoker CS to Brodies Kilmarnock taking No. 318259 to Brodies for overhaul. A further move on May 31 saw Class 37
No. 37800 take No. 318270 from Yoker to Brodies.
A long-standing arrangement where ScotRail Class 156s have been borrowed by Northern to cover two diagrams came to an end on Friday, May 13. During the final week on Monday, May 9 Nos. 156504 and 156430 were used; May 10: Nos. 156436 and 156514; May 11: Nos. 156462 and 156467; May 12: Nos. 156494 and 156443; and on May 13: No. 156430.
Even though an ‘emergency timetable’ was being used throughout May, due to driver shortages, the advertised 17.13 Kyle of Lochalsh to Inverness service on Friday, May 27, was cancelled at short notice. The next available service eastwards was the 06.11 departure next day. Two days later the 09.40 Inverness to Tain service was