Cotswold Explorer 3/10

Which is where an umbrella group covering all of the mainline steam movement, would be able to make a difference.

It is removal of steam by the backdoor, and not even very secretly that makes you wonder why ORR are not contacted???

 

But if they did things properly there wouldn't need to be any adverse comment. On a national scale NR have been shown not to be coping and clearly the charter market isn't top of the pile but still significant in terms of number of trains and customers. I am afraid it is symptomatic of a badly run outfit, as Railtrack were before them and its needs to be sorted. I actually feel quite sorry for the individuals in NR trying to cope on a daily basis. It is my opinion and always has been that privatisation in the current form is wrong and the only answer is vertical integration.

 

Network Rail are struggling in other areas. The Central Wales line currently has a 30mph for a large section due to the ultrasonic testing of the rails being out of date!

 

More of the same from the KWVR .......

STATEMENT ON AUTUMN STEAM GALA:

It is with heavy hearts and regret that we have been informed today by our partners West Coast Railway Company that locomotive 4936 'Kinlet Hall' has been declared out of gauge by Network Rail in the Keighley area and therefore will not be able to visit the Railway this weekend.

As you can appreciate we have a lot of plans already put together for the event which our volunteer organisers are now working hard to re-work to bring to visitor's to the event an interesting and stimulating Autumn Steam Spectacular.

No other visiting locomotives are available at such short notice for the event so our own locomotives will substitute for 4936.

 

I didn't see that coming !

 

At least they gauged it a reasonable time before the event

 

It hardly seems like 460 days ago since classmate 5972 Olton Hall passed this way on the ill-fated Wizards Express that ushered in last year's steam ban in West Yorkshire. As it was in-gauge then, clearly there must have been some movement of the infrastructure locally to induce the stated risk of a foul condition or clearance issue, and presumably this will have been somewhere between Keighley and Skipton/ Hellifield, based on the wording of the KWVR statement.

Because this issue seems to have materialised so recently (i.e. within the last 15 months), does anyone know where/ why/ or how this might have occurred - the answer might provide an interesting insight into the perils and problems of operating a two-cylinder GWR locomotive on the main line in this Year of Grace 2015.

 

From the K&WVR gala thread

 

The clearance margins that NR require grow depending on how long it is since the route was last gauged, so it is quite possible that nothing at all has actually changed since 5972 passed this way !