RTC 2024

Bu**er! We were going to book on that.

Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

The Swanage Railway is none too pleased either I gather.
The suspected scrap-carrying lorry [it's load was obviously higher than the bridge's clearance of 13ft 6 ins - which is clearly signed] did not stop.
It's on Google Street View around 50.662167, -2.115839 just north of the Creech Bottom turn off.
The following clay company lorry was too far away to get the registration number and it's cab cam wasn't switched on.
However, I have since heard strong rumours that Dorset Police have identified the alleged miscreant so we'll have to see how much their insurance company's profits will be dented.
This could be an expensive job to this reasonably substantial bridge. Before the formal bridge inspection it is clear that some of the rivets have burst and the whole bridge has shifted sideways somewhat. The way beams will need replacement apparently and it's believed the strike has also caused damage to the brick supporting walls either side. If the bridge has to be taken away for repair then that entails a road closure to take it down and another to replace it.
Glad it's not coming out of my savings.

 

Blimey, that sounds nasty.
We have a bridge locally, in Farnham, on the line down to Alton which keeps getting hit by lorries.

 

Very nice - I had to look twice to see that the 'glow' in the cab was not from the fire!

 

Sorry if I have missed this on my thread scan, but I assume this Wednesday's 'Kentish Belle' has long-since been cancelled (if it ever existed - I'm only going by RH listing...!). It's not on RTT.

 

Only recently cancelled I believe.

 

ACE postponed to 12 October.

 

'Smoking is not allowed at this station' !

The haze of early autumnal drizzle is in the trees as 44871 makes a smoky exit from the tunnel at Wood End with the the return trip from Stratford upon Avon to Norwich.
After it passed came the announcement

 

Here she is making a spirited departure from a misty Peterborough earlier:-

 

The Mancunian on 28th September now has a revised route and motive power
Suggesting from the tour info on RTC itself the route is now Manchester-Bridgnorth & return
44871 from Manchester-Kidderminster & return, pax transfer trains with 45596 hauling the SVR section with whatever stock SVR will offer

At the very least 45596 has the opportunity to have some involvement with this trip in memory of Steve Peach

 

Black 5 44871 at Wick near Langport on the West Somerset Steam Express

 

Appears WSE terminated at Slough on the way back due to trespass. Lots of other delays and cancellations to service trains.

 

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/paddington-20240914/
Doesnt say much more except that the incident was at Paddington.

Neil

 

Reported elsewhere as someone climbing into the rafters.

 

I believe it caused the overhead to be switched off, and the individual was considered suicidal. Even assuming those tasked with bring the individual down could work safely with the wires live, that leaves operators with an invidious choice; continue to operate because the risk to public is low, but if they do fall, there will be trauma for witnesses, or stop running pending resolution.

 

The industry needs to come up with better solutions. Not sure if it still the case but after some incident I read that to turn the power off at Paddington it has to go off all the way to Airport Junction. If that is the case it is crass, as it meant (as RTT seemed to confirm) that the EL services which are in a tunnel at Padd could not run either). Trains should at least be able to reach Ealing Broadway where the are Underground options for passengers. Incidents are common enough these days for there to be some plan in place to at least run something closer to London (an ECS managed to get to North Pole without issue I see).
There seems to be a process that just says stop everything until it is resolved and little urgency to do anything for those already in transit.
The tour terminated at 2103 on P3 according to RTT, the first service appeared to be 2343 (GW) and 2350 (XR). I will check with one of my steward friends to see when the pax did get away from Slough, maybe they had to use the 81 bus to Hounslow West
There was a BTM originating service that spent about an hour at Chippenham, 30 minutes at Didcot and another 30 at Reading. Unless there were other incidents what was all that about?