Author Archives: Tim Hall

This was posted to the Britrail mailing list last night by a train driver called “Mike”.

Today Sunday 13th October I was due to sit spare at work. However due to the high winds here on the South Coast (Sussex) a tree fell across the railway line and one of my colleagues ran into it breaking the flexible brake hose on the front of his train. therefore I was scrambled to get a new unit out of the shed at Littlehampton and work it to London Victoria and back.

On the return trip from Victoria working the 21:17 to Portsmouth the rain was still falling and being driven by the cold winds. We arrived at East Croydon with time to spare and departed on time as well. As I passed under the station and road bridge the rain was lashing down still, the night sky was softly illuminated by the yellow glow from street lights. My eye spotted something that looked a bit unusual on the up slow line, it was the headlight that first drew my attention. My train gave a sudden jerk as it lost traction on the slippery rails, I shut off power content to coast over the points before trying again.

The headlight on the up slow drew closer and I could also see some dimmer lights to the side of it, and what looked like a very low cloud following it!

Then there she was, the unmistakable lines of a Bullied Pacific, just as she drew level with me she let out a long ghostly whistle to warn people as she headed towards the station. I caught a glimpse of the driver in the cab and the fireman hard at it, then the well maintained coaches passed by with passengers enjoying a far nicer time than the ones on my train.

All too soon this marvelous spectacle was gone, the distinctive smell of smoke lingered for a while but this to soon left as my train picked up speed and headed into the night. I realised that the 4CIG unit (1803) had probably seen sights like this back when it was new in 1963.

It’s moments like this that make it all worthwhile and I wanted to share this with you. I think the loco was Clan Line I am afraid I was too shocked to think to make a note. The time was 21:37 and thank heavens for falling trees that’s all I can say

Not sure what the “kettle” working was, but it demonstrates that main-line steam excursions are sufficiently commonplace in Britain that it’s not a national event every time one happens. I remember queuing for a ticket at Slough three or four years back and hearing a steam engine whistle – then saw “Clan Line” rolling through on the down slow line with the VSOE pullman set; a magnificent sight!

Voyager at Dawlish

Virgin Trains are very proud of their new Voyagers. Their website goes into great detail about how wonderful they are. Other people are less impressed, complaining about cramped interiors, lack of luggage space, and the fact that these four or five coach trains have replaced older seven coach trains, and can’t cope with the crowds.

Now a new problem has occurred; it appears that they don’t like seawater. I haven’t yet read the full story of yesterday’s Dawlish sea wall fiasco, but it seems that between five and seven of these shiny new trains failed on the same five mile stretch of track that runs along the sea wall.

Hugh Dady takes up the story on the SWRG mailing list

The evening high tide has now passed and with the wind now moderated, trains again running normally again with the exception of Virgin who are running an HST only service i.e. very little.

Will try and post todays happenings tomorrow – they have been long and complex but for those still dying to know, Voyager 220024 forming 1S69 sat in Dawlish station for some time today before setting off at around 1130 only to collapse between there and the Rockstone bridge. Thunderbird 47756 had already been scrambled but its progress (as it had to run wrong line from Teignmouth) was hampered by a down 221 which itself was in trouble on the sea wall. After running round at the Warren 47756 arrived to attach to 220024 around 1220 but it took just over an hour to complete this operation. All sorts of problems and crew clearly unfamiliar with carrying out the procedure in anger. Further delays caused by the inability to build sufficient air pressure to release brakes so the cavalcade did not set sail until 1325 some two and a half hours after first reaching Dawlish. Arrival at Exeter was at 1340 where the train was terminated with the 47 removing the errant 220 to Riverside Yard almost immediately for decoupling.

A full account of a pretty unhappy Princess will be posted tomorrow – I am still trying to work out what was what as things went from bad to worse through much of the day. Amey staff on site have confirmed that there have been no problems with the signalling or infrastructure during what was a fairly mild easterly weather pattern. No other reported problems from other trains so sadly it was just the Voyager fleet that brought the service to a standstill through much of the day. Wessex indicators at Dawlish are still displaying a note at 2200 this evening saying that the service remains disrupted as a result of “several Virgin Cross Country train failures between Exeter and Newton Abbot today”.

H.D.