At last! Salvation comes for the steam enthusiast with DB Schenker, today in the form of the Belmond British Pullman from London Victoria to Bristol Temple Meads via Staines and Newbury, led by Southern Railway rebuilt Merchant Navy Bullied Pacific number 35028 'Clan Line', seen here powering through Clapham Junction with the outbound run.
For the past month there have been pretty much no steam tours on the UK railway network, with many cancelled following a near collision between 34067 'Tangmere', and a 125mph Class 43 HST set at Wootton Bassett.
During the investigation, it was found that on approaching signal SN43, an Automatic Warning System (AWS) magnet in the trackbed notified the crew of a temporary speed restriction ahead of 85mph as opposed to the regular operating speed of 125mph. This was irrelevant to 34067 as steam trains are restricted to a top speed of 75mph on Network Rail tracks. An automatic brake application was made on the train after it had passed over the magnet because the driver did not acknowledge the warning given within 2.7 seconds.
In regular circumstances, the driver of 34067 should have allowed the train to come to a halt and contacted the signalman, but he did not. He cancelled the warning after the train's speed had been reduced from 59mph to approximately 51mph, with the result of rendering the AWS and Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) unable to apply the brakes on the train. The train passed signal SN43, which was displaying a single yellow (caution) aspect, and the driver acknowledged the AWS warning, but did not reduce speed.
Signal SN45 however displayed a red (danger) aspect and the train had not the space to stop in time, overshooting by 700 yards, only seconds after a First Great Western HST set had cleared the junction at 100mph. If a few seconds later, this could have been one of the most devastating train crashes in modern railway history.
With this, West Coast Railways had its operating license revoked by Network Rail until amendments had been made to the company so as to meet the standards, the result being that all tours were either cancelled or rescheduled. The only tour to have run was the Great Britain 2015 tour hauled by 70000 'Britannia', but this was diesel hauled for large segments and eventually curtailed on many of the locations it intended to visit.
This whole ordeal has certainly left me out of work, with a majority of the steam tours I hoped to chase being removed.
Hopefully WCR will have their license returned so that operations can return again, otherwise this is going to be a pretty quiet year on the railways!
Enjoy!
