July 20th 2023 to July 25th 2023
This last few days have been rather quiet on our patch. However, there was a replay of last Tuesday / Wednesday when another South Western Railway (SWR) Class 458/4 electric multiple unit was moved from Widnes Transport Technology Centre, run by Alstom, down to Bournemouth Traction & Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot complete with feelings of déjà vu as delays were again caused by paperwork gauging issues. Originally scheduled to arrive at the depot near Branksome railway station at 1426 as 5Q65 0903 Wembley Receptions 1-7 to Bournemouth T&RSMD, the train was held at Woking for several hours before being allowed to proceed with a new headcode denoting it was ‘out of gauge’ running as 5X65 1405 Woking to Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D. Arrival into Branksome was at 1609, around an hour earlier than the scheduled revised path.
Monday July 24th saw the return of Swanage Railway based Class 33/0 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt. Jenny Lewis RN’ from her trip to the Watercress Line. It so happened that I was in the Southampton area as ‘Jenny’ was hauling the London Underground 4-TC unit into Eastleigh Arlington works. I wasn’t quite prepared for this working to be running 45 minutes ahead of schedule and my planned photographic opportunity at Shawford had to be abandoned in favour of the popular Campbell Road bridge situated next to the railway works and, as it was, the train was already passing through the station as I arrived at my second choice vantage point.
Further afield we were interested to learn that the famous “Jacobite” steam train service operated by West Coast Railways (WCR), which runs from Fort William to Mallaig and return, are currently suspended. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has released a statement regarding the issues of concern found with the train. Things first went awry on Friday 9th June 2023 when a safety inspector visited “The Jacobite” service, and found failings which were considered a breach of Health and Safety. The ORR issued West Coast Railways with a prohibition notice that came into effect on the 15th June and prevented them running “The Jacobite” until the ORR was satisfied that the issues were rectified.
More recently, on 14th July a further inspection found failings that breached the earlier prohibition notice and the conditions in WCR’s Railway Safety Regulation Exemption Certificate in relation to the management of the hinged door rolling stock employed on the service. The train operates on the main line under an exemption, granted by the ORR, that allows the continued use of heritage rolling stock without central door locking.
The ORR says it is working with WCR to make sure robust safety arrangements are in place which will allow the use of heritage carriages on “The Jacobite” in the near future, and in the mean time, WCRC can use alternative carriages to operate “The Jacobite”.
The full statement from the ORR reads:
“A safety inspector from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) visited the Jacobite service run by West Coast Railway Company Limited (WCRCL) on Friday 9 June 2023. This inspection found safety failings which ORR considered breached Health and Safety Legislation and accordingly ORR issued WCRCL with a prohibition notice which came into effect at 00:01 on 15 June 2023 and which prevented it from running until WCRCL was satisfied that it could rectify the issues raised in that notice. The prohibition notice is published at P/KB/14062023 West Coast Railway Company Ltd prohibition notice (windows.net). The Jacobite service recommenced on 15 June 2023.
Safety inspectors from ORR subsequently visited the Jacobite service run by WCRCL on Friday 14 July. This inspection found safety failings which ORR considered breached the earlier prohibition notice and the conditions contained in WCRCL’s Railway Safety Regulation Exemption Certificate. This type of exemption certificate is required for all train operators who want to use carriages without central door locking fitted – ordinarily heritage carriages of the type used on the Jacobite service. Due to the safety issues identified, ORR has revoked WCRCL’s Exemption Certificate. WCRCL will continue to be able to use carriages without central door locking fitted on its other services in accordance with the conditions of a new Exemption Certificate.
ORR is working with WCRCL to ensure robust safety arrangements are in place to allow WCRCL to use heritage carriages on the Jacobite line in the near future. In the interim, it is open to WCRCL to use alternative carriages to operate the Jacobite service.”
It’s one of my favourite railway journeys and I have been lucky enough to travel between Fort William and Malliag a few times over the years, most recently in 2020.
“The Jacobite” commences its journey at Fort William, the largest town in the Highlands and is situated at the southern end of the Great Glen, in the shadow of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain. This area is a great location to use as a base when discovering the West Highlands. One of the highlights on the journey is crossing the 21-arched Glenfinnan viaduct (a location made famous in the Harry Potter films) which overlooks Loch Shiel and the Jacobite monument.
The end of the line, Mallaig was founded during the 1840’s when the owner of the North Morar Estate, Lord Lovat, divided up the farm on the coast here into parcels of land and encouraged his tenants living around Loch Morar and Loch Nevis to resettle in what became Mallaig and establish a fishing village. Today Mallaig is a busy fishing port and ferry terminal with services to Skye and the Small Isles.
I have not mentioned the UK government plan to close railway station ticket offices at the majority of stations under the guise of changes proposed to bring station staff closer to customers because of the ridiculous short period of time given for the consultation process which was originally set to run for 21 days from 5th to 26th July. However this process has now been extended to end on 1st September 2023. Much of the covergae in the press focussed on the plan being an initiative driven by the Train Operating Companies wanting to cut costs and boost profits. This myth was perpetuated by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) taking ownership of the announcement, but there can be no doubt that this is an initiative from the Department For Transport (DaFT) under pressure from the Treasury and most likely the helicopter loving incumbent of No. 10.
This is a bad and impractical idea. As a user of the railways it is clear that ticket vending machines do not offer the full range of available ticketing and, by my experience, are often out of order. There is also a valid argument that ticket machines are not fully accesible.
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Thanks for visiting. As always your comments, corrections and observations are most welcome. Be seeing you!
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