A return to loco hauled, rural passenger trains in England

[kevsmiththai]

The Sellafield Flyer

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Not the official title, which I think is the 'Sellafield special', but this week saw the start of the trial trains to encourage the workers at the Sellafield Nuclear plant to leave their cars at home and travel on a dedicated passenger train from Carlisle to Sellafield calling at the intermediate stations.The service is run Direct Rail Services in conjunction with Northern Rail. As many of you know I work for DRS at Sellafield so I'm handily placed to record this rare loco hauled rural passenger service

A DRS class 37/4 and four Riviera MKIIs make up the formation arriving at Sellafield just before 08.00 which then continues onto Barrow in Furness where it is stabled through the day. It returns empty stock to Sellafield in the afternoon and then stops all stations to Carlisle return.

I started filming it on Monday morning but ,needless to say, the weather in Cumbria at this time of year is hopeless for Rail photography. as we say up here 'for three months of the year it is cold,wet, dark and windy- The rest of the time it's winter!)

The link to the first weeks video shows the contrast between the worst conditions like Ravenglass and Seascale in the morning and Green Road(with the spectacular mountains of Coniston in the background) and Askam later in the afternoon.

link to youtube here at

http://youtu.be/thhbsJKhaBs

I'm going to try and film as much as I can over the next few weeks as loco hauled rural passenger services as rare and a blast from the past. I've not taken any photographs yet just concentrated on video


KEV

[Mr Frosty]

Excellent.

Love the rumble of those diesels.

[bikkuri bahn]

Good stuff- loco-hauled, EE CSVT sound, and semaphores: that checks off a few boxes on my railfan list.  Looking forward to updates as they come along.

[bikkuri bahn]

A question for Kevin or anyone else w/ knowledge- are those semaphore signals actuated by pure mechanical (wire) or electro-mechanical linkages?  Is there a standalone signalbox controlling them or a control box within the station?

[westfalen]

Brings back memories of English Electric diesels working suburban passenger trains here in Brisbane.

[kevsmiththai]

The Cumbrian Coast line still has a fine selection of mechanical signal boxes which operate the signals by wires or rods. in addition there are still manned level crossings dotted along the line.

[kevsmiththai]

Last weeks was the second week of the trial train and the weather was a mixed bag to say the least! Both days when I went to Kirkby to get it running around the heavily speed restricted curve at the north end of the station it lashed it down with rain and wind. But the train crew have twigged where I am going to be so are opening the throttle up when they see me. I suspect they are going to want copies off me when I get back to work next week!

37 409 'Lord Hinton' was on the point last week

link to video at

http://youtu.be/m7Mm6Vm3IEI

I invested in a HD camcorder on Sunday so this weeks stuff should be interesting. I'll keep you posted

KEV