I feel that the situation is now bad enough that drastic action is needed, even if it means taking "the railway" out of its comfort zone.
GWR▸ , HMRI▸ , and the government need to get to get together and hire extra stock, and to permit the use of otherwise non approved rolling stock.
There is no other rolling stock to hire. GWR had to release 153’s recently to East Midlands Trains. This is to allow East Midlands Trains to overhaul their units. Basically no operator has spare capacity. Once
EMT» have overhauled their units don’t be surprised to see them transferred elsewhere.
Many heritage railways DO have extra stock, though not passed for mainline use. An exemption or derogation needs to be granted to permit such stock to be used on the Cornish branches, and of course a "one of" permission to use the main line to get to the branch.
A VERY BASIC "is it fit to run" examination would be needed, but this should be confined to the basics such as "does it look structurally sound" and "do the brakes work" NOT nit picking over all the correct signs and notices.
It may need to be accepted that stock acceptable for use between Minehead and Bishops Lydeard, is now acceptable for branch line use.
Steam haulage sounds attractive and might be used exceptionally, but heritage diesel locomotives, or multiple units would be more realistic.
Or would it be simpler to re-brand one or two branches as light railways ? thereby permitting heritage stock.
There are many days on which railtours or charters do not run, what happens to the coaches ? can they not be hired and used on the main line, hauled by a heritage diesel, or a modern freight engine.
You’d never get heritage stock running regular services, even on branch lines. A lot of heritage stock will need central door locking,
TPWS▸ ,
OTDR▸ , GSMR etc etc fitted, probably a lot more than that even as a basic. Then there’s staff training, drivers, guards, maintenance staff. Plans to rescue any heritage train in the event of a failure.
Then there is the issue of the train operator obtaining a safety case. What needs to happen is the
DfT» needs to buy new stock and to stop expecting train operators to run a railway with no spare stock. You can’t rely on heritage stock to prop up a railway service.
Look at Virgin West Coast following the Grayrigg derailment. One Pendolino train written off and they have to bring one of their old MkIII sets out of retirement.
And as for the Thames turbos that lack SDO▸ , I would run them thus even to short platforms, with stewards to prevent accidents.
There isn’t an issue with the Turbo’s and short platforms on the mainline in Cornwall. The shortest platform is Menheniot which can take a 3-car, possible 4 at a squeeze.
There was also the apparently unforeseen need to train staff on the new (IET▸ ) train
No there wasn’t. If electrification wasn’t delayed the new IET trains would have been delivered on time. Once delivered GWR would have been able to train a significant proportion of their drivers because they would still have had enough
HSTs▸ to allow them to keep the IET’s out for training purposes.
As it happened. The IETs were delivered late and had to be used in passenger service because there was no other rolling stock. Services have been shortened to 5-cars so that the other 5 can be used for training.
