European Railroad Discussion > West Coast Mainline severed until March

Following severe flooding in the wake of Storm Frank on New Years Eve, the viaduct carrying the London to Glasgow West Coast Mainline over the River Clyde at Lamington in the Scottish Borders was left in a very dangerous state. It now looks like work on restoration will take until the beginning of March, assuming no more bad weather.

For railfans this has introduced some interesting diversions, Some Virgin West Coast trains are being diverted over the Glasgow and South Western route between Carlisle and Glasgow. As the G&SW isn't electrified I assume it means that those trains which are running are class 221 Voyagers.

The Caledonian Sleepers are also disrupted. This week, for the first time in over 20 years, the Highland Sleeper is running from London King's Cross via the East Coast Mainline to and from Edinburgh, before dividing into the three sections for Inverness, Aberdeen and Fort William. The Lowland Sleeper is running from London Euston, dragged over the G&SW by 66s and/or 47s between Glasgow and Carlisle, where the class 90 takes over. Passengers to and from Edinburgh take a Scotrail service to Glasgow and pick the sleeper up there.

Not sure how long the Highland Sleeper will use KIng's Cross, it has had to be reduced from the normal 16 cars to fit the platform lengths, and I'm not entirely sure where it is being serviced. Unfortunately its arrival time in KIng's Cross this week (07:47) is rather early for picture taking.

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/work-at-lamington-viaduct-to-continue-throughout-february

I see Virgin quoted today as suggesting that the replacements are at least a connecting train service (rather than buses!) from Carlisle to Glasgow, so I guess this means Voyagers (if there are any to spare) rather than anything more interesting.

The sleeper stock continues to be serviced at Wembley so an ecs move via the Kings Cross incline and a reversal at Hornsey is required.

spflow Wrote:
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> I see Virgin quoted today as suggesting that the
> replacements are at least a connecting train
> service (rather than buses!) from Carlisle to
> Glasgow, so I guess this means Voyagers (if there
> are any to spare) rather than anything more
> interesting.

Yes, if you want some interesting traction you'll need to ride the sleeper, GBRf are using their Riviera Trains 47s along with 66s.

Is the Glasgow and Southwestern the line via Kilmarnock and Dumfries? The TRACKatlas shows a bunch of signalboxes and some single track sections. That would be fun to see.

Jim

Yes Jim, that's the G&SW. Once the route of the Midland Railway's St Pancras to Glasgow (St Enoch) services, the G&SW was downgraded by BR during the 1960s. It staged a mini comeback in the 1990s, when power station coal started being moved in large quantities from both Hunterston coal import terminal, at the mouth of the Clyde, and from numerous open cast coal workings in Ayrshire. But that's subsided again as the amount of coal moved for electricity generation continues to decline.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/16 22:30 by 86235.

It was a tad chilly this morning but I headed down to Harringay for the ecs working of the sleeper stock off the Highland Sleeper from King's Cross back to Wembley via the Hornsey Turnback Siding. 86401 Mons Meg is on point as far as Hornsey, the Freightliner 90 which hauled the train from Edinburgh would then be in the lead from Hornsey back to Wembley, via the King's Cross incline and Camden Road.

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Line scheduled to reopen on Monday 22nd, 10 days earlier than expected.