European Railroad Discussion > Mainline steam in the UK - prohibition notice on West Coast Rail

It looks like there will be very few, if any, mainline steam charters for the forseeable future in the UK.   The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has issued a "Prohibition Notice" to West Coast Railways who provide most of the stock and locomotives for the main line steam programmes.

ORR notice.

Hartington Wrote:
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> It looks like there will be very few, if any,
> mainline steam charters for the forseeable future
> in the UK.  

Just the mainland of Britain - the prohibition doesn't cover the RPSI operations in Northern Ireland.

I wonder what will happen with Flying Scotsman's inaugural run King's Cross to York next Thursday? Steam Dreams are handling bookings on behalf of the NRM and Steam Dreams contractor is WCRC, but on the Steam Info website the operator is shown as [?]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/16 08:19 by 86235.

86235 Wrote:
> I wonder what will happen with Flying Scotsman's
> inaugural run King's Cross to York next Thursday?
> Steam Dreams are handling bookings on behalf of
> the NRM and Steam Dreams contractor is WCRC, but
> on the Steam Info website the operator is shown as
> [?]

Been confirmed elsewhere that the operator is DBS so should run as scheduled.

Could well put WCRC out of business, in any event, to survive this they are going to need a complete overhaul of working practices to satisfy the ORR. This was a WCRC working that I saw on the 5th August, , the Dorset Coast Express with 61306 "MayFlower" taking a coaling stop at Beaulieu Road Station in Hampshire, which is about 4 miles from my home. This train ran from London-Weymouth and return, and would be diesel hauled by 37706 on the return leg as far as Southampton. Scenes like this could be a thing of the past. A few hours later I took a flight from Southampton-Dublin with Flybe, and next day I took a delayed AA93 to Chicago. The following evening's viewing at Pine Junction IN could hardly be more differenmt from this scene.

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I don't know if this is splitting hairs or what. Since West Coast Railways is banned from the mainline system, does that mean the entire system? Where would it be possible for steam trains to run in Great Britain?

WCRC are banned from operating trains on the national network, that is lines which are owned by Network Rail. There are other service providers who run steam trains, such as DBS, so mainline steam can still be seen. But WCRC are the largest provider of steam and modern traction crews to railtour operators, so their absence will have a major impact on the business of the operators.

None of this impacts preservation operations.

I was wondering because The Jacobite is advertising for this season. Its line is connected to the rest of the system but I wouldn't call it a main line.
 

That is part of the National Network so WCRC are banned from operating the Jacobite. Abellio Scotrail will have to find another service provider if WCRC don't make a swift return as the Jacobite is in their franchise agreement.

The vacuum braked stock that the Jacobite uses could be an issue, air braked Mark 1's arent exactly thick on the ground nowadays.