European Railroad Discussion > More from Ribblehead (England)

As I waited for my mid-afternoon Northern service back up to Carlisle, I got two more freights in Ribblehead proper.

1. They do not make it easy to photograph the attractive station in Ribblehead because the northbound platform is well offset from the station and anything else is trespassing. The station, the former stationmaster's home, and the highly-recommended Station Inn are the only structures in Ribblehead.

2. This is a scheduled train but one that runs only once or twice per month. This is a train of China clay used in the paper industry, carried in shallow 'V'-shaped tank cars. The train is operated by GB Railfreight for Irvine Caledonian Paper and led today by Class 66 #66726 "Sheffield Wednesday." This locomotive would be seen again later in the day in Carlisle after refueling.

3. Network Rail is the entity that owns and maintains the rail network in the UK but they do not generally operate any trains. Maintenance-of-way trains can be seen operated by almost any of the train operating companies. This is the most unusual such train that I saw, a scheduled train from Carlisle North Yard to Crewe Basford Hall SSM (Sorting Sidings Middle) led by a Transpennine Express Class 68 #68019 "Brutus." The train consisted of a yellow gondola from Swiss company Wascosa, several Network Rail ballast hoppers, and a string of flatcars with concrete ties (sleepers). Transpennine Express is a passenger operator in northern England and Scotland using modern electric trainsets but that has several diesels presumably as protect units for the electric trainsets. Note the Ribblehead Viaduct visible in the background on the right.

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NMlurker Wrote:
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> 3. Network Rail is the entity that owns and
> maintains the rail network in the UK but they do
> not generally operate any trains.

Network Rail operates track measurement trains of various types.

The Northern 68s are used on some services across their part of the network using mark 5 carriages.Unfortunately the pandemic has reduced the use of the sets considerably. The mark 5 carriages were built to be loco hauled and the 68s are on hire from DRS.
As for Network Rail "test" trains they run with a range of different power supplied mainly by DRS and Colas. Even when the equipment is owned by Network Rail the drivers (engineers) are often supplied by one of the freight companies because they have the required route knowledge.