European Railroad Discussion > Carlisle After Dark (England)

On a Tuesday evening in Carlisle, England, I was going to wander about town but as it was raining I found myself back under the shelter of the substantial station and was rewarded by three northbound freights in short succession. This is the busy West Coast Mainline (WCML). Each of the three trains stopped briefly, the first for a signal and the latter two for a crew change.

1. One of the more unusual trains to operate through Carlisle is the train of low-level nuclear waste for Seaton-o-t British Energy using special cars. Even if the train is a single car they use two locomotives. This service is provided by Direct Rail Services (DRS). On this night the train has Spanish-built Vossloh Class 68 locomotives #68016 "Fearless" and #68002 "Intrepid" with two special container cars and a string of ten new flatcars for 20' containers.

2. There is no escaping Genesee and Wyoming orange and black, here operating as Freightliner. A train of international containers is led by GEC Class 90 electrics #90011 and #90010.

3. Direct Rail Services has become one of the larger freight operators in the UK. Here a Spanish-built Vossloh Class 88 bi-modal diesel/electric, #88005 "Minerva," leads a domestic container train of TESCO (UK grocery store chain) and "Less CO2 Rail" containers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/22 18:02 by NMlurker.

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TESCO is far more then "a local grocery store chain". 

Nice shots, I'm pretty sure those cars aren't for low level waste but high level.

Tesco is not only the largest grocery/supermarket chain in the UK, it is also the larger employer - almost 11% of the UK workforce is employed by Tesco!

The nuclear flasks have two locos by design, due to the sensitive nature of the material being moved two locos are a requirement, so that in case one should fail, it doesn't disable the train.

It used to be a Rule Book requirement, though whether it still is I'm unable to confirm.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/22 15:52 by Hexagon789.

One of these nuclear waste flasks made the news (going back a few years) when it was involved in a high profile test...

PreviewPreview2:42Train test crash 1984 - nuclear flask testYouTube · Fleetline1192 minutes, 42 seconds · 8 Sept 2008

exhaustED Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One of these nuclear waste flasks made the news
> (going back a few years) when it was involved in a
> high profile test...
>
> PreviewPreview2:42Train test crash 1984 - nuclear
> flask testYouTube · Fleetline1192 minutes, 42
> seconds · 8 Sept 2008

Yes, they were going to use a Class 40, (similar weight to a Peak) but didn’t think it could get up to the required speed, hence 46009 being the lamb to the slaughter.

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Nice shots, thanks for sharing - - just added Carlisle to my list.