Apparently Peascliffe Tunnel (between Grantham and Newark)will be shut for a weekend in the next couple of weeks .EWS have had a route learning class 67 out between peterborough and Lincoln via werrington jctn/sleaford and Lincoln as they are to be used to drag the NatEx Class 225s.
more gen to follow...........
jon

I spotted 67016 passing Saxilby light engine on the Down line about 11am this morning so that must be it!

The last lot of planned drags of 225 sets was August Bank Holiday 2000! 3 whole days of Duffs on Drag Duty!

jonf45uk wrote:

EWS have had a route learning class 67 out between peterborough and Lincoln via werrington jctn/sleaford and Lincoln as they are to be used to drag the NatEx Class 225s.

Not according to the NXEC drivers who've been road-learning with me.
(The T-bird has only been running for the benefit of KingsX men - and only for a few of them - with Leeds men using EMT passenger trains to RL)

They say that only the HSTs will be diverted; the 'leccies will terminate at Newark/Grantham with buses shuttling between.

speaking to natex drivers last week, some said there would be several services dragged- others said none will!!!
here's hoping anyway
jon

There must be a good reason for not dragging 225 sets since every closure between Peterborough and Doncaster have resulted in bustitution of electric sets. At least the new bi-directional track layout though Lincoln will help keep the flow smooth.

If the 67 drags does happen, I'll be out with my camera!

Do let us know when this happens, as I need the track between Peterborough and Doncaster and would love to get it done on a HST.

JW keeping his eyes peeled!

Supposed to be 8th/9th november, last I heard. Getting a bit fed up with light class 67's humming past the house - would be good to see 'em pulling something.

Welly wrote:

There must be a good reason for not dragging 225 sets since every closure between Peterborough and Doncaster

It takes about an hour to go Peterboro - Donny down the ECML.
It takes about 2-and-a-half hours via Lincoln.

Adding an hour and a half into every journey causes utter chaos; apart from the complaints from the punters (Newark - Grantham by road is about 30 minutes, by comparison), there just ain't enough trains to maintain the service if every round trip takes 3 hours longer than usual.


I think running the HSTs through on their booked Scottish services makes sense, given little things like the huge amounts of luggage you get on those trains, but I doubt they could sustain a service running much more than those via the Joint.

No worries if you miss your Aberness/Inverdeen train out of the Cross, though: jump the next northbound NXEC to Grantham, bus to Newark, train to Donny or York and you'll be there before the HST passes Gainsborough!

jonf45uk wrote:

speaking to natex drivers last week, some said there would be several services dragged- others said none will!!!

Usual story: speak to three diferent people and get told three different things.


I was quite amused when I was told that the top KX Driver Mangler had decreed that only two of his drivers could road learn on the T-bird at any one time. I always thought the book said that you could have 4 in a cab - and more if one of them was carrying the appropriate cab pass...

I was even more amused when, as a result (& already having 2 NXEC men in the cab with me), every time I stopped at a "major" station there were 2 more waiting to join us. Ended up with 2 in the cab, 4 in the train - and half-a-dozen of their guards sat in the train too...
Sheer chaos!

One assumes GC are diverting this way too?

Found out the date last night on another forum, I'm looking forward to getting the track in!

Most dumb question (new topic?)... how come there are class 66's migrated from the UK to Mainland Europe, but the same hasn't happened in reverse [to now] with the 189 and the 185/186?

I did learn a while that there will be a UK version of the 185, but that doesn't quite answer my question, as to why the ball rolled more one way, than equal and opposite ways to this point in time.

Mainland europe has a much larger loading gauge than the UK. (Their locos and rolling stock are too big for our railways.)

I didn't know that. Like, by how much? Are we talking inches or feet?

So the UK Version of 185/186 that Bombardier is rumoured to be developing, how would you expect that to be changing?

Don't know the dimensions, but probably at least a foot higher and maybe a foot wider.

I was not aware that a UK load gauge 185/186 was under consideration, indeed any new electric locos. We are just selling of some we already have, so they can run more diesels under the wires.