Recent content by Wolf

How strict are cross country at taking qualified drivers with incidents on their record? Is it a complete no even for a single incident such as a fail to call or do they assess each candidate individually , aka potentially give them a chance?

Are you sure? Which junctions/sections are slow? I know a decent chunk of the route between moorthorpe and baghill is 60/75, obviously pacers and sprinters can do the higher speeds on a differential. The Rotherham central bit from aldwark to Holmes junctions is slow but apart from that i can...

It was indeed! Was my job for the evening, 144 012 certainly looks abit different to the rest of the 14x fleet inside and out, I personally think they did a really good job with this unit and I think it looks better inside than some of the other refurbished northern stock.

More likely to be the system had knackered up as apose to crew not being bothered about changing it. The new 'train Fx' display system as its called fitted on 150 222 is the same system as on 158752 and it although it is a good system it does have some teething problems at the moment...

144s stopped being diagrammed on the Calder valley after the smithy bridge fire yes. The fire on 144023 was caused by a build up of crap on the top of the fuel tanks over a period of time which eventually ignited. There were a number of failings on the day of the fire, one of which was issues...

It's all to do with barrow depot don't want to loose the work to skipton as heysham harbour has always been barrows route. I think the unions have a lot to do with this as well , we have a similar situation at Leeds where a Leeds driver is booked in a taxi from Leeds to man vic on a Sunday...

Only crews to sign them now are Leeds, Huddersfield, Harrogate, man vic and York. In theory they could and occasionally do go to random places like Sheffield, Blackpool, hull , clitheroe but the danger of sending them to those places Is unless the same crew is bringing it straight back it may...

Not unless the carriages are pacer length - 15.5m, without many platform extensions. The exceptions are bingley and keighley , all the other intermediate stations will only take 4 x 23m coaches, some at most with about 10m to spare. Even the new stations appley and kirkstall forge will need...

I've heard this as well, talk amongst some staff at my depot.

Control would likely refuse to allow a sudden change to stopping patterns based on sudden increases in passenger loadings like this because there is likely to be already people on the train wanting stops which you are asking permission to miss, I think stuff like this needs slightly more...

Yeah a lot of the Leeds services are 158s currently mixed in with other 15x stock so if there was a push to reallocate all diagrams 158s only there could potentially be some decent time improvements between Rochdale and vic, but only if they retime services for 85mph running and just use 158s...

More likely to be due to poor railhead conditions. Can't speak for the line through Google but Leeds to selby can be very dodgy round Gascogine wood and south Milford in autumn. Sometime loose 3/4 minutes just trying to stop at South Milford. One of those places where you can even slide in summer.

That's surprising I didn't think 158s went anywhere near the North East , assumed Newcastle crews didn't sign them.

Northern have a booked service in a morning Leeds -hebden bridge and back using a 158+14x. Worked this morning, 158 and 144 and it was actually one of the most powerful trains I've ever driven. Guards don't particular like them as they can't get all the way down their train to do revenue but I...

Did it fit everywhere ?