Class 37 Hauled Charters Ban

[Warbo44]

Now i've only just heard this on the "grapevine" and i don't know how true it is but i've been told that class 37's have been banned from hauling charters / railtours by Network Rail. The way i understand it it's to do with an incident on a railtour the other week and i won't name the tour. On arrival at a certain station i saw two BTP officers talking to a member of staff of the railtour operator and i wondered why. Now after what i heard from my mate i think it could have something to do with a few passengers hanging out of the windows up to their waist. Also i think i heard someone hanging out of one of the windows shout out at the top of their voice at someone on a station platform just prior to where we'd stopped. So i wonder if a member of staff or passenger on the platform has made a complaint about the incident thus involving the BTP.

This would be a big problem for certain railtour operators in finding alternative traction to haul their railtours. Such as it is Pathfinder tours have had to cancel their forthcoming tour to Scarborough "The Yuletide East Yorkshireman" possibly for this reason.

I'm slightly disappointed as i'd considered doing that tour and booking it this week or at the least part faring it.

Anyone have any more info on this possible class 37 ban ?

 

[Trainfan344]

From what I've heard it's not a ban on 37's themselves but the company will be using window bars after enthusiasts were caught flailing and bellowing with a 37 on the front.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

From what I've heard it's not a ban on 37's themselves but the company will be using window bars after enthusiasts were caught flailing and bellowing with a 37 on the front.

A shame that a minority spoil things for the majority of sensible people.

 

[Warbo44]

That's the thing even on the way back a member of the railtour staff noticed someone hanging out of a window a bit to far. They made a comment to a lad sat next to me but i don't think they even bothered to give the person in question a tap on the shoulder and give them a warning to refrain from what they were doing, not that i know of that is. If the BTP had mentioned the incident that occured earlier up the line i'm surprised as i can't remember hearing an announcement over the tannoy, but then again i might've missed it, for passengers to refrain from shouting out of windows at people at stations and to stop hanging out of them so far.

I was on a West Coast charter to Whitby back in September and was told as i boarded that i would have to take my seat straight away as there was no standing in the coach vestibule unless i wanted to go or was waiting to go to the toilet. Now i presumed they were being seriously over cautious due to the ban they'd received a few months before.

To be honest another friend of mine has told me that Network Rail want railtour operators off the network anyway. They might get what they want in a few years time as i've been told that new regulations coming in with prohibit any coaches that don't have plug / sliding doors (such as on units) from being used on the network.

 

[sprinterguy]

They might get what they want in a few years time as i've been told that new regulations coming in with prohibit any coaches that don't have plug / sliding doors (such as on units) from being used on the network.

That's a false portent; stock can continue to operate beyond the 01/01/2020 deadline with manual doors as long as they are fitted with a suitable design of interior door handle and improved door locking mechanisms. Of course there are other considerations regarding disability compliance, many of which are not insurmountable on heritage stock, and some of which are likely to be subject to derogations for stock that only sees occasional leisure use.

The DDA regulations are no more likely to sound the death knell for mark 1 and mark 2 stock on railtours than the regulations governing the withdrawal of all mark 1 related stock in the early years of the millennium, which the railway press of the time got into a great flap about, predicting the end of main line railtours as a result. The solution was much simpler: Put a mark 2 carriage on each end of a mark 1 rake!

We've come a long way, it seems, since the following was a common sight on service trains. hock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DN1yhNz4Rc

 

[theblackwatch]

So much wibble. There is no such ban by NR. I wonder where these stories come from? One railtour gets cancelled while issues following a tour a week ago are sorted out, and now it's claimed there is a complete ban! It seems sensible to close this thread.