Effective 11PM this past Tuesday, rail tour operating company West Coast Railways is prohibited from running steam locomotives on the national network. This latest suspension is the result of incident which occurred on October 2nd when it was discovered the safety equipment of 4-6-0 45231 had been tuned off by its crew. Earlier this year, WCRC operations were suspended following another incident in which a train passed a signal at danger on March 7th. Having satisfied the requirements set forth by the regulatory bodies, operations were permitted to resume following that occurrence but now we have this. Diesel operations are being permitted to continue at this point.
West Coast Railways is the principal operator of steam powered rail tours and, as the weeks leading up to Christmas are a very busy time for charter trains, the timing is unfortunate but the safety of all involved is of the greatest importance. At least no one has gotten hurt.
http://www.railmagazine.com/ne...on-main-line-network
Bob
