'The Master Cutler' - Friday 15 March

jfollows said:

Looks like it’s made up most of its delay by Banbury thanks to a good bit of regulation (overtake) at Leamington plus not stopping for 10 minutes at Banbury.

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There are various reports on Facebook and Twitter that it was supposed to pick up some Chiltern staff at Banbury, instead of sailing straight through...
e.g.: Chime Whistle Publishing (@ChimeWhistle) on X

Marylebone station staff have just, very candidly, told me that the @retrorailtours HST failed to call at Banbury - where it was meant to pick up Chiltern staff.

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EDIT: Link added as requested:

LittleRedTrain said:

There are various reports on Facebook and Twitter that it was supposed to pick up some Chiltern staff at Banbury, instead of sailing straight through...

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There was a pathing stop in the schedule, not a stop for staff purposes, so if people have made assumptions it would stop, more fool them.

LittleRedTrain said:

There are various reports on Facebook and Twitter that it was supposed to pick up some Chiltern staff at Banbury, instead of sailing straight through...

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RTT shows the Banbury call as being to allow another train to pass.

Given the late running, not stopping appears to have been a sensible decision as it clawed back 10 minutes (and arrived at Marylebone early due to not being looped at West Ruislip either.)

A nice lineup at London Marylebone. It’s been a great tour so far with excellent stewarding, and it’s even better now the sun has made an appearance. Good to see a few 68’s around too.





Talk on the tour was of a tour on 24th of August from South Yorkshire to Edinburgh via Stockport, Denton and Huddersfield.

liamf656 said:

I noticed there isn't a TGS in the consist. How does that affect arrivals/dispatch if the guard can't use the droplights?

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No need for the droplights to be used for dispatch!

Think most modern stock doesn’t have droplights but the guard manages to dispatch.

HamworthyGoods said:

No need for the droplights to be used for dispatch!

Think most modern stock doesn’t have droplights but the guard manages to dispatch.

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Fair point. I thought it was still necessary on slam door stock

As I live in Greater London, I joined at Marylebone for the mini-trip to Banbury and back and then the evening run as far as Leicester where I had a restaurant dinner before a train back to St Pancras. It was all good apart from the toilets. Only half of the toilets in these coaches have yet been fitted with retention tanks, so the others was labelled as out of use. That wouldn't have been too bad, except that the only one with a retention tank in the first class section was out of order and the next one down the train had a door that was very hard to close, and even harder to open if one did manage to close it. Thus some of those that were fully fit for use got more than their fair share and ran out of water for the wash basins.

HamworthyGoods said:

No need for the droplights to be used for dispatch!

Think most modern stock doesn’t have droplights but the guard manages to dispatch.

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I think it's the first time I've seen slam door stock operated in that fashion and I can't say I like it, particularly with guard self dispatch with the guard wedged almost comically against the window bars on one video I've seen.

Power door stock doesn't generally have door handles for people to get caught on.

Even the Night Riviera with it's locked droplights provides a means for the guard to use them for operational duties.

It's fine if absolutely everything goes to plan, the train stops in the right place and no drunken normal passenger decides to run for a door thinking it's their train to Plodhampton rolling out without them, but combined with the centrally seated HST cab more or less removes the ability of the crew to react immediately to problems.

My experience as both a dispatcher and a guard on HSTs and loco hauled stock says to me that that is not a good way of working.

HamworthyGoods said:

No need for the droplights to be used for dispatch!

Think most modern stock doesn’t have droplights but the guard manages to dispatch.

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Modern stock doors can't be pulled onto first catch by a passenger. They also can't get trapped on items such as the door handle because modern stock doesn't have door handles.

I'm amazed the method of work was deemed acceptable because I'd be throwing it straight in the bin as the risks associated are too high. (I've worked HSTs and I risk assess train working...)

RGM654 said:

Only half of the toilets in these coaches have yet been fitted with retention tanks, so the others was labelled as out of use. That wouldn't have been too bad, except that the only one with a retention tank in the first class section was out of order and the next one down the train had a door that was very hard to close, and even harder to open if one did manage to close it. Thus some of those that were fully fit for use got more than their fair share and ran out of water for the wash basins.

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As a volunteer of 125 Group who was partly responsible for preparing the stock, I can only apologise to RGM654 and all of the other patrons who were inconvenienced by the toilet issues. All of the tanked toilets worked fully as designed, but due to time issues and the discovery of a badly leaking boiler during the prep, it was not possible to fully fill the tanks on two of the toilets. They then did what they are designed to do by locking out of use when the water ran out - and there was no point during the intinerary where we could add water.
Only our second tour so we are still learning - sometimes the hard way - but we got our train prep wrong and sadly this resulted in the situation you correctly reported. 125 Group apologies most sincerely to Retro Railtours - and to its customers - though at no time was the train without toilet facility. By the time of our next tour, there will be six operational tanked toilets - and we will make certain they are all fully tanked and stocked - and the warped door issue is remedied.