Cumbrian Coast Special, by Andy

A very good welcome to all East Anglia Rail Scene viewers; once again it's Friday and can only mean one thing - the weekend!


Lined up for you today is a special on the Northern/DRS venture operated services on the Cumbrian Coast Line.

57 301 takes to the Cumbrian Coast - © Mark.
A brief recap of how Cumbrian Coast Services made a return; back at the beginning of the year, January 2015, it was announced that Loco hauled MK2 coaching stock would make a return to the North West as part of maintaining the same service level and increased capacity on key routes. The timetables were put in place as of the May 2015 timetable change which also saw testing take place.

© Jordan Mossom.


On the 18th May 2015, Direct Rail Services started to operate services under contract to Northern Rail using top and tail Class 37's, as seen on the right, hauling Mk2's.

The Mk2's are fitted with anti-window hang bars due to line clearances in certain places along the Cumbrian Coast.

© Jordan Mossom
On July 27th 2015, instead of being top and tailed Class 37's, A DBSO was used on one of the diagrams. However this was withdrawn from working on the 29th July after failing (working on 37 401's diagram). DBSOs may be used in Anglia though on the Short Set. 

Pictured to the right is DBSO 9707 pausing at Maryport with the 17:37 Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness service.


© Jordan Mossom.
37 401 is also back in service and has been used on the Cumbrian Coast and The Bournemouth Flyer. Once again Jordan superbly captures 37 401 getting away from Maryport with the 17:37 Carlisle - Barrow-in-Furness service on the 11th August. 

Overall, 12 Class 37 locomotives have been used on the Cumbrian Coasts (37 401, 37 402, 37 409, 37 419, 37 423, 37 218, 37 603 37 604, 37 605, 37 609, 37 611 and 37 688) plus 3 57's used on training/rescuing runs (57 301/57 302/57 305.)

Arriving at Carlisle 26/08/15.
The diagrams are due to run until December this year. 

When there is faults with the 37's, sometimes this ends up with a Class 142 covering which has happened over the past 2 weeks (142 050.) 

That's it for this post, I hope you have enjoyed this special!
Regards:

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