This is a bit of a spin-off from the footage I have been shooting of the 'Lakelanders'. The section of the Cumbrian Coast Line from Sellafield to Whitehaven goes down to single line where the track hugs the cliffs and skirts the shore line. This is still controlled by train tokens exchanged with the signal men at Sellafield, St Bees and a token machine at Whitehaven. Although this technique is as old as the hills it has still never been surpassed and looks likely to continue for a few more years yet. Although Network Rail have made their intentions clear to eliminate most of the manned signalboxes it will be a while before the sleepy Furness Railway line gets altered. The area we are looking at is here in Cumbria on the Irish Sea coast It was whilst I was waiting for the 8F on Saturday I thought I'd shoot some footage of the token handovers on both passenger workings and a Sellafield-Seaton Nuclear flask working. The DRS class 37s on the flask working have to wait fior the preceeding passenger train to clear St Bees. The film is mainly centered around Sellafield signal box and at the end a short sequence at St Bees, the only passing loop on the section. As you can see the signal man has to cross the bridge to collect and deliver the tokens to drivers on the southbound workings video is here at http://youtu.be/AjigMiu915U cheers KEV
To give you an idea of the terrain here are acouple of shots of Netherton At this time fo year it can be quite pleasant her but in Winter it is another matter The same goes for Braystones KEV
Interesting video, thanks. I can understand why the surveyors followed the coastline so closely, certainly less cost than cut & fill, or tunneling. On the other hand, that cost savings is quickly consumed when two locomotives are assigned to a single flask. Is that a safety regulation for nuclear cargo handling?
Yes. A lot of the stuff we haul at D.R.S comes under the'Dangerous Goods regulations' If it is older motive power like the class 37s seen in the video we use two. If the lead loco fails the rear one can be driven from the front cab. The other thing we do, which surprises a lot of people, is we run a lot of trains 'Topped and tailed' with a loco at each end. This is because we run down a lot of obscure branch lines with limited run round facilities A classic case in point are these two class 20s at Workington Docks on a LLW train KEV
