Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

For over a month now, all the 621 automatic ticket dispensing machines on Northern ’s 420 Railway Stations have been out of order. The problem started on July 13 th , with a ‘ransom-ware’ cyber attack on the supplier of this service and had yet has still to be resolved. The system, installed at a cost of £17 millions from Flowbird based in Bournemouth, had only been in operation since May. As a result of this, the issuing of any Penalty Fares for travelling without a valid ticket had been suspended, until the issue was resolved. The minimum fine was set at £20. Buying advanced travel tickets at the purchasing app had not been affected by this incident. Once again on Thursday the 19 th , West Coast Trains operated the Scarborough Spa Express from Carnforth to York, then on behind steam to the resort on the North Yorkshire coast. On this occasion 37:668 was working in tandem with 37:669. The Class 37s would then bring the train back from York during the evening. On its return from Carlisle the full Blue Pullman set of High Speed Train carriages passed through Accrington in the late afternoon of Saturday the 21 st . It was returning to St Pancras where it had commenced its journey earlier in the morning to travel north via the scenic Settle & Carlisle route. It had come back via the West Coast Mainline to Preston, then via the East Lancs Line over the Pennines. It is usual for the same locomotive to operate the VTG tanker train throughout the given week. However, on the final one of the month, Colas Rail’s 70:805 was the engine at the beginning, but by the middle of the week this had changed to 70:810. On Saturday the 28 th , another ‘special’ was routed through Accrington, ‘The Retro Cumbrian Coaster II’ operated by the Rail Operations Group. This commenced its journey in Chesterfield and would follow the scenic route between Carnforth and Whitehaven. The train locomotives were 37:510 + 37:800 with 57:312 on the rear on the outward leg. It passed through Accrington at 09:26 some thirty-five minutes late and returned at 18:17. It called at Ravenglass for railway enthusiasts to sample a ride on the ‘Ratty’, the Ravenglass & Eskdale narrow gauge railway. Loco 37:510 was formerly D6812 and is named ‘ Orion ’, 37:800 was originally D6843 and is named ‘ Cassiopeia ’. Both these engines were in service with Europheonix in France during construction of the Channel Tunnel Link, whilst 37:800 also operated in Spain. Class 57:312 was formerly D1811 is a Direct Rail Services locomotive. On the final day of the month, Monday the 31 st , West Coast Railways operated their Pendle Dalesman steam tour between Lancaster and Carlisle via the Ribble Valley Line to Hellifield. There was some confusion as to the motive power for the smokebox number gave the Jubilee as 45627 ‘ Sierra Leone ’ whilst the cab-side number read 45562, which was formerly named ‘ Alberta ’. The engine was however, 45699 ‘ Galatea ’! It made an impressive site as it crossed Whalley Viaduct at speed. September To celebrate (rather belatedly) the introduction of 101 brand new diesel and electric trains, Northern had announced that it was offering discount tickets in what was described as ‘A Flash Sale’. One million £1 adult and 50 pence children’s tickets would be available if booked in advance through the operator’s website or its app. This offer commenced on Monday, September the 6 th , and was due to end on October the 22 nd . The ticket machines that were shut down by Northern after Flowbird, the firm which installed them, was the subject of a cyber-attack, were now back in use. After five weeks when they were taken off-line as a “precautionary measure” to protect the integrity of customer data, 95% of these machines were back in use. In a statement Northern stated, “No passenger information or bank details were compromised”. Despite the reduction of passengers during the first lockdown no less than 30,000 £20 penalty fares were issued for travelling without a ticket, there were 8,300 convictions for fraud. Serial fare dodgers were fined on average in excess of £400 each. During the first two weeks the locomotive employed on the VTG tanker train was Colas Rail ’s 70:809. On Thursday the 9 th , West Coast Railways ran the last Scarborough Spa Express through Accrington for this summer, (the final one would go by another route). On this occasion the train was hauled from Carnforth to York (and return), by two Class 47s in tandem. The leading locomotive on this occasion was 47:270 from Rail Operations Group in BR blue livery. It was new in February 1965, as D1971 and allocated to Haymarket Depot in Edinburgh, and had previously carried TOPs number 47:270. Coupled behind was West Coast Railways liveried 47:848. This engine was new in February 1965, as

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