Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

extremely short notice. ASLEF had announced another round of stoppages and a ban on all overtime working through until June 2024. Northern must not have been one of those operating companies selected on this particular day, as replacements were operating, for on previous strike days no replacements have run. There were two high-vis clad operatives supervising the exchange of passengers on this occasion. On Friday the 8 th , there were no trains running as Northern was one of the two operating companies selected for strikes by the members of ASLEF, Trans-Penning being the other. However, after several consecutive weekends when ‘rail replacement’ services had been substituted for trains, the trains were back running on Saturday the 9 th . Although the engineering works was due to end a week ago, on Sunday the 10 th there were rail replacement services operating once again. There was one co-ordinator on duty, although it seemed from observations that some of the scheduled coaches/buses were not turning up or exceeding late. Of late it appears that Colas Rail’s VTG tanker train runs on Wednesdays and Fridays only. On the 13 th , it was back with Class 56 haulage and again on the 15 th with 56:105 a Nottingham based loco in charge of eleven bogie wagons. It also appears that it no longer goes to Lindsay but only to Haverhill in the North East. Once again on Sunday the 17 th , Rail Replacement Services were covering for trains due to the prolonged engineering work. The empty stock from a Northern Bell excursion passed through Accrington in the evening of Thursday the 21st, Heading back to its Carnforth base behind 57:601 and 57:313. On the last day of 2023 there were some movements of Civil Engineering trains through Accrington from Bradley Wood to Carlisle New Yard. The first was hauled by Freightliner 66:547 on a 1,400 ton rake of full ballast bogie wagons, the second of half empty wagons was behind 66:784 a GB Railfreight locomotive. This was 13 minutes behind schedule despite only loading to 600 tons. Loco 66547 is allocated to Leeds Midland Road, whilst 66:784 is a Doncaster Roberts Road engine. It was named “ Keighley & Worth Valley Railway – 50th Anniversary ”, and was formerly numbered 66:081. Northern Rail was experiencing cancellations due to a lack of drivers unwilling to work overtime through the New Year period, one casualty being a service from Colne to Blackpool South. However, the Manchester Victoria  Blackburn Service and the Blackpool North to York were running as normal. This situation would spill over into New Year’s Day. The majority of interesting happenings have been on the railways in the past twelve months, with several locomotive hauled trains to record including some steam engines. A prolonged period of engineering works in the late autumn saw several weekends when there were no trains at all which improved to just on Sundays only near to the end. This came on top of several strike days due to ongoing industrial disputes. ---------------------

CHAPTER 24

The Year 2024 January During the late evening of Tuesday January 2 nd at 22:38, the Track Test Train passed through Accrington, en route from Derby Testing Centre to Gannow Junction in Burnley. It was topped by Colas

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