The Sellafield Flyer, a return to Loco hauled rural passenegr trains in the U.K

**kevsmith** · January 13th, 2012, 09:15 PM

The Sellafield Flyer

Not the official title, which I think is the 'Sellafield special', but this week saw the start of the trial trains to encourage the workers at the Sellafield Nuclear plant to leave their cars at home and travel on a dedicated passenger train from Carlisle to Sellafield calling at the intermediate stations on the Cumbrian Coast line.The service is run by Direct Rail Services in conjunction with Northern Rail

A DRS class 37/4 and four Riviera MKIIs make up the formation ariving at Sellafield just before 08.00 which then
continues onto Barrow in Furness where it is stabled through the day. It returns empty stock to Sellafield in the afternoon and then stops all stations to Carlisle return.

As many of you know I work for DRS at the Sellafield depot so I'm ideally placed to record this innovative attempt to reverse the tide and get people out of their automobiles. I started filming it on Monday morning but ,needless to
say, the weather in Cumbria at this time of year is hopeless for Rail photography. as we say up here 'for three months of the year it is cold,wet, dark and windy- The rest of the time it's winter!)

The link to the first weeks video shows the contrast between the worst conditions like Ravenglass and Seascale in the morning and setting sunshine at Green Road(with the spectacular mountains of Coniston in the background) and Askam later in the afternoon.

I'm going to try and film as much as I can over the next few weeks as loco hauled rural passenger services as rare and a blast from the past. I've not taken any photographs yet just concentrated on video

link to youtube here at

http://youtu.be/thhbsJKhaBs

KEV

**TwinDad** · January 13th, 2012, 10:08 PM

Cool! Thanks for sharing this! That loco had an interesting engine sound...

How's the ridership so far? Are folks taking advantage?

**Hytec** · January 14th, 2012, 01:10 AM

Kev, that's great...hope it works!

The diesel has a very odd exhaust sound, is it a Deltic? (Sorry, I don't recognize UK locos.) Also, the engine has an odd sound as it loads up, is it a hydraulic drive?

**kevsmith** · January 14th, 2012, 08:13 AM

The 37s are powered by an English Elctric 12 cylinder 12CSVT engine of 1750HP. In the British Railways modernisation programme of the 50's and 60's the main power unit suppliers were English Electric class 08,20,37,31 40 etc and Sulzer classes 33,45,46,47 and so on.

EE engines often have a distinctive Turbo whistle most noticeable on the 20's

Sadly there are no mainline diesel hydraulics left in the U.K

KEV

**Seated Viper** · January 14th, 2012, 05:53 PM

This is great news, Kev. I hope the experiment is a success.

Incidentally, I saw one of your Class 66 locos on a container train at Eastleigh a few days ago. The furthest south I'd seen one before that was Oxford.

Regards,

Pete Davies

**kevsmith** · January 25th, 2012, 08:27 PM

Week two of the 'Glow Ex' as the train spotters have christened it (something to do with the companies nucleear connections I Think!) saw better weather and light some days and some bloody awful weather on other occasions. Both days I went to Kirkby it was dreadful.

This video is a lot longer but there is plenty of 'English Electric' ratlle and whistle to savour.

video at

http://youtu.be/m7Mm6Vm3IEI

Now this week is a step into the unknown as I have invested in a HD camcorder so watch this space

KEV