'An unexpected Party'. As the 1st chapter of Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' is titled, though here, the party didn't happen, for quite a bit of time.. As the upper left two shots of this first mosaic of 6 show, the Yard was bereft of any activity, on arrival around 10:45, last Thursday morning. I haven't seen the place look like this, during working hours, for a good long while, though I guess it does happen later on when the early moves in, leave later with a full or empty load, and head away back south to Felixstowe and Acton in the London area. The usual, Freightliner, working from Felixstowe usually arrives around 07:09 having set out the previous day from Felixstowe, 21 minutes early, at 21:43, it then made it way north arriving in the Doncaster area, on time, at 05:34; and there it stayed. The working was then cancelled with- 'This service was cancelled between Decoy Nth Jn and Tinsley Intermodal Term due to a signalling systems failure (IF)' and it then stayed there for 4hours while the signalling failure was sorted out. This problem also caused a long delay to the early morning 6J03, a D.B.S. working from Immingham Dock Nordic to Tinsley S.S. It set out, 57mins early, at 02:59, and headed towards Doncaster arriving into the area at 05:14 where things went awry due to the above signalling fault which cased an almost 3 hour delay before it continued on, at 07:57, before the Freightliner and DBS Spoil working. It headed off towards Tinsley but instead of passing through Swinton in the early hours, around 05:53, it now had to contend with passenger services in the area at around 08:05, it was therefore signalled to go via the Kilnhurst loop where it then had to wait a further 90mins, before exiting at 09:21 and heading for Tinsley, arriving at 09:42, 201mins late! What a to-do, the three south-bound workings from Doncaster where therefore delayed by this signalling issue at Doncaster, 6J03 by 201m, 4E82 by 230m & 6E70 by 168m.
So with no workings having arrived, as the upper left two picture show, it just remained for me to either leave or try and find out what was going on, this I subsequently did, though quizzing a couple of guys on the Newell & Wright site, didn't provide any useful information, they didn't know either!! What I did see, off in the distance in the Tinsley S.S., Sorting Sidings, at the right of the 'M&S' distribution centre, was a lone D.B.S class 66, in the old E.W.S. livery, moving back a forth for a few minutes before disappearing behind the buildings in the distance. This must have been the loco at the head of the 6J03, number unknown, but it fits in with the above timings and frequently performs this task on arrival from Immingham.. then presumably heads off back, now probably to Doncaster. After this, and around 30mins after arrival and checking RailCam, it was possible to find both the expected workings now heading this way, the Felixstowe was now just passing through Rotherham Central, at 10:41, rather than 06:55 and the Spoil train from Acton was at the same time, about to leave Doncaster Decoy North Junction, and also head this way, now 213mins late.. it would arrive here in about half an hour at 11:18, rather than 08:36.
In the upper right picture, along withe the tall lamp-posts 'getting in the way' of decent shots, another problem is now gradually growing, literally, as the 'lovely' Birch tree saplings are making a small, linear forest, between the two tracks coming down-grade at the bottom of the Yard bank. The nearer track, which can be seen more clearly in the lower left picture, has remained unused, the track the Freightliner is travelling along, after a few years use now, is shiny and clean. Making its way towards the Newell & Wright container terminal at the other side of the Wood Lane bridge, just ahead, is class 66, 66565 with the much delayed 4E82, Felixstowe North(FLT) to Doncaster and later, onwards from Doncaster to Tinsley Intermodal Terminal with a full rake of about 40 containers. In the foreground, one of the water trucks is scuttling about, dampening down the dusty Spoil pad before the impending 'muck train' arrives in about half an hour. The 2 exits from the sidings, both behind a palisade fence at the side of the M&S building, can be seen joining the line to the Spoil Pad which comes out of the much denuded, Tinsley S.S. Yard in the background.
At centre left, the Freightliner is _very_ slowly making its way down-grade, and it took quite a few minutes for the last container to appear in the distance, as will be seen in the next pictures, the containers filled the whole of the Terminal line, all the way along to the Sheffield Parkway bridge, in the distance.
At lower right, the loco has ground to a halt in front of the points which direct the working onto the line next to the Newell & Wright, T.I.T., where the containers can be off-loaded, everyone now jumping into action, after waiting more than 3 hours for this lot to arrive. Just ahead of the loco and the orange-clad local Freightliner operative, a small, dirty concrete post, bearing the number '160', presumably indicating to drivers, the distance from here all the way along south to London.. Not anymore though, not from here, as the lines are cut short just under the Sheffield Parkway bridge!
Finally, at lower left, Freightliner 66565, has detached from the front of the train and is using the release road at the end, it has made its way along the loop line back to this end where it is now reversing back onto what will now be the front of the train. The length of the consist can be seen and it is being unloaded in two places, and at the same time will be reloaded and when complete, will return to Felixstowe, but that working, 4L85, suffered a delay as well, it leaving 96 mins late at 12:54, rather than 11:18, and arrived back in Felixstowe, 2 hours late, at 19:25.. It is clear that today's delay, with only 2 or 3 schedules each way, but tightly run, will result in knock-on delays if there is any problem in this or any other location along the way... The regular GBRf working, 4E53 with 66716, into the same Terminal, also suffered a delay due to the Freightliner still being present, the former arriving at 12:54, 96mins late. It however was unloaded and reloaded in the 3 hours before its return on 4L53, at 16:08, but it suffered a 95min delay in the Peterborough area, making up some of the time and arriving into Felixstowe at 00:51 on the Friday morning, 76mins late!!!
What a day!
