Looking at current practice, the Pendolinos are dragged by 57s when on the Holyhead service, because the North Wales line is not electrified. Not sure if that would have happened with loco-hauled services though, wouldn't really make much sense.
Ian J.
"kim" wrote
That's a fair assessment, plus it happens when traffic has to be diverted, as in the recent case of Pendolinos on the Settle & Carlise.
John.
The message from "Ian J." contains these words:
Holyhead services pre-Pendolino were elecric-hauled from the south as far as Crewe where a loco change took place, a 47 replacing the 90 (or whatever). Except once when the 47 was hung on the front of the 90 and dragged it as far as Llandudno Junction where it *had* to come off because it would be out-of-gauge for the Conwy Bridge. IIRC it languished in LlJ yard for a couple of days before being taken back to the wires at Crewe. There were photos taken...
----- Original Message ----- From: "kim"
Kim - not quite dire emergancy, but to avoid a section of closed electric line, they are (and have been) quite common, at least here in the North West.
Weekend engineering work on the WCML has been a regular feature for several years now, which has involved "drags" in various locations to avoid the closed portion of the line. Here's an example from the late days of VWC loco-haulage :
In that case, coaches and loco were dragged via Manchester, Bolton and Chorley to Preston where the 47 would be removed and the electric which had brought the service from Glasgow would continue with the train. Presumably though, this would only have been possible since the Windsor Link allowed Bolton trains to access Man Pic instead of Vic. Here's another passing Horwich Parkway (not my photo).
Drags via the S&C have also been frequent over the last few years - I have a DVD filmed at Preston which is mainly 87s from London arriving and being dragged back out to take the S&C route (and vice versa).
Other than during engineering works on the WCML, the only REGULAR dragged working is, as Ian said, the Crewe-Hollyhead service.
Adrian
In answer to an earlier post, no, Bolton was never electrified. And, to a later post, Pendolinos were being dragged by Class 57's over the Settle and Carlisle on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 May this year. We had just arrived at Long Marton station for a week's holiday when a southbound Voyager passed; ten minutes later we saw a northbound "dragged" Pendolino. Going "off thread" slightly, I can strongly recommend Long Marton station as a good base for a self-catering holiday. The owners, Mr & Mrs Adams, are restoring the station very carefully and sympathetically to something like its former glory. The completed north end is available for hire; they have their own website which I access using Google and then it's the third site listed and they really do supply everything you might need.
David Costigan
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