Diesel locomotives are to replace steam on certain running days at the East Lancashire Railway due to uncertainty regarding the supply of coal.
The usage of steam locomotives are to be rationed to the busier days and dining services.
This means that the Double Header Days on the 18th April, 15th May, 31st July and 11th September 2022 have been cancelled, those services are still expected to run on these days.
Other events that are affected are:
- Services on 13th and 27th March as well as 3rd and 10th April will be diesel hauled, with the Lancastrian Lunch remaining steam hauled.
- Services on the 6th, 7th and 8th April will be top ‘n' tailed with a steam locomotive and a diesel locomotive, this includes any dining trains scheduled to run.
Updated timetables can be found over on the East Lancashire Railway website, with this decision being reviewed on a monthly basis.
An East Lancashire Railway spokesperson said “Due to the uncertainties regarding the supply of coal, operation of steam locomotives is being rationed to busier days and dining services. This will be reviewed monthly. We thank you for bearing with us.”
What steam train went through Ramsbottom lancashire last night 24th March 2023 in the evening?thanks John
We have plenty of suitable coal in UK.
Heritage railways should perhaps look into shipping coal from Vietnam. Yes its a long way but should be cheaper than than Russian coal.
why cant they just use that Ecoal stuff the KWVR tested the other day?
A sensible forward plan whilst uncertainty continues.
We need to open a pit in Britain to supply steam coal for heritage railways and other steam vehicles.
It’s more Green than imported coal!
Are you going to volunteer to go down and dig it
There is one still open in South Wales but the Welsh Assembly will not allow it to expand.
we do, but there is 2 issues with that, 1, coal is fast running out and there are not many places left that are not under towns or cities, and 2, we have a tory government who set out deliberately to close down all the coal mines here, because its more profitable and cheaper for them to get coal from abroad
We use coal from Ffos y Fran (I think that’s right) in South Wales in our traction engine. I think Ffos y Fran is a drift mine. It is lovely clean burning coal and the engine performs really well on it. In a line up of engines at a rally you can see which are using this rather than the Russian coal with its dense black smoke. I’m not sure what is the future for this mine but it will be a great shame if this coal is no longer available. Perhaps if heritage railways used it, it would secure the future for the mine.
Very sad but understandable. Perhaps Heritage railway companies got together and came up with a long term solution. As I see the ‘Drax’ trains regularly, with wood pellets, perhaps this would be a solution. The purists would not like it but then they hate concrete sleepers!
You hate concrete sleepers? Don’t forget the flat bottom and continuous rails to hate.
Problem with wood is you need three times the amount to equal coal. i.e. one ton of coal= three tons of bio-mas. Despite what the ‘official’ line is, Bio-mas has a high CO2 emission and a dust health problem, so don’t believe this is the way to go. It has a higher carbon foot print than coal when you take into consideration the forests cut down and the processing and transportation elements of its production!