Flying Scotsman has been involved in a shunting incident at the Strathspey Railway in Aviemore, Scotland.
The incident took place around 18:15 today, 29th September, when the A3 locomotive was being coupled to the Royal Scotsman carriages.
According to emergency service statements, two people have been taken to hospital, their injuries are not thought to be serious, and three others have been treated at the scene.
ScotRail has resumed services after having cancelled them earlier this evening as it is away from the mainline network.
The Strathspey Railway has said that this weekend's services are cancelled, with refunds being processed.
A spokesperson from the Strathspey Railway said “We can confirm that on Friday 29th September at 18:15, a shunting incident occurred when the Flying Scotsman locomotive was being coupled with Belmond's Royal Scotsman train carriages, which were stationary on heritage railway line, Strathspey Railway.Flying Scotsman was visiting the railway as part of a planned excursion.
Emergency services attended the site to provide assistance. Two people are attending hospital with others being treated at the scene.
Appropriate authorities were notified immediately, and we are co-operating with their investigations.”
A spokesperson for the National Railway Museum, who own Flying Scotsman, has said “We can confirm that steam locomotive Flying Scotsman has been involved in a shunting incident at Aviemore Station. We will provide further information once more details are known.”
A spokesperson for Police Scotland has released an updated statement, saying “At around 7pm on Friday, 29 September, 2023, we received a report of two trains colliding at low speed at Aviemore Railway Station.
As a precaution, two people – a man and a woman – were taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness by the Scottish Ambulance Service for treatment. Their injuries are not believed to be serious.
A number of other passengers were assessed by the ambulance service at the scene and did not require hospital treatment.
Enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.”
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service have also released a statement saying “We were alerted at 7.10pm on Friday to reports of a collision involving two trains at Aviemore Railway Station.
“We sent eight appliances to the scene, where firefighters worked to support partners.”
The worst damage done to the locos framed was the bodged and “improvements” carried out by Kennington. The NRM had to replace All of the Locod frames except the centre 1/3rd
Interesting that the official statement avoids the word “Accident”. No doubt the RAIB are at hand. Hopefully the incident is not a repetition of the historical USA accident that caused misalignment damage to the frames, over many decades, affecting the bearings.
The Gresley A1s suffered bad from distortion and cracking of their frames. This only got worse after their rebuilds into A3 (the as built A3s having stiffer design), and apparently those fitted with down rated A4 boilers at the end were noted for poor fames.
During her rebuild at the NRM the frames were in such poor condition, only the centre third could be retained, the rest is new metal, as is the bogy frames, frame stretchers and horn blocks.
The worst of this damage was coursed By Rolland Kenningtons “Improvements” that he recommended when overhauled for Tony Marchington. This included rasing the Ex A4 boiler from the A3s working pressure from 220psi to 250psi, increasing the size of, and changing the flow design of the main steam pipes to match a A4s set up, increasing the size of the super heater elements, slightly increasing superheating area, and boring out the cylinders from. 19 to 20 inch. This had the effect of increasing the tractive effort by around 1/3, which was detrimental on the weak frames. Some bad damage was also coursed by the bodged carried out by Kennington when he replaced the cylinders, including ovaling holes out to an excessive amount so the step bolts so the A3 built cylinders would fit Scotsman A1 designed frames. I have also heard remarks about the new dragon fitted in the late 1990s. The findings were published in the mid 2000s after the NRM major overhaul/rebuild suffered massive set backs.
The misalignment In the centre cylinder and connecting rod was coursed by Kenningtons when he fitted the centre cylinder.
The issues with the frames bring out of true that was observed when stripped down in the late 1990s can not be atributed to any one thing, but due to a hard long life. She suffered a couple of derailments in the USA, one at slow speed at the start and another later on when one of the Cartazi axle journal’s fractured. Lifting on and off ships would not have helped. On the return to the UK from the USA, the seas were so rough she was observed to move slightly on deck. She was worked hard in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. Her trip down under was no easy trip, and she was handled very hard, and I have seen videos of her participating in what could be called heavy shunts/couplings which I guess was to allow the buckeye to couple. The Australian railway network was also considered to be on the rough side, but on at least one new welded section, it was so smooth they allowed her to work up to almost 90 where she ran a lot more comfortably and smothely than 75. When visiting Western Australia, the South African Water was so bad it coursed priming issues and whilst in Perth, one of the cylinders suffered damage that required a rebore, but this was only done to the one cylinder, which depending on how much had to be removed, could create uneven force on the crank axle. The trains in Aus were some of the heaviest she had ever hauled. After returning from Australia, Scotsman was flogged to death on the Mainline, Until the BR ticket ran out. When she was then transported around on lowloader to heritage lines. She was then involved in a heavy shunt at the Llangollen railway in 1995 that saw the life expired boiler back head to crack through on the upper fireman’s side radius, at which point she was withdrawn for overhaul.
The life she had with Tony was not easy either, Richard Ward (Firmer Head of BR special trains Unit, the Manager who almost destroyed Bressingham by getting g Kennington involved in Royal Scot’ s abortive overhaul, and Flying Scotsman PLCs business manager) saw Scotsman future, not on norm excursions, but on luxury dining trains that only wealthy could afford. This was some what at odds with Tony and Richard Marsh (former BR chairman and Flying Scotsman Plc publicity manager?) which saw her get used and abused on trains such as the VSOE pullmans and Northern Belle services, and it was observed from the shovel shoot, brick arch, and inner firebox stays that she was having to be “over fired” due to the extreme hard work she was finding herself under. This is where Kenningtons “improvements” coursed massive issues with the frames