This article was opened on Friday 29 June 2007,
and closed on Friday 13 July 2007.
Following 1001’s prolonged absence from the national railway network, it ventured out to Kent today on a driver-training run for GBRailfreight.
Newly-repainted Motor Coach 60118 Tunbridge Wells led sister-vehicle 60116 Mountfield out of St. Leonards Depot at 09:50. In the course of the 4-hour journey the pair traversed the Romney Marsh to Ashford, and conducted a circular tour from Ashford via Folkestone, Dover, Deal, Sandwich, Minster and Canterbury, before returning to the depot via Rye.
Our train, which ran as headcode 5Z22
, completed the
scheduled working faultlessly and with no late-running; despite a minor
delay to its path between Ashford and Deal, it was running early at
Canterbury and had to be held at Appledore to await clearance of the
single-line section to Rye.
The train reversed three times: twice at Ashford International, and also at Minster East Junction (1001 traversed two sides of the triangle). It therefore got ‘turned’ in the course of the day’s outing.
Today’s working took our train through the 1,387-yard Shakespeare Tunnel between Folkestone and Dover, which is formed of two narrow single-track bores; these are normally out of bounds to SR DEMUs such as ours, as the trains have no end door to provide a means of escape. The unavailability for railtours of this spectacular stretch of line has often been lamented — but a special dispensation was granted for this non-passenger working.