{"id":2322,"date":"2013-05-01T06:27:20","date_gmt":"2013-05-01T10:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=2322"},"modified":"2013-05-01T10:55:43","modified_gmt":"2013-05-01T14:55:43","slug":"northern-lights-hst-at-kings-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/northern-lights-hst-at-kings-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Lights HST at Kings Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fast train delayed because of a suspected points failure.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

On Monday, April 22, 2013, a well-known industry communications manager and I paused at an overhead bridge beyond London\u2019s<\/a> Kings Cross to watch the departure of the 1400 (2pm) East Coast train to Aberdeen<\/a>. This is called the Northern Lights<\/i> and features a 1970s-vintage HST, thus making it among the more interesting trains serving Kings Cross.<\/p>\n

What ought to have taken just a few moments, dragged on and on. We could see the HST on the platform, but at 2 o\u2019clock it failed to depart on time. I knew something was up when a man, who appeared to be the driver, left the cab of the train. (Just for clarification: in British terminology the person who runs<\/i>\u2014or \u2018drives\u2019\u2014the train is known as a \u2018driver\u2019 rather than an engineer.)<\/p>\n

Two minutes turned into five, and the HST still hadn\u2019t left. Then two railway employees appeared by a slip-switch beyond the end of the platform. They began disassembling the cowling that covered the switch machine motor. The incident was shaping up to what they call a \u2018points failure\u2019. (In Britain, track switches are called \u2018points.\u2019)<\/p>\n

Before it was all straightened out, there were four men dressed in orange safety clothing on the ground managing the uncooperative points. Finally, just after 1412 (2:10pm), the HST marched out of Kings Cross in parallel with another East Coast train, this one hauled by a common class 90 electric (and was probably destined for Newark Northgate).<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/a>
I used my Lumix LX3 to catch the late departure of East Coast\u2019s Northern Lights (on left) on Monday April 22, 2013. On the right is the class 90 electric with another northward train. It’s been more than 45 years since the famous Gresley-designed A4 Pacific\u2019s worked this route. Much more than the locomotives has changed, and continues to change. The whole area around Kings Cross is a construction site.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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