Network Rail says it hopes to reopen the West Highland Line tomorrow – 11th July 2012.
The line between Tulloch and Corrour has been closed since it was b;locked on 28th June by the derailment of a frieght train by a landslide in storm conditions.
As we expected, the locomotive has not been removed – but ‘secured’. Network Rail are making no comment on their ultimate intentions for this component – lying downhill below the track, not far above the shore of Loch Treig.
The locomotive doesn’t belong to NR; it belongs to whichever unfortunate Freight Operating Company was running that train. Presumably it will be recovered eventually, as was the one that ran away at Pitlochry a couple of winters ago.
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It’s operated by GBRf (GB Rail Freight, part of Eurotunnel) and would reputedly cost around £2 million new, so presumably it will be repaired if possible. As there’s no road nearby, and it’s down a steep hillside, it’s likely to be awkward to recover.
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Reports on railway forums suggest that the loco has already been written off by GBRf’s insurer, and will be cut up in situ. Apparently too difficult/expensive to recover intact.
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Makes a lot of sense – even that will be a difficult job.
The main thing is that they get it out of there.
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Even the work of cutting it up in situ would be unusually expensive, in such a remote place; As the fuel tanks underneath apparently didn’t rupture maybe it’s not too badly damaged, and in this age of conservation of resources hopefully it can be removed in several pieces, without further harm.
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Seems a shame to waste a perfectly good locomotive (how badly damaged is it?) but we’re not exactly short of Class 66s in this country…
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