Talk:Glasgow-Oban and Mallaig train diverted onto wrong track in points mixup

OR Notes[edit]

Before we go anywhere, “Oban and Mallaig” bears some explanation. Trains leaving Oban and Mallaig to go to Glasgow meet up in Crianlarich and join, becoming one train. The affected train was heading away from Glasgow (the service comes and goes from Queen St Station) and accordingly is announced, both on-board and at Glasgow, as the train to “Oban and Mallaig”. It then splits in twon again at Crianlarich and become the Oban train and the Mallaig train (both have a bunch of destinations in between). Although Mallaig is the 'other' train's (the one I don't get) final destination, it's really the service to Fort William, a much bigger town it stops at shortly before Mallaig.

I get this service in both directions from time to time. It's usually alright; the rolling stock is a bit old, so it lacks wifi, power sockets etc, but it's not appalling.
I was booked onto the 12:11 on Friday with a seat reservation. I was greeted at Oban station by a sign apologising because no reservation cards had been printed for the seats. I'd specifically booked a table. Fortunately, the service was not busy and I got a table anyway.
Friday's train was also delayed 40mins at Crianlarich after (according to announcements by the driver or conductor or whoever) machinery broke down on the tracks and we had to wait to get it fixed (the West Highland Line is a single track at many places).
There's only one train today (Sunday). I was booked on it from Helensburgh at 7:05 and it was on time there. I got my reserved seat for the journey back to Oban.
The stop before Crianlarich in this direction is Ardlui. We stopped, I thought, somwhat harder/faster than normal as we pulled into Ardlui.
It was announced only the rearmost door would be opened. I looked at the platform and we were clearly several inches further from the platform than we should be.
A friend who had unexpectedly also caught the train at Helensburgh came through from the next carriage and spoke to me. His opening remark was “I bet you never thought you'd be in a train accident today”.
People in his carriage, the foremost car on the train, thought the train had derailed.
It was announced the points had been 'set incorrectly'. We were awaiting permission to back up; if we wanted to walk through the four-carriage train to the rearmost door we were free to stretch our legs but we had to stay on the platform as we would be moving off again shortly.
My friend and I got out, he to smoke and I to make a couple of calls. We walked along the platform to look at the train. The reason the front carriage thought we had derailed was instantly apparent.
The front car was pointed sharply away from the platform and was diverted onto another track in parallel to the one we were meant to be on. We'd still been going at some speed (well... by the standards of one of Scotland's slowest rail lines) and the sudden turn and sharp braking would have felt very much like a derailment.
The second car was also mostly onto the wrong track. The third car was turned only very slightly and those doors could likely have been opened. The fourth car was where it was supposed to be.
Ardlui is one of the parts where trains can pass each other. It has an island platform in the middle and I suspect the parallel tracks we were half-on were only there so freight trains could get past stationary trains, as the services in opposite directions are often simultaneously present at Ardlui (they can also pass each other at Crianlarich).
Unfortunately it wasn't that simple; the lead car was on a second set of points and was clearly pointed towards a third track. This third track veered off into the darkness and God-only knows where. Possibly a siding with stationary stuff to hit, possibly off into the wild yonder.
I could see feet and torchlight inspecting the wheels/points from the far side of the train. I later overheard a member of train staff tell a passenger he was obviously friends with we actually hit the points fast enough to have potentially damaged them.
We were eventually ushered back on board and we reversed several train lengths back up the line. We waited around a minute thereafter, then drove back to Ardlui. Bizarrely we then stopped 'properly' and the station was announced. Needless to say nobody got on or off, they'd all done it by the rear door.
The train continued thereafter at 30mins late exactly, which was the length of the incident.
For reasons I cannot fathom the train to Glasgow sat at the opposite side of the platform throughout and was therefore also delayed ~30mins.
Passenger services on the West Highland Line are run exclusively by ScotRail. BRS ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 22:23, 16 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Addition[edit]

A number of people were filming and photographing the train on phones. No wonder; it was a weird sight, with the train contorted like a serpent. I was irked not to have my iPod, which could have snarfed us some exclusive footage. BRS ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 22:42, 16 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I noted we left Ardlui at 8:20 but apparently forgot to write that. Hence, since we were told we were exactly 30mins late, it's apparent the incident took place at 19:50. BRS ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 23:00, 16 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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