RMT calls three one-day strikes over Midland Main Line safety

The latest news on East Midlands Rail's unsatisfactory new trains is that the largest railway trade union has called three one-day strikes over its concern that they are unsafe. As BBC News puts it:

A union that represents railway staff has announced plans for its members at East Midlands Railway (EMR) to take strike action over "growing safety concerns the company has failed to address".

The RMT union said it had been in dispute with EMR since April following the rollout of the 810 fleet (Aurora), which it said had been operating with a "significant number" of faults.

It said its members planned to take strike action on Saturday 1 August and the following two Saturdays.

I find these paragraphs in this report particularly worrying:

According to the RMT, EMR has been sending trains into service that are "likely to fail and require a full reset which leaves the train with no active safety systems".

The BBC has seen an operational briefing, which informs control, signalling and operations staff about undertaking an Aux Off / Aux On reset on EMR class 810 units - which may be required to recover certain faults.

"The process takes approximately 20 minutes and results in the temporary loss of several safety-critical systems, creating an increased risk of an uncontrolled evacuation and removing the driver's normal means of communication with the signaller," it states. 

This does tend to cast doubt on EMR's assurances to BBC News that the Aurora trains' shortcomings have no safety implications.

And I can't be the only person who is thinking again about the rail collision near Bedford last month.

There, according to a later Guardian report, an Aurora service from Nottingham to London halted unexpectedly because a fault caused an automatic application of its brakes. This train was then struck in the rear by a Corby to London service that had ignored a red signal:

Investigations continue but it appears that another train protection and warning system (TPWS), widely used on the railway system and designed to automatically stop trains if they pass a red signal, was not installed on this stretch of the Midland mainline.

No wonder RMT is up in arms.

It's not as if EMT has been candid over its problems with the Auroras. It's less than a week since BBC News published a story with the headline:

East Midlands Railway cancellations – is it really just the hot weather?

What would have happened if St Pancras station had been closed?

In 1980 the were serious proposals, and not for the first time, to close both Marylebone and St Pancras stations in London.

Jago Hazzard takes us through the plans and why they came to nothing. Before I go any further, let my suggest you like this video, follow him on YouTube and have a look at his Patreon page.

One thing he does not explain is how trains from the Midland Main Line would have reached Euston. There was no existing connection they could have used nor any obvious new one that could have been built.

I don't know what the London Amenity & Transport Association had in mind in 1980, but a post on RailUKforums tells us what British Rail had in mind when there were serious plans to close St Pancras in the 1960s:

The broad outline plan was that the Bedford Suburban services would be diverted from St. Pancras into Moorgate, much as it happened later with Thameslink. Main Line services were proposed to be diverted from Market Harborough over the now closed line to Northampton, and into Euston, with the lines involved electrified. It was also proposed at one point that the line between Market Harborough and Bedford would close, with Wellingborough and Kettering losing their rail services. 

For about four years the St. Pancras to Nottingham Newspaper traffic, and the remaining St. Pancras to Glasgow overnight service were diverted to run out of Euston over the Northampton to Market Harborough route, before reverting to St. Pancras around 1970 after the station at St. Pancras had been reprieved.

Several floors of the old station Hotel at St. Pancras, which had been in use as offices, were relocated elsewhere during the period when closure seemed certain. Even after it was reprieved there was a lot of vacant office space left empty, and walking about up there could be very spooky at times.

It's worth reading the whole thread there. Other contributors say Bedford to Market Harborough would have remained open or that only the line between Kettering (Glendon North Junction be be precise) and Market Harborough would have closed.

I like the idea, possible if the latter closure had taken place, of a regular semi-fast service from St Pancras to Leicester via Corby and Melton Mowbray.

The Dam Busters' training was a spectator sport for Great Easton

Eyebrook Reservoir Dam: John Fielding

Being a well-prepared visitor, I brought the Harborough District Council leaflet about Great Easton with me yesterday.

And here's an interesting snippet from it about a nearby reservoir:

For several months in 1943 up to a dozen Lancaster bombers regularly used Eyebrook Reservoir as a training ground prior to setting off on the famous Ruhr "Dam Busters Raid".

Initially the low flying night flights caused considerable disturbance to the surrounding villages. However local residents, who recognised their sleep would be interrupted, regularly congregated around the lakeside to witness the spectacular rehearsals.

Discover Rutland says:

Practice flights took place from the 3rd May 1943, with a full ‘dress rehearsal’ on the 14th May of 14 Lancasters "attacking" the Eyebrook Dam.

The reservoir, which straddles the border between Leicestershire and Rutland, was built between 1937 and 1940 by Stewarts & Lloyds to supply water to its Corby steel works.

Police look into free buffet held by Reform during Corby by-election

Woke up this morning,
Found Reform UK had provided me with the material for another blog post:

Northamptonshire Police are reviewing the circumstances surrounding a free event co-hosted by a Reform UK election candidate in Corby, at which members of the public were supplied with a 'generous and tasty' buffet.

Lee Duffy, who already represents Lloyds ward on Corby Town Council, is Reform UK’s candidate in October 9 election for the vacant Lloyds and Corby Village seat for North Northants Council (NNC).

The by-election for the seat had been triggered by the resignation of Corby Reform UK councillor Robert Bloom after serious racism allegations.

To read more about the buffet, which was put on at a pub in the town, see the report in the Northamptonshire Telegraph.

Corby man who set up vigilante group to protect women and children admits violent assault on former partner

Really, you could have knocked me down with a feather. 

The Northamptonshire Chronicle reports:

A man who started a vigilante group to ‘protect women and children’ has admitted carrying out a shocking attack on his former partner.

Reece McCarron started his controversial patrol group ‘The Corby Guard’ just three weeks ago, claiming he and his pals were carrying out public protection duties, to widespread public condemnation. He has also been responsible for putting up some of the town’s lamp-post flags, regularly posting footage on his social media accounts.

But this weekend he carried out a shameful drunken assault on his former partner, a video of which has been shared by people across Corby.

There was more about the Corby Guard in the NN Journal earlier this month. 

Reform Corby councillor resigns after alleged racist tirade

Robert Bloom, a Reform UK member of North Northamptonshire Council, has resigned his seat after allegations of a racist tirade against a neighbour.

The Northamptonshire Telegraph says of Bloom, who was elected for the Lloyds and Corby Old Village ward in May: 

A neighbour told this newspaper that he shouted the word 'n*****' at her repeatedly, said he would set the far-right English Defence League on her and told her there'd be 'black body bags'.

The Telegraph goes on to report:

The detailed allegations have been put to Cllr Bloom’s representative who said he did not deny any of them. He said: "He is standing down as a councillor. It has obviously all got a bit too much for him."

A Reform insider told this newspaper that the public should be reassured that Cllr Bloom had no links with the EDL, a defunct far-right Islamophobic group led by Tommy Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

It was a tall order to be more obnoxious that Northamptonshire Conservatives, but Reform looks as though it's up to the task.

GUEST POST How a local radio station changed my life

Mark Howson owes a great deal to Harborough FM.

When Diane and I moved to Market Harborough in 2008 I had a low opinion of local radio, dismissing it out of hand as amateurish and thus never listening to it. I mostly listened to Krautrock and electronic music back then, so even my BBC consumption was limited to Radio 4 and occasionally 6Music.

One of my musical heroes at the time was a German fellow by the name of Manuel Göttsching, who was a legend of the Kosmische genre. One day, about a decade ago, I was perusing his website when I noticed a news item concerning an interview that was about to be broadcast "with Terry Hawke of Harborough FM". 

This stopped me in my tracks. Harborough FM? As in Market Harborough? Surely not. But I was flabbergasted to discover it was indeed the case. I tuned in at the appointed time and thoroughly enjoyed what I heard.

It turned out that Terry (sadly no longer with us) presented a show featuring new age, prog and similar music that often ran from late Saturday night through to almost dawn the next day. This was revelatory and I became a regular listener; soon also discovering other shows on the station. 

One of these was Adam Wilson’s Quiet Revolution, which is still on air and focusses on folk, world and Americana". I’d dipped my finger into these genres from time to time but knew next to nothing about them, but one song caught my attention early on – Nothing To Lose by the American artist Andrew Combs. I enjoyed the track so much I bought the album, but I continued to listen mainly to electronica.

About a year later something popped up on Facebook advertising a gig in Corby by the very same Andrew Combs. I couldn’t believe it. I contacted the promoter and offered to put up a poster for the event in the window of our shop in Great Easton.

He took up my offer and also invited me to another of his gigs that was happening before the AC one; and so it was that I found myself in The Hut at Corby rugby club one Wednesday evening sitting entranced as Nashville’s Amelia White and Yorkshire’s Dan Webster performed a selection of their songs to an audience that sadly numbered less than a dozen.

I attended quite a few more of his gigs in Corby (including the Andrew Combs one at the Viking Club), but found it frustrating that this chap was putting on amazing artists from the USA and elsewhere while clearly finding it difficult to attract an audience in the town. 

Diane had been to a few of the gigs with me and had also enjoyed them, and we both came up with the same suggestion at the same time - why don’t we put on a gig in Great Easton? After all, we knew most people in the village through the shop and could surely persuade a few to come along.

The first one we put on was in March 2018 and featured Scottish band, Southern Tenant Folk Union, and we managed to sell out the village hall. We were very much flying by the seat of our pants and nearly fell before crossing the starting line when the person supplying the PA and lighting pulled out a few days before the gig. Fortunately, the band had their own kit and the evening was a great success.

As well as shows at the hall, we put on house concerts where artists literally play in people’s homes. Our house in Harborough is too small, but we are fortunate to have music enthusiasts in Great Easton who have sufficient space and are happy to host up to 40 people in their homes for an evening of musical entertainment, and such intimate events are often the most enjoyable. One artist who played a house concert in Great Easton, Amythyst Kiah, has since gone on to collaborate with artists such as Moby and Gregory Porter and has also been nominated for a Grammy.

We have just hosted our 40th gig and, while it’s tough selling tickets in the post-pandemic world, the feeling on the night is always amazing; and we intend to continue for some time yet. We have made great friends along the way - artists and audience members who we wouldn't have met had we not been doing this - and I watch more live music now (mostly Americana) than at any point in my life.

So Harborough FM changed my life in quite a profound way, and my opinion of local radio has completely changed. Whatever genre of music you like, you can be sure that somewhere out there there’s someone sitting in a small studio, or converted garage, playing the music they love on their local station and with only the intention of sharing that love; and thanks to the internet there's a very good chance that you can listen in too. May they live long and prosper.

Mark Howson promotes music under the banner of GEPOS Promotions.

Drone footage of the remarkable Welland Viaduct

Something different from the Trekking Exploration YouTube account: drone footage of the mighty Welland Viaduct. This stands on the line between Corby and Manton Junction, which was built in the late 19th century as part of a quicker route from London to Nottingham.

Today the line is chiefly used for freight, though there is one passenger journey each way between Melton Mowbray and Kettering on weekdays. This is chiefly so drivers can learn the route - it's also used for diversions on the St Pancras main line if there's a pressing need to avoid Market Harborough.

This footage was shot by David Blower.

Subscribe to the Trekking Exploration Facebook page for exclusive content.

The Joy of Six 1334

Josh Self has some good news - Reform UK’s civil war will be a protracted farce: "[Rupert] Lowe’s substantial online presence will ensure every aspect of this row is played out in public. That means recurrent poor headlines for Reform - as an array of significant political milestones await."

"As of 1900, about 18 per cent, or nearly one in five, American children died before their fifth birthday. The most common causes were infectious diseases - pneumonia, diphtheria, dysentery, measles, and other illnesses ran rampant through households, and children were especially at risk." Anna North reminds us of what life was like before vaccines.

"The four-part docudrama follows a group of mothers in Corby as they fight for justice after 19 of their children were born with birth defects caused by exposure to toxic waste – the result of the botched regeneration of the town’s former steelworks site." Lee Barron, the town's Labour MP, reviews Toxic Town.

Victoria Guida argues that crypto may be its own worse enemy: "Factions within the industry are battling with each other for strategic, commercial and ideological reasons."

"The film’s title is aptly overdetermined. Reclusive rock star Turner (Mick Jagger) is obviously one kind of performer. But performer, in British slang, also refers to mobsters like Chas (James Fox). In the film, the worlds that these two men inhabit collide and entwine in fascinating fashion." Bud Wilkins reviews of a new Blu-Ray release of Performance.

Lizza Aiken praises the sequels to Jane Austen's novels that Joan Aiken wrote.

Bob Trubshaw on the ironstone railways of Leicestershire

A thorough survey of a vanished local industry and its associated railways. At 33:20 we visit Nevill Holt, which is believed by many scholars to be the inspiration for Bonkers Hall.

Dominika the roving Braybrooke skunk is found again - in Corby

Remember Dominika the Braybrooke skunk who, last month, escaped from her Braybrooke home and was recaptured around the corner from me?

I didn't tell you at the time, because it was too upsetting, but she escaped again shortly after she got home. 

But now there's good news again. Here's HFM News:

A pet skunk missing from Braybrooke has been found safe and well over 10 miles away in Corby after spending five weeks on the run.

Dominika escaped from owner Jayne McLaughlin’s home last month and had not been seen since a sighting in Market Harborough the following week.

The animal was spotted around a bin area in Hooke Close in Corby and after the sighting was shared on Facebook, Jayne was alerted and went straight to the area armed with some food.

There are lots of websites saying that skunks can make good pets, but none mentions wanderlust.

Anyway, this childhood favourite of mine sounds as though it might be a tribute to Dominika - sort of - so take it away, sisters.

Drone footage of the Welland Viaduct

Thirteen miles downstream from Market Harborough, the River Welland passes under one of the least-known wonders on Britain's railways.

At 1275 yards (1166m), the Welland Viaduct is the longest masonry viaduct across a valley in the United Kingdom. It carries the railway 60 feet (18m) above the ground on 82 arches, each with a 40 feet (12 m) span.

It carries freight traffic every day and a single passenger working from Corby to Melton Mowbray and back so that drivers can learn the route. For a while Melton enjoyed two return services to St Pancras over the viaduct.

Drivers have to learn the route because it is often used to divert trains from Kettering to Leicester if there are problems on the main line through Harborough.

Corby woman steals cactus before attacking man with it in town centre

For this vignette of life in the county, the Northamptonshire Telegraph wins our Headline of the Day Award.

Talk of cacti reminds me of Lord Bonkers' entry on Nick Clegg's teenage delinquency.

Welland Valley Rail Partnership calls for Rutland reopening

A short stretch of reopened railway line in Rutland could reconnect the communities of Kettering, Corby, Stamford, Peterborough together with Luffenham, Whittlesey, March and Wisbech.

That's the claim of the Welland Valley Rail Partnership, which describes its plans like this:

The largest piece of infrastructure is a 3.5 mile section of track between Seaton and South Luffenham. This section is a small part of the Rugby & Stamford railway, opened in the 1800s, closed by Beeching in the 1960s.

This track is required because trains coming from Corby in the south can’t turn right at Manton junction to head towards Peterborough ...

There are 8 houses on the historic trackbed, but we have identified two alternative routes that would avoid any houses. 

The next stage of the project would be a feasibility study to evaluate these alternatives running past South Luffenham, along with the viability of the entire project.

Call for more trains north of Corby

The Northamptonshire Telegraph has a report on a campaign for better rail services from Corby to Derby, Melton and Oakham.

It quotes David Fursdon from the Corby Rail Users Group:

"We have the infrastructure in place, track and signalling, we just need the political will and of course rolling stock to get this to happen.

"We have a Derby return service once a day and the Pie Train to Melton Mowbray and back but there's no reason why we shouldn't a better, more frequent service from Corby.

Wallace Lawler, James Haigh and the 1969 Birmingham Ladywood by-election

Wallace Lawler won the Birmingham Ladywood by-election for the Liberals in 1969, but lost the seat back to Labour in the following year's general election.

Lawler sounds like a pioneer of community politics, but I have never heard him talked about in Liberal or Liberal Democrat circles. 

This may be because his campaigning was tainted with racism - certainly that was the story I once heard from some Labour-supporting friends in Birmingham. No doubt I have readers who know all about this.

Click on the image above and you will go to a television report on the by-election. It includes interviews with all the candidates, Lawler included.

But he is not the one who interests me the most. The last interviewed - and the film siezes up while he is talking - is James Haigh. He was to finish last with only 34 votes.

Because Haigh taught me maths between 1973 and 1974.

Given my views on Welland Park College, Market Harborough, in that era - and on its mathematics department in particular - I am tempted to conclude that the electors of Ladywood got it about right.

But I shall rise above this because Haigh turns out to be an interesting figure.

At Ladywood he was standing for the Fellowship Party. This was an environmentalist and nuclear disarmament party that existed between 1955 to 2007. 

It attracted prominent figures as members, including Benjamin Britten, Sybil Thorndike, Vera Brittain, Donald Swann, Rowland Hilder and Leo McKern.

This was the only time Haigh stood for the party in a parliamentary election, but he had already fought Bromley as a nuclear disarmament candidate in 1964.

And a bit of scrabbling around on Google reveals that he was educated at Marlborough and the universities of Leeds and Oxford. In 1964 he is described as a primary school teacher and in 1969 he was teaching at Corby Grammar School. He had also taught in Nigeria at some point.

What I didn't know until I researched this post was that after Ladywood he joined the Liberal Party and fought the Kettering constituency (which then included Corby) at the 1970 general election and the two elections of 1974.

If I had known some of this at the time we might have got on better.

Row in Corby lays bare the tensions in the Labour Party

Walked out of my first CLP in almost 10 years of membership. Final straw was someone, who I respected for all his campaigning efforts, claiming Jeremy Corbyn 'did us a favour' and it was therefore a 'success'. We lost a quarter of our MPs. I said so and left. We need to wake up.

— Beth Miller (@BethMiller91) January 31, 2020

Corby, traditionally a marginal seat, was held by Labour between 1997 and 2010. At December's general election, where the Labour candidate was Beth Miller, it was held by the Conservatives with a majority of over 10,000.

The constituency has an interesting history and sociology: Lewis Baston dissected it when there was a by-election there in 2012.

And last night it all kicked off there, according to the Northamptonshire Telegraph:

The former Corby and East Northants Parliamentary election candidate Beth Miller marched out of a tense constituency Labour Party meeting last night (Friday, January 31) after listening to a speech she says was ‘disrespectful’. 

Mirroring many CLPs across the country, discussions about the future of the party became heated because some members believe the party should take a more moderate stance in future, while others believe that the party should retain its Corbyn-style left wing politics. 

At the strained meeting, attended by about 40 party members, a participant reportedly gave a ten-minute speech backing Jeremy Corbyn, saying the leader had done the party ‘a favour.’

I fear that Labour activists have learnt nothing from four consecutive election defeats,

This may sound like good news for the Liberal Democrats, but it is not. Having spent every evening canvassing it Richmond and Barnes in 1983, I am convinced that we only win over moderate Conservative voters when they are not too scared by the prospect of a Labour government.

So a Long-Bailey/Burgon leadership at the next election would be very bad news for us.

A scheduled train over the Welland Viaduct

So there I was on Melton Mowbray station this afternoon waiting for a train back to Leicester, when I saw where the next train was going.

There is one passenger train a day in each direction that takes this route, presumably because it is regularly used for diversions and so drivers need experience of it.

It is a line of tunnels and viaducts, so much so that it is known as 'the Alps' among railwaymen.

Its chief landmark is the magnificent Welland Viaduct - the longest masonry viaduct in Britain.

You can see the shadow of its arches in the photographs below - I could not resist catching the train.

Football specials at Kettering in 1989

OK so this is mostly diesel locomotive porn. But it is also a reminder that Kettering Town used to be a serious club and that the nationalised British Rail was good at adapting to exceptional demand - much better than the privatised railways appear to be.

On 28 January 1989 Kettering were drawn away to Charlton Athletic in the fourth round of the FA Cup. To cater for fans, British Rail laid on four extra trains.

Mind you, it sounds as though the shuttle to Corby was cancelled to make room for the added workings.

There is no footbridge in sight, so Kettering's Stygian underpass must still have been in use.

Market Harborough's buses are under threat

Last month I reported that the 58 bus from Market Harborough to Lutterworth was to be withdrawn.

The good news is that the county council has stepped in and will support the service for another year, possibly with a different bus company running it.

But it may be best not to get too hopeful. Here is part of the announcement of the move on the county council website:

The replacement service will run until June 2019 as all existing subsidised bus services across the county have been extended to the date. This allow for the development and adoption of a new passenger transport policy. 

Cllr Pain added: “We are finding that we having to cover the costs of supporting commercial bus services more and more which is why it is important we have a new policy in place to help mitigate the impact.”

Meanwhile, people are collecting signatures to save the 33 bus, which is a Market Harborough town service, and also the 44, which runs from Fleckney via Harborough to Foxton. Tur Langton parish council is also worried about the future of this service.

And the 67 service from Haborough to Corby and Gretton has already gone - a victim of the extraordinary financial crisis at Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council. There is currently talk of a vestigial service being financed by Corby council.

Meanwhile, national government talks of cutting carbon output and combating loneliness.