Steam trains could be forced off the tracks by new tougher safety rules, heritage railway boss warns
Historic steam trains - like the "Harry Potter" Jacobite Express in Scotland - could be forced off the tracks unless they fork out millions to comply with tough new health and safety laws, a railway boss has warned.
Heritage railway companies have been ordered to place bars over the drop-down windows of their 1950s-built Mark I former British Rail carriages to prevent excited passengers leaning out to take photographs while trains are moving...
The heritage trains must also fit central locking systems so that doors cannot be opened until trains have come to a standstill in the station...
"This is going to cost millions - around £20,000 a carriage just to install central locking on each carriage. But you cannot put a price on safety and obviously we will comply as soon as possible.
"Bars over the drop-down windows will spoil the appearance of these Mark I carriages, though, some of which have been in use for up to 70 years without any other incident of this kind"...
Expensive safety rules threaten to sideline historic steam train tours
They will have to pass structural integrity tests, and have central locking and window opening restrictions fitted within four years... Tanks will also have to be fitted by next year so toilets do not flush on to the tracks...
ORR railway safety deputy director Paul Appleton has told operators: “We want to continue to enable you to deliver tours. However, public expectation is that you deliver 2018 levels of safety and a 1950s experience. You don’t get a free pass just because you are operating historic vehiclesâ€...
Ironically it is the death of a passenger who managed to stick his head out of the window of a modern main line train which has prompted these new rules which will affect heritage coaches, which, as the article says, "have been in use for up to 70 years without any other incident of this kind".
