In today's story on the Wales & Borders Railway, the railway was struggling, due to a coal shortage, a few of Mr Griffiths, railway director's locomotives were out of service and were taken to Cardiff Canton Depot Sidings where they were stored for a short period of time. Mr Griffiths came out of his office and walked off Platform 1 & 2 at Cardiff Central onto the tracks towards Canton, when he saw a few of his steam locomotives stabled in Sidings A-C, he went to check who was due out to work the 06.24 service to Pembroke Dock. He saw 60103, 1211 & 8572. "Why don't you ask Jeremy and borrow 4464 from Crewe to help?", asked Les Stone, "We could, but Bittern's ran out of coal as well" replied Mr Griffiths. He had several services to run, both in Wales & England, but only had 4 locomotives available to use; the 2 Black 5s 44871 & 44901 from the BMR, the Black 5 44932 on the Food Services and the Prince of Wales 2007. He sent 44871 to work the 1W13 06.35 service to Manchester Piccadilly, 44932 on the 1B53 06.24 service to Pembroke Dock, 44901 on the 1L04 06.23 service to London Paddington and 2007 on the 1M00 06.40 service to Nottingham.
Later on in the day, there were about 40 passengers on Platform 1 at Cardiff waiting for the 1F15 11.30 service to Portsmouth Harbour, they waited until 11.53 when station master, Nathaniel Owen, went to Mr Griffiths' office and said over the tannoy the following announcement, "May I have your attention please on Platform 1, the 11.30 service to Portsmouth Harbour has been cancelled, this due to a lack of available steam engines, British Rail apologises for the delay and the inconvenience this may have caused you". The passengers were fuming, they all marched to the ticket office downstairs and demanded a refund, there was a Rail Replacement bus waiting for them outside the station. Mr Griffiths couldn't come up with any ideas what to do, until Alfie from the garage walked over to Canton Depot, "Why don't you use the battery trams BPT001, 002 & 003?". He thought it was a great idea, so he got 06 008 to collect them from Siding F, they were taken to Alfie's Garage to have a little touch up, then they were ready for revenue earning service.
BPT001, with driver Daniel Gibbons, went to Platform 8 to work the 2P40 11.47 service to Penarth, BPT002, with driver Sam Miller, was sent to Platform 4 to work the 1B37 12.04 service to Milford Haven and BPT003, with driver Eynon Ward, was sent to Platform 1 to work the 1F17 12.30 service to Portsmouth Harbour. All three of the Battery Trams were proven a big success, they proved to work for a max of 10 hours before having to return back to Canton to recharge their batteries, they weren't used regularly, they were mainly stock gap fillers, or replacements for any broken down or delayed trains. With such success on their first proper day of service, they both replaced steam and improved service frequency on the Coryton - Radyr services, Merthyr Tydfil & Aberdare - Barry Island & Bridgend services and the Rhymney - Penarth services. They also made a few frequent visits to the Cardiff - Treherbert services, Maesteg - Cheltenham Spa & Gloucester services and the Cardiff - Ebbw Vale Town services, and even the Ebbw Vale Town - Newport services. Do you think these will be successful enough to run for many, many years to come? Stay tuned to hear more about the BTs and this wonderful railway.
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The Wales & Borders Railway
Short StoryBased on Thomas & Friends, but is in wales with different characters, engines and vehicles still talk, but don't have faces
