On the evening of the 9th January 2019 found Transpennine Express ‘Northern Star’ branded Hitachi built Class 802, No. 802201 at Manchester Piccadilly, whilst travelling to Crewe for a series of over night testing between there and Warrington Bank Quay. It was coupled up to unbranded grey liveried No. 802202, and was waiting to depart.
The pair had run as 5Q81, the 21.36 from Mirfield to Manchester Piccadilly. The journey starts from Doncaster IET depot as 5Q80 to Mirfield, where its i.d. changes! Why, I’ve no idea. It was revealed by the GBRf driver, that the previous nights test, which should have included No. 802201, but was failed on depot with a TMS system fault, was terminated at Manchester due to the failure of the DRA equipment.
Returned to the shed, both had been repaired, and were once again out on test. The IET’s had entered an occupied platform, a Northern Rail Class 150/1 being on the blocks, pushing everything nearer to the exit signal. It also made my planned photograph impossible, so I just made the best with what I had available.
