It's not theirs. Belongs to NR, was on long term loan...That'll be a write off, the whole cab has been deformed as the under frame from the cab rear bulkhead has been bent downward. Even in BR days that would of been a very expensive whole end repair, for preservation I suspect they'll scrap it and use it for spares.
Driverless from Quorn to Loughborough …
Its called sloppy operating, there is no excuse for it, its called following the rule book and someone clearly hasn't. They will end being shut down if they carry on like this. The Great Central is a proper railway and they have to take things seriously.
Richard
Unlikely as it's a great big lever one pushes over, there's also the drivers key which needs to be in for the controls to be unlocked and cannot be removed unless all controls are safe, your supposed to take it out when you leave the cab for what ever reason.
So in theory a run away needs the key in, the direction controller selected, forward or reverse and the brakes off, then it'll creep off in idle if your unlucky.
Not suggesting that's the cause here, but it could be a cause
One thing is for sure, it ain't gonna buff out easily!!
It could be a malfunctioning parking brake, as to get the drivers key out the direction switch needs to be in off, which also means neutral... if on a slight slope and the brake isn't on then away it will go.
Last time I was in Australia (2005) they had a runaway as the driver was changing ends somewhere, and that went about 20-30ks before hitting either a loco or a set of stops. That I think was traced to a faulty brake controller