West Coast Railway Company could be forced to end all charter train operations if steps by the Office of Rail and Road to revoke its safety certificate are followed through. It comes after a second reported incident in which crucial Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) equipment was intentionally isolated by a WCRC crew member, while 'Black Five' No. 45231 was propelling its support coach at Doncaster in October (RM Dec). The ORR's Ian Bertram, Her Majesty's Principal Inspector of Railways, wrote to the charter train operating company on December 9 stating its possible move to revoke its safety certificate. The ORR took initial action on November 25 by banning WCRC steam operations that used locomotives which were exposed to improper TPWS isolation (RM Dec). "This incident follows a similar incident," Mr Bertram's letter stated, "when TPWS isolation equipment was interfered with resulting in a signal being passed at danger at Wootton Bassett Junction on March 7, 2015 (RM May), in which a catastrophic incident nearly occurred. Following that incident we considered revoking WCRC's safety certificate and a notification period was commenced.
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