Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i The Railway Magazine

Merger plan for policing in Scotland a ‘bad idea’ AT A time where stories of industrial relations’ disputes are headline news, it is rare to find a topic that the unions, rail industry and stakeholders all agree upon. The British Transport Police (BTP) does a superb job and is widely recognised for its specialist knowledge of railways, the underground network and tram systems. Its officers understand the industry’s safety culture and operation. They know the hotspots and are considered part of the ‘railway family’. Around 95% of funding for the force comes jointly from the train operating companies – Network Rail and London Underground – yet the Scottish Government is hell bent on wanting to merge the BTP north of the border with Police Scotland as part of its ongoing…

AN ADDITIONAL £300million emergency fund for improvements to the London to Brighton line has been confirmed by the Department for Transport. The extra money is intended to increase the ‘resilience’ of the infrastructure along the route and reduce delays and cancellations. Work will include replacement of worn-out signals, track and points, rebuilding of bridges, improving drainage in tunnels to prevent water damage to electrical equipment, further measures to increase security and prevent trespass, and shoring up of embankments and cuttings to reduce the risk of landslides. Network Rail and train operators will form new co-ordination teams to manage the upgrade work, identify pressure points and respond to incidents more quickly. NR’s performance figures show that infrastructure issues account for 59% of delays on Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) routes, of which…

THE first of a fleet of 10 bi-mode locomotives for Direct Rail Services was unloaded in Southampton on January 22. No. 88002 Prometheus was taken by road to Kingmoor depot from where training and commissioning will begin. It is a Stadler-built electric loco with a last-mile diesel, based on the Class 68, and with many similar components. The locos are rated at 5,400hp (4,000kW) on electric power, with the diesel unit producing 950hp.…

TRANSPORT Secretary Chris Grayling has launched the search for the company that will build and maintain the fleet of trains to be used on Phase 1 of the High Speed 2 network. The Department for Transport has indicated that up to 60 trains will be required, each capable of carrying 1,000 passengers and running at 225mph, in a procurement process worth £2.75billion. There will be an industry event on March 27 where interested companies can find out more about the bidding requirements, followed by the launch of the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) pack, which will provide further details of the specifications for the trains. Hitachi Rail Europe (HRE) and Siemens immediately expressed their intention to bid for the lucrative deal. HRE sales director Nick Hughes said: “Our HS2 trains would be…

TRENITALIA, the national passenger subsidiary of Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FSI), has agreed to pay £70million to acquire the Essex Thameside franchise from National Express. The franchise, better known as c2c, operates commuter services from London Fenchurch Street to Tilbury, Southend and Shoeburyness. National Express is reducing its UK rail activities to focus on other areas, where it sees more potential for growth, while FSI is actively expanding outside Italy as part of an ambitious 10-year, £82billion (€94bn) industrial plan for 2017-26. With 12 years to run, 42 million journeys each year and annual turnover of around £174m, the Essex Thameside franchise is the Italian group’s first venture into UK rail operation. Trenitalia CEO Barbara Morgante said: “We are confident that British customers will benefit from our skill and…

Volunteers open day at Wirksworth THE Ecclesbourne Valley Railway will be holding an open day at Wirksworth for prospective volunteers on February 18. There will be guided tours of the site through the day, an ideal opportunity to see behind the scenes. The railway is embarking on a very active year, as 2017 is the 150th anniversary of the opening of the line. £800,000 fine for Network Rail NETWORK RAIL has been fined £800,000 at Guildford Crown Court as a result of multiple serious and life-changing injuries a trackworker suffered at Redhill. The ORR, which brought the prosecution, said when trains approached the track the workers’ ability to get into a place of safety was materially compromised Seven million trees to be planted for HS2 THE Department for Transport has…

Rolling stock is not an age issue… what about capacity? ARE WE worried about the age of our passenger rolling stock? The ORR’s Annual Statistical Release 2015/16 stated that ‘the average age of rolling stock nationally at the end of 2015/16 was 21 years, a 0.8-year increase over the past year’. This increase in the age of our trains received a lot of national coverage, but is it really a problem? Most trains are built to last perhaps 40 years, and some go on for longer. They need regular maintenance and refurbishment, but do we really mind about actual age? I asked ORR if it had any comparable data for trains in France, Netherlands or Germany, but no! My experience of using rail in many different types of train on…

IT WAS interesting to learn that there will be a GWR link between Taunton and Bishops Lydeard in 2018. Assuming that this is not just a ‘franchise renewal-time promise’ and comes to pass, one has to hope that it will be promoted properly. In 2016 combined rail/bus ticketing between GWR stations and the West Somerset Railway was introduced. There was a special Class 150 launch train through to Minehead, and during the following months I looked around GWR run stations for the promotional leaflets and posters and was only able to see them in one location – Bridgwater. Enquiries at Bath, Paddington and Reading revealed staff were unaware of the arrangements. The tickets were available from the GW website, but it was necessary to enter West Somerset Railway as a…

Jonathan Beaumont and Barry Carse THE picturesque single-track through route that meandered south-west from Limerick to Tralee from 1880 until 1975 is still considered a loss to the Republic of Ireland’s railway network more than 40 years after it ceased to be. Known by railwaymen as the ‘North Kerry’ line, even though more of the route actually lay in Co Limerick than Co Kerry, the line ran through some of the spectacular scenery that this corner or Ireland is well-known for. Branches from the main line served destinations such as Foynes, Fenit and Castleisland, with a new one serving the cement factory at Castlemungret, near Limerick, opening as late as 1957. Like many lines in such sparsely populated areas, it was freight that provided the life-blood for the ‘North Kerry’…

Railways report healthy visitor figures for 2016 THE nation may be suffering from ‘Brexit Blues’in some quarters following the EU referendum last June, but our preserved railways have had a good year in 2016, some recording record visitor numbers and most seeing a year-on-year passenger increase. The trend may not be unanimous, but those railways that responded to The RM’s request for visitor information were keen to report an upturn in traffic. The South Devon Railway, for example, has seen an impressive 6.9% increase from 2015, with 103,906 ticket sales, compared to the 97,200 of the previous year. A similar percentage increase was recorded by the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, although the line’s financial year runs from April to April so there is no final figure available yet. That…

£49m electrification project for Shotts line gets go-ahead ALL four rail routes between Edinburgh and Glasgow will be electrified by 2019 after Network Rail awarded Carillion Powerlines a £49million contract to electrify the Shotts line. The contract covers the current ‘missing link’ between Midcalder Junction, west of Edinburgh, and Holytown Junction on the outskirts of Glasgow, and is part of a wider £160million programme to improve links between Scotland’s two biggest cities. The contract covers the physical delivery of all elements required to electrify the line, including erecting around 1,450 piled foundations, 1,265 masts and 97 twin-track cantilevers, together with installing and energising the catenary. Work will be carried out in tandem with a route-clearance programme to ensure the power cables can run under structures on the line – an…

Downpatrick welcomes first female guard REBECCA Dougan achieved something of a milestone for the Downpatrick & County Down Railway on January 7 when she passed out as the line’s first female guard. Miss Dougan, 20, is also the youngest guard on the line and is believed to be the only woman guard currently active on any heritage line in all-Ireland, though possibly not the first. That honour likely sits with the wife of Giant’s Causeway & Bushmills Railway-founder David Laing, who regularly guarded trains in the early years of the line’s operation from 2002. Rebecca comes from a family of DCDR volunteers, and has plans to train to be one of the line’s qualified diesel drivers. Inchicore to carry out RPSI’s Class 121 overhaul THE Railway Preservation Society of Ireland…

THE British Army has conducted secret tests to take five Challenger tanks through the Channel Tunnel should there be future hostilities in Eastern Europe. Testing took place on January 17 with tanks being loaded on to wagons and taken to France and back as part an exercise to evaluate the viability of using the rail link to get vehicles and equipment into Europe. Army bases at Bicester, Kineton, Ashchurch and Longtown still retain connections to Network Rail and the Channel Tunnel. In the event of a crisis, the tunnel could be commandeered by the Ministry of Defence.…

THE 5BEL Trust saw its hopes dashed of returning the ‘Brighton Belle’to service in the same year that Flying Scotsman finally reemerged on the main line. After a frustrating year, beset by problems with the complex re-wiring of the motor third carriages, the trust reluctantly took the decision to leave its home at Barrow Hill, a process which cost almost six months of productive activity. Spokesman Neil Marshall paid tribute to the ground-breaking work carried out by Rampart Engineering.“They were able to achieve what everyone said was impossible and Paul Ramsden has created a national centre of excellence for heritage railway restoration at Barrow Hill. “Our problem with hitting our stretching targets has been one of capacity – the ability to work on at least four cars at the same…

A SCOTTISH Government proposal to merge the British Transport Police (BTP) with Police Scotland has come under attack from train operating companies, Network Rail, Rail Delivery Group, rail unions, the Police Federation and other stakeholders. Legislation has been put forward by Ministers at Holyrood that if passed would lead to the amalgamation of the BTP in Scotland with the national Scottish force. There are widespread and genuine concerns that BTP officers could be taken from their duties patrolling the railway network to support Police Scotland, leaving it vulnerable to attack and affecting public safety. There are additional concerns about inconsistency in cross border policing of the railways. Currently, around 95% of funding for the BTP comes from the rail industry. The Rail Delivery Group has said the change is not…

THE only diesel hydraulic passed for main line operation – Class 52 No. D1015 Western Champion – has been withdrawn from traffic for an engine replacement, writes Peter Nicholson. The ‘Western’ worked Pathfinder Tours’ Swindon to Scarborough ‘Yuletide East Yorkshireman’ tour on December 17 last year, but suffered a problem with its ‘B’ engine on the return journey from Scarborough, and moved to the Severn Valley Railway for inspection. This has revealed a serious problem that needs an engine replacement. The owners, the Diesel Traction Group (DTG), has been in contact with a company in Germany regarding a replacement Maybach MD655 engine, as the alternative would be retirement from main line operations. The cost of acquiring and installing a replacement engine is in the region of £50,000. In order to…

AS THIS issue of The Railway Magazine went to press the Great Central Railway was just days away from signing the final documents to enable construction to begin of its bridge over the Midland Main Line at Loughborough. Signing of the Asset Protection Agreement (APA) with Network Rail was completed on January 24, and GCR chief executive Andy Munro told The RM that completion of the final land transfer and other agreements between Loughborough-based Preci-Spark, Charnwood Borough Council, Network Rail and the East Midlands Railway Trust was “a week to 10 days away”. Once the ink is on the paper, specialist rail contractor MPB will move in to complete the abutments and preparatory work in readiness for lifting the bridge deck into place during the summer. The lift itself will…

Cowley Bridge floods LORD Berkeley asked in the House of Lords when the Environment Agency intends to remove the weirs obstructing the floodwater upstream of Cowley Bridge. Transport Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon replied:“The removal of weirs in the River Exe is not part of the Environment Agency’s scheme to better protect the communities in the city of Exeter from flooding. “The option of removal of the three weirs at Exwick, Cowley and Pynes is being examined by Network Rail as the last stage of its work to help protect the railway at Cowley Bridge Junction (just north of Exeter) from flooding from the rivers Exe, Culm and Creedy.” He added: “Subject to a detailed assessment of the impact of such a scheme of the wider area to be carried…

• The photo of the steam engine on page 20 (RM Jan) has been confirmed as Marlow, not Bourne End. In addition, Penn station was erroneously included due to an error on the reference map. The feature referred to the line as the Marlow Donkey, when it should have meant the ‘14XX’ and autotrain. • On page 9 (RM Jan), Clun Castle is on the last scheduled steam-hauled train out of Paddington – the 4.15pm Paddington-Banbury, June 11, 1965, not its November farewell tour. • Some readers have suggested that the picture on p18 (RM Jan) is either 73102 or 73122, and not 73112, which had a different type of BR tender.…

MEETINGS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1 Bradford Railway Circle. Sedbergh Community Centre, Huddersfield Road, Odsal, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD6 1DJ. 19.30. ‘What might have been?’: Jamie Guest. Cheshire Lines. The Blossoms Hotel, Stockport. 19.30. ‘Hubert Foster Collection (1900-1960)’: Vic Drake. Pennine Railway Society. Club 39, College Road, Waterdale, Doncaster DN1 3JH. 20.00. ‘Rails to the Arctic’: Phil Lockwood & Enid Vincent. Talking of Trains. Surbiton Library, Ewell Road, Surbiton KT6 6AG. 19.00. ‘Cathedrals Express’: Dick Crane. Warwickshire Railway Society. Lamp Tavern, Barford Street, Highgate, Birmingham B5 6AH. 19.30. ‘Scottish Steam from the 1960s’: Phil Stevens. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2 Bath Railway Society. Church Hall, St Mary’s Church Hall, Bathwick, Bath. 19.30. ‘Restoring Sentinel 7109 and all you were afraid to ask about Sentinel Locos’: Andy Chapman. Great Central Railway Society (Sheffield branch). The…

Hawarden is 0-4-0 once more EX-SHELTON Steelworks Bagnall 0-4-0ST Hawarden (2623/1940) had its frames reunited with its wheels in early December at the Foxfield Railway. The lowering of the jacks marks another milestone on the loco’s comeback trail as work on the fitting of a new firebox doorplate gets underway at LNER Heritage in Crewe. Jennifer back at Llangollen after travels HUDSWELL, Clarke ‘Cornist’ 0-6-0T Samuel Fox & Co Ltd No. 20 (otherwise known as Jennifer) has returned to its Llangollen Railway base after a lengthy spell away on hire to other heritage lines. The loco (1731/1942) was used to work the railway’s ‘Winter Warmer’ trains on December 30, having spent much of the last two years at Embsay and latterly at the Epping Ongar Railway. Northampton’s Peckett in final…

Scottish DRS Type 3 repainted in BR blue WHEN DRS wanted Class 37 No. 37401 returned from a loan period at the SRPS Diesel Group it was offered No. 37703 in its place, as the former was being overhauled at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway (B&KR). No. 37703 needed attention but was soon returned to working order in 2015, running initially in DRS blue with‘ Direct Rail Services’ branding on its sides. DRS requested this to be removed so the Type 3 was repainted and re-entered service at the B&KR’s diesel gala on December 29. It is now in BR blue with its original number, 37067. Here, it passes through Birkhill station with the 10.30 Bo’ness-Manuel. It remained on the rear of the return working, headed by visiting loco, Colas…

Class 15x fleet to get new slip protection PORTERBROOK Leasing is currently equipping its second-generation DMU fleet with enhanced wheelslip protection (WSP) equipment. Following tests on a Class 156 DMU, in which a Knorr-Bremse MGS3 system has been adapted to the tread brakes on the 15x units, the system will be rolled out over Portebrook’s Class 150, 153, 155, 156, 158 and 159 DMU fleets. Porterbrook has worked with SNC-Lavalin, Knorr-Bremse, Loram UK and Greater Anglia to create this new design of WSP for the British market. The move comes after the wheelsets of these units suffered damage during the autumn leaf fall conditions, meaning they were taken out of service for wheel reprofiling. The ‘test’ 156 remained in service last autumn while others were out of traffic for wheel…

Chinese locos and wagons arrive for Argentine freight operators CHINESE rolling stock conglomerate CRRC is supplying 107 new diesel electric locomotives and 1,300 new freight wagons to the Argentine Government. The order is set to modernise the country’s extensive but run down rail freight operations, now mostly operated by state-owned company Trenes Argentinos Cargas y Logisticas. The order for new freight locos comprises 67 broad-gauge (1676mm-gauge) and 10 standard-gauge locos, being built at Qishuyan. The broad-gauge locos, now being delivered, will be used on the San Martin route via Rosario to Cordoba and Mendoza, while the standard-gauge locos are for the only 1,435mm line in the country, the Urquiza route, which connects Buenos Aires with neighbouring Paraguay. The new 2,950HP 80km/h Chinese locos for the San Martin route are classified…

GB Railfreight (GBRf) has won a contract with Belgian rail freight company B Logistics to move china clay slurry between Belgium and Scotland. B Logistics took over the contract from DB Cargo on January 3. It will run for 12 months and involve moving the slurry from Antwerp to Scotland The service is nicknamed the ‘silver bullet’ train – even though the wagons are no longer a shiny finish – and will employ a Class 92 from Frethun Yard to Carlisle, with a Class 66 taking over for the final leg to Irvine. • See picture p90.…

SCOTRAIL Alliance managing director Phil Verster is stepping down to take up the managing director’s role on the East West Rail project that will reopen the railway from Oxford and Bicester through to Bletchley and Bedford. Mr Verster, 53, took over the Alliance role in May 2015 when the partnership between Network Rail and Abellio ScotRail was formed. However, he has been under political attack from critics because of missed targets and poor performance, particularly on the recently opened Borders Railway. An improvement plan outlined last year has had the desired effect. Just two days later came the announcement that the new ScotRail MD will be Northern’s highly rated managing director Alex Hynes. Mr Verster takes up his new appointment in the spring. Mark Carne, chief executive of Network Rail,…

ABELLIO, the Dutch subsidiary of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), is selling a 40% stake in its Greater Anglia franchise. The agreement to sell a stake means that it is the first time that a Japanese company has taken a major interest in a train operating company in the UK. Abellio managing director Dominic Booth said: “We are delighted to have reached agreement with Mitsui, fulfilling our long-standing objective of running the franchise as a 60:40 joint venture.” The deal needs sign off from the Department for Transport, which it will do once satisfied that passengers will benefit. Mitsui is also involved with Abellio and the East Japan Railway as a shortlisted bidder for the new West Midlands franchise.…

TIMETABLED steam-hauled passenger trains will return to the national network in mid-February for three days only when ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado ‘Plandampfs’ the Settle & Carlisle (S&C) between Skipton and Appleby. The new-build Peppercorn Pacific and a rake of Mk2 coaches will deputise for Northern’s usual DMU on the 10.45 from Skipton to Appleby on February 14, 15 and 16, returning on the 15.07 ex-Appleby, and will be supplemented by morning and evening extras, running in reverse order. These ‘I ❤ S&C’ trains will be the UK’s first scheduled passenger trains to be worked by steam in half a century, and the first to copy the German-style ‘Plandampf ’ operation, using steam to haul timetabled passenger trains. The notion of running a British ‘Plandampf ’ has been floating around for…

FRENCH Railways (SNCF) has awarded a framework contract to an Alstom/Bombardier consortium to build 255 new high-capacity EMUs for lines D and E of the Paris/ Île-de-France Réseau Express Régional (RER) network. The deal is worth around €3.75billion. The first firm order, worth €1.16bn and entirely funded by Paris/Île-de-France transport authority STIF, is for 71 trains; 15 at 130m in length, and 56 112m-long EMUs. Eventually, 130 trains for RER D and 125 for RER E services are planned, replacing older trains on line D and enabling western expansion of Line E (8km of new tunnels are currently being built in the west of Paris). Alstom call the new design ‘Xtrapolis Cityduplex’ – its ‘Xtrapolis’ single-deck model has been sold around the world, but the new Paris trains are partly…

What made the ‘Western’ 2,700hp Western Region diesel hydraulics so different? This is a question that is often posed, especially by observers who were too young to have seen them in their pomp. The answer is probably that indefinable quality: charisma. Later to become known as Class 52s, the Western Region progeny looked every inch an express passenger locomotive; haughty thoroughbreds with classic lines and an air of superiority, even when condescending to chivvy a rake of recalcitrant china clay empties. More prosaically, the C-C wheel arrangement, hydraulic transmission and power superiority over 2,200hp ‘Warship’ alternatives made them popular with their crews, not forgetting their supremely comfortable cabs. What is more, the availability of two engines would often be a driver’s passport to escaping trouble. They could lift a heavy…

Moving with the times? IN YOUR excellent January editorial, you attribute the lingering and damaging dispute between ASLEF and Southern to a reluctance to modernise and move with the times. Can we realistically expect an organisation to open its doors readily to modernisation when it continues to call itself The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen? Mervyn Harris Loughborough Why references in metric? BRITISH Railways has a history of Imperial measurement’s, 4ft 8½in, 7ft 0¼in, City of Truro, 102.3mph etc. So why am I seeing more and more references to metric in your magazine, sometimes both in the same article? Let’s keep it imperial, our railways were built on it, and if it’s good enough for the navvies and Mr Brunel, it is good enough for me. Nick K…

The Rise and Fall of Britain’s Railway Marshalling Yards By Michael Rhodes ALMOST 30 years ago, author Michael Rhodes published a book entitled The Illustrated History of British Marshalling Yards, which was deservedly hailed as the definitive work on the subject. In 2013, The Railway Magazine commissioned an update from him in the form of a series of articles, and during the preparation of that it became clear that a great deal of additional information had become available in the intervening years – so much so that it was decided to produce a completely new book rather than a revised edition. Not only does this new volume cover the subject in greater depth, but it details a larger number of yards, including a few the author had not previously been…

George Dow was a man of many parts. Professionally he was a career railwayman for his entire working life, much of it spent in public relations on the LNER and BR London Midland Region. He was a patron of up-and-coming railway artists Vic Welch, Hamilton Ellis and Arthur Wolstenholme. In private life he was a writer and historian of considerable talent, a collector of railway memorabilia, someone who encouraged and developed new areas of railway study such as railway heraldry and scale modelling, based on solid historical fact. He was a perfectionist in everything he did. Believing that “no one would ever read it” Dow refused to write an autobiography. That, perhaps, was his one serious misjudgement. Fortunately, his son Andrew wrote a private memoir, which I have drawn on…

100 YEARS AGO FEBRUARY 1917 IT IS contemplated that electric trains from the “Bakerloo” section of the London Electric Railway will shortly commence running through to Watford, over the London and North Western Railway, and trial runs have already been made with “Bakerloo” trains on this route. New stock is, however, being introduced, adapted for the higher speeds necessitated north of Willesden Junction. ON THE Metropolitan Railway women are being trained as guards and “gatemen”on electric trains, this being, it is understood, the first instance where they have taken over the actual “train responsibility”or have taken part in the direct working of trains. At present they are working mainly on the Extension line. 50 YEARS AGO FEBRUARY 1967 THE 1,000th diesel locomotive to be completed at Derby Works left for…

Talyllyn commemorates 150 years of passenger trains TALYLLYN Railway completed its 150th anniversary celebrations on December 16 with a re-enactment of the line’s first public passenger train. The same locomotive as worked the first train in December 1866 (Fletcher, Jennings 0-4-0WT No. 2 Dolgoch), hauling the vehicles believed to have formed the original train (coaches Nos. 3 and 4 and brakevan No. 5), departed Tywyn Wharf station at 13.20, paused at Tywyn Pendre (Tywyn’s original passenger terminus) then continued to Abergynolwyn. There, Talyllyn society president David Mitchell and general manager Tracey Parkinson, both in Victorian attire, delivered speeches. Talyllyn Railway’s anniversary celebrations began in 2014 and continued through a series of galas in 2015 and 2016, tracing the story of the railway and celebrating landmark dates. The precise date of…

ANNUAL CAPTURE: This once-a-year working was captured on December 16 as the London Underground Rail Adhesion Train (for the eastern side of its network) heads back from Hainault to Ruislip after the end of the leaf fall season. Driving Motor 1962 Stock No. 1406 leads train 488 through Queensway – the only other time this is spotted in central London is when it heads in the opposite direction at the start of the season. TIM EASTER VICTORIA EXPANSION:   The £700million project to upgrade London Underground’s Victoria station passed a major milestone on January 17 when a new entrance and North ticket hall opened on Victoria Street, at the Bressenden Place road junction. The station is LU’s fourth busiest and has been a notorious bottleneck as passengers transfer between the…

POOL CODES DDIN Freightliner Class 08 LOCOMOTIVES Allocations 08428 CE/WSSC-WQ/WQDA 08495 WQ/WQBA de-registered 08530 DFLS-DDIN 08531 DFLS-DDIN 08585 DFLS-DDIN 08624 DFLS-DDIN 08632 WQAA-WQDA 08633 WQ/WQCA de-registered 08691 DFLS-DDIN 08703 CE/WSSC-WQ/WQDA 08742 CE/WSSC-WQ/WQDA 08752 CE/WSSC-WQ/WQDA 08784 WQBA-WQDA 08785 DFLS-DDIN 08873 DFLS-DDIN 08879 WQ/WQBA de-registered 08888 CE/WSRC-WQ/WQDA - de -registered 08904 CE/WSGC-WQ/WQDA 08922 WQBA-WQDA 09106 CE/WSGC-WQ/WQDA 20302 XHNC-XHSS 20303 XHNC-XHSS 20305 XHNC-XHSS 20308 XHNC-XHSS 20312 XHNC-XHSS 66001 WBAT-WBAE 66017 WBTT-WBAR 66019 WBTT-WBAR 66058 WBLT-WBLE 66076 WBAT-WBAE 66117 WBAT-WBAE 66128 WBAT-WBAE 66136 WBAT-WBAE 66150 WBAT-WBAE 67002 WAWC-WAAC 67012 WAAC-WAWC 67022 WAWC-WAAC 67023 WQDA-WQ/WQAA-RU/COTS 67027 WQDA-WQ/WQAA-RU/COTS 70004 DFGH-DFGI 70006 DFGH-DFGI Liveries BR blue: 08454 DBC red: 66041, 66118/28/49/50 DRS revised: 37423, 57002 Named 08460 Spirit of Oak 08624 Rambo Paul Ramsey 68010 Oxford Flyer 91130 Lord Mayor of Newcastle Names removed 08495 Noel Kirton…

RHTT THE Railhead Treatment season came to a close during December. Prior to this, various workings were reported, including Class 68 Nos. 68001 and 68021 travelling through Garforth, heading east at 07.05 on November 16 and 17, possibly the first working of this class through Garforth. SINCE last reported DRS Class 66 No. 66423 had had a wash, but was back on RHTT duties, seen on December 10 leaving Carlisle at 09.00 by itself for the Newcastle line with a rake of tanks. ALSO on December 10 (at around 13.30), two Colas Class 56s, top-and-tailing a RHTT from Crewe direction, reversed in platform 4a at Shrewsbury before setting off for Bidston. DBC Class 66 No. 66094 was on Didcot depot at the head of a RHTT set on December 13.…

ABBEY PUMPING STATION February 5, 16, 20, April 2, 5 Corporation Road, Leicester LE4 5PX (0116 299 51110). www.abbeypumpingstation.org/events.asp Museum open Feb-Oct (13.00-16.30). Events: February 5 Steam Toys In Action, 20 Railway Day with Board Games, April 2 Model Railway Day. AMBERLEY MUSEUM & HERITAGE CENTRE March 19, 26, April 2, 9, 14, 16-17, 23, 29 Houghton Bridge, Arundel, West Sussex BN18 9LT (01798 831370). Museum open 10.00-17.30 (Wed-Sun). www.amberleynarrowgauge.co.uk Events: April 9 Spring Industrial Trains Day. AVON VALLEY RAILWAY February 11-12, 14-16, 18-19, March 26 Bitton station, Bath Road, Bitton BS30 6HD (0117 932 5538/7296). www.avonvalleyrailway.org Events: See website for dining trains. BALA LAKE RAILWAY February 16, 19, 21-23, 25, March 4 Llanuwchllyn station, Gwynedd.www.bala-lake-railway.co.uk BARROW HILL ROUNDHOUSE RAILWAY Roundhouse closed until September Campbell Drive, Barrow Hill, Chesterfield (01246…

1955 SUTTON COLDFIELD CRASH Memorial plaque Feb 12 125 GROUP Anniversary Oct 88* 5BEL TRUST Brighton Belle Sep 96 A A1 STEAM LOCOMOTIVE TRUST Tornado tours Jul 101*, Nov 94* ABBEY LINE Lines under threat Dec 40+ ABELLIO Siemens court case Oct 10 ABELLIO GREATER ANGLIA Franchise victory Jul 12, Sep 7*, Nov 10 Loco diagrams Aug 78*, Dec 84 Operations news Jan 108, Feb 108, 109*, Mar 114, Jun 100, Jul 106*, Aug 106*, Sep 67*, 106, Oct 98 Stagecoach pulls out of Anglia bid Jan 6 ABELLIO SCOTRAIL Advantage Abellio Jan 12 See Operations News under First ScotRail entries ABERDEEN From Granite City to Mount’s Bay Aug 26+ ACCIDENTS Enthusiast dies leaning from train Sep 11 ALASKA Railway boom Sep 104 ALN VALLEY RAILWAY Richboro ready to roll…