Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i The Railway Magazine

The rapid spread of Covid-19 (coronavirus) around the world, said to be the worst public health crisis for a generation, has shocked everyone. Its spread shows how easy it is in an age of fast international travel for a pandemic to develop. The real depth of the impact was beginning to be felt as The RM April issue closed for press, but the ramifications of the disease will ripple through society for many months, possibly years. Planned events and galas over the spring, income for which the heritage railway sector rely heavily upon, have been wiped from the calendar so as not to spread the disease further. These are unprecedented and worrying times, and many heritage lines and museums will be left fighting for their very existence. Despite a package…

LANDLORD Network Rail is cancelling all first quarter rent payments due from tenants in its commercial estate portfolio. This follows the drastic reduction of rail travel and Government closing bars, coffee shops, restaurants and gymnasiums. This will provide significant relief for small businesses, which are worried about the impact of the virus on their customer numbers. In addition, NR will cancel all base rent payments for retailers in its managed stations for the first quarter of the new financial year. Around 1,000 small and medium business tenants will benefit. Transport for London has adopted a similar move, offering 100% rent relief to all retail tenants until the end of June.…

NORTH East charity The Auckland Project has announced it has bought the Weardale line from the administrators and will embark on a campaign to return trains to the line. The Auckland Project is a regeneration charity which works in Bishop Auckland and the surrounding area, and believes the purchase of Weardale Railway will be a further catalyst for change and consolidate its investment to date of £200million in the region. The project admits it has no experience of running trains and to provide a service from Darlington westwards, but will be seeking a partnership with a train operating company. The project will work with Durham County Council and continue to call on expertise provided by the staff of the former Weardale Railway Community Interest Company and volunteers of the Weardale…

EAST West Rail (EWR), which is rebuilding the line to connect Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Aylesbury, has invited tenders for multiple units for a short-term contract. EWR is seeking a fleet of 12 or 14 three-car self-powered units, modified to include European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2 and Driver Controlled Operation. The requirement is to ‘wet lease’them (the provision of a full maintenance package) for a four-year period, with an option of a two-year extension. The contract is worth around £40million, and the first trains should be running between Oxford and Bedford by the end of 2024. By opting for a short lease, it allows EWR to get passenger services running as quickly as possible, but also allows more time to evaluate and explore green technologies to power…

THE government’s Operator of Last Resort (OLR) took over the running of services across the Northern network from Arriva on March 1, following the early termination of the Arriva Rail North franchise. It should have run until 2025. The new Northern Trains franchise will continue to be managed by Transport for the North monitoring performance, alongside the Department for Transport, through the Rail North Partnership. With the transfer came confirmation former Northern that managing director (MD) David Brown was moving to the OLR holding company, with former TPE MD Nick Donovan replacing him. Robin Gisby, chairman of Northern Trains and CEO of OLR Holdings Ltd, told The RM: “David had worked really hard in very difficult circumstances but we need a change of leadership now and Nick knows this railway…

DESPITE being a city with a population of slightly more than 250,000, Kingston-upon-Hull, to use its correct name, had just one through inter-city passenger service to and from London in 1999. Hull is famous for its cream-coloured public telephone kiosks, its City of Culture status in 2017, being the birthplace of slavery abolitionist William Wilberforce, aviator Amy Johnson and actor Sir Tom Courtenay, as well as being a key North Sea port. Railways arrived in the city in July 1840 when the Hull & Selby Railway Company opened a terminus at Humber Docks, extended services to Bridlington in 1846, before opening a new terminus, Paragon station, in 1848. As was the case in Victorian times, the railway blossomed and connectivity widened for Hull. In the mid-1960s, BR ran two trains…

EVER since Britain’s passenger railway network began to shrink as a consequence of 1964’s infamous report entitled ‘Reshaping of Britain’s Railways (aka Beeching), there have been numerous calls for lines to be reinstated. While some campaigns have been successful (the Borders Railway, between Edinburgh and Tweedbank in 2016 being the longest to be reopened), there hasn’t been a sustained momentum to the delivery of railway renaissance. However, with significant population growth in a number of areas, roads becoming ever more crowded and pressure mounting on local councils to come up with ‘green’transport solutions, could there be a better time to prove the worth of restoring rail links? The Department for Transport’s Restoring Your Railway Fund was set up to act as a catalyst for proposals in England and Wales. Mid-March…

Signalling film archive CAN I let your readers know that videos of The Esk Valley Line have recently been added to the FARSAP signalling film archive. This free resource is yet another film in the series, which is the result of five years’ work by volunteers from Friends of the NRM and Signalling Record Society, working with the co-operation of Network Rail and heritage lines. We’ve also recently added a film of Winchcombe on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. There are now around 150 signalling locations that can be viewed on the FARSAP website. Mike Peart FARSAP team, Friends of the NRM, York How much? IT IS good to learn that Worcester Parkway is finally opened at a reported cost an eye-watering £22 million. It would be interesting to see a…

OVER the decades the Railway Observer has kept the RCTS membership informed of current, future and historic classes of locomotives. Volume 17 for 1947 alone covered such diverse subjects as Steel Fireboxes and the GWR Gas Turbine, The Earlier Locomotives of William Dean, Locomotives of the L&SWR and various classes of ex-NER locomotives of the LNER. So when the transition from steam to diesel and electric traction gathered momentum in the 1950s the RO covered these in some detail. The Western Region’s independence in opting for hydraulics was given due prominence when the Swindon-built ‘Warship’ B-Bs began to enter traffic. The first, D800, was accorded an official photograph as the first main line diesel to be built at the works. As the Swindon and North British batches were released to…

THE Llangollen Railway Great Western Locomotive Group (LRGWLG) has launched a £20,000 Tube Appeal to complete the restoration of the boiler from ‘4575’ 2-6-2T No. 5532. This will enable it to return to steam for the first time in the preservation era. A total of 195 small diameter tubes are required at a cost of £100 each, together with six large tubes at £275 each. The appeal invites people to sponsor one or more tubes, payable in a lump sum or in £25 instalments. Alternatively, shares in the locomotive are also available at £25 each. Tube sponsors will receive a certificate of acknowledgement and be invited on the first service train hauled by No. 5532. The boiler is the last major hurdle in the restoration and thus represents the final…

THE North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) has awarded the contract to build the new carriage shed facility near Pickering to Hull-based contractors Hobson & Porter. The four-road single-storey carriage shed is part of the railway’s £10million Yorkshire’s Magnificent Journey (YMJ) appeal, and when completed at the end of this year will provide accommodation for up to 40 carriages for the first time, and enable servicing and cleaning tasks to be completed undercover. The building will feature a cantilevered roof and feature direct platform access to carriages and an inspection pit. The official opening is taking place at Easter 2021. Contractors have moved in to carry out work on another aspect of the YMJ project – the new volunteer development and accommodation centre. This is to be located within the former…

THE Mid-Hants Railway (MHR) has appointed long-time volunteer Simon Baggott as its new general manager. He succeeds the line’s previous incumbent Jason Houlders, who stepped down from the post last summer. Mr Baggott has been a volunteer on the MHR since 1998, starting out in the workshops at Ropley before training for footplate duties. He qualified as a driver in 2007 and acted as one of the line’s loco inspectors before serving two stints as a director. Most recently, following Jason Houlders’ departure, Mr Baggott undertook certain aspects of the general manager’s role while the search for a replacement was underway. Professionally, Mr Baggott has a background in production engineering and marketing of engineering services at senior management and director level. However, railways has long been a passion of his,…

OPERATORS of preserved industrial steam locomotives have been hit by the coronavirus outbreak the length and breadth of the country, with rail services suspended and Easter trains and galas cancelled or postponed. The Ribble Steam Railway was one of those to temporarily cancel its March 28-29 Spring Steam Gala when it elected to close its door during the final two weekends of March. The much-anticipated event had been expected to feature ex-Kiveton Park Colliery Hudswell, Clarke 0-4-0ST Waleswood (750/1906) from the Chasewater Railway, turning the clock back to the days when the loco was resident at Steamport, Southport. The Chasewater line also decided to close for an indeterminate period in mid-March, cancelling all events until June. The railway was monitoring the situation closely, but it meant that the Pits to…

BAGNALL No. 401 is not the only former industrial locomotive to receive the attention of the Heritage Painting team in recent weeks. Former Fry’s Chocolate Sentinel 4wVBT No. 7492 has undergone a full repaint into the original sign-written blue livery it carried at the Somerdale factory near Keynsham. The Avon Valley Railway-based loco returned to Bitton in time for the line’s aborted Mixed Traffic Gala on March 21. Hunslet ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Swiftsure (2857/1943) was recently rolled out in full Longmoor Military Railway blue livery at the Mid-Norfolk Railway. The livery is historically inaccurate as the former Cadley Hill Colliery loco was never a part of the Longmoor fleet and was never so painted, although it did carry War Department number 75008. That said, the Longmoor livery does suit the loco…

■ DOUGLAS Bay Horse Tramway’s new Strathallan Depot will be officially opened on April 13. The replacement building is constructed in the style of the original structure at the site, and includes covered accommodation for 13 historic tramway cars. ■ BALA Lake Railway will lay a length of temporary track at its proposed new town terminus over which Hunslet 0-4-0ST Winifred and a quarryman’s coach will offer rides on June 13-14. ■ CORRIS Railway’s new-build 0-4-2ST ‘Falcon’ No. 10 became an actual 0-4-2 following fitting of the trailing pony truck at Alan Keef Ltd’s works. ■ THE refurbished boiler for Eddie Draper’s 50hp O&K 0-4-0WT 7529/1914 has returned to Golden Valley Light Railway following a steam test at North Norfolk Railway’s Weybourne works in December. The loco has never steamed…

HAMPSHIRE Narrow Gauge Railway Trust (HNGRT) has donated £2,500 to Amberley Museum’s appeal to finance the overhaul of Bagnall 0-4-0ST Peter (2067/1918). The donation follows the decision to wind up HNGRT and distribute its assets to suitable organisations. HNGRT’s Hunslet 0-4-0ST Cloister and Bagnall 0-4-0ST Wendy (now donated to Statfold Narrow Gauge Museum Trust) regularly performed at Amberley in the past. Peter’s boiler is being rebuilt by Bennett’s Boilers in Somerset.…

FORMER Manx Northern Railway Dubs 0-6-0T No. 15 Caledonia will steam at Laxey on July 30. Laxey is the 3ft-gauge Manx Electric Railway (MER) station that is also the terminus of 3ft 6in-gauge Snaefell Mountain Railway (SMR). The 3ft-gauge loco was employed during construction of the Snaefell line, utilising a temporary additional rail. Caledonia will be in steam during the day and into the evening at Laxey amid celebrations for the SMR’s 125th anniversary. The 1895-built loco appearing at Laxey is the highlight of Isle of Man Transport’s July 29-August 2 Manx Heritage Transport Festival. Caledonia will also be displayed at the site of the former Knockaloe Internment Camp on August 2. The line to Knockaloe, which housed 24,000 prisoners during the First World War, was built in 1915 and totally…

DUNDEE Gasworks Kerr, Stuart 0-4-0WT No. 2 (721/1901) will be restored to steam at Beamish, where it has been on loan since July 2017. A restoration proposal prepared following exploratory dismantling of the 1ft 11 ½ in-gauge loco late last year has been approved by the loco’s owners, Tywyn-based Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Trust. Further dismantling will include removal of the front tubeplate and tubes, followed by dismantling of the frames and coupled wheels. An issue Beamish is confident it can deal with concerns a puncture of the cast well tank, which acts as a frame stretcher. With no timescale for a return to steam, work will progress according to resources.…

THE Fylde Transport Trust has launched a £20,000 appeal to complete the restoration of its English Electric ‘Railcoach’ No. 279, which when finished will fill a void in the ranks of operational trams on the Blackpool system. No. 279 was built by English Electric (EE) at Preston as one of 45 single-deck streamlined ‘Railcoaches’ (Nos. 264–283) constructed between 1933 and 1935, which together with the famous ‘Balloons’ formed part of general manager Walter Luff’s five-year modernisation plan for the Blackpool tramway. It entered service in July 1935 and operated from Rigby Road depot on the Promenade and Lytham Road routes. From the late-1950s a number of the ‘Railcoaches’ were rebuilt into trailers or modified to become towing cars, losing their distinctive streamlined cabs in favour of flat-nosed front ends. Others…

SUMMERLEE Museum and the Summerlee Transport Group (STG) are celebrating 25 years since Lanarkshire Tramways No. 53 returned to operational service following restoration at the Coatbridge attraction. The open-top double-deck car was built in 1908 by the United Electric Car Company in Preston and delivered new to the Lanarkshire Tramways Company’s ‘Traction House’ depot on Hamilton Road, Motherwell. It was primarily used on the Hamilton, Motherwell and Wishaw routes until being involved in a crash in 1917. No. 53 was subsequently withdrawn and rebuilt with modified windows and improved truck, re-entering service in 1921. It continued to be used for the next 10 years, surviving until the closure of the tramway system in 1931. The body was then sold to a farmer in Beith, Ayrshire, where it was used as…

GB RAILFREIGHT’S Cricklewood to Calvert waste trains are operating again after a lengthy hiatus. Trains carrying up to 1,500 tonnes of spoil and rubble from major construction projects, such as the Brent Cross redevelopment in north London, operate five times a week between Cricklewood and FCC Environment’s landfill site in Buckinghamshire. Since the Cricklewood site opened in 2015, more than a million metric tonnes of waste material has been moved out of London by rail. Each train removes around 60 heavy goods lorries from the roads of the capital.…

DAVIES Turner’s intermodal freight service linking China with the UK resumed on March 11 after a short suspension. Tony Cole, head of supply chain services at the UK’s leading independent freight and logistics company, says: “In keeping with normal practice, our Express China Rail Service did not operate during the Chinese New Year holiday break and its suspension was further extended due to the Covid-19 outbreak.” The weekly service makes use of rail between the major industrial centre of Xi’an in China and Duisburg in Germany, from where containers are moved by road to Rotterdam, transported by ferry to Purfleet and then by road again to DT’s base in Dartford, Kent. The transit time between Xi’an and Duisburg is about 18 days. Containers are loaded with plastics, metal parts, tooling…

TRAINS returned to the Redhill to Tonbridge line on March 16 after a three-month closure to allow repairs to a collapsed embankment at Edenbridge. The line reopened two weeks earlier than expected, despite the remote site of the 30m-long landslip, one of the largest in southern England for many years. Thousands of tonnes of clay moved under the 1836-built railway after more than a month’s worth of rain fell in a week in December. A further 400m of railway is being shored up to prevent any further problems in the area. Repair work includes removing an entire section of the failed earthworks to create access to both sides of the site, and the delivery (by rail) of 40,000 tonnes of new material to build up a new structure to support…

NETWORK Rail contractors have extended the run round loop west of the terminal, as far as Redbridge Junction. The move will allow movement of 775-metre long intermodal trains serving Southampton Maritime container terminal. Freightliner’s No. 66589 is seen passing the newly laid track at Redbridge on March 12 after a route-learning run to Bournemouth and back in connection with engineering work on the westerly stretch of the South Western Main line.…

NETWORK Rail staff worked through heavy rain and 80mph winds to complete a nine-day programme to repair, replace and renew infrastructure at various locations in east Lancashire in late-February. The biggest element of the £3.95million project was the replacement of a bridge over the Leeds & Liverpool canal at Oswaldtwistle. A second bridge over the canal was strengthened at Rose Grove, track replaced at Townley and Gannow Junction, and new drainage installed at Rose Grove, before the Blackburn-Accrington-Burnley/Colne line reopened on February 24.…

THE Sheffield City Region Mayoral Combined Authority has put the cost of renewing the city’s Supertram system at £439million, and looks set to ask the Government to foot most of the bill. The scheme includes a new fleet of 28 trams to provide an enhanced service, track renewals, improved passenger facilities, refurbishment of the depot at Nunnery Square, renewal of control and signalling systems, and improved power supply. The plan covers the tram network only, so excludes the tram-train service to Rotherham, which uses some of the tram network. The SCR will apply for a Government grant to cover most of the capital costs, with a local contribution under 10%. Supertram opened in 1994 and is currently run by Stagecoach on behalf of the South Yorkshire PTE. This contract is…

THE impact of the coronavirus is taking a heavy impact on Transport for London. TfL said the underlying softness in demand and passenger revenue, largely caused by economic uncertainty, had been having an impact since last October, with both Tube and bus revenues trending at around 2% lower, year-on-year. During February, revenue was further affected by three significant storms and a period of prolonged bad weather, but the fluctuation was within TfL’s financial forecasting tolerances. At the beginning of March, there was a further 2% drop in ridership, coinciding TfL says, with growing public awareness of the Covid-19 virus. However, since then, an increasing number of firms and individuals have changed their travel behaviour, with more people working from home. The result is a further drop in Tube passenger numbers…

HERITAGE railways across the UK are on standby to provide experienced staff to Network Rail and to fill key worker shortages expected to be caused by the coronavirus. Responding to a call for signalling staff, the Heritage Railway Association (HRA) is contacting its members to assess the availability of suitable skilled and qualified people. The initial requirement is for signalling staff, followed by station staff. HRA chief executive Steve Oates said: “The proposal makes sense. Network Rail is expecting to suffer staff shortages, like many other organisations. “Effectively all of the UK’s heritage railways have now closed until further notice – yet we have experienced and skilled people available to help keep the nation’s vital railways working.” Many volunteers and staff at heritage lines had BR or Network Rail careers…

FIRST Group announced on March 4 that TransPennine Express managing director Leo Goodwin would be leaving the business on March 5“to pursue opportunities outside the group”. This follows several months of poor performance and the introduction of new trains still not completed. Mr Goodwin had held various positions in First Rail since joining the group in 1999, including key roles in TOCs, and developing First’s East Coast open access proposition. He came under fire in the national press late last year when it emerged he had been awarded a 44% salary increase to £331,000 despite TPE being the second worst TOC for punctuality. The RM understands significant tensions had developed within the senior management team at TPE as performance collapsed. Liz Collins, currently TPE finance director, is acting as interim…

MIDLANDS Connect’s flagship Midlands Rail Hub (MRH) plans were awarded £20 million in March’s Budget statement, allowing the transport body to further develop its proposals for the £2billion package of improvements to rail services. Government backing means Midlands Connect can now create an Outline Business Case (OBC), including detailed design, planning and costings for MRH. Proposals include 24 extra trains every hour on commuter and inter-regional services across the Midlands. Some of the proposed improvements could start to be delivered from 2024, including the reopening of platform 4 at Birmingham Snow Hill, and line speed improvements between Leicester and Birmingham.…

CHINA’S rail network, not surprisingly, was the first to feel the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, where much of the system was either shut or restricted in January and February. This included the well established freight services between China and Europe, with services resuming in many places in February. In Hong Kong, MTR introduced an automated Vapourised Hydrogen Peroxide Robot for deep cleaning and decontamination of its metro trains and stations. In Europe, rail services were initially restricted in northern Italy, and from March 8, movement and activity in all of northern Italy was further restricted before this was widened to the entire country the following day. Restrictions The decision to widen the restrictions came as large numbers of people headed to southern Italy to escape the restrictions. Overnight trains…

My two very special encounters with Pendennis Castle I WAS very interested to read the feature about Pendennis Castle in the March issue. It reminded me of two encounters I had with the locomotive. On May 9, 1964, I was fortunate enough to be at the lineside near Savernake to see the first leg of the Ian Allan Special celebrating City of Truro’s feat in 1904. With a few friends, I had been driven there by Kenneth Leech, the railway photographer and author. Mr Leech was the mentor to our group of schoolboy enthusiasts, where we usually gathered on the platform ends at Chippenham station. Cameras were readied and I had my little Phillips reel-to-reel tape recorder set up. Then we became aware of the train approaching. The…

Passenger survey confusion BRIGHTON Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle asked what steps the Department for Transport (DfT) is taking in response to the finding by the Office for Statistics Regulation that the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) does not reflect passengers’ experience of rail travel, and for what reasons some TOCs are provided with survey results in advance. The MP asked if the DfT will take steps to ensure that the survey collects data on passenger support for the presence of on-train and station staff. Transport Minister Chris Heaton-Harris replied:“The DfT welcomes the Office for Statistics Regulation report and will work with Transport Focus to help it meet the recommendations in the report. “As set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics, some individuals can access official statistics before their…

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BRIDGE 11 on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway is being replaced after carrying trains over the Rover Worth for 116 years. The structure is located close to Ingrow West station and dates back to 1904, but its deteriorated condition has resulted in its £150,000 renewal by KWVR volunteers. The new concrete deck was expected to be lowered into position by the Bahamas Locomotive Society’s ex-LMS Cravens 50T steam crane on March 24. “We’re extremely lucky to have a dedicated and qualified group of volunteers helping with this project. We wouldn’t be able to deliver this project for £150,000 without them,” said KWVR chief civil engineer James Barlow. “Planning for the project began over a year ago, with volunteers starting physical preparation work on site during the first weekend of…

THE overhaul of the Nene Valley Railway’s BR ‘5MT’ No. 73050 City of Peterborough continues to make steady progress at the railway’s Wansford workshops. The 4-6-0’s 6ft 2in coupled wheels are practically complete. Apart from a weld repair to one of the horn guides, they are otherwise ready to go back under. Following the return of the springs from overhaul, the bogie is also nearly complete. Intensive work continues on the main frame. The drag box has been removed and work to replace the thinned lower plate is scheduled. A start has been made on dismantling the cab. This will be transported off-site for shot-blasting and initial overhaul, before being returned to Wansford for reassembly. The selection of overhaul contractor for the boiler is still in progress. Tests on the…

THE Swanage Railway Trust (SRT) has launched a new appeal to meet a £32,000 shortfall in its fundraising for a new £220,000 two-road carriage shed to the east Herston Halt. The SRT has allocated £153,000 towards the total cost of the new building and is applying for grants for a further £35,000, leaving £32,000 still to find. When completed the shed will house some of the Swanage Railway’s carriage fleet, including the SRT’s 1930s Maunsell and 1940s Bulleid stock. The building will be 131m long and 9.26m wide, providing almost 1,000sq m of covered accommodation – enough to house four carriages on one road and six on the other. Full height walls will be built on the south side to protect the stock from the ravages of sun, wind and…

THE Connemara Railway Project’s (CRP) grand vision to reopen a stretch of the Midland Great Western Railway’s long-closed Galway to Clifden branch took a step closer to fruition in mid-February when 5ft 3in-gauge track returned to Maam Cross station in County Galway for the first time since 1935. Six 40ft track panels on wooden sleepers have been laid on the original alignment at the western end of the station site, between the platforms and the Maam Cross to Maam Village road, where a temporary, but original, MGWR buffer stop has been put down. In due course the project group intends to reinstate the level crossing over this road, and extend the track towards Clifden; the formation is clear for the next three miles. Galway County Council granted planning permission for…

IARNROD EIREANN-Irish Rail (IÉ) has confirmed it expects the first tranche of new electric vehicles to replace 1980s DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transport) fleet to be delivered in 2023 as part of the DART expansion programme. The procurement process started with a notice for tender on December 19. In early February, The RM understands the process was threatened with significant delay, before CAF withdrew an application to the Irish High Court, having failed to make the shortlist to tender. Six manufactures – Stadler, Siemens, Hitachi, Alstom, Bombardier and CRRC – have been short listed for the initial order of 150 vehicles of a potential 600 vehicle order, which will include bi-mode and battery powered vehicles to allow operations beyond the wires. IÉ expects to identify a preferred bidder by the…

RAVENGLASS & Eskdale Railway’s (R&ER) 12.30 departure from Dalegarth on February 23 was involved in an incident at Eskdale Green level crossing at around 12.45. A brief company statement confirmed there were no injuries to passengers, staff or members of the public, that the locomotive was not derailed and later returned to Ravenglass with its train, and that the incident had been reported to RAIB (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) and the Office of Rail and Road. The statement said the R&ER company would make no further comment until investigations are completed. From the limited information available it appears Davey Paxman 2-8-2 River Esk struck the rear right side of a van operated by delivery company DPD, which was crossing the minor road at this location in front of the train.…

THE Government submitted a bid in January to UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) for The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales to be granted World Heritage Site status. The bid has been prepared by Gwynedd Council (RM Nov 2018) and encompasses the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog and its surrounding slate quarries, which were served by the Ffestiniog Railway, together with Bryneglwys Slate Quarry, and the nearby village of Abergynolwyn, for which the Talyllyn Railway fulfilled a similar role.…

COSMETICALLY restored Isle of Man Steam Railway’s Beyer, Peacock 2-4-0T No. 1 Sutherland (last steamed around 2003) was moved into Port Erin museum in mid-February. Rearrangement of the exhibits prior to opening the museum for the new season on March 6 also saw Beyer, Peacock 2-4-0T (6296/1926) No. 16 Mannin moved out. It is now in the carriage shed where the potential for restoring it to steam (RM July 2019) will be further assessed. Mannin is significantly larger than the other Manx 2-4-0Ts. It last steamed in 1964, and returning it to operation would be a major attraction to celebrate the steam line’s 150th anniversary in 2022.…

ALL of the UK’s heritage tramway operators are to remain closed during April as the nation steps up measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Crich Tramway Village will not open to the public until at least May 22, while Heaton Park Tramway will stay shut until further notice, postponing its 40th anniversary event until later in the year. Beamish Museum, the Black Country Living Museum and the Wirral Transport Museum and Tramway are not expected to reopen until May 1 at the earliest, and the East Anglia Transport Museum is shut during April. Finally, all heritage tram operations on the Blackpool system are suspended until further notice.…

NETWORK Rail has awarded Siemens contracts worth more than £1billion to introduce in-cab digital signalling on the southern section of the East Coast Main Line. Engineering consultant Atkins has also won a £55million deal to manage the programme. Siemens won both the Train Control Partner (TCP) and Traffic Management Partner (TMP) framework contracts, worth £900m and £180m, respectively. Siemens will design, build and maintain the new European Train Control System (ETCS) equipment and associated infrastructure for the lifetime of the assets. The Traffic Management contract has a wider remit than just the East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP), working with the Eastern and North West & Central regions, developing traffic management systems for the TransPennine route upgrade as well as the ECML. The East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP) will transform the…

SECRETARY of State for Transport Grant Shapps has unexpectedly prevented local authorities in West Yorkshire from starting the controversial £7million project to fill in the long-closed Queensbury Tunnel between Bradford and Halifax. Mr Shapps said:“I’ve taken a specific personal interest in Queensbury Tunnel. “The official advice was to fill it in, but I have specifically prevented that from happening and will work with local leaders to come up with a better solution. “It’s an asset but at the moment it’s unclear what the tunnel would do and what would run through it. Is it bicycles or a light train or a tram?” The news delighted local campaigners who have been fighting to prevent the abandonment of the tunnel by Highways England for more than five years and want to see…

THE nation’s preserved railways, tramways and museums are facing an uncertain few months as almost all closed their doors during March and April in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Many of the annual early season events have been cancelled or postponed, including the Severn Valley and West Somerset railways’ big Spring Steam Galas and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s Cotswold Festival of Steam. The East Somerset Railway hung on almost until the 11th hour to see if it could go ahead with its March 20-21 gala, but ultimately elected to stay safe and cancelled. The railtour market has been similarly affected – all of the operators and promoters cancelling trains or postponing them until later in the year. Loss of income The resultant loss of income from running…

ON March 23, the Department for Transport temporarily suspended all rail franchise agreements for an initial six-month period under an Emergency Measures Agreement (EMA). The move comes as the number of passengers using rail services has plummeted by 70% and train operators reduce the number of trains running. The EMA will ease the financial burden, particularly for several struggling operators. For running services operators will receive a maximum 2% management fee of the cost base prior to the virus outbreak, with the revenue and cost risk transferring to the Government. The maximum fee payble will be far less than recent profits earned by train operators, the DfT says. In the event an operator won’t accept the EMA, then the DfT will appoint an Operator of Last Resort. Additionally, Transport Secretary…

RECENT enhancements to information provided by the Real Time Trains (RTT) website is the ability to show multiple unit set or loco numbers. RTT made its first agreement on providing trains type and number of carriages in real time with ScotRail. A further planned enhancement will be the inclusion of on-board facilities such as wi-fi and where the accessible space is. Currently, the information for ScotRail services applies to diesel or electric multiple units, not the InterCity 7 HST sets, as these can get swapped during the day. For some weeks now, GB Railfreight has allowed loco allocations to appear for its freight workings, which also appear with the full reporting number rather than obfuscating it. From March 15, loco allocations for the Caledonian Sleeper services were included in the…

ORGANISATIONS  representing thousands of railway-related businesses, passengers, freight, and community groups are pushing the Government to commit to an ambitious ‘rolling programme’ of rail electrification across the UK. Groups including the Campaign for Better Transport and the Rail Freight Group are asking the Government to end the ‘stop-start’nature of past electrification projects, and to introduce a ring-fenced investment fund for future schemes. Air quality Darren Shirley, chief executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: “The scale and pace of rail electrification must increase if legally binding carbon emission targets are to be met and air quality improved in towns and cities. “Rail is currently the greenest major form of transport, but will cede that leading position, undoing wider efforts to reduce carbon emissions unless the Government commits to a rolling…

CHANGING trains at Didcot Parkway one June morning in 2019, I was surprised and then delighted by the sight and sound of a high-stepping thoroughbred pacing back and forth outside the Didcot Railway Centre. It was, of course, No. 2999 Lady of Legend, newly completed through the skill and toil of Great Western Society members and their supporters in memory of a class of locos whose influence on future designs was unique. The ‘Saints’ were not Britain’s first 4-6-0s: those were the ‘Jones Goods’ of the Highland Railway, dating from 1894, followed by a Great Western goods loco designed in 1896 during Dean’s regime as locomotive superintendent at Swindon, and Worsdell’s passenger locos for the North Eastern Railway built from 1899. The GWR contribution, with its large Dean dome and…

1: The Griff Colliery Branch, including Griff Colliery, Stanley Brothers Brickworks and the nearby Haunchwood Brick and Tile. 2: William Griffiths Stone Quarry 3: Charity Colliery 4: Bedworth Goods Yard 5: Exhall Colliery 6: Murco Sidings (on the site of Exhall and Hawkesbury Colliery’s own interchange sidings) 7: Hawkesbury Marshalling Sidings 8: Longford & Exhall 9: Coventry Gasworks 10: Foleshill 11: Brett’s Patent Lifter Sidings 12: Spon End Arches - site of the collapse 13: Albany Road - site of the derailment 14: Street’s Siding & Cherry Orchard Brickworks 15: Kenilworth Gas Works, Whitemoors Brickyard A: The Wyken Branch, leading to Victoria Colliery (later Coventry (Longford) Power Station B: The Foleshill Railway serving White and Poppe, Coventry Ordnance Works and Courtaulds. C: The Coventry Loop Line…

I AM of the older generation and found your Nostalgia article (RM March) to be a fascinating, spot-on critique of the changing railway scene over the past 50 years and more. Looking back with my rose-tinted specs, steam days were indeed full of interest and variety, a sort of time capsule of a bygone age, essentially operated in the same way since Victorian times. However, for the non-enthusiast the railways were more likely to be seen as dirty, inefficient, labour intensive and badly in need of being brought up to date to compete with, or at least supplement, road transport. We are lucky that a lot of what we took for granted and was swept away so quickly has been preserved in heritage lines that future generations to enjoy. Maybe…

100 YEARS AGO APRIL 1920 Midland punctuality THE Midland Railway has produced some striking figures showing the punctuality of its trains during 1919. Out of a total of 29,967 express passenger trains, 25,819, or 86 per cent, were either punctual or not more than five minutes late, the great majority, namely, 20,752, being actually on time. Of the local trains, numbering in all 411,398, 297,671 were on time, and 73,996 not more than five minutes late. In other words, 90 per cent were either punctual or not more than five minutes late. Scottish fish traffic FISH has ever been an important traffic to the Great North of Scotland Railway. During June, July, August and September, 1919, this company ran 432 special fish trains with a corresponding number of empty…

THE Welsh Railways Trust’s project to return the National Railway Museum’s ex-Taff Vale Railway ‘O1’ 0-6-2T No. 28 to steam moved forward on March 1 with the launch of three new appeals. All the fundraisers are on a rugby theme with the aim of raising the £160,000 needed to overhaul the loco. As the name suggests, the ‘Kick-Off’appeal has been set up to raise the £32,000 required to carry out the first stage of the project, which will focus on overhauling the loco’s ‘bottom end’ and getting it to the rolling chassis stage. The trust has already received an £18,000 grant from the Association for Industrial Archaeology towards this first stage, which with donations already received put the appeal’s current total at £25,030. The ‘Grand Slam’ appeal will be the…

BULLEID ‘West Country’Pacific No. 34105 Swanage was re-wheeled at the Mid-Hants Railway during February, marking another milestone on the locomotive’s comeback journey. The three couple wheelsets and trailing trick were lifted into place using the Ropley works wheeldrop, but the bogie has not been reinstated yet while work progresses on the replacement of No. 34105’s middle cylinder. The existing cylinder is in need of repair, and the railway has decided a replacement makes better economic sense in the long-term. A replacement will be cast using a polystyrene pattern, and drawings for this are being prepared. However, no date has yet been set for casting. No. 34105’s boiler is currently under overhaul at Ropley where a new firebox tubeplate is being fitted. New air-smoothed casing and a new cab have also…

Alton footbridge for Mid-Hants? THE 1892-built covered wooden footbridge that once spanned the main line at Alton station was removed by contractors for Network Rail (NR) on March 7. It has been closed to pedestrians since 2015. The main span has been saved for preservation by the Friends of Alton Station thanks to a £50,000 grant from the Railway Heritage Trust. The eventual aim is to relocate it to the western end of the Mid-Hants Railway’s Alton platform once it has been restored, at an estimated £80,000 cost. However, the original staircases were destroyed during the bridge’s removal, NR claiming they were too rotten to be retained. Gwili to re-create lost Swansea dock tank THE Gwili Railway Preservation Society plans to out-shop its ex-Earley Power Station RSH 0-4-0ST Olwen (7058/1942)…

‘Austerity’ joins Severn Valley steam fleet THE Severn Valley Railway (SVR) has taken delivery of RSH-built ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST No. 71516 Welsh Guardsman (7170/1944), which arrived from the Gwili Steam Railway on February 27. The SVR has agreed to host the former Gwili stalwart while the owner, Felinfoel Brewery, makes a decision regarding future hire opportunities for the loco. The Bridgnorth works team is to undertake some maintenance work on the loco in return for the potential use of the locomotive, which is the first ‘Austerity’ on the SVR since Hunslet No. WD193 Shropshire left for the Bulmers Railway Centre at Hereford in January 1981. Bluebell planning 60 th  anniversary extravaganza THE Bluebell Railway has announced plans to mark the 60th anniversary of its preservation this summer with a commemorative event…

CONSTRUCTION of Ireland’s first new station in seven years got underway in late-February at Pelletstown, between Ashtown and Broombridge in Dublin. Work on the €10million station, next to the Royal Canal on the Maynooth line, had been expected to begin at the end of last year, but it was February 26 before the formal ‘first sod’ cutting took place. The official ceremony was conducted by Dublin’s Lord Mayor Coun Tom Brabazon, together with the chief executive of the National Transport Authority Anne Graham, and Iarnród Éireann-Irish Rail (IÉ) chief executive Jim Meade. Pelletstown is the first new station to be built on the IÉ network since July 2013, when the ‘park-and-ride’ station at Oranmore opened in County Galway. Funding has been provided by the National Transport Authority, together with levies…

ANDREW Neale’s Hunslet 0-4-0ST Edward Sholto (996/1909) has been placed on display in Beamish’s Colliery Engine Works and will remain a static exhibit for the foreseeable future. Edward Sholto was repatriated in June 2006 and restored to steam in March 2010. It went on long-term loan to Beamish in 2012, where it worked until spring 2016. With leaking boiler tubes, the boiler was sent away for attention, but examination revealed it had worn to the stage where further boiler and firebox repairs to keep it in working order were impossible. Minimal During restoration following repatriation it was realised Edward Sholto remained in remarkably original condition, retaining its 1909 boiler and firebox and a high percentage of as-built material. A new front tube plate was fitted and some repairs made to…

LEADHILLS & Wanlockhead Railway (L&WR) has received planning consent to extend the line to Wanlockhead East, where a new station will be constructed with parking for 10 cars. The project now needs to be scoped in detail and a budget prepared prior to starting fundraising. Work will be phased over at least three years. L&WR’s Hunslet 4wDM HE6347/1975 No. 6 Clyde, out of action for three years, is ready to return to service following completion of major work on the transmission, wheelsets and brakes. Clyde will work passenger trains this year, alternating weekends with Hunslet Barclay 0-4-0DM LD9348/1994 No. 10 Mennock, which was L&WR’s sole passenger-capable loco during 2018 and 2019. Graham Morris’ newly overhauled Kerr, Stuart 0-4-0ST ‘Wren’ Peter Pan has been provisionally booked to produce a Steam Event…

■ TODDINGTON Narrow Gauge Railway anticipates Arn Jung 0-4-0WT Justine (939/1906) will return to service this year following extensive boiler work. Justine will effectively replace privately owned Chrzanow LAS 3512/1957 Tourska, which is now withdrawn on expiry of its boiler certificate, to work in company with Hunslet 0-4-2T 2075/1940 Chakaskraal No. 6 (Chaka). ■ CONSTRUCTION of a two-road locomotive and stock shed for the railway at Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum has been boosted by a £2,500 grant from Sedgemoor District Council. The outcome of other grant funding bids towards raising the £20,000 needed to start construction is awaited. ■ FFESTINIOG Railway Society (FRS) has funded the purchase of standard gauge sleepers made from recycled plastic, which are cut in half following delivery, for use on Ffestiniog Railway. They have been…

SOUTHEND-ON-SEA Council has approved a £3.25million project to replace the coastal town’s ageing pier trains with new eco-friendly designs. Severn Lamb, which built the current 3ft-gauge Southend Pier Railway fleet in the mid-1980s, has been awarded the contract to construct the two new trains, each of which will consist of two bi-modular trains that can split in to two smaller trains should the pier choose to run at a reduced capacity  during off peak times. This will help reduce running costs and provide the council with more freedom when planning yearly schedules. The specification for the new trains will see capacity increased from 180 to 244, with additional wheelchair capacity (six spaces per train). Features such as panoramic roofs on one or more cars is being considered, while modern conveniences…

REGULAR parcels trains could return to the East Coast Main Line under a plan launched by new operator Varamis Rail in March. According to the company’s website, it will provide high-speed freight services on main electrified routes from late-2020, carrying parcels, temperature-controlled and palletised goods between London, Doncaster and Newcastle. Varamis plans to extend operations to a circular route serving Edinburgh and the West Coast Main Line and later to East Anglia and Bristol/South Wales. The new operator plans to use rebuilt Class 365 EMUs, half of which are currently stored awaiting new operators after being released by Great Northern and ScotRail. Varamis plans to operate a series of ‘hubs’ at major distribution centres, towns and cities along electrified routes, with road vehicles being used for ‘last-mile’ transfer to and…

GB Railfreight (GBRf) has unveiled plans for a new £3million operations and training facility in Peterborough. The freight operator already has a big presence in the Cambridgeshire city, employing dozens of drivers and maintenance staff as well as its fleet management and control centre. This will be expanded with a new three-storey office building housing a control centre, classrooms, a boardroom and staff facilities at Maskew Avenue, on the outskirts of the city centre. Built on a former Network Rail brownfield site, it will replace temporary offices in Peterborough Yard that have been in place for many years. It is expected to be complete in November. ■ GBRf has appointed Liam Day as its new commercial director. Mr Day was previously the company’s Head of Contracts and joined GBRf in…

CONSTRUCTION materials producer Tarmac has won a £1.49 million Freight Facilities Grant from the Scottish Government. The funding will assist Tarmac with the cost of upgrading track at its Oxwellmains plant, near Dunbar, and installing a storage silo and a pneumatic pipe to feed the cement across the railway line. It will allow Tarmac to increase its use of rail and lead to the removal of more than 7,000 lorry journeys per year from Scotland’s roads. Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity Michael Matheson announced the on March 4. He said:“This award is the first Freight Facilities Grant for rail for a number of years and will help ensure rail remains the key mode of transport for much of Tarmac’s operations.“…

Congestion ‘taskforce’ for Piccadilly platforms 13/14 PLATFORMS 13 and 14 at Manchester Piccadilly are now being treated as‘a station within a station’to improve the rush-hour experience for commuters. A dedicated team of 12 new customer relations staff and four supervisors has been tasked with keeping up to 40,000 passengers a day moving safely and providing travel information. New information screens have also been installed in the upstairs‘satellite lounge’and for station staff on the platforms. Charging points, extra seating, free water points and free toilet facilities are now available in the departure lounge. DB’s Knottingley depot shuts down DB CARGO’S Knottingley depot in West Yorkshire closed on March 14, another victim of the decline in railborne coal traffic. The final train to visit was the Branch Line Society’s ‘Power of Aire’railtour…

SHEFFIELD City Region, Doncaster Council and the owners of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) have submitted an outline business case to the Department of Transport for the construction of a new rail link connecting the airport to the East Coast Main Line. If authorised, the £300million link could help generate up to 33,000 new jobs for the region as part of ambitious expansion plans. Just 4.5 miles of new track are required from a grade-separated junction on the ECML near Bawtry to a triangular junction on the Doncaster to Lincoln GN&GE Joint Line. The proposal could help the UK’s fastest growing airport to expand further, adding an electrified high-speed passenger service, and alleviating congestion on the ECML. Freight traffic is also part of the proposals, with sidings envisaged to the north…

TRANSPENNINE Express (TPE) has promised to tackle overnight noise levels at its £7million servicing depot in Scarborough, after local residents complained it was making their life‘a misery’. The Seamer Road depot opened in 2019 to service TPE’s new ‘Nova 3’fleet, powered by Class 68 diesel locomotives. However, noise from the powerful V16 diesel engines of the ‘68s’is far less popular with locals than it is with rail enthusiasts. Trains arrive late in the evening and shunt around the depot for refuelling and cleaning between 23.00 and 00.30, before starting to move off depot for the following day’s diagrams from around 04.30. TPE blames locos being left in ‘fast idle’mode for the noise, and has said it will issue instructions for noise to be kept to a minimum during overnight servicing.…

WARM air extracted from London Underground tunnels is being used to heat more than 1,000 homes, and the idea could be extended across the LU network. The Bunhill 2 energy centre, built on the site of the long-closed City Road Underground station in Islington, was opened in early March. It uses a large fan to extract warm air from the Northern Line tunnels, which then passes over a series of pipes to heat water that is then pumped to nearby buildings via a distributed heating system. Tower block Electricity is also generated for use by LU and a nearby tower block. The fan can also be reversed in summer to help cool the Tube tunnels if required. The extracted heat would normally be wasted, and reusing it this way is…

THE Government has agreed to fund most of a £100 million scheme to increase service frequencies and reduce journey times on the Tyne and Wear Metro. The ‘Metro Flow’ project includes upgrading and electrifying the freight line that runs parallel to the Metro between Pelaw Junction and Jarrow on the South Shields branch, effectively eliminating remaining single-track sections of the South Shields branch and therefore removing bottlenecks. Other work will see service frequency outside central areas increased from one every 12 minutes to one every 10 (six trains an hour instead of five), increasing capacity for an extra 30,000 passengers a day, and improving reliability to allow for better recovery from major disruptions. This will be backed by an order for four extra new trains on top of the 42…