Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2021 i The Railway Magazine

ANOTHER month has gone by and, as I write, there is still no news about when or even if a programme of electrification will be announced by the Government. Electrification is a subject I’ve raised several times before, and I am sorry if it is becoming repetitive. It will not go away – it has become the elephant in the room. The need to electrify more track miles in order to decarbonise is emphasised by a report produced by the Railway Industry Association and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, backed by more than 16 organisations. The authors are experts in their field and they are not wrong, so it is questionable for how much longer Government inaction and delay can continue. It certainly cannot wait to be financed during Network…

SIEMENS Mobility and the University of Birmingham have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a £50 million centre of excellence for rail research and innovation. The facility will be located at Siemens’s new rail vehicle assembly plant in Goole, creating up to 250 direct and supply chain jobs. It will be built as part of the second phase of an innovation hub known as the Rail Accelerator and Innovations Solutions Hub for Enterprise (RaisE) and aims to accelerate the adoption of new technology in the rail industry, providing training and laboratories for decarbonisation solutions and advanced technologies such robotics and artificial intelligence.…

Roving teams on board ScotRail to stop fraud SCOTRAIL recommenced on-train ticket checks from April 26, as well as increasing their frequency. The operator said British Transport Police and roving ScotRail teams would be on trains carrying out on-the-spot fraud checks, and the presence of staff is expected to reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour. ScotRail operator Abellio lost £64 million for the year 2019/20, and is facing a series of 24-hour strikes over pay from members of both the Unite and RMT unions. The franchise is being taken back under Scottish Government control at the end of the current franchise period, expected in March 2022. Robot cleaner for airport platforms GREATER Anglia (GA) is investing more than £23,000 in an ‘Eco Bot 50’ cleaning robot for use on platforms and…

As The RM closed for press, news was emerging of the discovery of cracks on GWR Class 800 IET units. An inspection of vehicle 814013 (from set 800013) revealed a crack, described in the National Incident Report as being on the yaw damper bolster “…in the area where the yaw damper bracket is welded to the car body”. Crack depths, described in the report as “substantial”, have been measured as deep as 15mm. So far, eight of 93 units were identified with the problem at the time the NIR was released.…

GB RAILFREIGHT named Class 66 No. 66767 King's Cross PSB 1971-2021 at the station on April 23, hours after the power signal box (PSB) at the London terminus closed following 50 years of service. The ‘66’ was working on a p-way train, so stabled in the platform. The final train to be signalled out by the PSB was 2Y98, the 01.40 to Welwyn Garden City. The station, where the throat is being rebuilt with additional tracks, was closed from April 23 to April 26, during which signalling control was transferred to York Regional Operating Centre.…

A DERAILMENT on April 2 in a tunnel resulted in 49 deaths, the worst death toll in an accident on Taiwan’s railways since 1948. The train involved was a ‘TEMU1000’ tilting 1,067mm gauge eight-car EMU built by Hitachi in 2016 at Kasado in Japan, operating a‘Taroko Express’ service from Shulin to Taitung on the coastal ‘North-Link’ line beside the Pacific Ocean. Negligent homicide The train hit a truck that had fallen onto the track off a main road above from an adjacent embankment. According to prosecutors, who have now charged the truck driver with negligent homicide, the truck had been stuck in bushes, and slipped and fell during rescue efforts. The driver failed to inform railway authorities immediately, despite being a contract rail maintenance worker. The train hit the truck…

Last summer the country emerged from the first Covid-19 lockdown just in time for West Coast Railways to run the ‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ charter train on behalf of the Railway Touring Club on August 8. Organising the train to run in the difficult circumstances dictated by social distancing must have been a logistical nightmare, but the more intrepid among the enthusiast ranks duly headed north behind No. 86259 Les Ross for a far from brief encounter at Carnforth with ‘Royal Scot’ 4-6-0 No. 46115 Scots Guardsman. For seven years, No. 86259 was named Greater Manchester – The Life and Soul of Britain, more a documentary title than aloco name perhaps, and for 23 years before that, Peter Pan. I never considered this identity suitable either, but perhaps the loco’s longevity…

NOSTALGIA has an uncanny knack of distorting one’s recollections of days gone by. I, for one, seem to wear perpetual blinkers when I look back on British Rail’s ‘Blue & Grey’ era, ignoring the faults (and there were many) and recalling those years with affection and a rose-tinted ‘those were the days’ attitude. Curiously, I have a similar outlook where Iarnród Éireann-Irish Rail (IÉ) is concerned. My first face-to-face encounter with the Republic of Ireland’s railway network came at Dublin’s Heuston station in 2003. I had arrived early for my trip out to Sallins & Naas, so spent the intervening time watching trains arrive and depart. Everything seemed so familiar, yet at the same time distinctly foreign; BRELdesigned Mk2 and Mk3 stock with Mk1 generator vans, but hauled by American…

Swindon Trip HAVING just received the latest edition of The RM I was delighted to see the article on the Swindon ‘Trip’, particularly as my dad (a lifelong Swindon worker) is clearly visible in the front row of the Evening Star naming photo. Bob Jones By email Caption error? The caption to the photo on pages 14-15 of your April issue states that “No. 4905 will most likely detach at Dainton”. No way! There’s still 2½ miles at 1-in-47/71 after Totnes to come. As an observer of trains south of Newton Abbot most summer Saturdays from 1956 to 1960, I can confirm that holiday passenger trains invariably ran double-headed throughout from Newton Abbot to Plymouth and vice-versa. John Ainslie By email Thank you for the clarification, Mr Ainslie – Ed…

100 YEARS AGO MAY 1921 Line transferred THE Minister of Transport has confirmed the Cambrian Railways (Tanat Valley Light Railway Transfer) Order 1921, transferring the Tanat Valley Light Railway to the Cambrian Railways Company. The Tanat Valley line is about 15 miles long and runs from the Shropshire border nearly to Bala. Space for sale A NEW departure has been made by the Great Northern Railway in regard to the letting of advertising spaces on stations, walls, fences, buildings and other property, which arrangements were for many years in the hands of W H Smith & Son. From April 1, these spaces have been controlled and let direct to advertisers by the railway company. This development is an extension of the scheme adopted some 10 years ago when it was…

THE Severn Valley Railway has joined the growing list of preserved railways to end the issuing of lineside passes and permits and the operation of photographic charters. The railway suspended passes last year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and no photographic charters took place during the year. Yet, with speculation over potential charters in association with the planned visit of ‘Saint’ No. 2999 Lady of Legend in April, the SVR issued a statement in March announcing that it will not issue any new lineside passes or accommodate any privately-run photo charters in future. ‘Potential risk’ Explaining the decision, general manager Helen Smith said: “The income we receive from lineside passes and privately-run photo charters is insignificant when compared to the potential risk these activities naturally contain. This means that to…

‘64XX’ to reopen Maidenhead canopy THE Cholsey & Wallingford Railway’s restored and rebuilt Wallingford station canopy, formerly at Maidenhead, will be officially opened during a celebratory weekend on June 26-27. The honours will be performed by Collett ‘64XX’ 0-6-0PT No. 6435, which will be visiting courtesy of the Bodmin &Wenford Railway. Appeal to overhaul Swanage ‘T3’ tender THE Swanage Railway Trust has launched the T3nder Club to help restore the tender of LSWR ‘T3’ 4-4-0 No. 563 to operational condition. The club is seeking 100 supporters to each donate £500 by either £50 or £100 standing orders. The work will be undertaken at the Swanage Railway’s Herston Works. For more information, visit www.563locomotivegroup.co.uk…

THE ‘bottom end’ of the Bluebell Railway’s Stroudley ‘Terrier’ No. 672 Fenchurch arrived at Statfold Engineering on April 15 for overhaul as the project to have it back in steam for its 150th anniversary next year moves forward. Work may involve fitting a new cylinder block if the existing one cannot be repaired. The boiler is being worked on at the Bluebell Railway’s Sheffield Park works. A new flanged and welded firebox has been ordered from Israel Newton & Son, and new boiler components including barrel extension, smokebox tubeplate, outer wrapper, lower backhead and throatplate pressings are already on site. The diminutive 0-6-0T has not run since 2011.…

THE Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) has benefited from a £167,300 award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Recovery Fund. The grant will help cover staff wages, insurance costs, crew training and digital outputs, and generally soften the blow caused by the pandemic. The society, based in Whitehead, has an annual turnover of £1 million, but has sizeable fixed costs, such as insurance and salaries to cover each year. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the usual income streams, the RPSI had to furlough staff, fall back on its financial reserves and seek assistance from various funding bodies, as well as support from its 1,200 members. “This grant is a real life-saver as far as the society is concerned,” said RPSI chairman John…

■ ALAN Keef Ltd plans to hold an open day at its Ross-on-Wye works in late summer/ early autumn 2022 to mark the firm’s 50th anniversary. A centrepiece will be new-build 0-4-2ST ‘Falcon’ No. 10, constructed for the Corris Railway, complete and ready to move to Corris with a view to entering service by the end of 2022. This agreed target depends on Corris Railway Society raising the £100,000 required to finish the loco. ■JEREMY Martin has advertised 2ft gauge 0-4-0VBT Leary for sale. Constructed by Ffestiniog Railway volunteers some years ago in the style of a De Winton loco (albeit smaller), Leary arrived at Jeremy Martin’s private Richmond Light Railway in 2017. It subsequently received a significant rebuild, has a new 10-year boiler certificate, and is apparently capable of…

RAVENGLASS Railway Museum has acquired a collection of 44 negatives of pictures taken by Henry Cyril Casserley. The lot, secured at an auction, comprises photographs taken by the famed photographer during a visit on September 14, 1950, to Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. The pictures were taken during a period when money and materials were scarce and the railway faced an uncertain future, providing a view of the task facing the then fledgling preservation society. Casserley was accompanied during the visit by fellow photographer Alfred Croughton, whose pictures are already held in Ravenglass Railway Museum’s archive.…

■ THE landslip which deposited some 100 tons of soil on a section of Heatherslaw Light Railway track during heavy rain and consequent flooding at the beginning of February (RM, April) has been cleared, and reconstruction of the bank beside the railway undertaken by contractors. Having dug a base channel below the newly landscaped embankment, stone-filled gabions were installed at the beginning of April. The 15in gauge line hoped work would be completed to enable reopening at the beginning of May. ■ RUSTON 11/13hp 4wDM Alistair (201970/1940) and four ex-RAF Chilmark wagons arrived at Statfold Barn Railway on March 11. The loco is owned by a member of Statfold staff. It originally entered preservation at the Ffestiniog Railway, later went to Gartell Light Railway, and was relocated to the Hayling…

OVER the Easter weekend, Network Rail engineers closed the Midland Main Line near Cricklewood to allow remodelling of the track in preparation for a new station at Brent Cross West. The MML was closed between West Hampstead and Mill Hill Broadway as part of future plans to allow Thameslink trains to serve the £40 million station. Track and signalling work will continue over the May Bank Holiday weekends, when one of the new platforms will also be constructed. Brent Cross West is a key element of the huge Brent Cross/Cricklewood regeneration programme, which will include a new town centre, new homes and commercial, retail and leisure space.…

HUGE new woodlands and wetland areas will created along the route of HS2 Phase 2a as part of the first contract awarded for the 36-mile line between the West Midlands and Crewe. Balfour Beatty has won a £52 million deal for environmental works at 82 sites running north from Fradley, Staffordshire. Work will include tree planting at more than 40 sites covering an area the size of 86 football pitches, establishing more than 18 miles of new hedgerows, creating 220 ponds, and forming enough new grassland meadows to cover 140 football pitches to encourage wildflowers and insects to flourish. Having gained Royal Assent in February, construction of Phase 2a will proceed in parallel with Phase 1, with both sections of railway expected to open at the same time.…

DESIGN changes to a section of HS2 near Kenilworth, Warwickshire, will reduce environmental impact and avoid a major realignment of a local river. The previous design envisaged the diversion of a 700m section of Canley Brook, but this has been reduced to just 80m, eliminating the need to excavate 600,000 cubic metres of material and insert 28,000 cubic metres of concrete. The line will now travel through a longer but slightly shallower cutting and a viaduct over Canley Brook, reducing the impact on wildlife. More than a mile of retaining walls will be replaced by landscaped cutting slopes, which will encourage new habitats and grasslands.…

PLANNING permission is being sought for a rail-connected distribution hub in Ilkeston, between Derby and Nottingham. Built on the former Stanton & Staveley steelworks next to the M1’s Junction 25, the 200-acre brownfield development will revive a currently disused rail connection to the Erewash Valley line. If approved, New Stanton Park would become a strategic distribution hub for the area, creating thousands of jobs. Initial proposals for the terminal envisage 935m-long sidings on a 16.7-acre site. Construction could start in early 2022.…

A DEMAND by the Government that Transport for London (TfL) explore the use of driverless trains to reduce costs appears to have been quietly dropped after the cost of moving to the practice was revealed. In July 2020, as the pandemic took hold and TfL began to seek emergency funding, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:“You can run these trains without the need for somebody to be sitting in the driver’s cab.” “Let’s not be the prisoners of the unions anymore,”he added. “Let’s go to driverless trains and let’s make that a condition of the funding settlement for Transport for London this autumn.” At the time, drivers’union ASLEF responded by calling the proposal“nonsense”, but the Government suggested an“expert-led review”into driverless trains as a condition of providing £1.7 billion of support for…

IN its annual report, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) says it received 457 notifications of accidents and incidents from the industry, resulting in 38 preliminary examinations. This led to 14 full investigations and six safety digests. RAIB said while its aim is to publish reports and safety digests within 12 months of the date of occurrence, individual investigations can sometimes extend beyond this because of their complexity and scale. In 2020 the average time taken to publish was 11.2 months. RAIB has also been issuing learning summaries, based on archive data, to highlight issues of concern. Chief Inspector Simon French is to retire in the autumn.…

A COLLABORATION between the Severn Valley Railway, the University of Birmingham and hydrogen technology specialist Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions will see a Class 08 diesel shunter converted to fuel cell power. The Harrier HydroShunter project will see the first conversion of a diesel locomotive to run on hydrogen power in the UK, and No. 08635 is the selected loco. Volunteers have begun stripping down the donor vehicle, removing the existing diesel engine and overhauling other components. Vanguard Sustainable Transport Solutions is designing the hydrogen-battery hybrid traction system, which will comprise of hydrogen cylinders, a hydrogen fuel cell stack and a hybrid battery. Pressurised gas The cylinders will store hydrogen as a pressurised gas, which will be fed to the fuel cell stack via a regulator. In the fuel cell stack,…

ASPIRANT train operator GO-OP has tabled a proposal for summer 2022 which would not only connect Swindon and Taunton with a more frequent service – their proposals extend to connecting Taunton with Bishop’s Lydeard on the West Somerset Railway. GO-OP is acooperative and a not-for-profit business owned by those who travel on its trains and work for it. Their proposal is for increased services serving Castle Cary, Frome and Melksham, as well as opening up rail journeys that are currently impractical, such as Taunton to Yeovil, and Frome to Swindon. Network capacity In addition, discussions between GO-OP and the West Somerset Railway could lead to a scheduled daily service linking the national rail network at Taunton to the heritage railway at Bishops Lydeard for the first time in 50 years.…

THE Department for Transport has given a six-month extension to redeem travel vouchers which have expired or are due to expire between October 20, 2020, and June 30, 2021. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:“This extension ensures that passengers with travel vouchers are not penalised for following Government advice. “By offering people more time to redeem their vouchers, we are ensuring that passengers will not be left out of pocket as they come back to the railways.” For the 5.1 million holders of railcards, particularly three-year ones where the majority have been unable to travel and have now lost a third of the value of the cards, there is no such offer, as this is seen as a cost to the taxpayer. Recoup costs The view is that with travel beginning…

APRIL 5, 2021, marked the 80th anniversary since Herbert Nigel Gresley, arguably one of Britain’s greatest engineers, died. Although suffering from poor health which might have ended the careers of lesser men, he struggled on and died ‘in harness’. With the Second World War at its height and Britain’s very existence in jeopardy, his strong sense of duty kept him going to the end. This helped ensure that the LNER could support the war effort and help turn potential defeat into victory. As a man he was steadfast, determined, a strong and pragmatic leader, a scientist by nature, and an engineer of great substance. In essence, he was a polymath who developed a detailed knowledge of many subjects during his lifetime, allowing him to solve a series of complex problems…

THE Fifty Fund was formed by myself and Dave Keogh in October 1988 as it became clear that the Class 50s were being rapidly phased out by British Rail. Originally publicised by word-of-mouth between Class 50 enthusiasts, the club quickly gained support and was publicly launched in February 1989. Funds were achieved by means of a simple share ownership scheme, with shares priced at £25. By the summer of 1990, as withdrawals of the class accelerated, more than £20,000 had been raised, and we wrote to the BR Director of Supply requesting to be included on notification of any tender for the sale of Class 50s. After several such approaches and with no further information being provided as to when any ‘50s’ would be disposed of, towards the end of…

Covid, trains and air conditioning A REASON that some people like me might be reluctant to make regular use of the trains (and buses etc. too) is that new rail stock is air conditioned. This means that the air is recirculated around the carriage. There may be a percentage of fresh air introduced. The air is probably, though not certainly, filtered. It is well established that the most effective way to spread the Covid virus is by airborne transmission. Even if filters are effective when new, which I question, it would need a regular testing and maintenance programme to keep them that way. Gordon Bell By email A very apt and pertinent question. Two studies into the spread of Covid-19 during rail travel have shown the risk of infection is…

THURSDAY, MAY 6 RCTS Milton Keynes branch. 19.30. Zoom meeting: ‘High Speed Testing in the UK since 1970’: Dave Coxon. https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0udqrrjIvGtSdC88oUWSai6rhX9vyaYqq to register. MONDAY, MAY 10 RCTS Croydon branch. 19.30. Zoom meeting: ‘3P20 and other Trains’: Richard Newton. Email croydon.web@rcts.org to register. TUESDAY, MAY 11 RCTS Hitchin branch. 19.30. Zoom meeting: ‘Railways into the Chilterns’ and ‘The History of the Watford Miniature Railway’: Dr Rudi Newman. Email dandjelsdon@waitrose.com to register. RCTS Sheffield branch. 19.30. Zoom meeting: ‘The Railways of Scotland over the last 10 years’: Stuart Fowler. Email sheffieldfixtures@rcts.org.uk to register. WEDNESDAY, MAY 12 RCTS East Midlands branch.19.30. Zoom meeting: ‘VivaRail: Designing and Building Emission-free Trains for the UK’: Dave Horton. Email eastmidlandschair@rcts.org.uk to register. RCTS South Wales branch. 19.30. Zoom meeting: ‘The Penarth Harbour, Dock and Railway Company’: Lyn…

BY 1966 the sands of time were running out for steam. The Western Region was already fully dieselized and the Southern Region would soon be reduced to Bulleid Pacifics, British Railways Standards and a handful of Ivatt ‘2MT’ 2-6-2Ts. Each month The Railway Observer’s lists of withdrawn locomotives seemed to grow but undaunted the RCTS’s regional rail tour, committees were still planning mouth-watering specials. The two ‘Longmoor’ trains run on April 16 and 30 were no exception. The RO for March 1966 announced that the freight-only Bentley to Bordon branch was scheduled for closure on April 4, and that from that date, all rail traffic to and from the Longmoor Military Railway would be routed via Liss. Acknowledging the significance of this closure the Military Authorities agreed to accommodate a…

Royal Deeside Railway break-in and theft SCOTLAND’S Royal Deeside Railway became the latest line to be hit by thieves. On April 18 volunteers discovered that one of the Class 03 diesels, a GUV van, had been broken into. The thieves made off with a Husqvarna rail saw and other tools. The railway is appealing for any dash cam footage from vehicles that may have been passing West Lodge during the previous week, in particular between 22.00 and 06.00. An appeal to help cover the cost of replacing the items and repairing the damage has been set up at www.deesiderailway.co.uk Slough Estates No. 3 bows out at Middleton FORMER Slough Trading Estate Hudswell, Clarke 0-6-0ST Slough Estates No. 3 (1544/1924), reached the end of its boiler ticket at the Middleton Railway…

THE North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) and National Railway Museum (NRM) have both announced plans to reopen during May following the Government’s easing of lockdown restrictions. NYMR trains will recommence operation on May 15 with two trains running to Whitby every day from then on, together with an intermediate service between Pickering and Grosmont. The Pickering-Whitby trains will run on a pre-booked end-to-end basis, while the Pickering-Grosmont services will enable passengers to de-train at Levisham and/or Goathland also. All passengers aged 16+ will, unless exempt, be required to ‘Track & Trace’, adhere to social distancing and wear a face mask. The line’s popular ‘Moorlander’ Pullman dining trains will resume from May 20, operating Thursday to Sunday every week throughout the season, and plans are in place for an Autumn Steam…

NORTHUMBERLAND’S Aln Valley Railway (AVR) hopes that a new £100,000 public appeal will help raise the funds it needs to refurbish the seven-arch Cawledge Viaduct, the principal engineering structure on the former Alnwick-Alnmouth branch. Structural repairs to the 171-year-old structure were identified following an Office of Rail and Road inspection of the AVR last July. These are essential to bring the viaduct up to the required standards and remove a 3mph top speed that was placed on the structure in 2018. The AVR hopes to carry out the work in stages during forthcoming closed seasons, with the first stage – focusing on waterproofing the deck – due to commence at the end of this year. The second stage is to repair the brick work, which will begin in 2022. The…

FFESTINIOG Railway’s (FR) 1863-built George England 0-4-0STT Prince will visit Statfold Barn Railway’s June 12/13 Trangkil-50 Enthusiast event, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hunslet 0-4-2ST Trangkil No. 4. Built in in 1971 to a Kerr, Stuart ‘Brazil’ class design, Trangkil No. 4 was the last locomotive to be constructed by the old Hunslet company, and appeared to be the last commercial steam locomotive built in Britain. Subsequently the preservation era has seen construction of a number of new-build steam locomotives, including Hunslets, under Statfold ownership. The FR’s Prince was one of the first 2ft gauge steam locos to be built and the oldest to remain operational, although it is pre-dated by 1848-built 4ft gauge Horlock 0-4-0 Fire Queen, preserved at Penrhyn Castle.…

A SECOND round of awards from the UK Government’s Culture Recovery Fund have been announced. The extensive listing of successful applicants covering cultural and heritage organisations in England includes awards to: Bure Valley Railway (£188,000); Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Museum (£37,832); Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway (£210,400); South Tynedale Railway (£33,100); and West Lancashire Light Railway (£18,900). Threlkeld Quarry Museum, which includes a 2ft gauge railway at the site, received an award of £9,200. The awards are primarily aimed at helping railways prepare to open for the 2021 season amid continued restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, and assist their continued operation. At the time of publication, no information had been received concerning the second round of awards to Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish lines by their respective governments.…

THE third phase of the Victoria resignalling programme will be carried out by Siemens Mobility. Having already carried out phases one and two, Siemens is scheduled to deliver the final phase three commissioning during a nine-day blockade over Christmas and New Year 2022. Life-expired signalling and telecoms equipment, power supplies for traction, and signals will be replaced by network-based digital signalling, traffic management systems, and train control equipment designed to provide increased capacity and lower operating costs. Covering the area between London Victoria and Streatham Hill, as well as the West London Line from Clapham Junction towards Shepherd’s Bush, the work is part of NR’s £750 million Sussex Railway Upgrade Plan. Control of the area will switch to Three Bridges Rail Operating Centre.…

A £900 MILLION project to provide rail access to Heathrow Airport from the west has been put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the aviation industry. Construction was expected to start in 2021 but supporters of the 6.5km link from the Great Western Main Line near Iver now fear it may never be built. The decision was confirmed in a Network Rail board meeting as far back as January, but an “indefinite delay” has now been publicly confirmed. Network Rail Western Route Director Mike Gallop told the NR board that the scheme could be “picked up again at some future point” as the DfT will periodically update its business case to reflect any changes to both the aviation and rail sectors after pandemic.…

Community Rail flourishing DESPITE the pandemic, the Community Rail Network continues to grow and flourish, with 74 partnerships, 8,500 volunteers and 1,000 station ‘friends’groups helping promote rail travel, economic development and tourism across the country. Community rail groups engage people with their local railways and stations, working with train operators, local authorities, and other partners to bring people together. Activities range from maintaining station gardens and providing face coverings for key workers to donating to food banks and promoting rail travel, heritage and tourism. Upgrades for Fenland stations CONSTRUCTION of a new 112-space car park is underway at Manea in Cambridgeshire. The work will be followed in the summer by a redesign of the Platform 1 buildings at March. Both projects are part of a £9.5 million series of regeneration…

TRAIN operator CrossCountry and InterCity Railfreight have teamed up to provide a key service transporting medical supplies across the country. As part of an initial trial, InterCity Railfreight, which has been moving parcel-sized freight in passenger trains since 2010, will be using non-public areas on some CrossCountry trains between Scotland, the Midlands and South West England to facilitate a more sustainable way of distributing supplies. Sending time-critical consignments by rail will speed up the transportation of essential medical supplies, improving patient care and helping to reduce the burden on the NHS.…

IN WHAT is believed to be a world first, HS2 is piloting the use of recycled wind turbine blades to reinforce concrete. The project swaps steel reinforcing bars – traditionally used to strengthen concrete – with sections of glass fibre reinforced polymer turbine blades that have reached the end of their operational lives. By 2023, about 15,000 turbine blades are expected to have been decommissioned across the UK and EU, with most either ground down for building materials or incinerated. The process is claimed to cut carbon production by 90%. In the testing phase, reuse will focus on swapping steel for turbine blades in low-stress structures, such as temporary access roads, top sections of concrete walls, and ground bearing plinths for portable buildings. Like us facebook.com/TheRailwayMagazine Follow us @railwaymagazine…

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Council has cited “a lack of relevant information” and concerns about heavy construction lorries causing noise and congestion on roads around Brackley as reasons for not considering a lorry route application from HS2 Ltd. Ian Thompson, corporate director for planning, growth and sustainability at the council, said: “We have consistently opposed the building of HS2. “The use of the A422 for almost 1,200 heavy lorry movements a day for several years is a massive issue for Buckinghamshire. Before considering lorry route applications, the council has to ensure that the impact of the additional HS2 HGVs on the A422 will not bring Buckinghamshire to a standstill. “HS2 has not provided us with the information we require to give us any reassurance on this issue.” HS2 Ltd has appealed against the…

WITH the rail review by former British Airways chairman Keith Williams more than 18 months overdue, it has emerged the report has a new name and a co-author. Although the report has been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which time the Government has taken all rail franchises in-house, in a House of Commons question on April 20, Rachel Maclean, Parliamentary Under Secretary at the Department for Transport, said: “We are also currently preparing the Williams-Shapps Plan For Rail to deliver a more efficient, affordable and greener rail network, and a bold and ambitious Transport Decarbonisation Plan to achieve net zero emissions.” Rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris confirmed the Government intends on publishing a White Paper with plans for rail reform “soon”, but gave no further indication on timescales.…

TIMINGS for the 2021 ‘Staycation Express’, which is due to operate between July 17 and September 9, have been released by Rail Charter Services after validation by Network Rail. New for 2021, RCS will provide an enhanced catering buffet-counter and options for premium at-seat dining. An on-board guide will also be available to provide a limited commentary as the train passes the many points of interest that punctuate the rail line. Recently Rail Charter Services indicated that the maintenance schedule for the HST set could require it to be taken out of service for a week in August, with loco-hauled stock being used in its place. However, a change in the maintenance programme being explored is likely to enable the HST to run throughout the season. Tickets, which will include…

AN interim report into the derailment of a ScotRail HST at Carmont, near Stonehaven, on August 12, 2020, which killed three and injured six others has been released by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB). The report details the events leading up to the incident, confirming the cause as gravel from a drain washing out onto the running line. Network Rail, as infrastructure manager, instructed Carillion (since in administration) to construct a new 450mm crest or French drain as part of work to stabilise a steep cutting. RAIB investigations revealed gravel was missing from the drain and exposed a buried drainpipe for around distance of eight metres from a catchpit. RAIB also discovered that part of the drain was not listed on Network Rail’s drain maintenance database, nor was RAIB…

Alan Moore CBE THE RM has been informed of the death of Alan Moore CBE on April 22. Alan was well known in steam preservation and had a philanthropic nature, helping many railways and the NRM with their projects. A fuller tribute will appear next month. Hull Trains are back RESTARTING services from April 12 after athreemonth suspension due to coronavirus restrictions, Hull Trains has also launched a real-time information service showing how busy its trains are on its app and website. Currently running a reduced service level, increases are planned from May 17. Network Rail fined NETWORK Rail has been fined £700,000 following a substation fire in which an employee received serious burns. The substation, at Godinton, near Ashford, had a water leak which was known about for nine…

Eurostar hope over extended funding WITH a flat refusal of support for Eurostar from the UK Government, lenders have agreed to extend around £400 million of loans beyond their original summer 2021 repayment date. It is understood SNCF is prepared to provide additional support. On May 17, the Government is due to review a further easing of coronavirus restrictions, which could lead to an easing of international travel restrictions and an increase in the number of Eurostar trains from one train to and from Paris daily, and one to and from Brussels and Amsterdam. Long-running dispute comes to an end A YEARS-LONG industrial dispute between South Western Railway and staff who are members of the RMT union over who was to operate doors on trains is over. There were more…

Although the Covid lockdown has meant it’s been awhile since I wrote about the work of the Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board (RHDAB), we have kept busy and a number of important artefacts have been designated and found new homes. One of the largest of these is a75-tonne breakdown crane which was originally designated by our predecessor body, the Railway Heritage Committee (RHC) in 1999. Crane ADRC 96714 was manufactured by Cowans Sheldon in Carlisle, entering service with British Rail in 1980 as part of the modernisation of recovery operations. Operating across Great Britain, the crane was based in South Wales from 1983 until 2008 and remained in operation until 2017. In 2019 the RHDAB started to look for a new home for the crane, and following a process of…

I ENJOYED the recent article by Nicola Fox on Edward Thompson (April 2021), but it left me wondering why, at a time of wartime crisis and postwar austerity, Thompson and the LNER were allowed to design and build the B1 4-6-0 and the L1 2-6-4T locomotives when equivalent proven LMS designs were available? The LNER built 274 B1s between 1942 and 1947, plus 136 under BR; 410 in total. In addition to a prototype L1 built in 1945, 99 were built under BR between 1948 and 1950. From a business perspective the LNER could have saved expensive design, engineering and tooling resources by ordering the proven LMS Stanier 4-6-0 5MT, and Fairburn 2-6-4T designs instead of the B1 and L1. This would have also been less risky, which was demonstrated…

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FUNDRAISING for the Great Western Society’s project to recreate a Hawksworth ‘County’ 4-6-0 passed the £1 million mark in early April. Progress on No. 1014 County of Glamorgan at Didcot Railway Centre, as elsewhere, has been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, but work is continuing on the principal motion components such as the connecting rods, coupling rods, extension rods, slide bars, crossheads and pistons. The various cut steel sheets and angles that will eventually form the tender tank have also been delivered to Didcot ready for assembly. No. 1014’s new high pressure Standard No. 15 boiler is being built by Heritage Boiler Steam Services (HBSS) on Merseyside, where completion is expected in the early part of 2022. The barrel and ex-Stanier ‘8F’ firebox have been united, and major items yet…

A PLANNED visit to the East Lancashire Railway by the National Railway Museum’s celebrity ‘A3’ No. 60103 Flying Scotsman in early April has been rescheduled for this summer. The Gresley 4-6-2 had been booked to appear between April 2-6 (itself postponed from last year), but the later than hoped easing of Covid-19 restrictions meant the railway could not reopen until May 1. The new dates for No. 60103’s appearances are August 29-30 and September 3-5 inclusive. Passengers who had booked for the Easter weekend can transfer their tickets to the new dates, which will be valid for one return trip from Bury to Rawtenstall. Existing Bury to Heywood ticket holders will also receive a complimentary upgrade to the higher-priced Bury to Rawtenstall trip. ‘Positive’ “We were devastated not once but…

ROLLING stock, machine tools, plant and other equipment were the subject of a live online auction at the time this issue of The RM went to press, which would see the assets of Llangollen Railway plc disposed of. The sale was being handled by Lambert Smith Hampton by order of Cowgill Holloway Business Recovery LLP, the administrators of the defunct plc. Sale catalogues were made available from April 23 and all online bids were to be in by May 12 at 14.00. Items going under the hammer included 10 Mk1 coaches, a Mk3A function coach, a Class 08/10 hybrid diesel shunter, and a BR type ‘GUV’ bogie box van. Plant included a Case/ Rexquote Superailer 988-P-SP2 road/rail excavator, a Cowans Sheldon 56-ton rail mounted crane, a Plasser Thurer 12-tonne general…

AN Agreement in Principle has been reached between the Avon Valley Railway (AVR) and the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust (S&DRT) that will see a portion of the rolling stock and museum artefacts currently based at the S&DRT’s site at Washford in Somerset to the AVR’s Bitton headquarters. The agreement is the latest development in the wake of the S&DRT’s eviction from the West Somerset Railway, and appears to end any hopes that the trust might maintain some form of presence at Washford. A similar arrangement was previously reached with the Mid-Hants Railway that has seen several items of rolling stock and museum items relating more to the Southern element of the collection transferred to the Hampshire line. The agreement with the AVR will eventually see a display of S&DRT…

Kerr, Stuart ‘Witch’ boiler steams… THE boiler of Kerr, Stuart ‘Witch’ class 0-4-0ST No. 4388 was steamed at the Foxfield Railway on April 3, just eight months after the locomotive’s acquisition by Jack Dibnah. The 1926-built former Etruria Gasworks machine has not run since 1999, but could feasibly run again this year if current progress is maintained. …as Hudswell, Clarke No. 1857 follows suit TWO days after the Kerr, Stuart’s steam test at Foxfield, the boiler of Hudswell, Clarke ‘PLA’ 0-6-0T No. 1857 was lit up for the first time at the workshops of West Somerset Restoration at Williton. The former North Gawber Colliery loco (1952-built) has yet to run in preservation, although Ryan Pope, who is undertaking the work, has already completed the bottom end work. Former Marstons loco…

IÉ makes pre-booking mandatory on InterCity routes IARNRÓD Éireann-Irish Rail has introduced mandatory pre-booking for travel on all InterCity rail services until further notice. The rule came into force on April 13, with IÉ saying it is necessary to ensure the available capacity is effectively managed. At present, InterCity trains are running at just 25% capacity to provide passengers with a socially-distanced travelling environment. Burning car left on Bellarena level crossing NORTHERN Ireland Railways’ 19.10 Belfast to Derry/ Londonderry train was forced to make an emergency stop at a level crossing on the Limestone Road in Bellarena, Co. Londonderry, on the night of April 12 after a burning car was left on the track. Police said the car was set on fire and abandoned on the track during the recent…

TWO additional Clayton battery-electric locomotives have arrived at the 18in gauge Steeple Grange Light Railway (SGLR). Purchased from Specialist Plant Associates Ltd of Hinwick, Northamptonshire, neither have batteries but came with a quantity of spare parts. One of the locos is already 18in gauge, while the other is an 18in-24in gauge ‘convertible’ machine which arrived set to 24in gauge. Two wheels were quickly reset but difficulty was encountered in moving the other two, necessitating further work when lockdown restrictions end. Both locos were purchased by the SGLR company, but the 18in gauge loco has been sold on to SGLR director John Finch.…

Reading Biscuit bridge replaced NETWORK Rail replaced a historic railway bridge in Reading on March 20, allowing the removal of a speed restriction on the South Western Railway route into the city. The Huntley & Palmers bridge runs across a railway tunnel once used by the famous biscuit maker’s internal trains to transport van loads of products out of the factory. Although the factory closed more than 40 years ago, the tunnel is open today to pedestrians and cyclists. Cottingham £880k footbridge revamp AN £880,000 project to restore and modernise a 170-year-old footbridge has been completed at Cottingham station, near Hull. The Grade-II listed North Eastern Railway bridge was stripped back to the bare metal, inspected and repaired before being repainted and the installation of new timber decking and safety…

PLANS to reinstate passenger services over the Blyth & Tyne route is to be scaled back before work has even begun. As part of a Department for Transport (DfT) review of new rail projects aimed at reducing costs and accelerating delivery (Project SPEED), local authorities promoting the Northumberland scheme were instructed to find savings. According to local media, the options offered by DfT officials were to either halve the planned frequency from half-hourly to hourly or axe the proposed station at Blyth Bebside. Officials reluctantly chose the latter. £4m allocation The move comes just three months after the project’s backers celebrated the Government’s decision to allocate £4 million towards developing detailed designs, acquiring land and preparatory work towards the reinstatement of trains between Newcastle and Ashington, via new stations at…

A PROPOSAL to reconnect Leicester with Rugby by rail has emerged and is to be progressed under the DfT’s ‘Restoring Your Railways’ scheme. Backed by South Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa, the proposed line would use part of the extant Midland route from Rugby for around three miles before crossing the M6 and A5 roads and heading north-east using a new alignment to join with the former Great Central Railway London Extension trackbed, just south of Lutterworth. It would continue on the GC formation to just beyond Whetstone, where another triangular junction would connect it to the Leicester Birmingham line. Stations are planned at Lutterworth and one to serve Cosby and Whetstone. On the section between Rugby and Lutterworth a freight branch with a triangular junction would serve the huge Magna…

FOUR bidders have been shortlisted for a £523 million contract to deliver high voltage (HV) power supply systems for Phases 1 and 2a of HS2. Colas/Eiffage, Siemens/ Costain, SSE/Linxon/Arcadis, and UK Power Networks Services are bidding for the design, manufacture, supply, installation, testing, commission and maintenance contract, covering 174 miles (280km) of new railway between London and Crewe. This includes 50 traction sub-stations drawing power from the National Grid and a separate HV network providing power to stations, tunnel shafts, portals, depots and railway systems. The traction power substations will be located at multidisciplinary ‘Railway Systems Compounds’ situated on open sections of the line. Contracts are expected to be awarded in 2022.…

LONDON’S Transport Commissioner Andy Byford has ruled out the Night Tube service returning this year, even though nightclubs and other businesses that benefit from through-the-night trains could reopen from June 21. One reason stated for not reintroducing it is that all drivers are needed to run as many day services as possible, when demand is higher. “We need the personnel to keep the day services going and frankly there isn’t the demand for it,” said Byford. “Securing the whole network is more important than keeping the Night Tube going.”…

THE final piece of track on the West Midlands Metro’s Birmingham Westside Metro extension has been welded into place. This marks the end of track laying on the project, paving the way for services to begin later this year to the terminus on Hagley Road. Construction work, which is being done by the Midland Metro Alliance on behalf of Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), will now concentrate on completing the new tram stops at Brindleyplace, Five Ways and Hagley Road ahead of testing and commissioning.…

UP TO 50,000 tonnes of timber a year could be moved by rail over the West Highland Line if a joint venture between the Scottish Government and private sector partners comes to fruition. A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by the Scottish Government, Scottish Forestry, timber companies and landowners for the development of a log stacking and rail loading siding near Rannoch, on the Crianlarich-Fort William line. Promoters plan to harvest about 500,000 tonnes of timber from Rannoch Forest over the next decade. Shipping it out by rail is expected to avoid up to 4,000 lorry movements a year. Work to finalise the commercial side and the loading siding design is in progress, to be followed by planning applications and a tender for construction of the facility.…

A £3 MILLION expansion of rail facilities at the Port of Grangemouth opened for business on March 11. The new rail freight hub at Scotland’s largest port has two 775m-long sidings, able to handle the longest freight trains currently operating on the UK network. Capacity was previously limited as the sidings were just 200m long. Grangemouth’s location in the central belt between Edinburgh and Glasgow and close to major roads makes it ideal as a railhead for transport for customers and nearby supermarket distribution centres. It is also used by Scottish food and drink producers shipping goods to customers in England and further afield. Forth Ports has invested over £30 million in infrastructure and equipment at Grangemouth over the last five years. DRS operated trains link Grangemouth with Aberdeen and…