Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i The Railway Magazine

NETWORK Rail has been fined £6.7 million after pleading guilty to charges brought under Health and Safety legislation for the derailment of a ScotRail HST at Carmont, south of Stonehaven, on August 12, 2020, that led to the loss of three lives. Judge Lord Matthews observed that, however distressing the images of the remains of the HST set were, they were nothing compared to the deaths of the driver, guard, and one passenger on the 06.38 Aberdeen to Glasgow service that day. The fine was reduced from £10 million as a result of NR’s prompt guilty plea and the significant remedial work that has taken place since the derailment. The fine will be paid to the Scottish Government’s Consolidation Fund, which is available for allocation as determined by the Scottish…

HEADLINE NEWS Two historic steam ships met up with one another off the coast of Bournemouth and the Solent on September 3/4. Southampton-based vessel Shieldhall was staying in Poole for a week and returning to its home port after visiting the Bournemouth Air Festival, while paddle steamer Waverley was enjoying part of its three-week long sailing programme in the south of England. The two steamships put on a great show for their respective passengers, with the sounding of steam whistles and sirens as they met up. Waverley was the final steamship built for the LNER in 1947, and is claimed to be the world’s final seagoing paddle steamer.…

HEADLINE NEWS As part of the phased withdrawal of its‘Castle Class’HST sets, Great Western Railway moved the first of two sets from Laira to the West Somerset Railway for‘warm storage’on September 11, Nos. 43042/43162 taking four-coach set GW03 to Minehead. The set was used in service at the WSR on the weekend of September 23/24, working two round trips between Minehead and Bishops Lydeard on both days, and is seen on the first day looking very much at home as it arrives at Blue Anchor with the 10.00 from Minehead.…

THE design for HS2’s 54 eight-car trains, which will be built in the UK by Hitachi Rail and Alstom in a joint venture, has become the first in the world to receive PAS 2080 environmental standard accreditation. Hitachi says that fleet emissions will be 90% lower per passenger than making the same journey by air or car. Drawn-up to meet World Trade Organization criteria, PAS 2080 is regarded as one of the leading globally-applicable standards for infrastructure design and manufacturing. It was awarded after the verification of a whole-life carbon analysis for the fleet by Hitachi which took into account carbon reduction and management within the design and procurement processes, as well as during manufacturing and operation. Based on the‘Frecciarossa’ very high-speed trains running in Italy and Spain, the HS2…

HS2 NEWS The first of the 32 piers that will support one of the pair of 1400 metre viaducts for HS2 at Water Orton in Warwickshire was completed during August. Cast in situ using formwork specifically designed for the project, the pier (left) is 18 metres (59 feet) tall. The viaducts will be two of the highest structures on the HS2 route and form part of the Delta Junction incorporating north and south spurs from its main line to serve Birmingham’s new Curzon Street station. Meanwhile, a 40 metre span of the Colne Valley Viaduct on the north western outskirts of London was put into place during a three-week road closure. This allowed cranes to be brought in to lift into position the 11 segments, each weighing 115-130 tonnes. The…

THE ‘Selby Diversion’ was pioneering. Delivered on budget and slightly ahead of schedule, it was an engineering triumph for British Rail at a critical time for realising the potential of the new High Speed Train fleet. Forty years on, those who were involved in its creation remain just as proud as they were on October 3, 1983 when it officially opened throughout. It was the longest section of new railway to be specifically designed for 125mph running. Even by today’s generally-accepted definitions, it could be argued that it still qualifies as a ‘high speed’ railway as, although it would require additional superelevation on the curves, the alignment was configured to support speeds of 155mph. “Sixty million pounds – that’s what it cost,” says Frank Paterson, general manager of the Eastern…

Send your letters to: The Railway Magazine, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR. Email: railway@mortons.co.uk NB. Publication of a letter does not imply that the Editor or staff of The Railway Magazine necessarily agree with its contents. How the CDA fleet came about REGARDING the farewell to china clay CDA wagons in the September issue, their introduction can be traced back to BR Railfreight’s reorganisation to introduce sector management in October 1982. National business managers took over the previously shared responsibilities of headquarters’ freight marketing managers and regional freight managers, but these roles were retained to negotiate resource allocations with regional general managers. After holding responsibility for Speedlink network marketing, I was appointed as one of the new national business managers for the chemicals and industrial minerals sectors.…

GWILI Railway Company has been ordered to pay more than £36,000 after a volunteer at the Carmarthenshire line broke their leg falling from a carriage roof. The company was fined £18,000 at Llanelli Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to one offence under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and must also pay the ORR’s full costs of £18,557. The decision follows an investigation and prosecution by regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) into an incident at the heritage line on June 16, 2022 at Llwyfan Cerrig yard. During a task to pull tent fabric over a frame erected over two railway coaches, the volunteer slipped and fell from the roof of a Mk.1 carriage. They suffered a broken right leg which required an operation and several days’stay in…

CORRIS Railway’s (CR) new-build Falcon 0-4-2ST No. 10 was delivered to the railway on August 30, following completion at Alan Keef Ltd’s works. The finished loco (when demonstrated in steam last September at Keef’s it was incomplete and in undercoat – RM, November 2022) was unveiled to the press and project supporters on September 8 and hauled its first public trains the following day. It was scheduled to work passenger trains on the remaining Saturdays and Sundays in September and to be in operation on October 7, 14 and 21. The project to build a new Falcon 0-4-2ST to join CR’s near-replica Kerr, Stuart‘Tattoo’ class 0-4-2ST commenced over a dozen years ago. The CR now has updated interpretations of both types of loco that worked on the original line, almost…

LESS than three months after it returned to Crich Tramway Village following a two-year period off-site in storage, Derby No. 1 has been moved to its home city to be put on public display. Prior to the start of its loan period, the double decker, built by Brush in Loughborough, underwent conservation work at Crich. This included the replacement of rotten wooden upper deck floorboards, repairs and repainting of upper deck seats, platforms, stairs and saloon doors. Historic vehicles From November, it will be exhibited in Derby alongside other historic vehicles at Great Northern Classics in the former Victoria Ironworks. The works has been repurposed as workshops and showrooms for classic motor vehicles and business units. It has long-standing links to railways and tramways. In its early days, it manufactured…

THE UK Railtours offering for the Christmas markets this year will be on December 9, when a seasonal special will take a pair of Class 50s – No. 50007 Hercules and 50049 Defiance – from London Euston to Manchester Victoria, over some rare track for the class. This tour will start from Euston at around 07.30 and pick up at Watford Junction, Milton Keynes Central, Northampton and Rugby. Then the train will run via Aston and Bescot before traversing the Cannock Chase line, allowing the train to rejoin the West Coast Main Line at Rugeley Trent Valley. Arrival in Manchester will be from the east, via Macclesfield and Denton. Passengers then have a number of options, including the Christmas market – one of the biggest of its kind outside of…

TRANSPORT for London is inviting expressions of interest in the £2.3 billion franchise to operate the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), which will come into effect the year after next. The DLR is currently run by the joint venture KeolisAmey Docklands (in which Keolis has a 70% share and Amey 30%). It was awarded the contract in July 2014, initially until 2021, but this was subsequently extended until the end of March 2025. The new contract will cover an initial period of eight years, although there is provision for it to be extended by 24 months and a separate option to extend it by seven months. It will incorporate all aspects of train and passenger service operation on the DLR, as well as management of its automatic train control system and…

IARNRÓD Éireann and Latvian company DIGAS, a leader in an instant decarbonisation solution for the railway sector, have signed a contract to convert a freight diesel locomotive to hydrogen as a proof of concept. The purpose of the €1.5m project is to help decarbonise the operations of IÉ diesel locomotives and allow it to meet its goals as a Sustainable Development Goal champion, increase the competitiveness of the company and reduce carbon exhaust emissions. IÉ will provide the 071 Class loco for the conversion as well as make the workshop available for the installation, testing and commissioning activities. DIGAS will manufacture, deliver and install a Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine (H2 ICE) retrofit kit to convert the locomotive to hydrogen power. The conversion will allow the locomotive to run on renewable,…

OFFICIALS at the Department for Transport have agreed new contracts with Avanti West Coast (a joint venture between FirstGroup and Trenitalia) and CrossCountry (operated by Arriva) that come into effect from October 15. For Avanti, a new National Rail Contract will have a core term of three years, with a potential extension of up to six years until 2032. After the three-year break point, the Transport Secretary can terminate the contract at any point with three months’notice. The renewal of the short-term six-month contract currently in place reflects the performance improvement that has taken place. The Government is keen to stress the success of an agreed recovery plan, which has prioritised the training of 100 additional drivers to reduce reliance on rest day working, with the result being that services…

STANDING on Platform 4 at Plymouth station in early September 2023, casual observers could have imagined they had been enveloped by a time warp. At the east end of the station was HST power car No. 43007 in the livery in which it had first appeared here in 1976. A two-minute walk to the west end, and time had moved on a decade as No. 43008 was the centre of photographic attention in its InterCity ‘Swallow’ colours. Such reverie was soon shattered by spotting an Hitachi IET over on the up side, for this was indeed 2023, for better and arguably worse. The imminent removal of the emblematic CrossCountry (XC) 2+7 HST formations from the remaining Plymouth-Leeds/Edinburgh/Glasgow turns had brought enthusiasts out in large numbers for either one last run…

WS SELLAR (Stuart) began his railway career in 1955 as a booking clerk at his local station Morningside Road on the Edinburgh Suburban line, writes John Yellowlees. After a two-year break for National Service at Longmoor Camp, Stuart resumed his railway career in 1958 and carried his camera with him wherever possible. Summers took him to work as a relief clerk at a variety of stations, including Galashiels, Melrose and Hawick, creating opportunities to photograph the passing steam scene. He also served at Burntisland before a permanent switch to the operating department and, from 1962, trained as a traffic apprentice. After appointments in the area manager and headquarters organisations, including the establishment of heritage steam operations between Fort William and Mallaig, early retirement in 1992 led to consultancy and then…

THE Rother Valley Railway’s reinstatement of the missing rail link between Bodiam and Robertsbridge Junction is progressing after the Transport & Works Act Order (RM June 2023), which provides the legal powers, came into force on August 2. Granted in May 9, the order was applied for by the railway, working in partnership with the Kent & East Sussex Railway which runs the existing heritage line between Tenterden and Bodiam. The order was subject to a 12-week standstill period to allow time for any appeals to be submitted against the granting of the application. Preparations are now well underway for an early start to the extensive environmental survey of the yet to be built two mile long‘missing link’central section of the line – namely from Northbridge Street to Udiam, formerly…

HISTORY was made at the embryonic YorkshireWolds Railway (YWR) on September 17 when a restored brake van was ceremonially launched into public service at 11.30 – after which brake rides officially started, a new experience for visitors to the line. Up to now, members of the public have been able to enjoy a cab ride in a diesel loco, GEC Traction 165hp 0-4-0DH (5576 of 1979) Sir Tatton Sykes. Based near the village of Fimber, EastYorkshire, theYWR is rebuilding a section of the Malton and Driffield Junction Railway. As reported in RM November 2022, BR 20T brake van No. B955043 previously resided at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway and was owned by Andrew Goodman. Since arriving at Fimber in August 2018, the van has undergone a thorough restoration. Andy Barwick…

THE Ffestiniog Railway has bought two double ended 14-ton four-wheel battery-electric locos which were employed by Costain on the Tideway Tunnel Project in London. The acquisition was a rapid decision made when the FR learned the 10-year old locos could be secured for their scrap value of £12,000. The locos were driven to the bottom of the tunnel shaft from which they were recovered so appear to be in reasonable condition, although they will need to be regauged from their present 750mm gauge to 600mm. The deal included six battery packs (battery packs are presently not fitted to either loco), four chargers and some spare wheelsets. The FR admits the purchase is something of a gamble but believes it will be worthwhile if it results in locos which can be…

CLASS 31/1 No. 31270 Athena (D5800) arrived at Didcot Railway Centre on August 26, from the Severn Valley Railway where it was based since May following its appearance at the spring diesel gala. It had previously received major attention at Nemesis Rail, Burton-on-Trent. At Didcot, it will be used on passenger trains, supplementing the centre’s own small diesel fleet. The loco’s first runs were due to take place on September 16/17. The diesel-electric Class 31s were used extensively throughout the Western Region in addition to and replacing the WR’s better-known hydraulics. It is therefore an appropriate type to join the Oxfordshire-based GW collection. Athena is on extended loan from Colne Valley Diesels Ltd, and is currently in Regional Railways livery.This will be retained for the 2023 operating season, but it…

A START on a £200m scheme to upgrade signalling and remove a number of manual signalboxes in Cornwall will begin in October. There was an initial one-day closure on September 10 between Plymouth and St Erth, then phased work began from September 25 with overnight work which will impact a number of services, including the‘Night Riviera’sleeper service. The project will lead to the closure of signalboxes at Lostwithiel, Par and Truro and this section will be controlled from a new workstation at the West of England regional operations centre in Exeter. The level crossing at Lostwithiel will become CCTV monitored, and the two loops used by china clay trains will also be part of the ROC (Railway Operating Centre) control at Exeter. At Par, the signalbox will close, although on…

FOLLOWING a review alluded to in its Right Route 2030 Vision (reported in The RM last month), Chiltern Railways has decided that, due to cost, the ‘HybridFLEX’conversion carried out on Class 168 No. 168329 will not be applied to the rest of the fleet. The unit was equipped with two hybrid power packs, a Stage V emissions-compliant MTU 6H 1800 engine and a battery pack system and electric motor enabling it to arrive and depart from stations without emissions, the diesel engine activating at around 30mph. It was also fitted with a new six-speed gearbox and AdBlue exhaust treatment equipment. Demonstration After trials and demonstration on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, No. 168329 was formally unveiled at Chiltern’s 25th birthday celebrations in July 2021 and entered full passenger service in February…

LOCOMOTIVES Allocations 66010 WBAE-WBRT66025 WBAR-WBRT66044 WBAE-WBRT66063 WBAE-WBRT66068 WBAR-WBRT66070 WBAE-WBRT66085 WBAR-WBRT66097 WBAE-WBRT66107 WBBT-WBRT66113 WBBE-WBRT66119 WBAE-WBRT66130 WBAE-WBRT66155 WBAE-WBRT66169 WBAR-WBRT66185 WBAE-WBRT90010 FE/DHLT-CB/DFLC90018 WQCA-WQDA90040 WQCA-WQDA91117 EPEX-EPUK91120 EPEX-EPUK LiveriesDB Cargo red: 66139 Freightliner orange: 59205,90041 Locomotive Services black: 57311 Named43184 Laira Diesel DepotCrossCountry66306 SCS Logistics Names removed43040 Berry Pomeroy Castle43172 Tiverton Castle57305 Pride of Carlisle Renumbered 266107-2-66312CB1000-66313 For Sale 37069, 37218, 37401/02/23,90017/18/22/23/25/27/30-33/38/40 Stored/stopped locationsLaira: 43009/10, 43192,43278/85/95, 43301/03/21/66 Neville Hill: 43304 St Philip’s Marsh: 43040, 43172 West Somerset Railway: 43042/94, 43122/62 MULTIPLE UNITS Allocations 153316/24/59 sent for disposal180110 DY/EMHQ-HT/ECGC197022/51 newly delivered HQ/HLHQ197123 newly delivered HQ/HLHQ317882 sent for disposal507005/26 sent for disposal508126/27 sent for disposal701057 newly delivered HQ/HYHQ701513 newly delivered HQ/HYHQ707018/19/20/21 WD/HYHQSG/HUHQ720137 newly delivered HQ/EBHQ720612 newly delivered HQ/ETHQ777019/20/23/26/31 newlydelivered HQ/HEHQ777152 newly delivered HQ/HEHQ LiveriesAvanti West Coast: 805005Grand Central: 221142LNWR: 150137/39SWR: 444009/34, 450082,450104 Named802110 Dame Agatha Christie Names…

THE Illinois Railway Museum (IRM) based in Union, Illinois around 50 miles west of Chicago is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. The attraction was founded in 1953 initially as the Illinois Electric Railway Museum to preserve interurban light rail vehicles, large numbers of which were being made redundant following the closure of multiple lines. Renamed in 1961 as its collection now included steam locos and relocated from its original base to Union in 1964, the railway owns a section of the former Elgin and Belvedere Electric interurban route which it now uses to operate steam, diesel and electric trains. The IRM site has more than three miles of covered storage and maintenance space, plus outdoor yards and sidings. It has the largest collection of operable historic diesel and electric…

A CONSEQUENCE of the withdrawal of the loco-powered ‘Nova 3’Mk.5 rolling stock is a reduction of 16 trains a day on TransPennine Express routes in the December 2023 timetable. TPE is now under the control of the Department for Transport’s Operator of Last Resort (OLR), which took over from FirstGroup after its National Rail Contract expired on May 28 without a renewal. Train services have suffered from poor reliability, and the Operator of Last Resort team diagnosed that using four different types of rolling stock – including three recent train types (Class 802 bi-mode‘Nova 1’, Class 397 EMU ‘Nova 2’, and the Mk.5‘Nova 3’sets) – brought a need for simplification. This is aimed at reducing the backlog in driver training and rolling stock maintenance needs. There are also customer service…

THE final CrossCountry HST in public service ran on Monday, September 18, but the preceding week had been full of interest as enthusiasts came out in force to see the last of these long-distance inter-city workings. There had been two remaining diagrams in the summer timetable, running Monday-Saturday: 1V44/06.12 Leeds-Plymouth then 1S51/12.27 Plymouth-Glasgow Central; and 1V50/06.06 Edinburgh-Plymouth then 1E63/15.27 Plymouth-Leeds. Tuesday, September 12 was a normal day with Nos. 43303/43304 working 1V44/1S51 and Nos. 43321/43378 on 1V50/1E63. However, there was disruption on the following day after a person was hit by a train in the Newton Abbot area. Nos. 43321/43378 worked 1V50 as normal, but the return 1S51 terminated at Newton Abbot and returned to Plymouth to work the 1E63 instead. This left 13 minutes late and was terminated 34…

HEADLINE NEWS GEORGE Stephenson’s Locomotion does not contain any original parts from when it was built in 1825, according to a report commissioned by the National Railway Museum. Written by early railway experts Dr Michael Bailey and Peter Davidson, the report reveals the boiler barrel dates from 1827 and was originally used on sister locomotive Diligence, making it the world’s oldest known standard gauge boiler to exist today. Locomotion appears to have had four distinct phases and was substantially rebuilt several times. The fourth and final incarnation in 1856/57 is how the loco appears today. This saw a return to a form reminiscent of its 1825 appearance but with numerous changes, including to its flue, chimney, boiler endplates and the distinctive parallel motion that was not fitted in the first…

THE 1920s had seen railways lose passenger and freight traffic to road operators as the reliability and quality of vehicles improved, so active steps were taken at the end of the decade to ensure there was no repeat in the emerging airline industry, where a step-up in aircraft design brought the prospect of a new source of competition. Thus the ‘Big Four’ railway companies sought Parliamentary authority to provide air services, which was granted on May 10, 1929 for operation within the boundaries of the rail network provided by the GWR, LMS, LNER and Southern Railway – including Northern Ireland and destinations served by steamer services. The four companies were also permitted to establish routes as far as longitude 20 degrees east, which provided scope for services to the greater…

I MADE my first trip to South Africa in 1983. My parents had moved there a year or so earlier for work, and it was time for my first real foreign railway experience. Steam was very much still active at that time, and I soon became a fan of the 3ft 6in-gauge South Africa Garratts, which – at close to 200 tons – looked and sounded wonderful. Near to where my parents lived was a branch line from Pretoria to Magaliesburg, which had a daily trip formed of a few wagons and one passenger coach that was 100% steam-hauled with either a Class 19D 4-8-2 or, on rare occasions, a Class 24 2-8-4. It was a slow working, dropping off the odd wagon and picking another one up at some…

Subscribe and read previous issues at www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/archive 100 YEARS AGO OCTOBER 1923 GWR speed to Chester MUCH interest has been occasioned by the acceleration of the GWR service between London and Chester, and hopes of a‘race’were in some quarters indulged in. The LMS, however, made no move and is apparently satisfied with its lead of 23 minutes, over a route 16¾ miles shorter. The best LMS run is by the 9.30am from Chester to Euston, 7 minutes quicker than the best down train (10.30am ex-Euston). The up train stops only at Crewe and Rugby, and has an inclusive speed of 51.2mph. The GWR best run is performed by the 10.20am from Paddington, which calls at Birmingham only and is due at Chester at 2.13pm, an inclusive speed of 50.2mph.…

THE visit of‘A3’Pacific No. 60103 Flying Scotsman to the Bluebell Railway from August 23 to September 3 has been described as“truly amazing”by the line’s chairman. The National Collectionowned 4-6-2 ran sell-out non-stop return trains from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead on regular services and special dining trains. Footplate visits were also available as part of a static display event where the public could access the cab via the corridor tender and chat to loco crews about their experience of operating the engine. Paul Churchman, who chairs both the Bluebell Railway plc and Bluebell Railway Preservation Society, said:“It was truly amazing and it also met the financial target we set. Everyone put on a fantastic event and our visitors loved it. I was there on all but two operating days and…

ANDREW Barclay 0-4-0 fireless locomotive (1952/1928) has returned to steam following repairs at the Doon Valley Railway, Dunaskin, which is the Scottish Industrial Railway Centre. This locomotive was delivered new to Shell Mex Ltd at Ardrossan in March 1928 where it ran as No. 8. Operations at Shell-Mex ceased in 1986 and the locomotive was transported to the Ayrshire Railway Preservation Group’s site at Minnivey, before finally arriving at its current home at Dunaskin. Fireless locomotives have a steam accumulator rather than a boiler which is charged up with steam from a stationary boiler. The availability of high pressure steam means that a fireless locomotive is a very efficient method of traction. A peculiarity of fireless locos is that the cylinders are usually at the rear of the locomotive rather…

THE 7¼in gauge Moors Valley Railway (MVR), Dorset, holds an annual steam gala in September, writes Josh Brinsford. This year’s event, on September 9/10, was themed to mark the 55 years since Roger Marsh’s ground-breaking, sit-in 0-4-2T Tinkerbell first appeared. A revolutionary design for this gauge, it was to be 10 years before further examples were built in a batch of five. The first of these, Talos, is with Tinkerbell, based at the MVR, and celebrated its 45th anniversary on the same weekend. Subsequently, a huge number of these locos have been completed by many people, as well as all the locos in the extensive MVR fleet, in its own workshops. The basic design has also been developed and modified, in some cases out of all recognition, albeit retaining the…

AN unfortunate occurrence at the Diesel& Electric Preservation Group (DEPG) Williton, West Somerset Railway, resulted in the temporary withdrawal of both‘Hymeks’Nos. D7017 and D7018 for safety reasons. On Friday, August 4, preparations were underway for a static test of No. D7018 following adjustments and checks made to the transmission. The engine was started and while the preparations for the actual test were in progress, the loco began to move forwards, uncommanded. This was against the parking brakes and riding over wheel chocks. Movement could only be stopped by shutting down the engine. Thankfully, no one was hurt in the incident, but some minor damage occurred to the loco and some DEPG equipment and spares. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) and the Office of Rail & Road (ORR) were informed.…

PORT of Tyne’s role in receiving imports of wood biomass pellets for onward movement by train to Drax Power Station near Selby in North Yorkshire has been extended for a further four years. Up to one million tonnes of pellets are expected to pass through the port annually as a result of the new deal, which includes £1.5 million of improvements to facilities and rail infrastructure. Diversification The rail link was originally used for the export of coal, but over the course of the last 14 years the port has equipped itself for the distribution of biomass pellets. Its partnership with Drax began in 2009 and further capacity was added in 2016 in the form of a 75,000 tonne storage and handling facility to service movements by rail to Lynemouth…

AFTER being placed in storage following drive line damage, one of the vehicles used to prove the viability of the Parry People Mover (PPM) is to undergo assessment ahead of a possible traction system upgrade. PPM No. 12 was given the TOPS number 999900 and used in trials on the 0.8 mile branch line between Stourbridge Junction and Stourbridge Town in 2005/6. The success of the exercise led to all services on the line, previously operated by Class 153 units, being taken over by a pair of PPM 60 railcars (Class 139s, No. 139001 and 139002) run on behalf of London Midland and its successor West Midlands Railway by Pre Metro Operations Ltd (PMOL). Although it fulfilled the role of the prototype for the Class 139s, No. 12 is a…

RHTT RAILHEAD treatment train (RHTT) route learning is underway in East Anglia where GBRf has taken over the Great Eastern Main Line contract from DRS but is still using the facility at Stowmarket. To that end, Class 57s have been used in this aspect with No. 57310 Pride of Cumbria being noted light engine on 0S60 Stowmarket DGL-Stowmarket DGL at Harwich International on the mornings of August 16 and 17, working down to Shenfield and Southend Victoria but also beforehand working round to the northern branch line to Sheringham and the Norwich to Ely route. That was followed on August 30 when classmate No. 57306 Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate 175 made a similar 0S60 trip while the following day it worked 0Z80 Stowmarket to Stowmarket out to Peterborough. RHTT sets…