Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i The Railway Magazine

HEADLINE NEWS HST sets shipped to Mexico have entered service on the Ferrocarril del Istmo deTehuantepec (FIT) line from Coatzacoalcos to Salina Cruz, which was formally reopened by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on December 22, writes Keith Fender. The HSTs have been given new liveries and fitted with standard North American buckeye couplers enabling rescue by locomotives in the event of failure. Currently one daily train each way uses a HST set, but it is planned to introduce a second later this year. FIT No. 3007 (the former GWR No. 43170 Chepstow Castle) is seen at Salina Cruz on January 4.…

THE call for further strike action by train drivers’union ASLEF has so far seen a reluctance by operators to make use of new legislation that gives them the power to insist that a minimum level of service is provided on strike days. ASLEF gave the required 14 days’notice of action for a series of one-day strikes to begin as this issue went to press, taking place at 16 individual operating companies between January 30 and February 5, plus an overtime ban between January 29 and February 6. Train operators now have legal powers, which came into force in December 2023, to issue a‘work notice’to staff to operate services on a strike day. If the notice is ignored, it can remove their normal immunity from disciplinary procedures for being absent without…

A DIESEL gala is to kick off a series of events this year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Kent & East Sussex Railway (K&ESR) as a heritage line. Returning after a 14-year absence, the classic traction event is due to be held on April 12-14 and is set to feature Class 33/2 No. 33202 and Class 14 No. D9504, as well as several special guest arrivals – details of which will be announced shortly. A steam gala is planned to be held on June 1/2, which is expected to include a visiting loco, the identity of which remains to be confirmed. There will also be opportunities to go behind the scenes, among other attractions. Sunday, February 3 marked the actual anniversary of when passenger services restarted on the…

ASPIRING photographers have just a few weeks left to get entries in for a chance to scoop some great prizes, as the joint RCTS/Mortons Media railway photographic competition closes at the end of March. You can submit up to two entries in any or all of the four categories using photographs taken since January 2022. The Overall Competition winner will enjoy a money-cannot-buy mainline cab ride courtesy of DB Cargo, with this most likely being somewhere in the north of England. The winner of the Modern Traction section will join GBRf for a session on one of its locomotive driver simulators, while the Heritage Railway winner will be entertained at the Nene Valley Railway with the visit including a tour of the sheds at Wansford and a cab ride. For…

A THIRD of a mile of bridge deck will be gradually moved into position for Wendover Dean viaduct in Buckinghamshire during the course of this year. Instead of using solid prestressed concrete, the 492-yard viaduct will consist of‘double composite’spans. In this method, two steel beams are sandwiched between two layers of reinforced concrete, creating a hollow, lightweight yet strong structure which is designed to maximise the combined strength from both materials. HS2 Ltd says it is the first major railway bridge in the UK to be built using this kind of composite approach. By adopting this rather than a more traditional method, the carbon footprint of the structure is estimated to have been more than halved. Once construction is complete, the field boundaries and hedgerows will be recreated to provide…

EFFORTS by West Coast Railway (WCR) to have a judicial review of the Office of Rail and Road’s (ORR) refusal to grant a further exemption from central door locking requirements have been dismissed. The decision in December means that the heritage train company cannot operate hinged-door carriages on the main line unless Central Door Locking (CDL) is in place. The failure to find in favour of WCR was swiftly followed by a revocation of an existing exemption that allowed it to use hinged-door Mk.1 carriages, a decision that impacts the Carnforth-based company’s charter operations. The move follows on from the ORR’s decision in March 2023 not to award any future exemptions to WCR for Mk.1 stock on main line operations unless it was fitted with CDL. The regulator wanted all…

ROLLING STOCK REVIEW WHEN the country went into lockdown in March 2020, rail ridership plummeted as a result of the pandemic and the national work from home advice. Train operators reduced the number of services as well as the number of carriages used on those services to cut the gap between costs and revenue. Then in September 2020, franchised operations were ended with all but the open access operators moved to directly awarded management contracts by the Department for Transport; deals which give the DfT a massive say in what an operator can spend money on, how many trains they run, and how many carriages can be used. The pandemic also meant driver training was suspended because of social distancing rules, affecting several new fleets of trains that were in…

THE fascinating photograph at the bottom of the page shows construction of Northolt Underground station in West London some 76 years ago on February 2, 1948 – just over a month after Nationalisation and the creation of British Railways. The view is looking north-west along what would become the station’s island platform, and is taken at the bottom of the steps down from the future ticket office on Mandeville Road. Note the very rough and ready narrow gauge contractor’s railway running through the mud. The GWR’s New North Main Line (NNML) from Old Oak Common to South Ruislip can be seen on the right, part of the shorter route from Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill via Bicester and Banbury (rather than Reading and Oxford), while on the right in the…

A high-speed Elizabeth Line? FOLLOWING Kirk Martin’s letter (January issue) about HS2’s missed opportunities, I wondered if anybody had ever considered using the Crossrail tunnel to connect HS1 with HS2? It may sound crazy, but the Elizabeth Line runs from Old Oak Common to Stratford, and it just so happens that both HS2 and HS1 also do. Crossrail was built to full main line standards with 25kV overhead power and the journey time from one end to the other (including stops) is just 21 minutes. Surely, one path per hour could be found for a through HS train from Birmingham to Paris, even going at the same speed as the EL trains? It could even stop at Paddington and Liverpool Street for onward connections. Compared to the cost of HS2…

AN historically significant steam locomotive has relocated from a Welsh castle to a former BR steam shed. 1848-built 4ft gauge Horlock 0-4-0 Fire Queen has been moved from Penrhyn Castle, where it has been displayed since 1969, to Vale of Rheidol Railway’s (VoR) new display building at Aberystwyth. Two years ago (RM, March 2022) it emerged that a new home for Fire Queen, probably the oldest surviving narrow gauge locomotive in Britain, was being sought. This followed a decision by The National Trust Cymru, to which Fire Queen had been on loan, that since the locomotive was not directly connected to Penrhyn Castle or the Penrhyn story it was not appropriate to retain it. Ownership of Fire Queen was transferred to HMTreasury under a scheme which enables the transfer of…

THE only main line-certified ‘Western’, No. D1015 Western Champion, successfully passed its loaded test run on January 10. The Diesel Traction Group’s (DTG) locomotive worked light engine from Kidderminster SVR to Avonmouth Dock to work the return 6M42 cement train to Penyffordd Cement Works (north of Wrexham) as far as Gloucester, topping the train’s booked loco No. 66714. A points failure at Bristol Parkway meant the working was delayed for over an hour, but then No. D1015’s two newly-fitted MTU 12V538 engines were given a good run at 65mph along the former Bristol-Birmingham Midland main line. However, pathing restrictions saw the loco detached five miles south of Gloucester at Haresfield loop, and it ran light engine from there back to Kidderminster. DTG engineers deemed this to be a successful test…

FOLLOWING the announcement of a £250 million capital funding settlement for 2024 from the Government,Transport for London says it has had to take “difficult decisions”with longer term impacts, in order to allow improvements and renewals to proceed. Using delegated authority, a business plan was agreed by TfL’s Finance Committee, three days before Christmas. TfL said it had“always been clear”that it could fund around 75% of its capital programme for 2024/5 but would need Government support to cover its full proposals. Rail Minister Huw Merriman said that the sum approved was“fair for Londoners and taxpayers”. He added:“We have invested billions into the capital’s transport system in recent years. This investment must be well managed in a way that doesn’t unfairly burden the pockets of taxpayers and motorists.” Shortfall Among TfL’s measures…

THE sole surviving complete 4-VEP EMU No. 3417 Gordon Pettitt was launched back into traffic at London Waterloo on January 27. Once the backbone of commuter services on third-rail lines south of the Thames, the last time a VEP was seen at Waterloo was in 2005. It was the culmination of almost 10 years of work by the Southern Electric Traction Group (SETG), members of which have worked tirelessly on the restoration of the slam-door unit named after British Rail’s former Southern Region general manger Gordon Pettitt. The 88-year-old Mr Pettit was present at the event, hence the number ‘88’displayed on the unit’s headcode panel. Because the restoration has taken place at Strawberry Hill depot, off-limits to the public, the group used the opportunity to showcase the work to date,…

HEADLINE NEWS FIRSTGROUP has applied to the Office of Rail and Road to run trains between King’s Cross and Sheffield via Retford. The new service would be an extension of its Hull Trains operation and offer a faster journey to the South Yorkshire city than those routed via the Midland Main Line. Two daily return trips are initially planned with calling points at Worksop and Woodhouse. The application reflects past use of the East Coast Main Line to reach Sheffield, such as the ‘Master Cutler’Pullman that ran via Retford until 1966, as well as the low market share held by rail for journeys between Sheffield and London, three quarters of which are made using private cars and a further 9% by coach. That market share was the basis of FirstGroup’s…

AFTER a two-and-a-half year drive under the Chiltern hills, tunnelling machines Florence and Cecilia had reached the Chesham Road intervention shaft by mid-December. Heading north from London (the direction from which the twin bores are being excavated), it is the fifth and final shaft along the 10-mile route of the tunnel. In reaching this point, the two machines have completed 90% of their work, already excavating around 2.8 million cubic metres of chalk and flint. Hidden behind trees, the top of the 42 metre (138 feet) deep shaft near Great Missenden, for emergency access, will have a ‘headhouse’above it, designed to resemble local farm buildings. Excavation of the four other shafts for ventilation and emergency use (near Chalfont St Peter, Chalfont St Giles, Amersham and Little Missenden) has been completed,…

HEADLINE NEWS FLYING Scotsman will spend the first part of 2024 on static display at the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York before resuming railtours later in the year. The‘A3’Pacific went on public display at York on January 26, where it is due to remain until the summer, when it will head back to Locomotion in Shildon, again for public display. Visitors will be able to see the 4-6-2 free of charge and they will be able to access the footplate via an accessible ramp. In 2018, the NRM signed a six-year contract with engineering firm Riley & Son (E) Ltd to operate and maintain No. 60103. A competitive tender to appoint the next custodian for Flying Scotsman to operate and maintain the loco is due to launched, with an…

ROLLING STOCK REVIEW LOOKING back over 2023 shows that changes to the rolling stock on our railways are taking place, but extremely slowly. Little change has taken place to the locomotive stock, the most significant changes being the export of Freightliner Class 86s to Bulgaria and HST power cars to Mexico and Nigeria. In addition, the large number of Class 58s stored in France has now been cut. While many new units have been delivered from various manufacturers, only a small number of these actually entered traffic during the year, with the majority of them stored at various locations awaiting entry to service. New DMUs are limited to Class 197s, with 24 new units delivered. Of these, just seven (29%) entered traffic during 2023. Many more EMUs (141 units) were…

PRACTICE AND PERFORMANCE CLASS 68s are certainly noisy and No. 68024 Centaur announced its approach to York by growling across the Ouse bridge from the Scarborough line, the engine noise then reverberating from the hallowed roof of the city’s splendid station as it pulled down to the south end of platform 5 – or platform 9, to those of us who remain rooted in the now ancient former numbering. Some observers had, a few years back, reluctantly queried the logic of introducing locomotive and CAF Mk.5 coaches into the TransPennine Express (TPE) land of multiple units. The nightmare of dealing with a failure on the climb to Marsden during the intensive pre-Covid timetable – with nothing but Class 185s and IETs behind it – was sobering and perhaps a flawed…

THE Severn Valley Railway (SVR) has declared its inaugural Winter Steam Gala“a winner”after it attracted higher-than-expected visitor numbers. The January 6/7 event saw more than 2,500 passengers and generated twice the hoped-for revenue. “Yet again, we have shown the SVR is second-to-none when it comes to enthusiast events,” said managing director Gus Dunster.“We had never done an event of this sort at this time of year before, but our instincts were that it would be a winner, and we were absolutely spot on. “I was genuinely overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of visitors and volunteers who thanked me personally for putting this event on in what is traditionally a quiet period for enthusiasts. We definitely got the formula correct – nothing too complicated – and people supported it in their…

Sittingbourne donates standard gauge steam locomotive to Quainton. A STEAM loco which has spent more than half a century on static display in Kent is set to be returned to action in Buckinghamshire. Following the decision by the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway (SKLR) to find a new home for Peckett W4 0-4-0ST Bear (614/1896), on December 12 the loco was formally handed over to the Quainton Railway Society, which runs the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. The locomotive is expected to relocate before Easter. Bear is the oldest surviving Peckett locomotive in England and has been on static display at SKLR’s Kemsley Down station since 1971. Quainton Road is already home to numerous industrial locomotives, including four other Peckett locos. One of these, 0-4-0ST No. 1370 which used to work at…

THE Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s (W&LLR) Andrew Barclay 0-4-0T 2207/1946 Dougal is to go to the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway (SKLR) under a four-year loan agreement. Dougal last ran on the mid Welsh line in 2013 after being withdrawn in need of significant boiler work. It has subsequently been a static exhibit at Welshpool Raven Square, other than a six-month visit to Taiwan in the winter of 2018-2019 during which it was steamed at reduced pressure. The loan agreement, described as‘initial’, envisages SKLR undertaking the required boiler work and other repairs at its Kemsley Down workshops during the first two years, followed by two years of operation at the Kent line with occasional visits back to W&LLR to participate in special events. Dougal was originally built for the…

AS winter begins to recede, many rail tour promoters have now confirmed their excursions for at least the first half of the year, while others are still working on the fine detail following DB Cargo’s decision to focus more on contracted operations and less on‘ad hoc’ charters. Early in January, Pathfinder Tours published its new brochure and one of the key offerings will be a repeat of the popular‘Cambrian Coast Express’. A choice of five dates will be on offer – two in April, one in May, and two more in September, with five different originating points. All tours take place on Thursdays and will use Mk.2 Riviera Trains stock hauled by two EE Type 3s from Shrewsbury to Pwllheli and back. The outline details are: ■ April 4: Start…

THE TransPennine Route upgrade dominated the Christmas work schedules in the north of England. Despite facing difficult weather conditions, hundreds of engineers worked around the clock throughout the festive season between Manchester, Huddersfield, Leeds and York in order to complete a number of projects. These included replacement of points outside York station; track replacement at Mirfield; decommissioning of platform 2 at Mirfield station; and installation of a new undertrack crossing at Huddersfield. While these tasks were taking place, extensive piling and electrification work was completed across various sections of the TransPennine route, alongside signalling and telecommunication equipment testing. On the southerly TransPennine route, a new bridge was installed near Dore & Totley station. Nationally, there was extensive work over the Christmas and New Year periods and highlights included the replacement…

RHTT The RHTT season along the southern section of the Midland Main Line continued during December with DB Class 66 Nos. 66041+66104 being the regular pairing on the 3J91/3J92 23.17 Toton TMD to West Hampstead Thameslink and 3J93/12.01 return, being seen on December 1. However, when seen on December 4 Nos. 66010+66085 were in charge. On Monday, December 11 Class 66 Nos. 66010 and 66085 were seen top-and-tailing RHTT 3J93 from West Hampstead Thameslink to Toton TMD as they passed the new station at Brent Cross West. Class 66 Nos. 66041 and 66104 were observed on an RHTT in Nottingham on December 14. Monday, December 4 found RHTT 3S14 from Grimsby Town to York Thrall Europa on one of the through roads at Sheffield station. The train was headed by…

HS2 NEWS Over one million cubic metres of earth had been excavated by mid-December from the site at Washwood Heath in Birmingham where HS2’s Network Integrated Control Centre will be built. As seen in this computer-generated image, the site will also accommodate a stabling yard and train maintenance building, as well as facilities for drivers and maintenance staff. Overall, it will support a workforce of around 550 people. After a century and a half of railway use, initially as a marshalling yard and later as sidings, tasks have included cleaning-up contaminated land. Wash brook, which ran through the site, has been diverted, with the aim of creating local wildlife habitats. The HS2 route emerges from Bromford tunnel to the right of the stabling area, running between the site and the…

A PLAN to reduce costs at one of Britain’s biggest heritage railways will mean voluntary redundancies and the possibility of compulsory job losses, although managers at the Great Central Railway insist they are far from being“at crisis point”. Having seen losses of around £500,000 for the 2023 financial year, the GCR said it was working hard to get to a position where it can balance its books. While much of the line is run by volunteers, a number of positions are filled by paid staff. “As we enter a new financial year, staff are being offered the chance to apply for redundancy with a view to saving £250,000,” said GCR general manager Malcolm Holmes. “We are not alone in the heritage sector, or indeed the whole leisure industry, in having…

THE last passenger train ran on the 10¼in gauge Astbury Light Railway at Glebe Farm near Congleton, Cheshire on January 21. The railway had proved to be a popular attraction at the venue, which is home to a small farm and farm shop with cafe. Indeed, the line’s Santa trains in December 2023 sold out. A‘last hurrah’operated on January 20/21 – and the final public train was scheduled to depart at 15.30 on the Sunday. A mixed traction roster was in operation on the final weekend. Steam was provided by 2-6-0 Norfolk Pioneer and 2-4-2T Pendragon. Diesel power came from Bo-Bo Sir Humphry Davy, which joined the fleet last autumn. Built in 1960 by famed miniature loco builder Trevor Guest, for Sir Thomas Salt’s Shillingstone Railway, the diesel was originally…

TRANSPORT Secretary Mark Harper says setting a net tonne kilometre growth target for rail freight of at least 75% by 2050 demonstrates the Government’s confidence in the sector. The Department for Transport describes the figure, equating to an average increase of around 3% per annum as “highly ambitious”. It was announced in December after a range of options for achieving what was described as a“stretching but realistic target”were developed by the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT), which works on behalf of the Government to advise ministers on decisions regarding the future direction of the railway. GBRTT used findings from its nationwide‘Call for Evidence’in summer 2022, to better understand market demand, opportunities for and challenges to delivering rail freight growth, the driving factors for logistics decisions made by freight customers…

SOUTH Western Railway Class 701‘Arterio’electric multiple unit No. 701037 became the first member of the class to operate a public service on January 9. It formed the 10.25 service from London Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside and the corresponding return working to the capital. No. 701039 was used on the route on January 10 and 11. With the exception of a three-day engineering blockade from January 13-15, during which no passenger services ran on the Windsor branch, SWR said it would initially run Class 701s on the route on weekdays (expected to consist of one unit on off-peak services) before looking to increase the frequency of their operation. It added that the launch had given“invaluable insight and assurance on the reliable performance of both the fleet and method of…

PLANS to reopen two railway lines in the Republic of Ireland have moved a significant step closer to becoming reality. The Rosslare Strand to Waterford line has been mothballed since its closure in 2010, while the Athenry to Claremorris has been mothballed since 2003. In a surprise move on December 5, Irish Transport Minister Eamon Ryan brought a memo to the Irish Cabinet to have them included in the Trans-EuropeanTransport Network (Ten-T) as part of Ireland’s comprehensive network, opening potential EU funding for their reinstatement. A spokesman for the Department of Transport confirmed that both lines would not be considered part of the core network and said:“The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport is the EU’s funding instrument for the development of the TEN-T network. The two rail projects proposed…

ALSTOM has shipped its two ‘iLINT’hydrogen trains from Europe to help demonstrate the technology in new regions. Two Class 654 demonstrator two-coach trains were built in 2016/17, and two fleets of similar production trains (numbered as Class 554) have entered service in Germany, operating services west of Hamburg and north of Frankfurt. In the last five years Alstom has taken the demonstration Class 654 trains to multiple European countries where they have worked passenger and test trains. The second ‘iLINT’ demonstrator 654102+654602 was shipped from Bremerhaven to Jeddah, Saudia Arabia in September 2023. It was then moved by road as two separate vehicles to the Saudi capital Riyadh where the two coaches were attached to each other again and the train commissioned for use. From November 14 the train was…