Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i The Railway Magazine

THE Royal Scot Locomotive & General Trust (RSL&GT) has secured a 10-year partnership with the BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust (BRC8SLT) for the operation of unique BR Standard Pacific No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester. The loco, which has not worked since its boiler certificate expired in 2012, is in the final stages of an overhaul at Tyseley Locomotive Works. On completion of the work, No. 71000 will move to the Severn Valley Railway for testing and commissioning before relocating to Crewe later this year. Main line operation As part of an agreement which is designed to help ensure the mainline future of this iconic loco, the 4-6-2 will be primarily operated by Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited, hauling Saphos Trains’railtours interspersed with periods of operation on heritage railways. Trevor Tuckley,…

Guinness World Record: Longest-running railway series, established in 1901 BURIED well below heroic tales of epic runs in the age of steam, lies a soft under-belly of sometimes indifferent workmanship and ineffective management. We looked closely at such an example in The RM’s September 2021 edition, with the 8.12am Leeds-York/Scarborough of 1958/59 showing its deplorable punctuality record; a situation that was allowed to exist despite it being the regular commuter train of many North Eastern Region HQ operating staff. Noel Proudlock was the one who kept count of those events, but the train was by no means an isolated example. During the motive power section of his management training, Noel was assigned to the Wakefield District, based in an office at Westgate station. His main train to reach work was…

A rolling stock crisis CHRIS Milner’s article in the February issue discussed a number of seemingly unsettling issues regarding current and future rolling stock issues on Britain’s railways. However, I would suggest that there are at least seven further issues which may contribute further to the current problems. 1. The incredible varieties of different trains, often built in relatively small numbers, supplied by various manufacturers and sometimes tied into maintenance contracts and/or requiring specially configured depots. This, particularly where leased fleets are concerned, may severely restrict the ability to transfer trains to different areas or operators, especially at short notice. The worst case must be TransPennine Express with three small, completely different and incompatible fleets obtained from a mixture of suppliers. No wonder they got into trouble. I am sure…

THE Swanley New Barn Railway kicked off the new year by supporting a good cause, raising valuable funds for a national charity. The Kent line’s annual charity event was held on January 1, in aid of the British Heart Foundation. All operable home-based steam locomotives were in action. These included 2-4-0 ‘Tinkerbell’ Sir Goss built by J Goss and J Haylock in 1981; 0-4-2T‘Tinkerbell’ Mrs Darling built by P Jackson in 2017; 2-6-2T‘Tinkerbell’ Owd Rosie built by J Stubbs in 1993; and 0-4-4-0T Single Fairlie Y Sgwar built by P Beevers in 2021. The resident fleet was joined by 2-4-0 No.14 Horton built by Narogauge Ltd in 1991, from the Moors Valley Railway and the privately-owned‘General Gordon’0-6-0T Edward Watkin built by Station Road Steam in 2020, plus 0-4-0T Furbero No.1…

THE Heritage Electric Trains Trust (HETT) has announced that two of its three surviving Wirral Class 503 EMU cars are set to be scrapped. All three cars were built for the LMS and formerly resided at the now-closed Electric Railway Museum on the edge of Coventry.The unit comprises: driving trailer second open (DTSO) No. 29289, built in 1937 by BRCW; trailer second open (TSO) centre car No. 29720, constructed by Metro Cammell in 1938; and driving motor brake second open (DMBSO) No. 28690 built by Metro Cammell in 1938. Both the driving trailer and centre trailer cars will be sent for scrap after useful components have been recovered in the next couple of months. They are in very poor condition and would require extensive renovation to be brought up to…

THE first phase of the process which should ultimately lead to an order being placed for new vehicles on the London Trams network was drawing to a close as this issue of The RM went to press. Transport for London’s tender notice, which had a closing date of February 27, seeks the fulfilment of two contracts by the same supplier. One relates to the manufacture and delivery of a base order of 24 new trams (which it will use to replace the existing London Trams fleet of Bombardier CR4000 vehicles) and the other the provision of technical support and spares for them for a 30-year period. The valuation placed on the deal is £385 million. It contains an option for up to 16 further trams to be built. Existing fleet…

GB RAILFREIGHT has told The RM it expects the first of its 30 bi-mode Class 99 locomotives to be in service before the end of next year. The company also confirmed that a nine-month period of testing and commissioning is due to take place from September 2024. It was reluctant to elaborate on progress with the order for the locomotives, but it is understood that the bodyshell of No. 99001 had been completed by late January at Stadler’s Valencia factory. It and No. 99002 are expected to be completed in May, with No. 99003 being finished shortly afterwards. The predicted time frame for testing fits with suggestions that the first of the locomotives, which will be leased from Beacon Rail, could arrive in the UK in April 2025 for main…

Avanti West Coast OnWednesday, January 17, and for the following two days, unbranded plain white Class 805 No. 805002 ran ECS (Empty Coaching Stock) from Oxley Depot as 5Q30/06.40 to Glasgow Central and return at 12.32. A combination of weekend engineering works and then Storm Isha meant that after AWC’s Glasgow Central (1M17) left for London Euston at 16.40 on Saturday, January 20 with Class 390 No. 390155, the next direct service to Euston from there didn't depart until 13.33 on January 22, when No. 390013 worked 1M10/09.34 which departed 79 minutes late. Weather warnings from the Met Office resulted in AWC telling passengers not to travel north of Preston after 15.30 on January 23. The last scheduled service from London to Glasgow departed at 15.30 (17.41 from Preston) and…

HAVING survived multiple previous deadlines, steam operation at the world’s last bastion of steam and the significant working steam depot in Sandaoling’s (Three Small Hills) huge open-cast coal mine in Xinjiang province in northwest China came to an end on January 15. As previously reported, steam operation at the mine, which for some years has been the last major commercial non-heritage steam location in the world, had been temporarily reprieved in May 2018, after the plan to replace it with lorries was deemed uneconomic. However, the open-cast pit had been expected to be worked out within three years and mine management had announced locally that steam operation would end in September 2021; a year later than an original deadline set by the local government. In the end, steam operation and…

THE long awaited legislation to implement rail reform was published in draft form on February 20, to allow parliamentary scrutiny, although it is widely expected it will not become law before the next general election. The proposals do not replace the 1993 Railways Act, which saw nationalised British Rail divided up and Privatised, but instead make amendments to allow the transfer of franchising powers to a new Integrated Rail Body (IRB), into which the activities of Network Rail will also be transferred – including the obligations of the network licence that NR operates under for the public interest. Although the term ‘franchising’remains in use, the current format of contracts – which are in effect concessions where a fee is paid regardless of revenue performance – is likely to remain. Once…

HEADLINE NEWS A CHAPTER of South Wales history closed on February 23, when the last train of Welsh mined coal operated on the national rail network. The final domestic coal flow in the UK was hauled by DB Cargo Class 66 No. 66112 from Cwmbargoed Disposal Point to the Tata steelworks at Port Talbot. The Ffos-y-Fran opencast mine operated by Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd closed on November 30, 2023 following a direction from the Welsh Government. Trains have been operating since then to help clear the stockpile. Poignantly, the last vehicle in the 21-wagon train, HTA bogie No. 310776 carried the message‘End of coal’.…

A BRAKE van abandoned at an Essex main line station for around 35 years has been broken up after attempts to save it failed on safety grounds, writes Owen Hayward. The‘Shenfield Shark’will be familiar to many railway enthusiasts. No. DB993733, a ballast plough brake van known as a‘Shark’was failed with a hot box during a ballast trip working to Southend Victoria in the late 1980s and shunted into the siding that was to become its home for the next three decades. Hopes of saving it for preservation over the years had often been set back by concerns of it not being structurally safe to move by rail. Its location between a thick treeline away from a road and overhead power cables on the adjacent Great Eastern Main Line also prevented…

THE introduction of in-cab digital signalling on the East Coast Main Line has moved a step closer following commissioning of the Welwyn to Hitchin (W2H) European Train Control System (ETCS) overlay. W2H is Britain’s first instance of infrastructure commissioning towards a‘no physical signals’ intercity mainline. The overlay is a critical part of the East Coast Digital Programme’s (ECDP) delivery plan. To achieve the end goal of a‘no signals’railway on the southern part of the East Coast Main Line (ECML), it is necessary to create a section of route that can be operated with both conventional and digital signalling. Drivers from all ECML operators will progressively be trained to drive in ETCS through the W2H overlay. Once all train fleets are upgraded and all drivers trained, the progressive rollout of digital…

BRITISH STEEL has taken delivery by road of a Class 18 hybrid shunter for a trial expected to last at least four weeks at its Scunthorpe Works. No. 18003 is one of the 15-strong class, all owned by Beacon Rail, which have a Stage V emissions-compliant diesel engine, but can also operate solely on battery power, recharged via regenerative braking or by plugging into an energy supply. They have the capability to haul loads of up to 2500 tonnes. It is the first time British Steel has carried out on-site tests of a hybrid locomotive. No. 18003 is being evaluated on internal rail movements for reliability, efficiency and potential to reduce maintenance costs. Trev Charlton, site operations manager for internal logistics, said that the company was searching worldwide for a…

THE bore for the 853 metre-long (0.5 miles) Atlas Road Logistics Tunnel in West London, which will be used to move materials during the construction of the HS2 route eastwards towards Euston, was completed on January 23 after nine months of excavation. Having begun its journey from Atlas Road in North Acton in spring 2023, prior to its breakthrough into the station box at Old Oak Common, tunnel boring machine (TBM) Lydia removed 62,000 tonnes of London Clay and installed 535 concrete rings to line the tunnel. Although revised plans for the funding of HS2’s Euston station are still under Department for Transport consideration, work on the design and preparation of the route to the terminus from Old Oak Common is continuing. Parts for two other TBMs will be lowered…

SIX out of 15 prizes went to narrow gauge lines in this year’s Heritage Railway Association Awards, while the Severn Valley Railway picked up three others – including two of those sponsored by the railway press. This year’s ceremony was held at the Metropole Hotel in Brighton on February 10, making it a home win for the Volk’s Electric Railway as it picked up the prestigious Railway of the Year award. HRA chief executive Steve Oates said: “To see unique railways like the Volks Electric triumph over far bigger and more famous lines is proof that the heritage rail world is flourishing in all manner of different ways, despite the adversity we so often face.” (See also the following pages for more on the VER.) The Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway…

INFRASTRUCTURE FOLLOWING a two-week engineering blockade of the Cornish Main Line at the end of February and start of March, signalling control at three signalboxes dating back to the 1890s will pass to a workstation at Exeter Panel. Truro, Par and Lostwithiel ’boxes will all close, but there are at least no plans to demolish any of the structures, while those at Lostwithiel and Par are Grade II-listed and so few alterations may take place. The changes mean that the Cornish Main Line is now signalled by Plymouth Panel (Plymouth to Liskeard); Liskeard; Exeter Panel (Liskeard to Roskear); Roskear; St Erth; and Penzance. Of these, the ’boxes at Liskeard and St Erth still have traditional lower quadrant semaphore signals, as do two further ’boxes on the Newquay branch at St…

A GWR‘64XX’0-6-0PT is due to take up residence once again on the West Somerset Railway (WSR), after a member of the class was acquired by one of the line’s leading lights. Auto-fitted 1937-built No. 6435, and 1951-built WR auto-trailer No. 232 have been bought from the Bodmin Railway by WSR plc chairman Jonathan Jones-Pratt’s JJP Holdings company for use on the WSR. The loco and carriage were among several items of rolling stock offered for sale by the Cornish line early in the New Year. On January 2, David Nelson-Brown, Bodmin Railway chairman said:“It is with a heavy heart that the Bodmin Railway is considering the sale of locomotive No. 6435. It is a loco much loved by crews and very capable on our steeply graded line, but financial pressures…

EFFORTS to expand the restored section of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway at Woody Bay are now being focussed on a shorter extension to a location just north of Parracombe. It follows the expiry of Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust’s (L&BRT) planning permission to rebuild the line between its present Killington Lane terminus and Blackmoor (RM Headline News, April 2023). Now a planning application to Exmoor National Park Authority is being prepared which L&BRT hopes will be submitted later this year. If approved, this would enable construction of a half-mile extension to its current Woody Bay to Killington Lane running line onwards to a terminus at Cricket Field Lane on the edge of Parracombe. Meanwhile, a working party on January 20/21 cleared a significant volume of overgrown trees and vegetation…

LOCOMOTIVE Services Group has announced it will launch a series of three-day weekend excursions to Scotland this summer, under the title of the ‘West Highland Pullman’. The Pullman will run on eight weekends (Friday-Monday) and use a shortened version of the ‘Blue Pullman’HST, formed of two dining cars, two first class carriages and a kitchen car, hauled by Class 43 power cars. None of the‘West Highland Pullman’trains include hotel accommodation, allowing passengers to select their own hotels in Fort William at a budget which suits them. The first train is on the weekend of August 16-18, starting at Romford and picking up at Shenfield, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Ely, March and Peterborough, with an approximate arrival at Fort William around 20.30. On the Saturday, the train makes…

THE extensive rebuild of Birmingham’s busy University station has been completed, and the new buildings – ready to cater for an estimated 3.5 million passengers a year – opened on January 28. The original station dates from 1978 and was designed for around 500,000 passengers per year, but expansion and growth of both the University of Birmingham and nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital overwhelmed the existing facilities. The new station – the first and only built to specifically serve a university – will also be able handle up to 7.2 million passengers annually. As the seventh busiest in the West Midlands, the station has gone through a three-year reconstruction while remaining open and operational. The first stage of the development saw longer and wider platforms, complete with new canopies, completed ahead…

WH DAVIS has completed construction of 46 JNA-U ‘Jumbo’open box wagons for Beacon Rail Leasing, Nos. 81 70 5932 105-6 to 150-2. Capacity is 75.0 cubic metres, which is 25% more than the standard JNA-T type. Overall length is 16.6 metres and tare 24 tonnes. Operated by GB Railfreight, terminals served include Small Heath yard, Birmingham. Other JNAs to be seen at Small Heath are the‘Black Adder’type from the series Nos. GERS 4401-424. Dating from 2002, these are also a product of WH Davis, mating new bodies with refurbished bogies and other belowsolebar equipment. Originally owned by GE Rail Services, they are now part of the Touax fleet. However, cancellation of the HS2 project north of Birmingham has not reduced demand for new rolling stock. Now underway at the Langwith…

THE single direct rail service from Shrewsbury to London Euston is to be axed from June. According to informed sources, the service has been losing passengers leading to a revenue shortfall of around £1.4 million per year as a result of changing travel patterns. Other operational overheads are the cost of maintaining route knowledge for 60 Oxley-based drivers, in addition to around 75 miles of empty stock working each day of operation. Cutting the services means passengers will have to change to Avanti trains to Euston at Wolverhampton or Birmingham New Street. However, The RM understands that from June this year, West Midlands Railway plans to introduce a Birmingham to Shrewsbury semi-fast service via Sandwell & Dudley, with the existing service (which calls at most stations) being diverted to run…

HEADLINE NEWS A Class 40 returned to Inverness via the Highland Main Line on February 24, for the first time since No. 40145 in April 2010. No. D213 (40013) Andania hauled Inter-City’s‘Whistling Highlander’tour from Crewe to Inverness on February 24 (top-and-tail with Class 47 No. D1935/47805 Roger Hosking MA 1925-2013), returning south again on the following day. The outbound trip is seen at Kingussie passing ScotRail HST Nos. 43181/031 with 1T88, the 14.50 Inverness to Glasgow.…

HS2 NEWS It is estimated that five million tonnes of material, extracted during the building of the HS2 tunnels in London, will have passed through its Logistics Hub at Willesden Euroterminal by the end of the construction project. The million-tonne mark was passed last summer. Having been transported via a conveyor system to Willesden, the spoil is moved by train for reuse in the construction industry. On February 12, passing the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal, Freightliner Class 66 No. 66532 P&O Nedlloyd Atlas is seen heading one such loaded train from Willesden to the Cemex cement plant at New Bilton, Rugby. CHRIS MILNER…

HRA AWARDS THERE was a home win for the Volk’s Electric Railway (VER) on February 10, as it scooped the top Railway of the Year prize at the Heritage Railway Association’s annual awards ceremony in Brighton. The VER is a fascinating operation, the oldest operational electric railway in the world, and still uses a fleet of cars dating back to the 1890s. The single-track 2ft 8½in gauge line, powered by third-rail at 110V DC, runs along Brighton seafront for just over a mile from Aquarium station (near the Palace Pier) in the west to Black Rock station (near the marina) in the east. There is a third station at Halfway with a passing loop, and there are two other passing loops on each section either side of Halfway. Halfway is…

MOMENT IN TIME LONG associated with the South of England, the first half of the 1980s saw Class 33s spread their wings a little, eventually reaching the likes of North Wales and Manchester on regular booked passenger diagrams. But nobody ever expected to see one in the quarries of the Peak District – that is until the beginning of March 1994, just a month before Privatisation of the rail industry began, when ‘Crompton’ No. 33116 Hertfordshire Rail Tours popped up in Buxton with inspection saloon No. 975025 (now named Caroline), which at that time carried Network SouthEast livery. The duo arrived on March 2, 1994 filming the local area for the Infrastructure Support Group, including the Peak Forest and Stockport lines. They stabled overnight in Buxton station, and then left…

100 YEARS AGO MARCH 1924 Decline of the Rail Motor AT the end of 1922, the total number of steam rail motors owned by British railway companies was only 115; 13 years earlier it had been 185. This decrease, which year by year becomes more marked, shows that such combinations are not altogether successful. Yet theoretically, a self-contained unit for railway working is ideal for branches and sections where traffic is light, and also for providing frequent services. The chief drawback to the success of the rail motor is that when the engine requires repair or attention the whole car is put out of service. This defect has in a measure been met by making the locomotive detachable from the passenger car. But the separation of the two parts is…

THE railway museum at Penrhyn Castle will look very different this year, following the departure of several standard and narrow gauge exhibits to new homes in other corners of the British Isles. This follows a decision by the National Trust, which runs the North Wales venue, to revamp the site. While rolling stock relating to the nearby Penrhyn Quarries has been retained, other items, including four industrial steam locos were relocated in late January and early February. First to move, on January 24, was Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T Vesta, works number 1223 built in 1916, being delivered to the BuryTransport Museum.This locomotive worked at Shotton Steelworks before being preserved by the Industrial Locomotive Society. It was then gifted to the National Trust, and after being displayed at Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire…

DESPITE travelling through the tail of Storm Isha, Lisbon No. 730 arrived at Beamish Museum in County Durham unscathed, apart from some damage to one of its platform doors. Having previously visited Beamish in 2013, No. 730 returned on January 22, to take up permanent residence. Its transfer from the Wirral Transport Museum, where it had been part of the fleet used to run services on the tramway, was agreed late last year with Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society (MTPS). As part of changes being made by Big Heritage (BH), which took over the custodianship of the Birkenhead visitor attraction from Wirral Council in November, MTPS had been asked to find a new home for No. 730. BH said it required more space for visitors and that, due to a lack…

USING vehicles from its fleet of 100 new FEA-G high density twin intermodal wagons, delivery of which was completed summer, GB Railfreight has launched a five trains per week service linking the DPWorld-operated port at London Gateway, on the north bank of the River Thames near Corringham in Essex, with iPort Doncaster. Each wagon can carry six 20ft equivalent units, significantly increasing the volume of cargo which can be moved on every journey. “We always aim to innovate our services to best meet the needs of a changing and demanding market,”said GB Railfreight head of intermodal Julie Garn. ‘Closer to net zero’ “We believe this new service will unlock a further opportunity for existing and new customers to support their efforts and reduce their carbon emissions,”she added.“Every time one of…

WEST Midlands Railway (WMR) launched its‘Aventra’ Class 730/0 trains in the West Midlands on February 8, ahead of their introduction into service from February 12. The 48 three-car trains represent part of an overall £700 million investment for the operator in new rolling stock, which over the next 12 months will replace the 30-year-old Class 323s on the Cross-City line as well as the Class 350/2s on its other routes. All of the three-car sets have been accepted by WMR. The first route to see the Class 730s will be Wolverhampton to Walsall, with a single diagram initially replacing a Class 350. Introduction of the class on this first diagram will be a step towards introducing the sets on Birmingham’s busy Cross-City line between Lichfield Trent Valley and Redditch or…

LOCOMOTIVES Allocations37407 XHSO-XSDP37419 XHSO-XSDP37422 XHSO-XSDP37425 XHSO-XSDP37716 XHSO-XSDP56032 GBGS-GBRG60017 WQAA-WQBA66001 WBAE-WBAT66005 WBAE-WBAT66009 WBAE-WBAT66011 WBAE-WBAT66012 WBAE-WBAT66024 WBAE-WBAT66027 WBAE-WBAT66032 WBAE-WBAT66035 WBAE-WBAT66047 WBAE-WBAT66061 WBAE-WBAT66076 WBAE-WBAT66094 WBAE-WBAT66095 WBAE-WBAT66117 WBAE-WBAT66118 WBAE-WBAT66119 WBAE-WBAT66120 WBAE-WBAT66121 WBAE-WBAT66127 WBAE-WBAT66158 WBAE-WBAT66175 WBAE-WBAT66177 WBAE-WBAT66179 WBAE-WBAT66190 WBAE-WBAT66205 WBAE-WBAT66311 newly registeredRR/GBSD66312 newly registeredRR/GBSD66313 newly registeredRR/GBSD66314 newly registeredRR/GBSD66315 newly registeredRR/GBSD66316 newly registeredRR/GBSD66591 FD/DHLT-LD/DFIN67028 WQBA-WQDA70011 FD/DHLT-LD/DFGI Renumbered56032 - 6901166221 - 6665177506 - 6631477505 - 6631591000 - 91105 LiveriesDB Cargo red: 66221Maroon: 69009 Named60085 Snowdon69009 Western Consort Names removed43027 Acton Castle Stored/stopped locationsChesterfield (private site): 08423, 08573, 08874, 08936Crewe Coal Yard: 37407/19/22/25, 37716Crewe EMD: 66091Great Yarmouth: 43027, 43206/38, 43312/19Haymarket: 43129Kidderminster: 43423/67Laira: 43029/94, 43122/53/54/55/86/94Loughborough: 91117 POOL CODES VRMUVaramis Rail Class 321 units MULTIPLE UNITS Allocations170208 CF-DY197120 HQ-CH319369/79/86 sent for disposal321334/41 HQ/SAXU-GW/ VRMU321407/19/28/40 HQ/SAXUGW/VRMU507004/13/32 sent for disposal508104 sent for disposal701002 newly delivered HQ/ HYHQ701028 HQ-WD 701529/30 newly delivered HQ/…

WORK continues at Downpatrick to return the railway and its rolling stock back to operational condition after the severe flooding in November that caused almost £3 million in damage. One of the success stories has been the recruitment of several new volunteers, signing up to help with the post-flood recovery process. “It has been heartening to see the situation result in the recruitment of several new volunteers to bolster our small crew. Every cloud indeed has a silver lining,”Downpatrick & County Down Railway chairman, Robert Gardiner told The RM. “However, we are still facing massive costs to fully return the railway to its pre-flood condition and we are grateful for all the donations so far.” Work on the locomotive fleet has continued with Nos. G617 and 141 Class No. 146…