Innehållsförteckning för November 2017 från Rail Express

IT was in late 1996 that the East Lancashire Railway took delivery of ‘Cravens’ DMU set Nos. 51485+56121 from its previous home at the West Somerset Railway. The WSR had purchased a number of Class 115 and 117 vehicles, and so decided to dispose of its Class 100/103/105 DMUs, all of which were contaminated with asbestos. The Class 105 unit was also rather tired and in need of overhaul, having covered 240,000 miles since it entered preservation in 1982. With the exception of a single Driving Trailer at the Llangollen Railway, this Class 105 ‘Cravens’ set was the only unit of its type still in existence. The last examples had been withdrawn from BR service in 1989 and plans for one car, No. 53812, to join the National Collection with…

50 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 1967 ▄ FATAL CRASH AT HITHER GREEN: November 5 saw the 19.43 Hastings to Charing Cross derail on the approach to Hither Green, south-east London, while travelling at around 70mph. The train was formed of ‘Hastings’ DEMUs Nos. 1007 and 1017, and 11 of the 12 carriages were deraitrack with continuous welded rail. 40 YEARS AGO... NOVEMBER 1977 ▄ HEATON DEPOT OPENS: British Rail chairman Peter Parker officially opened a new Traction & Coaching Stock Maintenance & Servicing depot at Heaton, Newcastle, on November 7. The depot was designed to centralise facilities for HSTs, loco-hauled coaches and DMUs. The depot covers an area of about 30 acres between the London- Edinburgh main line and Newcastle- Tynemouth line (now part of the Tyne & Wear Metro), about…

THE Crewe Diesel Preservation Group, owners of No. 47712 Lady Diana Spencer, has purchased Mk.2f DBSO (Driving Brake Second Open) No. 9711 from Vintage Trains, and it was moved from Tyseley to Crewe Heritage Centre by road on September 13. The combination of a Class 47/7 plus Mk.2 or Mk.3 coaches and a DBSO, running in either hauled or ‘shove’ mode, was a common sight in Scotland throughout the 1980s, during which time they gained the popular ScotRail colour scheme, an adaptation of InterCity colours. The new owners of No. 9711 are planning to restore the vehicle for use with No. 47712, and work on the DBSO is likely to include reinstatement of the plated-over gangway. These gangway ends were removed from all the vehicles to give a more flush…

SOMEWHAT under the radar compared with its other two high-profile wagon purchases announced earlier in the year, GB Railfreight took delivery of 25 JNA (Ealnos) bogie box wagons from Astra Rail, Romania, in early September. Reported in the last issue (RE257) as on their way to the Channel Tunnel, they arrived at Dollands Moor towards the end of August, but owing to crewing issues did not move onwards until September 18. Nos. 81 70 5500 454-0 to 478-9 GB-GBRF finally departed behind DB Cargo’s No. 66041 as the 6G20/20.58 to Tonbridge West Yard, having received the attention of temporary ‘Super’ shunter No. 92036 at Dollands Moor. Of interest, these members of the JNA/MMA Ealnos family introduce a further body variation to the mix. Otherwise identical in appearance to the recent…

MY interest in Class 50s is a little different to most. I did not grow up surrounded by them and certainly not by many people who liked them. Growing up in Ireland in the late 1980s and early 1990s meant my British Rail fix was limited to getting copies of enthusiast magazines and often one of the front page headlines was which ‘Hoover’ had been newly condemned, particularly if it was a popular one. Their cult following was peaking at this period and my modelling interest has stuck with this 1985-95 period ever since. The UK railway scene has always had a keen following in Ireland, particularly due to the massive variety compared to Irish railways and the vast amount of books and magazines readily available in shops, especially in…

THE advent of the digital railway will enable many services to be converted to provide the type of frequencies seen on London Underground, where the Victoria Line can now be operated with a frequency of 36 trains per hour. This is the view of Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy, who believes the ‘big railway’ will need to mirror LU’s level of utilisation if it is to cope with growing capacity demands, and he labelled the idea ‘Metroisation’. There have been instances in the past when main line railways have operated very high service frequencies – for example, there was a time when trains between London Liverpool Street and Shenfield operated on a twominute headway using the electric lines and six dedicated platforms at the London terminal, allowing 25 trains…

THERE has been a significant national decline in passenger demand for rail services in the first quarter of the 2017/18 financial year, according to statistics compiled by the Office for Rail and Road. The ORR found that 416 million journeys weremade in the period, compared with 427million the year before. Themost pronounced decline is in London and the South East, where there was an 8.8% fall in recorded usage for South West Trains, 7.3% for South Eastern, and 2.9% for Govia Thameslink. Train operating company Abellio has also reported tough trading conditions in Scotland, which has resulted in the ScotRail franchise making a loss of £3.5 million in the year to December 2016. This loss has impacted on the ability to fund franchise commitments, where investments total £475million. As a…

THE first passenger trains reached Newquay in the 1870s, but it was in the early 1900s that the town began to take off as a seaside resort, resulting in the first through trains from London in 1906. There were two routes to Newquay from the Cornish main line – the direct line from Par via Luxulyan, and a more roundabout route from Truro and Chacewater via Perranporth. As demand from tourism grew, the station at Newquay was extended on a number of occasions in the 1920s and 1930s, plus extensive carriage sidings were added on the south side to cope with summer traffic. With dieselisation in the 1960s came Class 22s and ‘Warships’ – the former in regular use on local trains to Par and Chacewater – with these locos…

THE ‘Atlantic Coast Express’ was one of the greatest ever trains to run in Britain. Beginning in 1926, it ran fromWaterloo to Exeter with portions for Torrington and Ilfracombe (via Barnstaple), and Plymouth, Bude and Padstow (via Okehampton). At its peak, summer holiday traffic meant up to five separate trains were needed to cope with demand. Torrington was perhaps the least glamorous of the ACE’s destinations, not being a seaside town like the others. The line from Barnstaple to Torrington opened in 1872 – initially as a terminus, but extended in 1925 by converting a narrow gauge railway via Meeth to Hawill Junction (on the Okehampton to Bude/Padstow lines). Ball clay on the Meeth line and milk and fertiliser traffic at Torrington kept the line busy with freight. The general…

Think you can do better? If you’ve taken something newsworthy, artistic or technically interesting onamobile device, send it in to railexpresseditor@mortons.co.uk and we’ll pay our normal rates for any used in the magazine.…

THE second half of September brought the yearly sight of shiny blue railhead treatment trains rolling out of York Works for deployment across the country, ready to do battle with the worst the autumn leaf fall can offer. Accompanying this has been the annual return of the Direct Rail Services Class 20/3 fleet, the Type 1s being let out to play for a couple of months after spending the rest of the year warming a siding at Barrow Hill. However, in a development that casts further doubt on the future of the ageing veterans, just one RHTT diagram is set to feature the class this year, this again being based at York. As a result, September ended with just three of the class being reinstated to the XHNC pool instead…

ALSTOM OUT of traffic since last December, No. 08790 was released from its lengthy repairs at Eastleigh Works on September 18, the low-loader departing for Manchester, where it was unloaded at Longsight the next day. GB RAILFREIGHT A NEW shunter duty has been created by GBRf following the commencement of a waste flow between Manchester and Roxby Gullet, Scunthorpe. To assist with operations, No. 09009 was deployed to Biffa’s Collyhurst Street terminal in Manchester on September 29, it being fresh off repairs at Barrow Hill. Three trains per week are due to run with the contract lasting 10 years. HNRC THE company has at last collected its final three Class 08s acquired from DB at the end of 2016. August 31 saw No. 08623 transported from Bescot to Hope Cement…

DESPITE experiencing significant growth in passenger numbers year on year (see last issue), Irish Rail has said it may have to withdraw services on four sections of railway because the level of Government financial support is insufficient to meet its needs. The shortfall is unlikely to be reversed as the Government is unwilling to increase its subsidy to the company and, as a result, IR may have to take extreme measures to shore up its finances. To add to the company’s financial difficulties, trades unions are insisting that IR should consider increases in wages and improved conditions for their members. These developments have come shortly after the company announced that it planned to reinstate the fleet of 2700 Class DMUs because of the increase in passenger numbers. The four sections…

DURING the early 1960s, it was found that many of the newly introduced diesel locomotive types were not particularly good at stopping heavy unfitted freight trains, with a number of costly accidents occurring as a result when such trains ‘ran away’. A quick solution was sought and found in the Diesel Brake Tenders, these being simple vehicles consisting of a low body that was filled with scrapmetal and/or concrete, andmounted on cutdown secondhand coach underframes and bogies. The tenders were fully vacuumbraked with brake shoes on every wheel. Most examples weighed in at just over 35 tons with a few at 37½ tons, all offering a useful amount of brake force to supplement a loco’s own braking ability. A total of 122 tenders was built by a variety of builders,…

A RELATIVELY recent release from Soundtraxx is a trio of ‘Econami’ DCC sound decoders that come pre-loaded with an assortment of UK diesel sounds. All three decoder types use the same sound files, which cover six types, namely Classes 20, 31, 37, 47, 66 and a first generation DMU, and can be selected by altering CV123 (and CVs 120 and 121 for the horn). The Eco 100 is a four-function, one-amp hard-wired design (882101, £89.95) with the Eco 200 stepping up to six functions and two amps (882102, £89.95). Lastly, there is the Eco 21P, a four-function, one-amp, 21-pin decoder (882106, £79.95). The first two come without plugs, just the nine leads to enable hardwiring into a loco or DMU and would suit older Lima or Hornby models from the…

THE railways of the Isle of Wight have always been a little different. Isolated from the mainland, and with a restrictive loading gauge due mainly to the tunnels under Ryde Esplanade, they have always been worked by dedicated locos and stock throughout their 150 year history. This is why the remaining rump of the once extensive system is worked by former London Underground 1938 Stock. It is also why no main line diesel has ever been transferred to the island – that is, until the end of September this year. Building on its first-ever diesel gala in 2016, which made use of diesel shunters, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway’s second such event on September 29-October 1 featured Type 3 ‘Crompton’ No. 33202 Dennis G Robinson. The loco arrived from…

THE Government has announced that £300 million of new funding is to be provided to Transport for the North (TfN) to ensure the benefits of providing links between HS2 and the national network are fully exploited. This is a parallel initiative to the use of HS1 by domestic South Eastern franchise services, which has seen a major reduction in journey times between London and destinations in Kent served by trains that operate at up to 140mph on the HS1 section of route. The six-car Class 395 ‘Javelin’ trainsets switch to third-rail current collection when running on the conventional network. TfN is at an early stage in plans for improved connectivity using HS2, but has already identified that a transformation of the service between Leeds and Sheffield will be possible. Trains…

Neville Hill considers Class 156 ‘Super Sprinter’ performance in Derbyshire and Lancashire. IF there were to be a popularity contest for the favourite ‘Sprinter’ type, the winner would probably be the Class 156; relatively comfortable and with good visibility, they are ideal for both town and country. My first measurements of their 0-60mph acceleration were undertaken with a Matlock to Newark via Derby local as it departed from Belper and Duffield on the former Midland main line. The gradient from the former station is shown as 1-in-448 down followed by level, whereas the latter is level followed by 1-in-418 rising. Performance statistics from both were similar to 50mph before the Class 156 fell away more quickly than expected on the rising gradient. The start from Belper has therefore been used…

FURTHER to the report in our August issue (RE 255), the preserved four-car 1938 Stock unit was taken to London Underground’s test track at South Ealing in August, following its major overhaul at Ealing Common depot. The intention was to allow the unit to be used during the annual Amersham Heritage Day in September. However, a number of small mechanical and electrical defects delayed its reintroduction into heritage service, and there was no opportunity for the repairs to be undertaken and retested prior to the event. The actual defects have been identified and can be easily resolved, according to London Transport Museum’s head of heritage operations Andy Barr. The real problem is timetabling when the unit can be tested again. The staff who undertake this work are employed by London…

GREATER Anglia ran a second charity railtour on September 16, the ‘EACH Express 2’, which this time featured two Class 68s and a Mk.3 rake rather than the ‘37s’ and ‘short set’ used for the original tour in 2016. The route was an exact repeat of last year’s, first running from Norwich to Ely and back, and then along the Great Eastern Main Line to Liverpool Street and back. EACH is East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, and more than £12,500 was raised through ticket sales, an on-board raffle and cab-ride auctions. DRS provided the first and (currently) last Class 68s Nos. 68001 Evolution and 68034 to power this year’s trip, the locos ‘top and tailing’ eight Mk.3s and a Driving Van Trailer (Nos. 11067/099, 10412, 12170/046/147/126/015 and 82133). One First Class…

CLASS 20 THE ‘Steam on the Met’ weekend featured Nos. 20142 Sir John Betjeman and 20205 over the weekend of September 9 and 10, the two Type 1s teaming up with Metropolitan Railway No.1 and ex-Western Region Pannier tank No. 9466 (see also LU World). Previously, on September 6, No. 20189 had been recorded at Birmingham International en route light engine from Butterley to West Ruislip. The first transfer of LUL ‘S’ Stock reported during September occurred on the 5th when Nos. 20096+20905 and 20107+20311 ran from Banbury to Derby Litchurch Lane with sets Nos. 21523/24. The same four locomotives remained on this work for another two weeks, taking sets Nos. 21547/48 from Derby to West Ruislip on September 5, and covering the same trip with sets Nos. 21429/30 (September…

AFTER a gap of more than five months, another pair of Class 707 units were delivered by Siemens on September 16. After arriving through the Channel Tunnel, Nos. 707011/012 were collected by Rail Operations Group’s Nos. 47813/815 and moved as the 6X87/17.17 Dollands Moor-Clapham Yard. Following the class’ introduction in early September, a pair of units continue to be used on the Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside circuit, and the full diagram is detailed in the accompanying table. A second pair of workings were introduced on September 25, although these units are only used in the morning peak. As of this date, seven sets (Nos. 707003-009) had all operated in passenger service and, on September 26, No. 707010 made its debut on public services, operating on the Windsor diagram.…

THE recent disposal of Mk.2f Driving Brake Standard Open No. 9711 to the Crewe Diesel Preservation Group by Vintage Trains (see Preservation News) has drawn attention to the fleet of 14 coaches that were converted from BSOs (Brake Second Opens) in the late 1970s and early 1980s for use with Class 47/7 traction in Scotland. The status of these coaches was last reviewed in our October 2011 issue (No. 185), and since that date there have been a number of alterations. The biggest change has been the purchase of five vehicles by DRS from BARS for use on its Cumbrian Coast and Anglia operations. All five, which include two examples that have been earmarked for the National Collection (Nos. 9705/07), were overhauled by RVEL (now Loram) at Derby and returned…

EVER since Rapido Trains released its ‘OO’ gauge model of the gas turbine APT-E last year, there have been numerous requests for it to be scaled down to 2mm. As a result, Revolution Trains, in conjunction with Rapido and the National Railway Museum, is to put this demand to the test and has proposed the production of the iconic experimental train in ‘N’ gauge. However, with there being a significant degree of uncertainty as to the commercial viability of the model, Revolution is initially seeking expressions of interest in the project. This can be made by visiting the company’s website at www.revolutiontrains.com and filling in a simple form. The specification will be similar to the 4mm scale model but there is a question mark over whether a working tilt mechanism…

THIS October marks 30 years since the Railfreight triple grey sub-sector liveries were publicly unveiled at the Ripple Lane open day, this heralding the full launch of the Roundel-designed scheme. The livery has since gone on to be regarded as one of the finest to grace the UK network and remains immensely popular today. Naturally, such an important anniversary cannot go unmarked here at Rail Express Modeller, so the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition on November 25/26 will see a suitable display on stand A45A, next to the magazine's main stand (A44). In much the same vein as previous HST and Network SouthEast celebrations, the display will include an array of 4mm scale train formations as well as other models and a collection of literature. Mark Lambert will also be…