Innehållsförteckning för July 2022 från Rail Express

EUROPEAN Train Control System (ETCS), compliant to the latest UNISIG baseline (B3R2), has been retrofitted to three of Porterbrook’s Class 43 power cars, marking a major step forward for the UK Digital Railway Programme. The three vehicles are those used in Network Rail’s New Measurement Train, Nos. 43013, 43014 and 43062. Fitment of ETCS is a priority to enable continued data recording on the East Coast Main Line as digital signalling is rolled out. Following successful Level 2 testing at Network Rail’s Melton Rail Innovation & Development Centre (RIDC), the units will undergo full testing to allow them to reach Approval to Place Into Service by the end of the year. Also recently tested at the RIDC was an Angel Trains-owned Class 180 Adelante multiple unit that has also been…

GB RAILFREIGHT, which operates Class 92s for Caledonian Sleeper services on the WCML, has named No. 92033 Railway Heritage Trust following a major restoration of the listed station building at Perth. Dating back to 1848, Perth station was designed on a grand scale in keeping with the Tudor Gothic style of the time. However, in 2018 the vast size of the station meant that many rooms were lying empty. Caledonian Sleeper restored the interior decor of an unused waiting area to create a luxury guest lounge for its passengers, as well as a staff training centre, breathing fresh life into the area and bringing it back into service. The Railway Heritage Trust provided a generous grant to help fund the refurbishment.…

PORTERBROOK/DATS WITHDRAWN following an altercation with Azuma No. 800109 at Neville Hill in November 2019, No. 43300 was removed from the Leeds depot on May 21, on the back of a Reid Freight low-loader. Incredibly, in spite of the significant front end damage, it appears that the HST power car is not destined for scrap, but will be moved to a private location north of the border. Separately, No. 43054, which came to blows with No. 97205 (31163) during the Chinnor & Princes Risborough diesel gala in April, has been removed from the heritage railway and moved to the Brush Traction site at Loughborough, where it joins No. 43076, also with DATS. The other DATS power car that remained at Chinnor after the diesel gala, No. 43066, has been vandalised…

THE May timetable change saw, as planned, Govia Thameslink Railway withdraw all its Class 455 EMUs from the Southern network. The final working, which actually took place in the early hours of the first day of the new timetable, but formed part of the previous day’s diagrams, was the 2U76 00.25 London Victoria-Norwood Junction on May 15. The unit, No. 455843, then ran the short distance to Selhurst depot. Despite the fleet run down having begun in March, large numbers of Southern’s ‘455s’ saw use in the final days of operation. One notable working occurred on May 12, when Nos. 455818/32 formed an additional 2Z55 20.03 Victoria-Tattenham Corner and 2Z56 21.30 return. Class 455s have had no regular booked workings on the branch to Tattenham Corner for several years. On…

DIRECT RAIL SERVICES: On April 21, No. 88009 was given the lightweight task of delivering IDA ‘Super Low 45’ flat No. 39 70 4901 034-1 to Motherwell, the Class 88 working a 4Z21 12.50 from Doncaster Wabtec after modification. On May 18, two further IDAs were also on the move north after rectification work, Nos. 39 70 4901 072-1 and 39 70 4901 073-9 forming the 4Z22 13.18 Doncaster West Yard to Motherwell behind No. 37422. GB RAILFREIGHT: WH Davis at Langwith Junction released a further 24 wagons of various types to GBRf during the period under review. On May 4, No. 66724 was in charge of a 4D21 12.15 from the yard at Shirebrook to Doncaster Decoy Yard that comprised new Ecofret 2 ‘outers’ Nos. 83 70 4520 198/199/340-345…

PRESENTLY based at the Nottingham Heritage Railway, No. 47292 is to be moved to the Churnet Valley Railway for an initial five-year loan. The Brush Type 4 should arrive at its new base in the next few weeks, and, over the summer, is expected to share regular Saturday diesel duties with Nos. 33021 and 33102. Like many other railways, the line has increased its amount of diesel running in 2022, and is also planning to create its own steam heat van to enable winter running to take place and provide flexibility in the event of steam traction being unavailable. No. 47292 is operational and carries large logo livery but without full yellow cabs – a colour scheme carried by a small number of Class 47s based at Stratford in the…

During May, TfL sought suppliers for the upgrade works at Elephant & Castle station. This relates to the next stage of the capacity upgrade, namely the design and construction of passenger tunnels connecting the new station box to the existing platforms. The station is an interchange for both the Bakerloo and Northern Lines. TfL has longer term ambitions to extend the Bakerloo Line further south eastwards, initially to Lewisham and in a second phase to Hayes and Beckenham Junction. It is anticipated that the phased upgrade works will be completed by 2031. Initial tunnelling will create a new station box, a new entrance and ticket hall leading to the existing platforms (Stage 1), prior to fitting out (Stage 2). This will replace the existing Northern Line entrance and ticket hall.…

THE 1990s was a period of major change for Britain’s railways, with the privatisation of the network, which took place between 1994 and 1997. The extended sell-off period brought with it a number of issues, including slowness in the procurement of rolling stock. A proposed fleet for services on the Great Northern, LTS and Kent Coast routes, designated Class 371/471 and first proposed in 1991, had failed to materialise so, when a £150 million Government grant for the leasing of new rolling stock was announced in autumn 1992, attention was turned to using a modified version of the Class 465 Networker for long distance work instead. A prototype ‘Networker Express’ was created by adapting an existing ‘465’, No. 465037. Two cars from the set had their 3+2 commuter seats replaced…

TWO types of wooden-bodied South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SECR) and Southern Railway (SR) open wagons are added to the Rapido Trains range of ‘OO’ gauge rolling stock and they both enjoy the same level of detailing as the Gunpowder van reviewed in the last issue (REM218). Small wooden–planked open wagons were important to the pre-group and ‘Big Four’ companies in the same way as high capacity bogie box wagons are to modern Railfreight operations today, and were built in considerable number. One wagon is a five-plank design built on to steel underframes which were also built by the Southern Railway to Diagram 1347 and 1349, the latter having self-contained buffers as featured on the model. The seven-plank version is similar in design with the same underframe which was allocated…

THREE more HST power cars have been broken up at Sims Metals, Newport, after Nos. 43197, 43193 and 43069 were hauled by GB Railfreight’s No. 56081 and barrier vehicle No. 6393 from Laira on May 31. The Class 43s had been dumped at the Plymouth depot for some time and had been raided for spares. The total number of HST power cars sent for scrap (excluding accident victims) now stands at nine, following the demise of No. 43313 in February. Although questions have been raised about the crashworthiness of Class 43s following the Carmont accident report (see May issue), the 125mph capable vehicles remain popular with operators and the public alike, so further scrappings are likely to take place at a trickle for now. LS-owned Class 43 No. 43047 has…

THREE TfW Class 150 DMUs working the 1V78 21.09 Crewe-Cardiff Central via Chester on May 22 were damaged after they collided with a mini digger outside Craven Arms. Leading units Nos. 150242 and 150279 received collision damage and were affected by a subsequent fire, while trailing unit No. 150240 was later removed undamaged. The British Transport Police has launched a criminal investigation, as the digger is believed to have been stolen. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries resulting from the crash, which occurred when the train was travelling at around 60mph. The line south of Shrewsbury was closed for two days following the incident to allow the BTP to comb the site and TfW to remove the DMUs from the main line.…

JUST under a year since No. 37710 was broken up at Carnforth, WCRC has dispatched another of its long-stored Class 37s, No. 37165 finally being put out of its misery in the middle of May. Delivered in August 1963 from Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns, Darlington, as No. D6865 to Landore in South Wales, it was quickly transferred away to BR’s Eastern Region after just three years for a two decade tour of various depots, including Healey Mills, Immingham, March, Stratford and Tinsley. Renumbered No. 37374 twice for brief periods in the late 1980s, it became associated with north of the border operations throughout the following decade and was eventually stored by EWS in December 1999. Sold to a private buyer in 2002 and moved to Carnforth in the November of…

TRANSPORT for Wales has purchased seven of the Mk.4 coaches stored at Worksop, bringing its fleet total to 52 vehicles. The latest acquisitions are Nos. 10307, 11316, 12229/308/526,82204/206. Their addition will enable Transport for Wales to form an eighth set, made up of five passenger coaches plus DVT, if it desires. The procurement of these coaches comes around a year after it acquired the four sets which had been due to be used by Grand Central on its Euston to Blackpool services, which were abandoned as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. These four sets, previously allocated set numbers WB01-WB04, have recently gained new identities HD04-HD07. On May 4, No. 37884 Cepheus took set HD05 (Nos. 12224/477/326, 10321, 11320 and 82200) from Eastleigh TMD to Crewe CS. Two days previously,…

THE Diesel Traction Group has sourced two additional Maybach power units which are to be shipped to the UK from Germany, after which one will undergo work to enable it to be used in No. D1015 Western Champion. The loco has already recently received one replacement power unit, following a failure of the previously installed engine on its main line test run in September 2021, but the power unit at the ‘A’ end of the loco is now also causing concern. Although still in working order, the power unit has been suffering from deteriorating oil pressure, so the DTG has, prudently, decided to replace it rather than risk another incident on the main line. Work on the replacement engine, which needs some modifications, is expected to take a few months,…

YORKSHIRE WOLDS ACQUIRES ‘AIR CON’ PREVIOUSLY owned by Riviera Trains and last used by ScotRail, Mk.2f TSO No. 6027 has been acquired by the Yorkshire Wolds Railway. It arrived at Fimber Halt on May 4. EMBSAY BG REPAIRS THE Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway’s Mk.1 BG No. 81517 has been transferred to the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway for contract repairs to be carried out. CCT MOVES TO RIBBLE PUT up for sale by the Class 33/1 Preservation Group several months ago, Mk.1 CCT No. 94226 (latterly departmental No. DB977154 and internal user No. 061169) has been sold and relocated from Barrow Hill to the Ribble Steam Railway. LLANGOLLEN DEPARTURES A PAIR of Mk.1 coaches, SK No. 18421 and BSK No. 34537, has been moved to the former station at Talybont-on-Usk (around…

AN open day on May 7, at Inchicore Works, Irish Rail’s main servicing and repair facility, was fully booked and attracted over 6000 visitors. Postponed from last year because of the pandemic, the free event celebrated the 175th anniversary of the opening of the works by the Great Southern and Western Railway in 1846. It was a rare opportunity for members of the public to visit the works, as Irish Rail has an open day at Inchicore only when a very notable occasion is being celebrated. Each visitor was allocated a 90-minute time slot in order to avoid overcrowding. Guest of honour, US Ambassador Claire Cronin, unveiled a bodyside plaque on preserved GM No. B134, 175th Anniversary Year of Inchicore Railway Works 1846-2021. The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s ex-Irish…

WORTH the wait? Oh yes. As we hinted in our preview of the central section, including Paddington and Liverpool Street stations, back in the April issue, the scale and finish of this new artery through the heart of the UK capital is impressive. Now it just has to work. Like clockwork. Day in, day out. (see Comment, p4). TfL/Crossrail has been clever with its cautious phased opening. The only section currently running is Paddington (low level – note, there is at present no distinction between high and low level main line stations) to Abbey Wood, with public service trains operating roughly 18 hours out of 24, and not on Sundays. The system is running in non-public use outside those times to prepare for the next phase of opening, the long-awaited…

AFTER I spent a few days in the Gaeltacht (an Irish-speaking part of the west of Ireland) I arranged to visit family in nearby Galway City before making my way home to Waterford. I’d been able to get a lift on my outward journey (roughly a four-hour drive) but that wasn’t an option on my return, so I would be taking the train back home – not that I was complaining! I left Galway on the 11.05 to Dublin Heuston and was set to have an hour-and-a-half wait in the capital with not a lot to do before getting the 15.10 train home. It was only as we drew near to Portarlington on the Galway-Dublin leg of the journey that I decided I would disembark here, catch a connecting train…

TWIN PACKS of ‘OO’ gauge Railway Technical Centre (RTC) Mk.2b coaches sold out on advance ordering within days of their announcement by Accurascale. QXA Test Service Vehicles Nos. ADB 977528 and ADB 977529, finished in the red and blue livery of the RTC in Derby, were offered as 400 limited edition issue packs with certificate and presentation box priced at £119.90 which, for such a highly detailed coach, represents the usual good value for money from Accurascale. Specification for the models is advanced, with interior lighting controlled using a magnetic wand, together with fully detailed interiors, convincing flush glazing, headstock fittings and highly detailed bogies and underframes. The success of the models, which are based on its forthcoming Mk.2b First Corridor (FK) stock, may prompt further short runs of unusual…

MODERNISATION of power station coal trains in the 1960s demanded a wagon capable of being unloaded without stopping or being uncoupled from the locomotive. The term ‘Merry-Go-Round’ (MGR) came from this concept of an almost continuous rolling conveyor of coal on rails, which operated as continuous circuits between colliery and power station, with unloading being as automatic as possible. The HAA wagon (aka MGR), first built in 1964 as a prototype at Shildon Works and subsequently introduced in large numbers from 1965, fulfilled this requirement admirably. The large hopper enabled swift loading at the colliery, either from storage bins or loading pads, whilst the mechanical discharge controls were activated by lineside equipment (‘Daleks’) at the power station or industry such as a cement works, as the train passed through at…

CHARTER trains have been around a long time. As early as 1841 a special train between Leicester and Loughborough was organised by Thomas Cook, an individual who was to develop a company that became a famous worldwide tour operator. The concept continues today, but the manner in which trains are operated changed after the 1993 Railways Act, as qualified independent licensed operators were able to promote and operate services using the principle of open access to the rail network. Up until then a charter train could be purchased from British Rail, which was often the case for one-off occasions such as ship launches and major sporting events. These operations continued after the sector management reorganisation in 1982 and the InterCity charter unit was allocated locos and rolling stock to develop…

CLASS 20 On a perfect spring day (May 14), a private Vintage Trains tour ran as the 1Z42 11.44 Manchester Piccadilly-York via the Hope Valley, Mexborough and Doncaster led by EE Type 1 No. 20189 with the green-liveried No. 47773 at the rear of the six coaches. The special returned from York soon after arrival, heading back to Manchester through Leeds and Huddersfield. In the early evening No. 20189 was at the business end of the empty stock move back to Tyseley, reached at 19.50. CLASS 37 Following its recent exploits on charter trains in Scotland, No. 37403 Isle of Mull (RAJV) ran light from Bo’ness SRPS to Grosmont on May 2. Four days later it took charge of the 1T18 15.00 Pickering-Whitby and thereafter became a daily sight at…

THE ink on the Heavy Traction Group’s deal to take custodianship of the National Railway Museum’s Class 37 pioneer No. D6700 (37119/37530) was only just dry when news came in that the organisation – in partnership with Loram Rail – had also taken delivery of XSDP pool No. 37605 from Direct Rail Services. It arrived on May 17 at Quorn by road from Derby RTC. The Class 37/6 was one of two members of this subclass yet to feature in any of the three DRS tender documents – along with No. 37602 – and it is understood that the locomotive changed hands in a swap deal to cover storage fees outstanding at Loram’s Derby site. The future for No. 37605 – former Thornaby favourite No. 37507 Hartlepool Pipe Mill –…

COLAS RAIL REPORTED working out of Fort William in early April, No. 37219 appears to have developed a fault at Crianlarich in the middle of the month that could not be rectified, resulting in the locomotive being stopped in the sidings, where it still remained as of the end of May. With No. 37025 returned to Bo’ness for repairs and Nos. 37057, 37099, 37175, 37254 and 37421 all out of action, this left the operator mostly relying on No. 37099 and its roster of hired in motive power, privately-owned No. 37418, No. 37419 from DRS, and HNRC’s Nos. 37610 and 37612, for its Class 37-hauled trains. DB CARGO NINE Class 66s were repatriated from Euro Cargo Rail secondment between June and December 2021 and May saw only the second and…

THE new realigned branch of the Northern Line, along with its new southbound platform, both at Bank, welcomed its first passengers on May 15. This represented a soft opening, prior to the official launch the following day. The 17-week closure of the Bank branch between Moorgate and Kennington enabled the new tunnel section to be connected to the existing line. Once demolition of existing buildings on King William Street and Cannon Street concluded in February 2017, work began to dig out the new station and tunnels in April that year. This was through the long-closed King William Street station, formerly part of the City and South London Railway (C&SLR) that closed in 1900 (see LU World, December 2018 issue). Through the deep shaft that was excavated below Arthur Street, all…

BOTH Class 55 Deltics have moved significantly nearer to returning to main line action. Locomotive Services’ 55022 Royal Scots Grey has had its second Napier power unit lifted in (see Preservation p32), following extensive rebuild by a Lancashire engineering company. Indeed, this company may well be the only such facility in the country capable of working on Napier power units. Inter-City, part of the Locomotive Services group, is advertising the first run by 55022 as ‘The Deltic Delight’ on August 26, running from Wolverhampton to Newcastle via the Tyne Valley line. It is shown as ‘sold out’. LS has the benefit of being a complete facilitator, being a train operating company in its own right, with its own rolling stock and crews. Separately, the Deltic Preservation Society’s 55009 Alycidon has…

Indeed, there have been some 70 0-60 articles since we last looked at direct current (DC) Bombardier Electrostars on the former Southern Region of British Rail. The last one was a four-car Class 375/6 in Kent which was heading north from Ashford towards Canterbury West, leaving Wye with the advantage of a slight 1-in-660 downhill gradient and taking 70 seconds to reach 60mph. Why such a gap between visits? The answer probably lies in the complications involved. There are many Electrostar sub-classes, both three- and four-car formations, resulting in a range of different power/weight ratios. Four-car sets in the Class 377 series vary between 161 and 169 tonnes and it is not unusual for different sub-classes to be coupled together. Then there is the differential power delivery on DC which…

LIVERY COLOURS and the bodyshell proportions all looked just right on the brand-new Hornby ‘OO’ gauge Class 91 model when unboxed for the very first time. Of particular interest was the appearance of the functional inner end of the locomotive, often referred to as the ‘blunt end’ in this asymmetrically shaped locomotive. Furthermore, were the small but important differences between the InterCity and refurbished versions of the Class 91 correctly modelled? It is an exciting new model which is clearly a massive improvement over the original, including a powerful drive mechanism that will be capable of managing nine Mk.4 coaches and a Driving Van Trailer (DVT). With an initial positive impression having been formed, a closer look at the model is undertaken, carefully and with time taken to check numerous…

IF the HYA/IIA bogie coal hopper wagon story tells us anything, it is not to take anything on the railways for granted, not even when it is new. The sudden change of the Carbon Tax regime in 2015 almost instantly sidelined most of the relatively new 368 HYA/ IIA wagons as coal traffic plummeted. Redeployment as aggregate hopper wagons was less than successful, prompting VTG to look at shortening some of the fleet by removing the middle hopper bay. Introduced in 2016, the first chopped wagon was coded HYA (as are all of the shortened wagons regardless of their origins). The conversions were undertaken by WH Davis at its Langworth Junction site, a project which lasted around three years. The first wagons were produced for VTG for hire to GB…

THE SWATHE of Class 66 models together with the occasional Railroad-branded Class 59 released by Hornby over the last few years, have proved to be very popular, prompting some thought as to why, when there are high-fidelity ‘OO’ gauge Class 66 models available from other manufacturers and a brand-new Class 59 is on the horizon. Budgets may have something to do with it, alongside loyalty to the Hornby brand. Last month’s project to model GB Railfreight No. 66708 - Glory to Ukraine showed that the Hornby Class 66 can be detailed and painted to produce a convincing model, and within a tight budget too. Recently, Hornby released another Class 59, this time a Class 59/1 in Hanson livery. It is one of the popular former Lima models which has potential…