Innehållsförteckning för February 2023 från Rail Express

HEADLINE NEWS SPECIAL STATISTICS published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) show that for the three months ending September 30, 2022 passenger numbers were 80.3% of the total for the same period in 2019, which reflected the demand before the pandemic struck. A loss of one-in-five passengers is bad enough, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that farebox revenue has fallen off a cliff. The ORR’s data suggests it was at 70.3% of the 2019 figure with takings of £2.2 billion compared with £3.1bn for the same period three years ago. If that trend continues, it is likely that the income shortfall will be even worse given the widespread disruption during the three months up to December 31. Taken on an annual basis, the industry…

CLASS 20 Vintage Trains ran numerous ‘Polar Express’ journeys between Birmingham Moor Street and Dorridge during December, powered by No. 7029 Clun Castle ‘top and tailing’ with a Class 20. Although No. 20142 Sir John Betjeman was used on December 1 and again the following day, it was No. 20189 that did the bulk of the work through to the final trips late on December 23. The Locomotive Services green duo of Nos. 20096+20107 Jocelyn Fielding 1940-2020 were in action on December 6 taking Blue Pullman Mk 3 Trailer First (TF) No. 41108 from Crewe to Eastleigh Works via Oxford. Next day they powered the 5Z44 09.47 from Eastleigh Works moving TF Nos. 41149/166/187 to Crewe between the translator vehicles. Their shunting work at Peak Forest over, Nos. 20007+20205 returned…

A Class 73 is to be based at the Bluebell Railway, following approval by its Trust as well as its two Boards for the Electro-Diesel to be housed on the line. The locomotive is, appropriately, No. 73133, which was named The Bluebell Railway from 1990 until its withdrawal in 2004. It is currently located at Arlington’s Eastleigh Works. Before it moves to its new home in the spring, the ‘73’ will undergo bodywork repairs and a repaint at Eastleigh. It was moved into the paint facility at the end of December for work to be carried out. Mechanically, the ‘ED’ is operational and has regularly been used by Arlington for shunting in recent years. Several individuals have been critical of the use of diesel traction on the Bluebell Railway, which…

THE recent renaissance of the RMS Locotec Class 08 fleet continued during December with the release of No. 08523 from long-term and extensive engine repairs at Wolsingham. The locomotive was last used back in mid-2019 and was brought south from Inverness for attention in September that year. Road transport arrived on December 8 to transfer the shunter to the Electro-Motive Diesels (EMD) depot at Longport, Stoke, where RMS Locotec was due to displace Railway Support Services (RSS) as the shunter provider as 2022 ended. However, while No. 08523 was unloaded to await use, RSS’ No. 08752 was also still on site as the Christmas shutdown took effect. Notably, the new arrival is now carrying Progress Rail branding on its bonnet sides, this being the parent company of EMD. This is…

MUCH has changed at Glasgow Queen Street over the past few years through modernisation. Electrification, platform extensions and the introduction of new train fleets means the station was not the ‘must visit’ for enthusiasts that it perhaps was in the past when locomotive-hauled trains dominated the scene. However, that has changed again with the introduction of Inter7City High Speed Trains by ScotRail from Autumn 2018. Following the various introductions of new train fleets in England, the largest HST fleet can now be found in Scotland, with 25 sets in the SR fleet. There is a mixture of four and five-coach formations, with 15 IC7s in traffic each day. The power cars are all former Great Western Railway (GWR) Class 43s transferred north, via overhaul and refurbishment at Wabtec Rail, Loughborough.…

Class 320s are more often found operating on the north bank of the Clyde towards Dalmuir than on the opposite shore heading for Gourock and Wemyss Bay, but Class 320s are booked on the first westbound trip of the day, the 05.54 from Glasgow Central. After rising early, I found No. 320301 paired with a Class 318, allocated to a Class 320 diagram, instantly rendering any 0-60mph timings superfluous. Some double-sets are booked to be mixed and others turn up as hybrid formations because the classes tend to be deployed interchangeably. Although the power/tare weight ratios of these two classes are closely matched, at 12.4hp/tonne for a Class 318 and 12.49 for a Class 320, drivers believe the Class 318s are slower to pick up power, yielding an advantage to…

‘N’ Touax pocket wagon Built by Rautaruukki, Finland and introduced in 1997/98, the KQA/KTA ‘pocket wagon’ was one of the first new wagons to be built in the privatisation era to handle hi-cube containers. Operated by Freightliner, they remain in traffic today, managed by Touax which acquired the fleet of 75 wagons from GE Rail Services. The reissued ‘N’ gauge model, which was first released in the autumn of 2019, is decorated in the same plain blue livery as the Tiphook versions, but with Touax markings. Six models are available with unique running numbers including three in weathered condition for £35 and three clean wagons for £30. No containers are supplied with the models. The model will be revisited in the next issue for a thorough review. They are available…

00 GAUGE 4mm:1ft 1919 to 1971 ERA THE STANDARD SECR steel underframe has been further exploited by Rapido Trains with its latest releases, the first of which is the important, if humble, two-plank SECR ballast wagon. The 120 wagons built from 1919 were notable survivors well into the D&E era, with the Southern Region CME using them until around 1971. Consequently, their use in long rakes would have included both diesel and electro-diesel haulage. The ‘OO’ gauge SECR 9ft 6in steel underframe model has been described before in these review pages and is noteworthy for its fine tooling, underfloor detail including planking and draw gear, together with separately applied brake fittings. The wheels are composed of unpainted metal and feature split spokes, running in brass pin point bearings making…

PERHAPS the first big set-piece event on the modelling calendar is only a few weeks away and modellers across the UK will be preparing for a feast of layouts and inspiration. Model Rail Scotland is back at the SEC (Scottish Event Campus) in the heart of Glasgow from Feb 24 to 26. Dozens of layouts are due to be there at the SEC Centre, including Bash Street, Brandywine Junction, Grangemouth, New Hay, New Mills, Greatwestern RR, Calderside and many more, with a wide range of gauges and displays including N, P4, table top, OO gauge and O. And it’s not just the layouts and dioramas, as there will be something to pique everyone’s interest, with various railway models, accessories, techniques of painting, lighting systems, white metal castings and components, plus…

HEADLINE NEWS STRIKE action disrupted the railway for the first week in January, with the dispute set to continue despite various rounds of talks. The RMT union’s most recent action on the national network took place on January 3, 4, 6 and 7. This followed action by RMT members on December 24-27 which disrupted planned engineering work over the festive period. The union also went on strike on December 13, 14, 16 and 17. Meanwhile the driver’s union ASLEF took industrial action on January 5. The industrial action is over job security, changes to working conditions and pay. On January 7, the RMT published research it claims shows that operators made profits of more than £300 million during the Covid-19 pandemic between March 2020 and September 2022, when the Government…

HEADLINE NEWS CLASS 231 DEMUs are due to enter traffic on the Penarth-Rhymney route in the coming weeks, a Transport for Wales spokesperson has confirmed to RE. The 11 four-car Stadler trains are undergoing driver training on the Valley routes. The trains, Nos. 231001-011, have all been delivered to Cardiff Canton, and received authorisation to enter passenger traffic from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) last June. The spokesperson also confirmed that five former Grand Central Mk.4 sets will be introduced onto the Cardiff Central-Manchester Piccadilly route “in the next few weeks” once work to fit Selective Door Opening (SDO) to the stock is completed. Initially the ex-GC sets will be formed of four coaches but will be boosted by a fifth coach later in the year. Eventually TfW…

THE recent announcement by Great Western Railway that it has abandoned plans to introduce its 19 ‘Flex’ units (see Headline News, p9) provides an opportune time to detail the present status of the 86 Class 319s. To date, only 12 sets (plus one car from another unit) have been scrapped, leaving over 85% of the fleet intact in one form or another. Of the remaining sets, 37 have undergone ‘Flex’ conversion, and a further set was part converted before problems were found with one vehicle which saw its rebuild abandoned. Of the 16 ‘Flex’ sets which have been put into passenger use, the eight operated by Transport for Wales (TfW) are expected to be retired during the first few months of 2023; they were only intended as a stop-gap until…

FOLLOWING the BYA slab carrier rebuild programme that was completed in February 2022 (RE311) which grew out of the ‘Stegosaurus’ project (RE304), DB Cargo has now commenced a less involved scheme which only results in the removal of the characteristic hoods from which the wagons take their ‘Nissen hut’ nickname. Since the end of October, DB Cargo UK’s Stoke-on-Trent wagon works has been accumulating BRA and BYA steel wagons, including many examples from store at Margam, Tees Yard and Warrington either by rail or road transport. As of the end of December, eight had been returned to traffic sans protective covers, BYA Nos. 966065/81/87/156/157/215 on December 19 and BRA No. 964045 and BYA No. 966105 on December 28. This leaves the following vehicles on site: BRA Nos. 964007/016/024/036 and BYA…

IRISH ANGLE THE Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI), in association with NI Railways (NIR) and Iarnród Éireann (IE), operated Santa Specials in the Belfast and Dublin areas in the run-up to Christmas. While all the Belfast trips were powered by steam traction, six of the 18 Dublin trains were to be hauled by diesel locomotives. The sold-out Dublin specials ran from Connolly to Maynooth and return on December 3/4, 10/11 and 17/18. The 10.05 and 13.30 from Connolly on Saturdays and the 10.35 and 14.05 ex-Connolly on Sundays were booked for steam with the 16.10 (Saturdays) and 16.50 (Sundays) ex Connolly booked for diesel haulage. On December 3, GM No. 077 hauled the (steam-heat) stock for the specials, formed of eight Cravens coaches and “BR” van No. 3173, as…

Great Western Railway’s Castle sets are to be gradually withdrawn over the coming months (RE320). The most recent timetable change has already seen a reduction in the number of diagrams, which has subsequently resulted in the withdrawal of both power cars and coaching stock. So far, RE understands that No. 43041 St Catherine’s Castle has been removed from service after repairs were not authorised, and it is expected that 43005 St Michael’s Mount will be the next to be stood down. Both are leased from Angel Trains. The Castle sets were introduced in 2018 to combat a shortage in trains caused by the delayed delivery of new train fleets and the related cascades. In total there were 16 four-coach sets converted by Wabtec Rail, Doncaster. The coaches were modified and…

00 GAUGE 4mm:1ft 1993 to present ERA UNFORTUNATELY for ‘Dyson’ fans, the bulk of the Class 92 fleet, which was built between 1993 and 1996 for Channel Tunnel freight and EPS Nightstar services, is either stored or has found further employment in Europe. Around 18 or so locomotives currently see regular use in the UK including Caledonian Sleeper trains. While the collapse of the Nightstar project saw the Class 92 used exclusively on freight duties, it remained a much under-utilised class due to lower than anticipated volumes of freight traffic through the Channel Tunnel. Consequently, several examples have been stored for over 20 years. GB Railfreight introduced their first use in regular passenger service in 2015. It acquired former SNCF and Eurostar/EPS locomotives (via Europorte) in 2014 which, together…

REVIEW 0 GAUGE 7mm:1ft 1961 to 1987 ERA Scottish traction icon BUILT by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, Class 27s shared common features with the older Class 26, except they were fitted with a higher powered engine (1250hp vice 1160hp) and four-character headcode boxes instead of indicator discs. A handful were initially allocated to Thornaby, Leicester and Cricklewood from new in 1961 and 1962 before transfer to Scotland.The fleet of 68 Class 27s became exclusively Scottish Region locomotives in 1969 (one Class 27 was withdrawn in 1965), gaining the nick-name ‘MacRats’ along with Class 26 locomotives. Class 27s successfully established themselves on West Highland Line freight and passenger duties during the 1970s, the latter which utilised steam heated Mk.1 coachingstock. At the start of the 1970s, about…

NINETEEN Class 769/9 ‘Flex’ tri-mode units ordered by Great Western Railway in 2018 will be returned to Porterbrook at the end of their lease in April this year having never entered revenue-earning service. It was planned that the trains would be based at Reading and would operate on the Thames Valley as well as third-rail destinations served by GWR including Gatwick Airport and Reading. Crew familiarisation had begun, but a GWR spokesperson confirmed to RE that this will now end. The spokesperson said that the decision was due to revised passenger growth. He said that when the trains were ordered in 2018 there was expected to be a 12% growth in passenger numbers by the end of 2022, but now, thanks to the pandemic, customer demand has reduced by 3%,…

FORMER HHPI No. CB1001 arrived at Immingham Docks on December 16, the first of a new batch of ex-European locomotives to be added to the GB Railfreight fleet over the next 18 months. No. CB1001 was moved by road from Immingham to Doncaster Roberts Road on December 18, although it had yet to be unloaded by the end of the month. The 11 Type 5 locomotives comprise the entirety of Akiem’s European fleet of Electro Motive Diesel-built machines and includes, for the first time, examples of the Class 77 variant that were specifically designed for operation in mainland Europe and include out-of-gauge (for the United Kingdom) cab roof air-conditioning equipment as well as other features. Sixty Class 77s were delivered to EWS subsidiary Euro Cargo Rail from 2007, with Akiem,…

COACHES NO. 96371, one of the five former Nightstar generator vehicles owned by Eastern Rail Services, has moved to Inverness depot where it will be used for pre-heating of Mk 5 coaching stock used on overnight trains to London. The coach, which has been repainted into Caledonian Sleeper livery, arrived at its new base by road on November 30. Although initially planned to be used in static form at Inverness, there is the possibility that once the vehicle has proved itself that it could be used with a GB Railfreight Class 66 on the Inverness-Edinburgh (and return) leg of sleeper services. This would dispense with the need for a Class 73/9 to be used as a translator vehicle, although the generator van would need to be fitted with a Dellner…

PRE-COVID, Transport for London (TfL) was riding the crest of a subdued financial wave. Ridership levels meant a healthy income and, despite Crossrail’s delayed opening, the organisation predicted it would be financially sustainable by the early-2020s. TfL lost its annual subsidy by 2015/16, which had been as high as £2.17 billion in 2010/11, representing more than 20% of its income. Cancelling or curtailing some projects, TfL reduced its operational deficit to £968 million by 2017/18, which fell further to £494m in the 2018/19 financial year. By this time TfL was generating more than £10bn from income and other funding annually. Most of its £4.82bn ticket revenue came from London Underground (LU), with 1.4 billion annual journeys undertaken, almost 2.5% higher than in 2017/18. However, financial sustainability aspirations were decimated by…

DECARBONISATION and new trains look set to dominate Scotland’s Railways over the next decade. This is not the first time the railway north of the border has looked to operate differently from the rest of the country. The use of redundant, refurbished High Speed Trains on intercity services at the same time other operators were opting for underfloor-engined fleets is a prime example. Both the UK and Scottish governments have plans for decarbonising the railways, with deadlines set by the pair. However, the deadlines differ, with the Scottish date of 2035 more challenging than the UK’s 2050 deadline, albeit the latter wants rid of diesel-only trains by 2040. This means ScotRail’s current fleet will need changing. Including all the various subclasses, ScotRail operates 14 fleets. These are: Class 153, 156,…

IN the 50th anniversary year of the founding of Pathfinder Tours (in the form of F&W Tours) the company has released details of diesel-hauled charters for March and April. ‘The Great Eastern’ will run on Saturday, March 18, hauled by the Class Forty Preservation Society’s No. D345. Pick-up points are: Crewe, Tame Bridge Parkway, Birmingham New Street, Coleshill Parkway, Nuneaton and Leicester, with Wymondham, Norwich and Great Yarmouth the destinations. The English Electric Type 4 locomotives made their debut on the Great Eastern in 1958, so the sound of a 16SVT engine in Norfolk will bring back memories – for those who can remember! Pathfinder’s annual jaunt to Scotland takes place on April 14-17 – and this year it is First Class only! The tour starts at Cheltenham Spa with…

SLAM-DOOR trains briefly returned to long distance ScotRail services when redundant GWR/FGW Mk.3 trailers were used to create 12 four-car HST trains to cover for the late delivery of ScotRail Inter7City train sets. Poor performance levels prompted the leasing of three additional sets in March 2019, one of which included the only Mk.3 Trailer Composite (No. 46010) to be used in the classic HSTs. Slam-doors had been eliminated from ScotRail trains many years ago, apart from the Fife Circle peak hour loco-hauled trains prompting the need to produce a video to help passengers understand the concept of a door handle and central door locking. The temporary HST sets became a welcome diversion from the solid diet of Class 158s and Class 170s. It is an interesting time slot to model…