Innehållsförteckning för October 2024 från Rail Express

LABOUR’S Public Ownership Bill successfully passed through the House of Commons on September 3, moving the railway a step closer to former franchises being publicly-owned. This took place on the same day that the Government created Shadow Great British Railways. The Department for Transport said that the launch of Shadow Great British Railways will set in motion a huge overhaul of the running of the rail network and will bring together leaders from Network Rail, DfT and publicly-owned operators. Shadow GBR will pave the way for Great British Railways, which will be a unified arm’s length body responsible for bringing together track and train and which will also oversee services and infrastructure. Speaking on September 3, Secretary of State for Transport Louise Haigh said: “Today, I am firing the starting…

NEW bi-mode trains will be ordered should Grand Central’s application for extended track access be approved by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). GC, which operates between London King’s Cross, Bradford and Sunderland, currently uses 10 five-car Class 180s and two four-car Class 221s. The latter are due to be returned to Beacon Rail at the end of the year. Arriva Group, which owns GC, announced on September 2 that it was seeking to extend its existing track access rights until 2038. Consultations with stakeholders began the same day. Under the plans, GC said the new fleet would feature around 20% more seats than the ‘180s’. David Brown, Arriva UK Trains managing director, said: “Grand Central plays an important role within Arriva Group’s rail portfolio and securing long-term access…

INTERNATIONAL rail sales and consultancy firm Romic has obtained more High Speed Train rolling stock. The latest acquisitions are four former CrossCountry vehicles which have been purchased from Porterbrook. The coaches – Trailer First (TF) No. 41194, Trailer Standard (TS) Nos. 42370/377 and Trailer Guard’s Standard (TGS) No. 44021 – were hauled from Long Marston to Kimberley Park Sidings (Mid-Norfolk Railway) by Rail Operations Group No. 37800 Cassiopeia on August 21. Six days earlier, the 12 Romic coaches which had been transferred from Ely Papworth to Norwich Crown Point in two convoys on June 23 and July 1, were moved to the Kimberley Park Sidings for temporary storage. Trailer Standard (TS) Nos. 48127-129/143-148 and Trailer Guard’s Standard (TGS) Nos. 49110/115/116 were moved by RailAdventure power car Nos. 43465/484; this ‘2+12’…

CLASS 20 After a few barren weeks, English Electric Type 1s featured on the main line once more during August. Having been in Scotland since May with the Balfour Beatty drain train, Nos. 20901 and 20905 returned south on August 8 with the 6J09 06.21 Bridgeton Yard-Carlisle Upperby. Four days later they departed from Warrington Bank Quay at 12.57 bound for Crewe Gresty Bridge prior to leaving for Woking via Stoke, Leicester, Brent Curve and Hounslow the following day. Nos. 20901 and 20905 left Woking for Bletchley at 18.30 on August 22, travelling via Virginia Water, Kew East Junction and Sudbury Junction, but returned to Woking during the evening of August 27. On August 30, Nos. 20007 and 20205 passed Bicester at either end of Chiltern Railways Mk.3 Driving Van…

THE 25-year history of ‘Peaks’ powering Liverpool-Newcastle expresses is being re-created on November 8, when No. 45118 The Royal Artilleryman is booked to haul ‘The Pennine Peak’ between the two cities. Locomotive Services, through its Inter-City subsidiary, is operating the train. Starting at Crewe with an LS ‘47’, the charter heads to Liverpool where No. 45118 takes over for the run over the Pennines. Because of Trans Pennine Route Upgrade (TRU) infrastructure work, the former London North Western Railway route from Thornhill LNW Junction through Dewsbury to Leeds is not available, so the special will take the former Lancashire and Yorkshire route from Thornhill LNW Junction through Wakefield Kirkgate and on to York and then Newcastle. The return journey will traverse the Durham coast route (formerly used by some Newcastle-Liverpool…

TT GAUGE 1:120 1973-present ERA PARALLELS with the ‘OO’ gauge range are appearing in Hornby’s ‘TT120’ gauge collection, with Mk.2f coaches now available in the shops. They will go well with the new refurbished Class 50 models even though the blue and grey coaches are marked for the Midland Region. Nonetheless, Hornby’s locomotive range will eventually catch up with its rolling stock releases with the forthcoming Class 31s and Class 37s. A Class 47 in various guises is much needed and would be an excellent partner to the Mk.2f stock. However, ‘TT:120’ supporters will have to be patient because resources and funding is always limited and Hornby’s progress in this scale has been pretty impressive so far. The three Mk.2f coach designs built by BR between 1973 and 1975 have been produced…

AVANTI WEST COAST AWC has seen its fleet change drastically. A refurbishment of its Class 390 Pendolino electric multiple units was completed by Alstom at the manufacturer’s Widnes facility in June. The project saw the 11-car ‘390/1s’ treated first, followed by the ‘390/0s’. The start of the new timetable in May saw the introduction of Hitachi bi-mode Class 805s. These five-car sets are being used to replace the Class 221 Super Voyagers, however Nos. 805006/007 have yet to carry passengers as they are still being used for testing. However, this has not stopped AWC returning Nos. 221107/111-118 to Beacon Rail, with Nos. 221114-116 already at their new operator (see CrossCountry). Deliveries of 10 Class 807 EMUs is underway. AWC will use these seven-car trains to replace the remaining ‘221s’. They…

THREE charity railtours organised by the Branch Line Society, which ran as part of the Drax Power Station 50th anniversary weekend, raised £35,000 for the Martin House Children’s Hospice. The charters ran on August 17 and 18, and featured traction supplied by DB Cargo UK, Freightliner, GB Railfreight and Locomotive Services. The first to run was ‘The Cooling Tower Choppers’ on August 17. This departed Derby behind LS Nos. 20118 Saltburn-by-the-Sea and 20132, which took the train to Peterborough, Lincoln and Doncaster. At Doncaster Belmont Yard, DBC Nos. 66006/083, 66102 and 66162 Maritime Intermodal Five were attached to the train and hauled it within the confines of the yard as an unadvertised bonus. GBRf No. 69011 also featured on the tour. The charter then visited Monk Bretton Ardagh Glass rail…

THE number of Class 90s still extant at Sandbach Commercial Dismantlers Ltd’s (SCDL) Middlewich location has been reduced to two, with the cutting up of Nos. 90017/023/032/038 over the last few days of July and the first half of August. This leaves only Nos. 90030/033 to receive the attention of the scrap merchant after Nos. 90022/027 were disposed of in mid-July. The first of the latest group to be scrapped was No. 90038, which carried Railfreight Distribution European-livery. This had been reduced to shredded metal by the end of July. New to Crewe Electric and the FGQC pool (Freight Distribution Crewe Class 90) on April 30, 1990, like many of its later-built colleagues, it had originally been observed complete at Crewe Works six months before it was finally accepted into…

HARRY Needle Railroad Company No. 37405 and Colas Railfreight No. 56090 collected eight Network Rail ZZA independent snowploughs during August, for storage at the former Ministry of Defence site at Eastriggs near Carlisle. This follows the move of NR’s Snow and Ice Treatment Train (SITT) formation to the same location in June. After laying over at Larbert CE sidings on August 18, the ‘37’ and ‘56’ visited Inverness on August 19 to collect Nos. ADB 965224/230, returning south as the 7Z33 13.04 to Larbert before continuing as the 7Z34 05.53 to Eastriggs MoD on August 20. On August 21, the pair headed Up the West Coast Main Line to Carlisle Kingmoor to move Nos. ADB 965210/242 the short distance north as the 7Z36 09.34 to Eastriggs. Over the next two…

THE reappearance of the AC Locomotive Group’s Class 89 in action on the main line came closer on August 15, when it left UK Rail Leasing, Loughborough, and was hauled to Locomotive Services’ depot at Crewe by No. D6817 (37521). Here, driver training and EMC testing will take place prior to its return to full main line operation. During the last 18 months, No. 89001 Avocet has had a large amount of work carried out at Loughborough to return it to both operational condition and to enable it to operate on Network Rail metals; since it last ran on the main line, new requirements such as TPWS (Train Protection Warning System), OTMR (On Train Monitoring Recorder) and GSM-R Radio have been introduced. Other work carried out has included reinstallation of…

THE CLASS 153 and associated Class 155s are long-lived units and have operated over a wide geographical area and in numerous operator liveries too, making the lack of a high fidelity model with advanced technical features something of a glaring gap for ‘OO’ gauge. The Class 155 is particularly poorly represented with an obsolete model by Dapol which roughly matched the prototype and is now out of production. Perhaps the conversion to Class 153s diverted attention away from these important Provincial and Regional Railways units even though the seven WTPTE units have survived and continue to be operated today. Heljan has grabbed the opportunity to add both classes to its range where it will be able to share numerous parts of the tooling suite between both types. It has completed…

00 GAUGE 4mm:1ft 1956-1980s ERA THE BULLEID ‘triangulated’ underframe story being mapped out in 4mm scale by Irish Railway Models (IRM) continues with the 1958-built Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE) ‘LB’ flat wagons, of which 79 were constructed at Inchicore Works. They were constructed on Bulleid’s standard welded triangular underframe used successfully in the previously reviewed open wagons and other vehicles which are in the process of being developed by IRM, including the clasp braked 12t H van and grain wagons. Two triple packs of the ‘LB’ flat wagon have been produced with stanchions fitted to the wagon sides along with chain loops. Both packs are finished in original grey livery with white markings and unique running numbers. A third pack consists of flat wagons built from redundant vans for the Permanent Way…

00 GAUGE 4mm:1ft 1990s-early 2000s ERA Second-hand coaches IRISH RAILWAY MODELS followed up on its Northern Irish Railways Mk.2b stock with four runner packs of former BR Mk.2b and Mk.2c coaches which were acquired second-hand in 1990. The story goes that redundant locomotives were exchanged for 16 Mk.2s in a deal with Vic Berry which included Mk.2b and Mk.2c stock, consisting of First Opens, Corridor First and Corridor Standard coaches. IRM can offer four-coach packs of the models because nine coaches from the mix of Mk.2 stock was placed in traffic in unmodified condition except for regauging. This included five Mk.2c coaches which were declassified First Opens. Five Mk.2 FKs, which included Mk.2c stock were rebuilt as Open Seconds whilst two Mk.2b coaches were rebuilt as Buffet Open Seconds. Coach Pack C…

THE unveiling of No. 69012 Falcon 2 in a two-tone green livery inspired by the prototype No. D0280 Falcon, means that half of the Class 69s in traffic as this issue of Rail Express went to press, carry special liveries. The Class 69 project involves rebuilding withdrawn Class 56s. They are fitted with brand-new EMD12N-70 engines, the same fitted in the Class 66s. GB Railfreight had looked at fitting a twin-engine Caterpillar design, an MTU V16 engine and even two Cummins engines, before settling on the ‘66’ engine, which also provides commonality with the ubiquitous Class 66s. Rebuilding the Class 56s as Class 69s is undertaken by Progress Rail at Longport, although the bogies are overhauled by Pullman Rail at Cardiff Canton. The project was devised based on the need…

PORTERBROOK and Angel Trains have disposed of their first Class 150 and ‘465’ vehicles for scrap, with the movement of vehicles to C F Booth Ltd at Rotherham and Sims Metal at Newport. The two Class 465 ‘Networker’ centre cars, Trailer Standard (TS) Nos. 72787/788 from set 465235, arrived from Wabtec, Doncaster, on July 29, and were cut up within two weeks. They become the first ‘465’ vehicles to be cut up. The two driving cars from the set, Nos. 65734/784, remain at Wabtec, Doncaster in a stripped condition. The set had moved to Doncaster from Ely for use as a spares donor in September 2022 and had been out of service since being stopped by SouthEastern in October 2021. The first former TfW Rail ‘150/2’ to be disposed of,…

THE replacement of the Harry Needle Class 08s and ‘09s’ currently employed on the Celsa contract at Cardiff Tidal, remains on schedule following the delivery of the first replacement Zephir road/rail shunter on July 31. The deal to oust the ageing English Electric machines was announced in late March, with Porterbrook procuring three of the diesel-powered LOK 16.300 variant for leasing to GB Railfreight. All three are expected to be delivered by October, with suggestions a fourth may join them, after which they will take over all shunting operations at the Celsa steelworks in Cardiff Docks. The first of the order, works No. 3068, carries the identity of LOK 1 on its yellow cab, with the rest of the bodywork predominately finished in dark blue with two orange stripes and…

PUBLICATION of the final report of the All-Island Strategic Rail Review on July 31, estimates that some £31 billion will be required over the next 25 years to boost rail in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland infrastructure minister John O’Dowd and Republic of Ireland Transport Minister Eamon Ryan attended a reception at Dundalk to mark the review’s long-awaited release. Compiled by Arup, the review was welcomed by both governments and lists recommendations for the development and expansion of intercity, regional and railfreight services in each jurisdiction up to the year 2050. Authorised jointly by each administration in April 2021 to examine how rail could contribute to the goals of achieving net zero emissions, counter climate change and improve connectivity, the review process featured two public consultations…

FROM TIME TO TIME, a model pops up which is the perfect foundation for a quick weekend modelling project. This time, it is the turn of a Cardiff Canton favourite: No. 56032 Sir De Morgannwg County of South Glamorgan. The base model for this particular weekend project is a Cavalex Models ‘OO’ gauge Class 56 released earlier this year: Trainload Coal No. 56023. No. 56032, along with No. 56031 are an intermediate pair of locomotives marking the transition from production in Romania to BREL Doncaster, making them different from No. 56033 onwards. When finished, the model would add something a little different to the layout compared to the off-the-shelf models. The base model has many of the features of No. 56032, including the correct bufferbeam fairing, recessed marker lights and…

D&E FILES IT HAS BEEN a number of years since the Replica Railways PCV (TOPS NAA) has been produced, and by today’s standards it is far from the contemporary standard expected by modellers today. The Bachmann announcement of a PCV for the EFE Rail range is a good move and will go well with its range of RES BR Mk.1 mail vans. It is based on new tooling and will be fitted with running lights. Bachmann may need to consider a Super GUV to go with the PCV, the only current model is the former Lima model produced under the Hornby railroad range from time to time. PCVs are conversions from redundant Class 307 stock, namely the driving vehicles with the builds separated into those built from DTCOL vehicles (No.…

ELIZABETH McKay replaced Sam Mullins OBE as director and CEO of London Transport Museum during the summer of 2023. She became responsible for the award-winning attraction housed in the former Flower Market building in Covent Garden only days after Mr Mullins said: “We’d like it to be three times larger; that would be helpful. But its location is really good. We’re in the middle of the West End.” Originally from Colorado, Elizabeth has worked in the cultural sector for more than 20 years. Prior to joining LTM in 2018 as chief operating officer, she was chief learning and engagement officer at Historic Royal Palaces where she created a strategy which doubled its audience reach. Before then, she was an award-winning executive producer and head of knowledge campaigns at BBC Learning.…

ALL 14 Transport for London (TfL) Scholma locomotives were auctioned by Wilsons Auctions of Newcastle, on August 14. In addition, TfL hopper and rail wagons, along with twin JIB and 7.5 tonne cranes, were also sold off. Railway Support Services (RSS) said it has purchased the 10 battery and four diesel locomotives. It intends to move the new acquisitions to its Sutton Coldfield workshops for minor modifications, prior to taking up new duties soon. Following the conversion of 10 of the locomotives from diesel to battery traction, conversion work on the remaining four examples, Nos, 1, 3, 9 and 12, was never undertaken. Originally constructed by German manufacturer Scholma, the 14 locomotives were built to undertake extension work on the Jubilee Line beyond Green Park, to Stratford. The first examples…