Innehållsförteckning för May 2025 från Rail Express

THE latest addition to the Class 69 fleet, No. 69014, has been outshopped in a vintage golden livery, rather reminiscent of the Hawker Siddley prototype HS4000 Kestrel. It is the ninth different livery to be used on the Class 69s, which is a fleet of 16 locomotives. The name EMD Longport was unveiled by John Smith, chief executive officer of GB Railfreight, and Jonathan Caen, director of Progress Rail UK, on March 26, in a ceremony attended by EMD’s and GBRf’s maintenance and fleet teams. At the event, John Smith OBE said: “This is the fourth loco we have named on behalf of EMD, which just goes to show the strength of the relationship our two companies share.” EMD are rebuilding 16 Class 56 locos for GBRf, replacing the Ruston…

AFTER repairs and maintenance at UKRL Leicester and Boden Rail’s Colwick TMD, BREL Type 5s Nos. 56103 and 56301 have returned to service for DC Rail, the pair undergoing an initial 0Z56 shakedown run on March 12 from Rectory Junction to Allington West Junction and back. The following day the pair departed under the same appropriate headcode to Chaddesden Sidings (Derby). However, it wasn’t until March 16 when they were let loose with their first train, the pair taking an empty set of JNAs north as a 4M70 22.01 to Tunstead, to work the loaded 6M71 03.38 to Leicester Humberstone Road the next day. On March 21, the pair were still together to haul a similar train of box wagons to East Anglia as a 4L92 11.08 Chaddesden Sidings to…

CLASS 20 All four LSL EE Type 1s took part in the SRPS ‘Seven Counties Rail Tour’ on March 8, having travelled from Crewe to Carlisle Upperby as a quartet the previous day. Nos. 20132 and 20118 Saltburn by the Sea top-and-tailed with No. 37403 on the 1Z31 06.11 Linlithgow-Carlisle via the Nith Valley, and were replaced by Nos. 20096 and 20107 Jocelyn Feilding 1940-2020 for the journey over the Settle & Carlisle line to Preston and back to Carlisle via Shap. Having remained at Carlisle, Nos. 20118 and 20132 hauled four HST trailers between translator coaches as the 5Z20 08.08 Carlisle Upperby-UKRL Loughborough on March 20. Nos. 20205 and 20007 were called upon to take track machine DR73905 (bound for France) on the 6O11 12.55 Rugby OTPD-Dollands Moor on…

ALL 25 of the new slab carriers leased to Tata Steel and GB Railfreight by VTG Rail, for its new Port of Bristol to Margam flow of imported steel slab, have been removed from traffic and are unlikely to run again, with the train transferring to DB Cargo motive power and rolling stock. It is not known if DB has taken over the original two-year contract to its completion. The closure of the traditional blast furnaces at Port Talbot, to be replaced by new low carbon electric arc furnaces in 2027, has led to a new flow of imported steel slab via Portbury to Margam. To support the service, VTG Rail provided 25 slab carriers, which were cut down from KEA high-sided box wagons by W H Davis in the…

AN IMPORTANT deadline passed at the end of March as this issue of Rail Express was being prepared. Expressions of interest, along with a £50 deposit, were being sought for a ‘OO’ gauge model of the first phase of Electrostar EMUs. As we reported last month, the scale of this project is huge, with so many builds, variants and vehicles to cover, not to mention liveries. Accurascale teamed up with Rails of Sheffield to see if this project had legs. Based on reports from both companies, it seems that it is a project that will run and run. Not only is the first ribbon-glazed design of Electrostar in demand, but modellers were also asking for the later builds with separate windows. It means that Class 379 and Class 387 units…

0 GAUGE 7mm scale 1960 to 1975 ERA TWENTY CLASS 02 locomotives were built for British Railways in 1960 and 1961, intended for lines with sharp curves and restricted clearances such as industrial branches and dockside locations. Even as they were being built and introduced, the railways they were intended for were fast disappearing from the national network, which meant the class had a relatively short service life, with withdrawals commencing in 1969. The Class 02 is a diesel-hydraulic of a less than conventional design with a single cab door in the rear of the cab. The short 0-4-0 wheelbase made it ideal for the sharply curved lines it was intended for and this feature, along with their relatively good overall condition at withdrawal, saw 11 locomotives sold to private industry. Review…

What is styrene card? IN A MODELLING WORLD where laser cut wood and 3D printing is all the rage, what place does styrene have on modellers’ workbenches today? Is it only being used for simple modelling jobs and making small details? Or are modellers still building large and complex structures with it? It seems that this versatile and relatively inexpensive material is falling out of favour with some modellers, and it does not deserve to do so. With so many laser-cut wood kits for structures and details available, it seems that the simple pleasures of building from sheet material and sectional strip is no longer the bread and butter of the hobby. Or are we wrong in that assessment? Styrene is actually polystyrene plastic, a synthetic polymer first discovered in…

Severn Valley secures two Class 56s for diesel gala TWO Colas Rail Class 56s are set to be added to the guest line-up for the Severn Valley Railway’s four-day Spring Diesel Festival from May 15-18. The two locos are expected to be Nos. 56090 and 56094, subject to availability. The pair will join HST power cars from Rail Adventure and Class 66 and Class 70 locomotives from Freightliner, and support the SVR’s own fleet of Classes 17, 20, 33, 37, 40, 42, 50 and 52. An intensive service will operate over 12 miles of line between Kidderminster and Hampton Loade, with January’s landslip leaving Bridgnorth severed. At Kidderminster, tours of the Traction Maintenance Department and the Carriage Shed are bookable on the day at the Fifty Fund stand on the…

MARCH saw the release of the final Class 720 ‘Aventra’ for Greater Anglia and 805 ‘Evero’ for Avanti West Coast from Alstom at Derby and Hitachi at Newton Aycliffe respectively, bringing to a close two of the new-build delivery programmes. After the emergence of No. 720104 on March 3, which was hauled from Derby Litchurch Lane to Willesden by No. 69012 Falcon 2, the penultimate Class 720 to be released, No. 720534, appeared on March 14, when it was hauled to Willesden by No. 57303. Following testing on the West Coast Main Line, it ran to Ilford for further mileage accumulation on March 18. The same day saw the release of the final set, No. 720504, which was hauled from Derby to Willesden by No. 57310. It too moved to…

THE Western Locomotive Association has launched an appeal to raise £15,000 to ensure the long-term survival of No. D1048 Western Lady, which was gifted to the WLA in October 2023. Some £5000 has already been donated, thanks to the generosity of several individuals, and a dedicated website for the appeal – www.d1048appeal.uk– has been set up. Donations will be ringfenced for use only on No. D1048. Although No. D1048 was repainted for display at Kidderminster in 2023, its bodywork is in need of attention, with various areas requiring cutting out and rewelding to bring it up to the same standard of its sister WLA locomotives, Nos. D1013 Western Ranger and D1062 Western Courier. The WLA is also undertaking an electrical and mechanical assessment of No. D1048 to ascertain if the…

GM No. 220 re-entered revenue earning service on March 14, when it was used for a trip working with an IWT container train between Dublin North Wall and the dockside, after an earlier test run from Inchicore to Portarlington and return. No. 220 hauled the Ballina-bound IWT train on March 15, the 10.05 ex-Ballina on the 17th and the 09.40 North Wall-Ballina on the 18th. Use of a 201 Class on freight duties following overhaul or other major work is normal practice before use on passenger trains. As reported in the last issue the relivery of No 220 into the original orange, yellow and black retro scheme has been carried out to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The 20 operational 201 Class locomotives now sport five liveries between them: No. 216…

00 GAUGE 4mm scale Mid 1985 to late 1989 ERA A REFINED MODEL of No. 31110, released by Accurascale in the second wave (of the first batch) of Class 31s, introduces the ‘skinhead’ variant of the bodyshell (along with No. 31105), the result of the locomotive being fitted with train reporting discs. This feature resulted in a neater cab roof profile which was succeeded by the larger roof mounted headcode box which always looked as if it was plonked on the cabs without much thought. The arrival of Railfreight No. 31110 allows a further look at the model, and to do justice to what is a highly acclaimed five-star model. No. 31110 certainly upholds the museum quality standard we observed when reviewing the model of BR blue No. 31432. There are no…

00 GAUGE 4mm scale 1950 to 1970s ERA About the models CAN THE SIMPLE 16t mineral wagon be improved upon? Accurascale thought so, and kicked off its new range with no fewer than 20 different triple-wagon packs. Whilst the model is based on Diagram 1/108 and 1/109 wagons, of which literally thousands were built, the 20 packs cover the wagon from 1950 through to rebodied versions of the 1970s, along with TOPS coded MCO wagons and industrial users too. The tooling makes provision to model wagons with different side doors, top flaps, and end doors. Bodyshells are tooled to cover both diagrams. The review models take us back to the 1950s and 1960s with two packs of wagons in pre-TOPS condition, finished in BR freight grey. One pack covers the welded bodied…

THE Privatisation of Britain’s railways in the 1990s brought with it a lengthy hiatus of new passenger rolling stock orders lasting 1064 days. After the first order of new vehicles by Chiltern Railways and Porterbrook with the Class 168 ‘Clubman’ units from Adtranz in September 1996, other orders began to follow. GEC Alsthom, (which later became Alstom) gained several orders for both DMUs and EMUs, which were built at the former Metro-Cammell plant at Washwood Heath near Birmingham. The first Diesel Multiple Units to be ordered from the firm were 27 Class 175s for North Western Trains in July 1997. This was followed less than three months later by another order from Great Western Holdings (which operated both the North Western Trains and Great Western franchises) for 14 five-car DMUs…

24 Tube Stock: Line testing begins FOLLOWING the delivery of the first nine-car pre-production 24 Tube Stock [TS] train to Ruislip on October 14, it has been rather quiet. When delivered, TfL had announced that the first 24 TS unit was due to enter passenger service on the Piccadilly Line by the end of 2025, with all 73 TS units having been replaced by the end of 2027. Since delivery, TfL has confirmed that the first train has been undergoing commissioning and readiness for testing on the London Underground network. This work includes software upgrades, dynamic testing and recovery testing as part of the essential phase to confirm compatibility prior to any test running. The first emergence of the new rolling stock from Ruislip Deport took place in the early…

A NUMBER of new signs, in the same style as those installed on the East Coast Main Line in the 1930s, are to be installed along sections of the Stockton & Darlington to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the first passenger railway journey. The signs are the idea of Maurice Burns, vice-president of the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group, who has taken the project forward in conjunction with Network Rail and his friends Richard Barber, Gordon Best and Nick Carter. The agreed proposal is to install five signs, on the basis that Network Rail would install them if Maurice could coordinate the design, supply of materials and oversee their fabrication. Working with the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, grants were secured from The Railway Heritage Trust, Durham…

EASTERN Rail Services (ERS) provided a complete set of coaching stock for use on a charter train for the first time on March 29, when a rake of its Mk.2 ‘air cons’ were used on UK Railtours’ ‘The Kentish Maiden’, operated by GB Railfreight. Although ERS has previously supplied a small number of its vehicles for use on charters (TSO Nos. 5919, 6046 and 6173 were used by Locomotive Services in December 2023 and BSO No. 9513 also sees regular use with the Crewe-based firm), this was the first occasion when an entire rake of coaches has been provided. The nine-coach set had undertaken a test run from Great Yarmouth to Leicester and back with No. 57310 on March 17, and subsequent to that, FO No. 3385 lost its InterCity…

AFTER a relatively settled spell, mid-March brought a hectic period of transfers for the small Class 08 fleet that continues to be employed by Freightliner. The first to move was No. 08531 which, having developed a defect, was recovered from Ipswich to Burton-upon-Trent on March 10, for repairs, leaving No. 08624 to work the maintenance depot at Ipswich alone. A day or two later saw No. 08785 released from an exam at the Nemesis Rail depot, this returning once again to Southampton Maritime and the post it vacated back in December. In turn, No. 08530 was sent on its way, with the container terminal at Trafford Park, Manchester its destination, from which No. 08585 was ousted after a stay of two years. This only made it to the Stoke haulage…

00 GAUGE 4mm scale ONE OF THE latest Class 08s released by Hornby comes fully loaded with TXS digital sound, which is part of the Hornby HM7000 Bluetooth digital control system. The locomotive is No. D3069 finished in BR green and models a ‘Gronk’ which never received a TOPS number, being transferred to departmental service in 1974 and eventually scrapped in 1980. The applied livery is open to renumbering to a different green Class 08 as long as the equipment boxes, bonnet and cab doors match the locomotive concerned. Hornby’s Class 08 has been available for a number of years and at the time of writing, is regarded as one of the finest models of the type. It is usually produced with a good level of locomotive-specific detail and has a…

N GAUGE 2mm scale 1958 to 1967 ERA WITH ONLY five Class 41 (D600604) ‘Warship Class’ locomotives being constructed, an ‘N’ gauge model would seem to be an unlikely occurrence. Nonetheless, a range of models has been released by Bachmann as part of its EFE Rail collection. The sample model is finished as No. D600 Active and fitted with split train reporting boxes. They were constructed by the North British Locomotive Company in 1958 and 1959, as part of a British Transport Commission (BTC) sponsored order for a pilot scheme diesel-hydraulic locomotive. The specification was for a locomotive with 2000hp output suitable for express passenger service. A heavy frame typical of diesel electric locomotives of the time was specified at the behest of the BTC. This flew in the face of one…

50 YEARS AGO… MAY 1975 ■ FIRST MK.3S ON LM REGION THE FIRST two sets of Mk.3 rolling stock were put into service by British Railways London Midland Region on May 12, running between London Euston and Liverpool Lime Street. The carriages were part of an order for 135 second class and 90 first class coaches for West Coast Main Line services. Built by BREL at Litchurch Lane in Derby, initially they ran with Mk.1 catering vehicles. ■ HST TRIALS TO BRISTOL THE PROTOTYPE High Speed Train entered trial service on May 5, operating two return trips on weekdays. It worked the 07.45 Bristol Parkway-Paddington; 10.15 Paddington to Weston-super-Mare and 13.47 return and 16.45 Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads. 40 YEARS AGO… MAY 1985 ■ FAREWELL TO BROAD STREET THE…

WITH postwar shortages now over, the world was changing, and Britain with it; increasing competition from roads, the growth of consumerism and the general standard of living was increasing. The railway’s response was its modernisation programme. By the mid-1960s the modernisation of motive power was almost complete across British Rail, and the sight of a steam locomotive was fast becoming an exception rather than the norm it had been a few years before. As more diesel and electric locomotives came off the production line, more crews undertook training for the new motive power, and increasing numbers of steam engines were made redundant. The scale of the transition through the 1960s modernisation era is easy to underestimate these days. Operational staff were faced with several elements of significant change simultaneously: New…