Innehållsförteckning för January 2026 från Rail Express

THE introduction of more Class 701 ‘Arterio’ units over the past month has enabled South Western Railway to stand down more of its Class 455s, and, at the end of November, just 13 sets were required in service on weekdays. Further diagrams were due to go over to ‘Arterio’ operation by December 15, and, although it is expected that some sets will remain in traffic beyond the date of the joint SouthWestern Railway/Branch Line Society railtour on December 21, it is looking likely that the remaining examples will be taken out of use before the end of January. As of late November, 21 sets were still active, these being Nos. 5701/02/06/08-10/16/19-21/28-30/32/34/37/39, 5863/69-71/73. Also still at Wimbledon, but out of use, were Nos. 5705/12/14/17/27, 5850/65. Meanwhile, the disposal of the fleet…

THE managed rundown of Hunslet’s workshop at Barton-under-Needwood, near Burton upon Trent, was completed during October with the departure of the last industrial shunters on site. Expected for some time, Hunslet’s vacation of the site is a result of Wabtec’s forthcoming withdrawal from Doncaster, which will see its wheelset business and other residual operations transferred to Barton-underNeedwood, a site that Wabtec owns and Hunslet only leased. Although Hunslet, which is owned by Ed Murray & Sons, is expected to open a workshop at a new location in due course, much of its repair work is currently being undertaken using the facilities available at Brownhills West on the Chasewater Railway. As a result, Thomas Hill No. 297V is understood to have arrived here around the end of October, the Bardon Hill…

OO GAUGE 4mm scale 2021 to present ERA The livery AVANTI WEST COAST Class 390 No. 390121 was treated to a vinyl attack in 2021 to highlight the role of Glasgow in the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The twenty-sixth conference, also called COP26, was held at the SEC in Glasgow. It was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and eventually took place between October 31 and November 12, 2021. The train was treated to environmental themed graphics along with legends including ‘Ride Against Climate Change’ and ‘Our Planet Means The World To Us’. The effect on the train’s appearance is eye-catching, making it a good subject for Hornby’s ‘OO’ gauge Class 390 model. The Hornby model Hornby has produced a good model of the Class 390 since 2007, although it is…

OO GAUGE 4mm scale 1955 to mid-1970s ERA BULLEID H Van wagons were built at Inchicore works during the mid 1950s and the builds included unfitted wagons which are the latest to appear from Irish Railway Models (IRM). They are sold in the usual triple wagon packs with individual running numbers applied to each model. Three liveries are modelled in six separate packs. Grey with the CIÉ ‘flying snail, grey with CIÉ roundel logos and bauxite with roundels are available to cover the life span of the wagon type. In this review, we take a look at pack 2 of the ‘flying snail’ version along with pack 2 of the bauxite wagons. H Van body As previously reported, the body tooling of the H Van is to a high standard, giving this…

AS this column was penned, it looked on the cards that there was not one railtour listed from the various tour operators. At the last minute, UK Railtours saved the day for railtourers facing ‘withdrawal’ symptoms, with news of two late January outings – see below. Whilst it is the so-called quiet time of year, for all the long-established tour operators, covering all aspects of the market, why is January virtually ignored? As, invariably, diesel charters either have a generator vehicle or a second locomotive to supply ETH, lack of heating cannot be given as a problem. Days are short but what would be wrong with a short trip encompassed within daylight hours, such as a Midland-based run to Skegness, fish and chip lunch, and then home with, hauled perhaps,…

MORE than three years later than expected the new ‘Aurora’ fleet was formally launched at Derby Etches Park Depot, home base for the units, on November 20. During the event EMR confirmed that the five-car sets will be phased into service over the next year and into 2027 as they are accepted and as staff training progresses. At the event EMR stated that it had accepted four sets so far Nos. 810006, 008, 009 and 010 although it was noted that 008 and 009 need further rectification work before they are available for service. Set 810012 will be the next set accepted. Whilst Hitachi declined to comment on the reasons for the lengthy delay in delivering the sets, except for highlighting the impact of Covid, EMR sources noted that whilst…

DURING November, London North Eastern Railway began removing two vehicles from each of its Mk.4 coaching stock sets in advance of the new East Coast Main Line timetable from December 14. The revised timetable requires that the Class 91 and Mk.4 rakes are able to keep to ‘Azuma’ timings, and the reduction in length of the sets will provide improved acceleration for the ‘91s’. The fleet is being re-diagrammed so that, primarily, they are not used on peak hour services which require maximum capacity. The first set to have two coaches removed was NL08, which made its first appearance in its new shortened form on November 3. Its first working in this guise was with No. 91111 For the Fallen on the 1A13 06.56 Skipton-King’s Cross. Over the next ten…

OO GAUGE 4mm scale 1935 to mid-1980s ERA COMPREHENSIVE coverage of the three standard LMS brake van types is offered with the new Bachmann ‘OO’ gauge model. Diagram 1919 dating to 1935-38; Diagram D2036 dating from 1940 and the later builds to Diagram D2068, many of which were constructed by British Railways after Nationalisation will offer the modeller a wide choice of brakes vans. Variations between the three diagrams included end panels, guard’s ducket size and the size of the underframe ballast boxes. Brakes are also modelled according to the brake van concerned and in the case of the review model, many of the LMS 20t van fleet were fitted with through vacuum brake pipes. The review model is coded ZTP and is numbered as No. DM731790. It is one of five…

EM’ AND ‘P4’ drop-in wheel sets for the Class 60 were announced when the brand new model was first unveiled by Accurascale. In common with previous drop-in wheel packs, they are sold as a pack of six axles fully assembled with bearings and gears. They go a long way to making life easier for modellers at a time when finding suitable wheels for closer to scale modelling is not an easy task. They also save a couple of hours of reprofiling work of the existing wheel sets and once the conversion was completed, the original ‘OO’ gauge wheel sets can be boxed up just in case a change back to standard ‘OO’ gauge is required. Alternatively, they might find their way into another locomotive type – more on that in…

ALL three of the KFA crane runners purchased by First Swietelsky in mid-2006, now SB Rail, have been sent for disposal at CF Booth, Rotherham. Nos. FS 97413-5 were the newest members of the fleet and were acquired to run with Kirow KRC250UK diesel hydraulic cranes Nos. DRK 81623-81625. However, their career was cut short due to scrap wheelsets and were replaced with 1980s-built KFA flats Nos. TIPH 93328/41/461. The three match wagons arrived by road from Doncaster Wood Yard on October 29. The acquisition of a fleet of Kirow cranes by several track renewal and maintenance companies in the early 2000s created a requirement for a range of wagons to partner the new kit to carry equipment, messing facilities or spares. Grant Rail (later Volker Rail) and Balfour Beatty…

MINISTER of State for Transport Sean Canney announced on November 8 that work on the reinstatement of the Athenry to Claremorris section of the Western Rail Corridor would commence “within 18 months”as funding for the project was now available. This would mark the first reopening of a line for passenger traffic as recommended in the All Island Strategic Rail Review published on July 31, 2024. Local political representatives had voiced their support for the project with a rail option for commuters to Galway city, even from as far away as Westport being an attractive alternative to congested roads. The 33-mile Athenry to Claremorris line was closed in November 2002 and after being severed at Athenry it became an engineer’s siding. Some vegetation clearance was carried out in early 2024 and…

IN a move that was foreshadowed in September, Freightliner’s motive power fleet has been split into Heavy Haul and Intermodal divisions ahead of the completion of the sale of the latter business to the global logistics conglomerate CMA CGM. The transfers have largely followed the template outlined in that aborted transfer with Heavy Haul taking all the Class 59, Class 66/4, Class 66/6, Class 66/9 and Class 70 locomotives, while Intermodal will keep the Class 08s and Class 90s. With the standard and low-emission Class 66/5s (more importantly referred to ‘standard’ and ‘short’ fuel capacity), HH has claimed 30 examples, while the other 43 will form the diesel backbone of the container-carrying fleet. While these totals include traction designated ‘restricted use’, it does not include those assets allocated to the…

CLASS 20 Two pairs of English Electric Type 1s passed through Northampton within two hours of each other on November 10. LSL Nos. 20096+20107 Jocelyn Feilding 1940-2020, along with electric locomotive No. 90002 Wolf of Badenoch, had translator vehicles and Mk.3 coach No. 41162 for company when passing at 10.27. A little over 90 minutes later No. 20007+20205 appeared with two IWA barrier wagons forming the 6Z20 09.43 Burton Wetmore-Wembley Reception. Two days later the pair hauled a trio of new Tyne & Wear Metro units (Nos. 555024/25/30) on the 6Q23 20.27 Dollands Moor-York Yard North. As with previous journeys, the Type 1s took two sets forward to Pelaw Junction the following night and returned to York to collect No. 555024 late on November 14. Nos. 20007+20205 returned to Kent…

THESE ARE exciting times for shunter enthusiasts, with numerous models of small locomotives being released over the last twelve months in various scales. Accurascale has decided that its range is not complete without the standard BR shunter design, the Class 08 along with its numerous variations. The company has stated that plans for the model include producing variants which have not been covered elsewhere. This typical Accurascale approach sees the Class 08/9 locomotives of the Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley (BP&GV) line produced for the first time in ‘OO’ gauge. Equally new is the Blackstone Class 10, which along with standard Class 08 shunters, sees a total of nine new models in the pipeline for release in the first months of 2027. Blackstone Class 10 A total of 146 Class…

FORTHCOMING REVIEWS…

OO GAUGE 4mm scale 1990 to present ERA MODERN AIR-BRAKED wagons are gradually being added to the Cavalex Models range, with the recently released O&K bogie box wagons being followed by a very good replica of the JG010B bogie aggregate hopper wagons built by W H Davis in 1990. When new, the twenty-two wagons to this design were finished in a startlingly bright livery of green hopper and bright yellow applied to the bottom section of the hopper below the solebars along with the discharge chutes. Not even the bogies escaped the yellow paint! Inevitably, the bright colour scheme applied to Nos. BHQ17130151 was soon tempered by aggregate dust and grime from day to day operations. The wagons were initially constructed to service the new Bardon Angerstein terminal in south London, although…

SOMETIMES a modeller has to take a step back from a scenery project for a few days, even when it may be considered to be complete. The wild corner of the editor’s layout, ‘The Muddy Valley’ was a bit like that. Upon returning to the layout after a short break, there was the feeling that the scene needed a little more to add to its character. How could it be improved and upgraded?. Thoughts on scenery painting The colours seen on the layout’s wild corner were chosen for a very late summer feel, but looked too uniform in places especially the Noch foliage leaves applied to the brambles and tangled hedging. Static and separately applied field grass also demanded further attention. The secret to scenery creation is texture and colour…

50 YEARS AGO… JANUARY 1976 ■ BRUSH GENERATION BRUSH TYPE 4 No. 47155 was placed on loan to the Central Electricity Generating Board at West Thurrock Power Station in Essex. The locomotive had been taken off its bogies at Stratford depot in East London and moved to the power station overnight on January 8/9. It had been loaned at extremely short notice following a major fault on an auxiliary generator at the power station. The locomotive was used to excite a turbo alternator producing a load equivalent to running at 60mph. ■ HEADCODES DROPPED FROM THE start of January all locomotives and multiple units were due to have their headcodes set at 0000 as they passed through depots for examinations. Selector levers and operating handles were also removed. 40…

CHANCELLOR of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has announced that the proposed Docklands Light Railway (DLR) extension to Thamesmead will go ahead. This announcement was effectively an open secret in the days leading up to the 2025 Budget, with organisations such as the Royal Borough of Greenwich publishing online acknowledgements that the project has already been given the green light. To date there have been two public consultations in relation to design work, with construction of the extension due to commence from March 2027. The 3km extension will be part of the Beckton branch of the DLR, with the new route turning east after Gallions Reach to Beckton Riverside and then Thamesmead. It will comprise a twin-bore tunnel of around 1.5km length under the River Thames, a new station at the…