Innehållsförteckning för January 2023 från Railways Illustrated

If a week in politics is a long time, then a month must feel like a lifetime. Since the last issue of Railways Illustrated went to print, we have a new Secretary of State for Transport and a new Rail Minister following the appointment of Rishi Sunak as the UK’s Prime Minister. The change of leader has seen the inevitable reshuffle and the cabinet formed only months ago by Liz Truss has been well and truly dismantled, with Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP replaced by Forest of Dean Conservative MP Mark Harper as Secretary of State for Transport and Huw Merriman brought in as Minister of State for Rail and HS2. Within days of the leadership change, the RMT rail strikes that had been due to take place over three days in…

THE FIRST of the Hitachi Class 805 bi-mode trains being built for Avanti West Coast was released from Newton Aycliffe on November 12, ahead of testing at Network Rail’s Rail Innovation & Development Centre in Old Dalby in Leicestershire. GB Railfreight’s 66755 was employed to haul the plain white 805001 to Old Dalby to commence initial dynamic testing. The trains will receive full livery wraps ahead of entering service with the operator. A total of 13 Class 805s are under construction at the Hitachi plant in Newton Aycliffe, with the five-car bi-mode sets due to replace the existing Avanti West Coast Class 221 Super Voyagers on services to North Wales and Shrewsbury. Avanti has confirmed that a second Class 805, expected to be 805003, will also move to Old Dalby…

LUMO, THE FirstGroup-backed East Coast Main Line open access operator, celebrated its first anniversary at the end of October, having carried almost a million passengers on its services since launch and attracting more passengers onto the railway rather than travelling by air. Newcastle-based Lumo was launched in a blaze of publicity on October 25, 2021, claiming that the company wanted to ‘re-imagine rail’. It runs its services on the ECML between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh Waverley, using a fleet of five Hitachi Class 803 five-coach electric trains. The open access agreement allows the company to usually only call at Stevenage, Newcastle and Morpeth en route, with five daily services operating along the ECML between London and Edinburgh during the week in each direction. It has been keen to promote…

FORMER EUROPEAN Passenger Services rescue locomotive 73130 has moved to a new home after being sold to a newly formed group on the Llanelli and Mynydd Mawr Railway. The locomotive has been purchased by 73130 Ltd, a company specifically set up to own, restore and operate it; a consortium of members from the LMMR and Class 73 enthusiasts from further afield. The Class 73 was delivered to its Cynheidre base on November 4. 73130 was one of two Class 73s purchased by EPS for recovering failed Eurostar Class 373 EMUs or for hauling the trains over non-wired sections of line on the UK side of the Channel Tunnel. They were based at North Pole Depot, with the Class 73s receiving heavily modified front ends to accommodate the distinctive Scharfenberg coupling…

The Western Locomotive Association saw an unexpected boost in the number of days its locomotive D1062 Western Courier was operated on the Severn Valley Railway during the 2022 season. The locomotive ran on the SVR for a total of 58 days between May and October, accumulating an overall mileage of 3372 throughout the season. Just under 3000 of those miles were in charge of passenger trains on the heritage line – the equivalent of six-and-a-half return trips from London Paddington to Penzance. The WLA said that it had originally expected D1062 to be in service for about 20 days during the season for running days, diesel events, and driver experience courses, but the additional diesel running was brought about due to the increasing cost of coal for steam locomotives and…

SHAREHOLDERS OF the Type One Locomotive Company have voted to repaint their Class 31 D5830 from its current experimental golden ochre livery into BR blue as 31463. The locomotive is currently undergoing a mechanical and bodywork overhaul at the Nottingham Heritage Railway at Ruddington, and once work has been completed it will be repainted before returning to service. The Class 31 has carried the golden ochre colours – which were originally applied by British Rail to classmate D5579 – since just after it was preserved by the T1LC on the neighbouring Great Central Railway in 1999, and it initially ran carrying the identity of the experimental locomotive before returning to its correct identity as D5830. Subsequent repaints have seen it retain golden ochre, but a recent vote by shareholders at…

Newly repainted into Rail Operations Group’s distinctive blue livery, 37800 is set to become even more popular with lineside photographers than it already is. The locomotive, which is owned by Europhoenix and on long-term hire to ROG, is a regular performer on the main line, particularly in use on stock transfers, but the fact that it is still performing almost 60 years after it first entered service with British Rail is something of a miracle in itself. 37800 is a true survivor that has dodged an appointment with the scrapman on more than one occasion. Brief history Originally numbered D6843, the English Electric Type 3 locomotive emerged from Vulcan Foundry in Newton-le-Willows at the end of May 1963. A total of 309 of the design were built at either Vulcan…

A HUGE clear-up operation got underway following the derailment of a cement train at Petteril Bridge Junction, near Carlisle, on October 19. The incident happened when GB Railfreight’s 66739 Bluebell Railway was hauling a train of 14 loaded cement wagons. Five – each carrying 80 tonnes of powdered cement – derailed, causing significant damage to the surrounding infrastructure. One of the wagons entered the River Petteril and another turned on its side on an embankment. The passenger lines from Newcastle to Carlisle were blocked as a result, but thankfully there were no injuries. The incident has seen widespread disruption to Tyne Valley and Settle to Carlisle line passenger services, which usually operate over the affected section of line, throughout late October and November. The last of the stricken wagons was removed…

A TRANSPORT for Wales Class 197 carried passengers for the first time on November 14 as 197004 was introduced on services between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog. The low-key roll-out for the much-delayed CAF sets saw the two-car unit form the 2D10 05.30 Llandudno Junction-Blaenau Ffestiniog and 2D11 06.24 return with workings later in the morning, seeing it venture into Llandudno and then shuttle back and forth to Blaenau Ffestiniog for the rest of the day. A total of 77 Class 197 diesel multiple units are being built by CAF at its factory in Newport, with 51 two-car Class 197/0s and 26 three-car Class 197/1s. The sets are expected to be used in widespread service around the TfW network and are being built as part of an £800 million investment in…

AS REPORTED in the last issue of Railways Illustrated, West Midlands Railway has now launched the first of its new CAF-built Class 196 DMUs into service on the Birmingham to Shrewsbury route. The first diagrams to make use of them saw 196101 Charles Darwin on the Shrewsbury route from October 17. The Class 196/1 is one of 14 four-car trains being delivered for use with WMR, with a further 12 two-car Class 196/0 also due to enter service on the WMR network over the coming months, allowing the operator to cascade its Class 170s to neighbouring operator East Midlands Railway. The debut of the trains, which WMR says will provide a 25% capacity increase, has been delayed; they should have originally entered traffic in 2020. The initial diagrams from October…

Network Rail has announced that a preferred design has been selected, following consultation with the local community, for a new station building at Troon to replace the historic wooden building that was destroyed by fire in July 2021. Earlier this year NR consulted with residents on three different possible options for a replacement station building (Railways Illustrated, November 2022). The first option was a direct replacement for the original building on a like-for-like basis but using modern construction materials. The second was for a building which looked like the original but with changes to certain aspects and its internal layout. The third was for a more modern interpretation of the previous building. Following the consultation, the chosen option to be taken forward for detailed design is the second option. The…

HARRY NEEDLE Railroad Company is set to return its recently acquired Class 37/4 and a Class 37/6 – which has been out of service for more than three years – to main line traffic in the coming weeks. First to return is expected to be 37405, which was acquired from Direct Rail Services in 2021, having been out of use since February 2021, and it is the first Class 37/4 in the HNRC fleet. The locomotive has been returned to operational condition at HNRC’s Barrow Hill workshop and is expected to go on hire to Colas Railfreight, joining HNRC’s 37610/612, which are already in use with the freight operator. The Class 37s are being used to operate infrastructure monitoring trains for Network Rail. Next to return after the 37/4 will…

Crossrail sets completed With the December timetable change set to bring an increase in services on the Elizabeth Line, the final trio of seven-car Class 345s have been removed from traffic to be lengthened. These had been retained for services into restricted length platforms at Paddington and were unable to operate through the Crossrail core. First to be increased to a ninecar formation was 345064, and this returned to traffic on November 14, while 345042 and 345056 were set to have their extra cars added at Old Oak Common by the end of the month. WMR Class 196s increase The public debut of a Class 196 in passenger service occurred as expected on October 17, three days after the VIP launch special between Wolverhampton and Shrewsbury. 196101 was again provided,…

Alstom Resplendent in its fresh coat of BR blue, 08451 was released from Eastleigh Works at the end of October, the low-loader making the long trek north to Glasgow to return the shunter to Polmadie. The 28th found 08887 undertaking the journey back south, this spending the weekend at Allelys’ Studley yard before being deposited at Wembley depot a few days later. HNRC Fresh from its overhaul, 08943 was transported from Barrow Hill to Leeds Midland Road around November 11 in order to undergo tyre turning on the depot’s wheel lathe. Meanwhile, the unserviceable duo of 08682 and 08905 have been retrieved from storage at Hope cement works and taken to Shackerstone, their arrival dates being October 28 and November 11 respectively. Railway Support Services The hire of 08757 by…

THE DELTIC Preservation Society announced in late October that its main line-registered Class 55 Deltic 55009 Alycidon would now not be able to take part in a planned Pathfinder Tours charter on December 3 after a cracked exhaust silencer was discovered. The preserved Deltic was returned to serviceable condition earlier this year after undergoing extensive repairs following a major failure while hauling a main line charter in March 2019. All the locomotive’s traction motors and one of its generators were damaged following a power surge. Since the DPS returned the locomotive to service, it has undergone a programme of intensive testing and running-in trials at the Great Central Railway and has also paid working visits to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway and the Severn Valley Railway, accumulating almost 1800 miles of…

THE CLASS 40 Preservation Society has received a huge boost towards its efforts to return 40135 to service following the donation of a Class 56 power unit containing a crankshaft compatible with that fitted to the Class 40’s English Electric 16SVT power unit. The Class 56 power unit – which has been recovered from 56312 as part its preparation for conversion to a new Class 69 – has been donated to the CFPS by GB Railfreight. It was delivered to the CFPS’s base at Bury on the East Lancashire Railway on November 3. The donated power unit will be stripped down during the spring to allow the crankshaft to be removed, which will then be prepared for fitting into 40135’s power unit in place of its damaged crankshaft. It is…

OCTOBER 16 saw preserved high speed train power cars and Mk.3 trailer coaches in service at two heritage railways for the first time. The 125 Group’s HST power cars, 43048 and 43089, were in service on the Midland Railway – Butterley throughout the weekend of October 15/16, working a train formed of five Mk.3 coaches – 42337, 42119, 41120, 41067 and 40741 – also belonging to the 125 Group. The HST was used on six return services each day. The running weekend at the MRB was the first time that 43089 had worked a train in preservation, with the power car having not been used during previous running events during 2022 as it was undergoing a maintenance exam. The two former East Midlands Railway power cars were in use throughout…

This year has featured many highlights around the railways, both on the national network and at our heritage lines. In this issue, we take a look at six stories that have featured prominently on our pages, with this first part focussing on those events which came to our attention between January and June. Six months. Six stories. Six pictures. Disappearing EMUs Only two weeks after we welcomed in the New Year, it was time to say goodbye to a fleet of EMUs as South Western Railway retired its 24-strong fleet of two-car Class 456s. The Class 456s were the first casualty of the year, but 2022 also saw the end of Southern’s fleet of Class 455/8s and Greater Anglia’s remaining Class 317 EMUs. As this article was being prepared, the…

Launched back in the spring, the HAA coal hoppers were just the first stage in a programme of releases based around the iconic merry-go-round wagons. Further batches of models have now been delivered by Accurascale that not only expand the coal-carrying options in 4mm scale, but also bring other commodities into the mix for the first time, these all sharing a common underframe and, in most cases, bodywork. Arguably the most popular of this new run will be the CDAs, the covered variant that was delivered in 1987/88 to replace the ageing wooden-bodied ‘clay hoods’ on workings in the West Country. This not only included china clay flows in Cornwall, but also the few remaining ball clay trains in Devon, much of this traffic being for export via Fowey Docks.…

THE APPOINTMENT of Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor of the Exchequer – and the severe financial fallout from the ‘mini budget’ made by former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng – has seen the chair of the Railway Industry Association, Darren Caplin, pen an open letter to the new Chancellor calling on him to not reduce spending on rail. With the Government reversing many of the announcements made under Liz Truss’s premiership, there were widespread fears that cost-cutting and a spending review could see planned rail projects either cancelled or scaled back. Mr Caplin wrote: “I am writing to you on behalf of trade body the Railway Industry Association and our rail supply sector members. “We of course understand that there are incredibly difficult decisions to be made on the economy in the coming…

THE TWO busy through platforms at Manchester Piccadilly station – Platforms 13 and 14 – are to be closed for a number of days over the Christmas and New Year period to allow Network Rail to carry out a series of improvements. A £5.1 million project will see the platforms resurfaced with clearer line markings, and raised platform edges and a new drainage system will be installed. Preparatory works for the project started to appear on the platforms during November, including the erection of hoardings around a storage area for building equipment and materials. Trains will not call at Platforms 13 and 14 at the station for 10 days between December 25 and January 3, and then also on January 22/23. Additionally, NR is also carrying out works on the…

NETWORK RAIL has trialled two new technologies in its efforts to combat poor railhead conditions caused by seasonal leaf fall during the autumn months. In recent years NR has operated an intensive timetable of Railhead Treatment Trains and Multi-Purpose Vehicles across the rail network between the beginning of October and mid-December (Railways Illustrated issue 238) to combat the problem of leaf fall, which causes poor adhesion for trains operating throughout the network. The current method of dealing with the mulch that forms and accumulates on the railhead – creating similar conditions to black ice on roads – has been to use high-pressure water systems on the RHTT and MPV fleets to clear it. However, Network Rail is now investigating other types of technology to tackle the annual problem in a more…

The Supertram network in Sheffield is to return to public control following the decision by South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) to take over the system from current operator Stagecoach when its contract expires in March 2024. A proposal to create an ‘armslength’ publicly-owned company to run the system when the contract expires was approved at a meeting of the SYMCA on October 18. The plan forms part of the region’s wider ambitions to upgrade Supertram as part of a fully integrated public transport network. A similar style of publicly-owned operating company is in place for the tramways at Blackpool and the West Midlands Metro system. The loss of the Supertram network will see Stagecoach completely withdraw from its rail-related businesses, with the operator joining the likes of National Express…

LSG unveils ScotRail push-pull set Locomotive Services Group has officially confirmed that it has assembled a representation of a 1980s ScotRail push-pull set, ahead of its railtour programme commencing early in 2023. The announcement on October 18 was accompanied by pictures of Mk.2f DBSO 9707 repainted in ScotRail colours at Crewe, albeit still in refurbished condition and without the gangway connection reinstated. The six-coach set will also feature Mk.3a TSOs 12111 and 12171, Mk.3b FOs 11066 and 11082 and Mk.3a TSOB 10404, with power coming from the Crewe Diesel Preservation Group’s ScotRail liveried 47712 Lady Diana Spencer, which is on long-term hire to LSG. This will bring a return to the main line for the two FOs and the TSOB acquired from the Barry Tourist Railway in the summer, while…

GBRf receives Porterbrook JNAs The latest variation of JNA box wagon arrived in the UK in early November, with GB Railfreight receiving the first 25 of an order for 50 JNA-X from Greenbrier Europe in Poland. Financed by Porterbrook, the wagons are once again finished in dark blue with orange GBRf lettering. Early on November 5, 66797 had charge of the 6Z92 03.00 Dollands Moor-Wembley, which conveyed 81 70 5932 757 to 781. These were forwarded on to Whitemoor Yard behind 66766 two days later. Wascosa FEAs near end The delivery of the 260 Wascosa-owned FEA flats for Network Rail is nearing a conclusion, with two more deliveries arriving during October. On the 15th, 66735 had charge of the early-morning transfer from Dollands Moor to Eastleigh that conveyed 81 70…

A BUSY month for locomotive repaints saw no less than four Class 67s reliveried, with the headline being the appearance of a new black and red Transport for Wales livery that will eventually match the former Grand Central Mk.4 sets. Now finished in the scheme, which is proving to be somewhat divisive, are 67020 and 67022. Also rolled out of Toton during October but in conventional DB red was 67002, while former Colas example 67027 has received GBRf blue and orange at Eastleigh Works, leaving 67023 still in unbranded Colas livery until its appointment for repainting occurs. Now in Rail Operations Group blue is 37800, this including the company’s complex logo, with the transformation taking place at Loram’s Derby workshops (see pages 54-56). At Barrow Hill, 37607 has joined 37405…

The Class 56 previously preserved at Ruddington on the Nottingham Heritage Railway left the site on November 3, after being sold by its former owners. 56097 had been based at Ruddington since 2002, where it arrived after being purchased from English Welsh and Scottish Railways for preservation. It returned to service in 2008 following a comprehensive restoration and rebuild. As well as regularly operating at its home base, the locomotive also made successful working visits to the East Lancashire Railway and Mid-Norfolk Railway to attend diesel events at the heritage lines. However, it was announced earlier this year that the Class 56’s owner had been asked to relocate the locomotive to a new home as the NHR board had decided that 56097 was no longer required by the railway…

THE 225 Group is looking to attract new members, supporters and volunteers to join its team – as it looks to the future of the BR-built Class 91s and Mk.4 coaching stock fleets. The group was formed two years ago and, in that time, has grown steadily as interest in the InterCity 225 fleet increases, in what is now largely considered to be the twilight operating period for the surviving fleet. The remaining operational Class 91s in use with East Coast Main Line principal operator LNER are now down to 12 locomotives, with a number in store, and nine of the 31-strong fleet have been scrapped over the last two years, with another currently at CF Booth in Rotherham, awaiting final disposal. Additionally, seven Class 91s are currently in store…

03179 – RUSHDEN: The task of painting the engine compartment doors continues, with the first four almost ready for refitting. The two smaller doors adjacent to the cab are already finished. The doors had been stripped to metal, so building up layers of paint on both sides is time-consuming and having louvers to contend with adds to the task. Along with the doors, the air tanks from under the running board on the left-hand side of the locomotive have now been stripped and are in green primer, awaiting the first undercoat. D8233 – BURY: Another major step forward to report, as CRF of Wem has completed the latest order, in the form of the Traction Motor lateral bracket. This attaches to the pinion side of the traction motor, a small link…

‘Journey of a night time’ is the tag line used by Caledonian Sleeper to promote its services connecting London with Scotland, with operator Serco aiming to provide a hotel on wheels for its passengers – or guests, as the operator prefers to call them. Having experienced the GWR Night Riviera sleeper service from London Paddington to Penzance in late August, five weeks later I found myself travelling to Inverness in order to catch the Caledonian Sleeper back to London Euston overnight. How would the service measure up? How does it compare to the GWR offering? Would I get a decent night’s sleep? And, most importantly, does it represent value for money for those passengers – sorry, guests – using the train? I absolutely love Scotland, its people, and the stunning…

As one of our oldest heritage railways, the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway really evokes memories of a typical small branch line from the era before Richard Beeching wielded his axe. As one of the first standard-gauge preserved railways to be reopened, the K&WVR has been operated mainly by volunteers for more than five decades and, packed with atmosphere, it is one of the UK’s leading heritage railways. It’s a route I also know reasonably well, having previously lived not far away from the West Yorkshire railway, and I was a regular visitor to the five-mile line before I moved to the East Midlands in 2019. With beautifully presented time warp stations, it boasts a varied and tantalising fleet of steam and diesel locomotives in its collection, attracting thousands of…