Índex per October 2023 a Rail Express

CLASS 68-hauled passenger trains will be withdrawn by TransPennine Express from the start of the December timetable. This follows a review of TPE operations after the government operator DOHL replaced FirstGroup on May 28 (RE326). TPE interim managing director Chris Jackson said: “As part of our plans for the December 2023 timetable we will seek to remove the Nova 3 fleet, instead using Class 185s and Class 802s on services to and from Scarborough. “This decision is part of our plans to restore reliability and confidence for passengers by simplifying the business and putting customers at the heart of our decision-making process. “We have undertaken a detailed review of operations and this review has identified issues with the operation and stabling of the Nova 3 fleet. We believe that the…

HEADLINE NEWS TWO High Speed Train power cars which received retro repaints ahead of their final weeks with CrossCountry have both returned to traffic. Nos. 43207 and 43208 were repainted into original HST blue and yellow, and InterCity Swallow livery respectively. They have also been renumbered to their original identities of Nos. 43007 and 43008. They both received their new identities at Laira, where the XC fleet has been maintained since it moved from Craigentinny when the Edinburgh depot transferred to Hitachi operation. The first ‘43’ back into traffic was No. 43007, which made its debut on August 16, forming the 15.27 Plymouth-Leeds, paired with No. 43184 Laira Diesel Depot, which was repainted into InterCity Executive last year to commemorate 40 years of cross-country HST operation. On August 25, No.…

GB Railfreight has further strengthened its ties with Railway Support Services (RSS) by handing it responsibility for maintaining its four Class 08 and Class 09 shunters. Previously, servicing and repairs on Nos. 08925, 08934, 09002 and 09009 was carried out by the Harry Needle Railroad Company (HNRC), but this arrangement has now ended amid legal wrangling. Of the quartet, only No. 09009 has been in traffic for the past year, working as a drawback locomotive at the Breedon Aggregates terminal at Collyhurst Street, a short distance outside Manchester Victoria. However, this duty came to an end, after almost six years, on August 23, when the ‘09’ was collected for transfer to RSS’ maintenance base at Wishaw with no replacement provided. Of the other three, Nos. 08925 and 09002 have not…

THE Diesel & Electric Preservation Group’s two Hymeks, Nos. D7017 and D7018, have been taken out of traffic pending an investigation into an incident which saw one of the locomotives move a short distance uncommanded at Williton depot while preparations were taking place for a static test. No. D7018 had been undergoing attention to its transmission on August 4, and after being started up it moved around 40 feet in the direction of the exit to Williton depot despite the parking brake being on and the locomotive being chocked. It was only stopped by those on board quickly shutting down its engine. Nobody was hurt although there was some damage to the locomotive and some DEPG equipment, including the cooler group from No. D1010 Western Campaigner, which was pushed out…

THE semaphore signals standing guard over key locations in mid-Cornwall have been a key feature for generations. Truro, Par and Lostwithiel have some of the most iconic collections of lower quadrant signals aside from Worcester and Shrewsbury. The Mid Cornwall resignalling programme will see the closure of these Cornish ’boxes, with control transferred to a workstation on the operating floor of Exeter Panel. The staff are currently being trained on the workstation simulator, and this will control all lines from Liskeard (exclusive) to Chacewater in the west, and to St Blazey on the Newquay branch line. The branch lines to Carne Point (Fowey) and Parkandillack will also be controlled from the workstation, though these will retain working by train staff. The current total of nine ’boxes in the Duchy will…

WHILST news of the latest Accurascale Exclusives model arrived just as the last issue went to press, the subject behind the model of GB Railfreight No. 66769 is quite a serious one, deserving inclusion in this issue, and marks Accurascale’s intention to produce exclusive models to raise awareness and funds for good causes. Accurascale is working with Prostate Cancer UK to raise £10,000 for the charity through the sale of ‘OO’ gauge models of No. 66769. The locomotive is currently finished in a special black livery applied in 2021 for the GB Railfreight annual charity rail tour which raised £147,000 for Prostate Cancer UK. The locomotive was dual-named for the tour and carried the name of GB Railfreight contracts manager, Paul Taylor, who was battling prostate cancer at the time.…

REVIEW N GAUGE 2mm:1ft 2015 to present ERA Revisiting the DB ‘Lobster’ IT IS WITH a feeling of déjà vu that the latest modern Graham Farish wagon is reviewed, because DB MXA No. 950212 a.k.a. ‘Lobster’ has passed across this desk once before, but in ‘OO’ gauge. The model follows Bachmann’s style of replicating the same wagons and numbers in ‘N’ gauge after they have been produced in ‘OO’ gauge, which in itself is not a problem and saves development money in not doubling up on livery research. The ‘Lobster’ MXA bogie spoil and ballast carriers were built to service the growing demand for general material wagons for infrastructure works, and as a replacement for older four-wheel infrastructure wagons. It is a modern example of the economical practice of reusing…

D&E FILES RAINFORD station, near St Helens and Skelmersdale, illustrates how a small station can be an absorbing subject for a compact layout theme. The former L&YR main line between Manchester and Liverpool Exchange is a shadow of its former self and was truncated at Kirkby in 1977 following conductor rail electrification of the line to Liverpool via Sandhills. With the closure of Liverpool Exchange, diesel traction could not work beyond Sandhills due to tunnel restrictions to Liverpool Central. Kirkby became the interchange between diesel and electric traction. There have been attempts to have the electrification extended, but for the time being, the Mersey Rail terminus moves east a short distance to a new interchange station at Headbolt Lane which caused the line through to Kirkby to be temporarily closed…

TWO Class 777 diagrams were introduced between Liverpool and West Kirby, and New Brighton, from August 21. In action on these lines over the first few days were Nos. 777004/013/018. A further diagram on the Liverpool to Chester circuit was due to be introduced before the end of the month. Three more ‘777s’ were delivered in early August. RailAdventure’s four High Speed Train power cars (No. 43468/480 and 43465/484) formed the 6Q77 13.33 Wembley Yard-Walton Old Junction conveying Nos. 777011/017, and 777150 on August 2, from where Nos. 777017 and 777150 continued to Kirkdale late that evening. No. 777011 followed the next day, again using the four HST power cars. The arrival of these three sets means that just under half of the new fleet has been delivered – still…

JUST a few weeks shy of the 36th anniversary since their debut, DB Cargo UK has removed the surviving examples of the two-axle CDA covered hoppers from traffic, replacing them on internal Cornish china clay services with two different types of bogie wagon. The first of 124 purpose-built CDA wagons, part of a £4.5 million contract for the HAA merry-go-round hopper derivative, was handed over to British Rail’s Speedlink Distribution division at a ceremony at BREL Doncaster Works on September 2, 1987. With their striking blue framing, galvanised steel bodies and large English China Clays branding, the new fleet perfectly complemented the recently refurbished Railfreight red-stripe Class 37/5s being outshopped from Crewe and created an iconic new look for the services that had previously relied on the equally distinctive wooden-bodied…

CLASS 20 August 9 found Harry Needle Railroad Company (HNRC) Type 1s Nos. 20901 and 20905 hired by Rail Operations Group (ROG) to haul five Mk.3s as the 5E61 08.20 Gascoigne Wood-Great Yarmouth (see Coaches). The following morning the Type 1s ran from Norwich to Ely Papworth where they picked up two translator coaches and failed English Electric ROG Type 3 No. 37608 Andromeda prior to handling the 5M57 10.00 Ely Papworth-Derby RTC. Nos. 20901/905 returned to Worksop on August 11. With Type 1 main line sightings at a premium of late, the appearance of Class 20189’s Nos. 20142 Sir John Betjeman and 20189 at Birmingham Snow Hill on August 16, is worthy of mention, running light from Tyseley to the Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster. CLASS 33 West Coast…

EXPORTING HSTs A new twist in the history of the High Speed Train occurred in early-August, when three Class 43 power cars and 11 Mk.3s departed Great Yarmouth for a new life in Mexico (RE328). All the vehicles had been stored at Potter Group, Ely, before moving by road to the Norfolk port. While some had been there for several years, having been withdrawn by London North Eastern Railway and East Midlands Railway, others had been there only days. For instance, Nos. 43022 and 43158 had arrived under their own power at Ely on July 31, having left Laira on July 28 and spending the subsequent weekend at Kings Norton before heading east. The other power car, No. 43170, had only arrived at the site in June. The stock was…

THE 60th anniversary of the Monk Bar Model Shop in York was the venue used by Bachmann to reveal two new regional sales models. Two Class 20s with disc train reporting codes allocated to Eastfield depot are set for release in September, as both analogue and DCC sound versions. No. 20048 has standard sized running numbers whilst the second model is numbered as No. 20100 and has the larger Scottish Region number sets. Both models carry the Eastfield West Highland terrier logo at the end of the long bonnet and would suit a 1980s layout. Monk Bar Model Shop has long been associated with Bachman, and has stocked its products since it launched in the UK in 1989. Subsequently, the retailer won the Bachmann Retailer of the Year award in…

NEWSDESK THE promised summer of Graham Farish ‘N’ gauge releases began with a veritable flood of coaching stock arriving in the shops. Bachmann announced a huge boost in the Graham Farish range, covering ‘bread-and-butter’ rolling stock that should always be issued on a regular basis, and the enhanced range of Mk.1 coaches was reported on in the last issue. Now it is the turn of the Mk.2f stock, of which 19 different coaches were announced for Bachmann’s summer programme, including BR blue and grey; Inter-City, Virgin Trains and departmental liveries. Some of the coaches are issued with several running numbers to satisfy demand for sufficient vehicles to build up complete trains and strengthen existing collections. It is a move that has been widely welcomed in the ‘N’ gauge world, even…

0 GAUGE 7mm:1ft 1983 to 2002 ERA HELJAN’S BRAND-NEW Class 58 was produced following strong demand from modellers and they did not have to wait long for the model to appear compared to some projects in recent times. The sample model arrived in the usual strong box, fixed to a wooden plinth and surrounded by foam packaging. It certainly has the character of the Class 58 which gained the ‘Bone’ nickname as a result of the narrow body and standard width cabs at each end, making it a unique design for BR at the time. The locomotive was developed for the export market. It was constructed around a heavy underframe which took all of the load of heavy equipment – engine, alternator, cooling and so on. Cabs and the modular…

IT SEEMS THAT LARGE LAYOUTS are all the rage, with long main line runs and long trains. There is nothing wrong with layouts like the ‘Making Tracks 3’ project or ‘Heaton Lodge Junction’. They are complex, crowd-pleasing projects that take a lot of resources, management, skill and time to plan, build and complete. Modellers may dream of building a large layout and many are attempted and often left unfinished because the initial drive and enthusiasm is overwritten by the scale of the project and the lack of resources. Unfortunately, the large layout can overshadow the benefits of compact layout projects, and compact does not necessarily mean boring. Over the years, your editor has modelled a number of small, backwater station scenes on compact layouts, eschewing main line stations with their…

THREE Class 37s offered for sale by Direct Rail Services earlier this year are to be re-tendered after previous attempts to sell them failed. Instead, they are expected to be made available again as this issue of Rail Express went to press, with two classmates added to the tender. Nos. 37069, 37402 Stephen Middlemore 23.12.1954-8.6.2013 and 37423 Spirit of the Lakes were initially offered for sale earlier this year. It is understood that the preferred bidder was unable to complete the sale, with the transaction cancelled. DRS did not respond to questions from RE regarding this, however, sources suggested that the initial winning bid came from a new entrant to the UK traction market. DRS will now make a third attempt to find a new owner, or owners, for these…

ALL 16 examples of the Class 86/6 sub-class were deregistered from TOPS during August, reflecting the export of the final member of the stalwart Freightliner electric fleet for a new life in Bulgaria, either as active locomotives or as spares donors. With the first seven, Nos. 86608-610/622/632/638/639, departing during July (RE328), Nos. 86604/605/607/627 were the next to leave, leaving Basford Hall depot, Crewe, in the first week of August for the first stage of journey, negotiating the cross-country road network to Immingham Docks, ready to make the North Sea crossing to Rotterdam. It was the turn of Nos. 86612/637 to leave on the back of a Reid Freight low-loader on August 7, both being recorded arriving at the North Lincolnshire port two days later. They were followed by No. 86613…

GREAT Yarmouth-based Eastern Rail Services continues to expand its Mk.3 fleet, its latest purchases being five vehicles previously owned by Data Acquisition & Testing Services (DATS). The coaches, First Open (FO) No. 11090 and Standard Open (SO) Nos. 12032/064/091/097, were collected from MCL Rail’s Gascoigne Wood site by Harry Needle Railroad Company (HNRC) Nos. 20901/905, which had been hired by Rail Operations Group (ROG), on August 9, and hauled to Great Yarmouth. Of the coaches, four (Nos. 11090, 12032/064/097) had been stored at Gascoigne Wood since October 2022, and previously saw use on DATS test trains. The other vehicle, No. 12091, had seen more recent activity with Third Life Rail, being used on charters between October 2022 and March 2023. It carries ‘The Real Charter Train Company’ branding, this being…

DESPITE the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been significant progress on the Q-Stock project, last covered in RE269. With the London Transport Museum (LTM) now intending to relocate some vehicles into storage, there has been a reshuffle of rail vehicles around the four roads at the Acton Depot site. Q23 car No. 4184 remains under tarpaulin to the rear of the depot and therefore, the LTM has made the difficult, but realistic decision, to remove it from any aspiration of becoming part of the Q-Stock Project. Also, at one time, there were plans for the sole surviving A-Stock trailer No. 6110, previously used within the Rail Adhesion Train (RAT), to act as a generator vehicle in case of power failure. This option has been discounted and once all reusable parts have…

RAILWAYS in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland could be transformed by 2050 if a multi-billion plan published this summer is approved and implemented. Compiled by Arup, the review was launched jointly in April 2021, by Northern Ireland’s then infrastructure minister Nicola Mallon MLA, and the Republic’s transport minister Eamon Ryan TD. Published on July 25, the document lists ‘High Level Goals’ which would “contribute to decarbonisation, improve connectivity between major cities, enhance regional accessibility, stimulate economic activity and encourage sustainability”. What could be achieved, according to Arup, is “a high quality, sustainable and integrated railway for passengers and goods across the island”. Full implementation of the review’s recommendations has been costed at today’s price of €27.6 billion (IE) and £7.7bn (NIR). It is envisaged that they would be…

AVANTI West Coast’s order for 13 Class 805/0 bi-mode and ten Class 807/0 electric multiple units remains the most recent order for new trains placed by a British operator excluding those for HS2. That deal was announced in December 2019, with the first trains now undergoing testing and one set, No. 805002, having been accepted by AWC thus allowing training to be ramped up ahead of their eventual introduction on the West Coast Main Line (WCML). Funded by Beacon Rail, the ‘805s’ will be used to replace Class 221 Super Voyagers on non-electrified routes while the ‘807s’ were ordered to help with a planned enhanced timetable to the north west, which has since been affected by the pandemic. Since that order was placed only the order for 54 very high…

00 GAUGE 4mm:1ft 1939 to 1994 ERA ZXP No. DW41990 THE SECOND model of the Diagram G39 ‘Loriot Y’ machinery truck to arrive in 2023 comes from Rapido Trains UK, and a very fine job has been made of it too. The review sample represents No. DW41990 in BR departmental condition, finished in dull grey and TOPS coded ZXO. Two were built by the GWR using fabricated beams rather than rolled sections for the main frames, making them appear different to previous designs of ‘Loriot’. The first of the two, No. 41989, was assembled in 1937 and gained fame by appearing in The Titfield Thunderbolt. This did not ensure its future because it is believed to have been scrapped around 1953. This brings us (once again this year) to the…

TT GAUGE 1:120 1952 to present day ERA Straight from the box ONCE the most numerous and widespread of the BR diesel classes, the Class 08 is an obvious choice for inclusion in the first batch of Hornby TT:120 scale models. Two models were chosen for review: BR blue No. 08489 (TT3001M) and DB red No. 08623 (TT3002M). When both models were placed side by side, it became immediately apparent that they are not a one-size-fits-all model but are fitted with equipment boxes representing the differing equipment of the BR locomotive compared to one of the privatisation era. A second impression was that both models are comprehensively kitted out with separately applied parts for many features and, although there are some generic details such as the marker lights, the tooling…