Sam Hewitt

NEW PENZANCE DEPOT TAKES SHAPE:

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Sam Hewitt

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27th April 2017

Steelwork has been erected at Long Rock, Penzance, to expand the existing depot for its new role as the base for Great Western Railway’s sleeper train operations – this view taken on March 31. The coaches and Class 57/6 locos have to move from Old Oak Common in London to make way for a new…
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Rails Across Britain

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Sam Hewitt

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27th April 2017

By David Cable Published by Pen & Sword Books www.pen-and-sword.co.uk 218 pages, colour, 198x257mm, hardback. £25 THIS is the latest in a series of books by the same author, following titles such as Rails Across Europe, Canada and Australia, which aim to document the rail scene in recent decades through a picture-and-caption format. This British…
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‘Westerns’ on freight

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Sam Hewitt

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27th April 2017

THE article ‘Last Days Of The ‘Westerns’’ by David Russell (March issue) brought back some fond memories of this much-liked and followed class. My own first positive sighting of a Class 52 was that of No. D1047 Western Lord (withdrawn February 1976), which I saw standing in Bescot Yard (circa 1974/75) while travelling by train…
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0 to 60: Just how nimble are today’s locos and units, and what’s the quickest off the mark?

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Sam Hewitt

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27th April 2017

Always willing to go the extra mile, Neville Hill grits his teeth to endure a long distance ‘Pacer’ trip with Northern. THE days of mill owners commuting from the Lancashire coast to their empires in the woollen districts of the West Riding have long since slid away into the mists of time, the remnants of…
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A trip down memory lane

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Sam Hewitt

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27th April 2017

Today’s few remaining Class 08/09 shunters are confined to yards and depots, but the once thousand-strong fleet was also entrusted to some local trip workings until the demise of wagonload freight in the 1990s. David Ratcliffe presents a selection of workings in the 1980s and 90s. Read more in the May issue of RE –…
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Mendip hoppers damaged in East Somerset incident

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Sam Hewitt

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20th April 2017

A derailment at Witham Friary required the deployment of two cranes, including the rare use of a Kirow KRC1200UK in a breakdown role. By Gareth Bayer THE 7Z15/17.05 Merehead to Acton loaded Mendip Rail aggregates working derailed at East Somerset Junction (Witham Friary) on March 20, requiring an intensive five-day effort to recover three HOA…
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First look at new Anglia fleet

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Sam Hewitt

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20th April 2017

GREATER Anglia has released these images of how its new trains should look when they are delivered from 2019. Swiss firm Stadler is supplying 38 three and four-car bi-mode ‘Flirt’ units for use on regional routes plus twenty 12-car EMU versions for inter-city and Standsted Express services; while Bombardier will supply 89 five-car and 22…
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May 2017

by

Sam Hewitt

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20th April 2017

[su_note note_color=”#c0142b” text_color=”#ffffff”]Current issue: May 2017 Next issue: June 2017 – On sale: May 19[/su_note] Headline News Brexit and the effect on railways; First look at new Anglia fleet; First-MTR consortium wins South West Trains; Shunters escape scrapyard closure; New Penzance depot takes shape; DRS Class 88s commence trials; New South Eastern franchise to start in December 2018;…
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Seeing red

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Sam Hewitt

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20th April 2017

THE news that First-MTR has won the next South West Trains franchise raised more than a few eyebrows in the industry. Not only has First Group thus ousted its great rival Stagecoach from a franchise it has held since 1996, but the consortium’s future plans include bringing back 30-year-old Class 442s to Wessex while replacing…
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Fenchurch St Peter

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Sam Hewitt

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18th April 2017

The 1960s brought dieselisation to the railways of East Anglia with rural lines going over to the new traction despite struggling to remain open. For their latest ‘OO’ gauge layout, John Norton, Richard Coleman and George Woodcock describe such a Fenland branch. Photography by Ian Manderson. IT IS a quiet April morning in 1967 at…
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Sam Hewitt

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