Features

Following our look at the Western Region last year, this month we delve into the Rail Express archives again to dig out some rare and unseen images taken on the London Midland Region in the 1950s and 60s. Many of them have never been published before, and include classes and locations long since gone. The…

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Closed as a through route in March 1984, the line between Lichfield and Walsall was once an important freight artery to the industrialised West Midlands and to the marshalling yard complex at Bescot, as David J. Hayes describes. THE South Staffordshire Railway (SSR) line between Lichfield and Walsall via Brownhills was opened in April 1849,…

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Just how nimble are today’s locos and units, and what’s the quickest off the mark? Neville Hill returns to the Cambridge line in search of the now venerable BR-built Class 317s. THE Class 317s are a product of British Rail in the early 1980s, so younger readers might be forgiven for writing them off as falling…

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Now that the Colne Valley Railway has purchased its own trackbed and land, plans are pushing ahead on more visitor attractions and a longer running line. IT has been a tense few years. In 2015, the landowner informed the Colne Valley Railway – based near Castle Hedingham on the picturesque Essex/Suffolk border – that he had…

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The once extensive network of fuel oil deliveries is now reduced to a few as required workings. David Ratcliffe looks back at the history of these services, which peaked in the early 1970s. FUEL oil, one of the heavier and less volatile of the petroleum fractions obtained during the cracking of crude oil, was primarily…

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Anyone wanting to see multiple working in action should head to the northern half of the West Coast Main Line, where pairs of diesel and electric units and locos can be found in everyday use. More pictures in the June issue of RE – on sale now!  

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From our 2016 archive A fire 25 years ago marked the end for Vic Berry’s, one of the most prolific private scrapyards to deal with ex-BR diesel locos, units and stock. Ashley Butlin tells the story of the Leicester scrapper. OVER the years, many scrapyards have gained notoriety for a number of reasons. In the Fifties,…

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FROM OUR ARCHIVES March 30 (2016) marks the 25th anniversary of the withdrawal of celebrity Class 25 Tamworth Castle, which was resurrected long after the fleet had been withdrawn, and against the odds returned to the main line. David Russell tells the remarkable story. THE 1980s saw the withdrawal of a large number of locos…

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