News

The inaugural run of Belmond’s latest luxury train was hit by loco and stock problems on its journey around Ireland. The first run of Belmond’s new luxury train, the ‘Grand Hibernian’, was beset by a number of problems. Dedicated locomotive No. 216 was still considered to be unreliable for the high-profile inaugural journey, and so…

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SUFFICIENT Class 387/2s were in service during September to allow the remaining Class 442s to be withdrawn from Gatwick Express duties. The final booked ‘GatEx’ working was in the early hours of September 17, when No. 442413 worked the 1D02/00.02 Victoria to Gatwick and 1U07/00.50 return. This leaves just four peak-hour diagrams into and out…

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OR shunter fans, the Wensleydale Railway was the place to be on September 25, with a very rare public appearance of the two Class 08s owned by Sembcorp Utilities, Nos. 08743 Bryan Turner and 08903 John W Antill. Originally purchased by ICI in 1996, the two locos have spent the past 20 years in industrial…

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Five of the English Electric Type 1s are back in traffic to power the Railhead Treatment Trains around Yorkshire. With the autumn leaves now falling, this has once again brought the annual return to traffic of some of the Direct Rail Services Class 20/3 fleet. As usual, the Type 1s are required to power the Railhead…

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THE Diesel Traction Group’s ever-popular ‘Western’ No. D1015 Western Champion put in another faultless performance on September 17, when it worked Pathfinder Tours’ ‘Cornishman’ to Penzance. Running in the guise of scrapped classmate No. D1071 Western Renown, and with a trailing load of some 455 tonnes (13 coaches), the hydraulic made a smart departure from…

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AS part of the Sub Surface Railway (SSR) upgrading project across the four SSR lines, the signal cabin at Edgware Road is due to be decommissioned in early 2020. Instead of being dismantled, the Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board (RHDAB), the successor to the Railway Heritage Committee (RHC) that was abolished on April 1, 2013,…

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By Christopher Westcott & Piers Connor A staff dispute led to the cancellation of September’s joint steam/diesel trips on the Metropolitan Line but the London Transport Museum hopes to stage the event next year. S briefly reported in last month’s issue, the ‘Summer Steam’ event, intended to be run on September 10/11 by the London…

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GBRF’s mammoth multi-loco tour celebrating its 15th anniversary visited all points of the compass from Swanage to Inverness and Great Yarmouth to Liverpool. AN ambitious railtour on September 8-11, organised by GB Railfreight to celebrate 15 years of operations, travelled over 2200 miles behind 19 locos from nine different classes. The four-day charter, which had…

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