Rail Express

Finding the sweet spot

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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16th February 2018

EVEN the most die-hard supporter of a fully nationalised railway must secretly realise there’s very little prospect now of us ever going back to a British Rail-style era. More than 20 years on from privatisation, the franchising structure has brought many benefits – such as record numbers of passengers, service frequencies to the point of…
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UK range launched by Accurascale

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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16th February 2018

FEBRUARY 1 saw Accurascale become the latest manufacturer to enter the UK-outline ready-to-run market, with the unveiling of its first ‘OO’ gauge model. Run by the same four modellers behind Irish Railway Models, Accurascale promises to bring the same very high standards, both in terms of models and custom service, to this side of the…
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MORE USES FOR CARGOWAGGONS

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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16th February 2018

ALTHOUGH steel and other metals were the main traffics to use Cargowaggon flat wagons (February issue), mention was also made of their use for conveying non-metals related commodities, such as sawn timber (e.g. scaffolding boards), which I believe was mainly imported from Luxembourg and possibly elsewhere. One of the UK destinations mentioned for sawn timber…
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‘EARLY ‘08’ SURVIVOR’

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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16th February 2018

THANKS for printing the picture of LMS diesel shunter No. 7069, which is an early precursor of the Class 08 fleet (Express Mailbag, February issue), as I have worked on the loco and can add some more details. No. 7069 remained in use up to 1972 when it was withdrawn and then remained in a…
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‘Baby Warship’ from Little Loco

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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16th February 2018

FOLLOWING on from its highly successful Class 15, the Little Loco Company has announced it will tackle the North British Class 22 diesel hydraulics as its next BR ready-to-run model in ‘O’ gauge. With the Type 2s being a minefield of detail variations, the initial releases will portray the production versions from No. D6306 onwards,…
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March 2018

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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15th February 2018

[su_note note_color=”#c0142b” text_color=”#ffffff”]Current issue: March 2018 Next issue: April 2018 – On sale: March 13[/su_note] FEATURES TWO ZULU ZERO TWO Life aboard the former Class 121 video survey unit Pandora by one of its technical crew. LOADS OF RUBBISH An in-depth look at the locations, locos…
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UK Railtours abandons ‘Northern Belle’

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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15th February 2018

UK RAILTOURS boss John Farrow has had to relinquish using the ‘Northern Belle’ set of carriages for his luxury-end tours. This has come about because of the sale of the carriages by Belmond to a new company called Northern Belle Holdings Ltd. This has resulted in a change of motive power, and will see non-100mph…
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‘Bones’ of contention

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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15th February 2018

IT is now 15 years since a Class 58 last ran under its own power in Britain. The date was March 19, 2003 when Nos. 58041+58043 ran light engine from Eastleigh to Dollands Moor on their way for use in Spain. The last Class 58 had been switched off by EWS in September 2002 after…
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Two Zulu Zero Two

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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14th February 2018

WHILE most of British Rail’s first generation DMU fleet was phased out of operation by the mid-1990s, the Class 121 ‘Bubble Cars’ proved too useful to be completely discarded and many passed to the departmental fleet for use as Sandite layers during the autumn leaf-fall season. It was one of these that Balfour Beatty and…
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Boden Rail moves to Nottingham

by

Sarah Wilkinson

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14th February 2018

THE long-expected exodus of locomotives from Washwood Heath finally occurred during January, ahead of the former Alstom site being handed over to HS2 for redevelopment, the land eventually being destined to house the high speed route’s Birmingham depot. As a result, Boden Rail has now transferred its maintenance and overhaul activities to Nottingham Eastcroft,…
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