Rail Express magazine - November preview

IN THE

LONG LOST FREIGHT

FRAME

In praise of the humble ground frame

A look at North Wales’ final cattle trains

Essential reading for today’s rail enthusiast

RIP FRANCHISES!

RAIL EXPRESS No. 294 NOVEMBER 2020

COVID CRISIS PUSHES GOVERNMENT TO A CONCESSIONS-BASED APPROACH

■ BLACKPOOL ROCKED MODELLING SECTION

■ BACHMANN 2-HAP Is it as good as it looks?

■ BR CLASS 02 in ‘O’ Heljan’s latest addition

■ IRISH WEED SPRAY Three wagons from IRM

Grand Central pulls plans for open access service

CONCRETE BOB

RETURNS

Celebrity Type 3 back in traffic in Regional Railways retro livery

CONTENTS

Issue No. 294 November 2020

RHTT ‘CHOPPERS’ NO MORE: The long-threatened replacement of Class 20s on railhead treatment train duties around Yorkshire finally happened this year when its

first working of the season from Wakefield to Sheffield, Grimsby, Huddersfield and Bridlington produced DRS Type 3s instead, in the form of Nos. 37402/37423 – seen in the bay platform at Grimsby while the crew changed ends (see also page 24). Ric Pickett

FEATURES 77

82 86

NEWS

THE RETRO YEARS: S&C 40s

Blackpool open access services; Significant date as ‘Hoover’ engine lifted out; Cuts at Irish Rail operator; Llangennech wagons scrapped; Hydroflex EMU starts main line trials; LSL takes ‘37s’ - and a new ‘observation’ coach – to Kyle.

Inspired by the use of a ‘Whistler’ on RCS’ Staycation Express, we look back at Class 40s in action on the Settle & Carlisle line.

LONG LOST FREIGHT: CATTLE

A look at North Wales’ final livestock trains.

DERBY TRAINMAN

A celebration of the humble ground frame.

REGULARS 14

SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS

88

TIME TRAVELLER SPECIAL

The latest offers to ensure you receive Rail Express delivered to your door every month.

Remembering the final slam-door EMU tour

16

POWERSCENE

24

RHTT PICTORIAL

26

POWER BY THE HOUR

28

UNITS

32

COACHES

33

WAGONS

NEWS 8

HEADLINE NEWS

RIP franchises as the Government moves to a concessions-based approach in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis; Grand Central scraps planned

MODELLING

THERE is a wealth of reviews this month with new launches in ‘N’ and ‘OO’ gauges, headlined

by Bachmann’s 2-HAP electric unit, but also including wagons and coaches. Not to be left out, ‘O’ gauge modellers will welcome the news of a great new Class 02 diesel shunter from Heljan.

34

Our class-by-class roundup of loco news.

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A look at some of this season’s early workings.

Concrete Bob is back in traffic; Latest GBRf Euro-‘66s’ arrive for conversion.

Class 322 units return to Liverpool Street.

SRPS to hire Mk.1 from ERS; More HST Stock sold and scrapped.

Delivery of JNA box wagon orders completed.

SHUNTERS & INDUSTRIALS

Second Vangaurd for Stoke Works.

35

LU WORLD

36

RAILTOURS

38

PRESERVATION

42

IRISH ANGLE

Original look for Tube trailer.

Ambitious programmer for Midland Pullman.

First HST power car for 125 Group; More diesel days announced; ‘Warship’ goes blue.

Services restart on secondary lines.

The franchising system looks set to be scrapped after almost a quarter of a century, meaning the last one to be awarded was Avanti West Coast at the end of 2019. Avanti-liveried ‘Pendolino’ No. 390155 stands at Carlisle on July 31 with the 1S48/09.10 Euston to Glasgow. Derek Fry

Editor’s Comment PRINT & DISTRIBUTION

Newstrade & distribution Marketforce (UK) Ltd, 3rd Floor, 161 Marsh Wall, London E14 9AP. 0330 390 6555 Printed by William Gibbons and Sons, Wolverhampton Published Third Friday of every month This issue October 16, 2020 Next issue November 20, 2020 Advertising deadline November 5, 2020 ISSN No 1362 234X

Paul Bickerdyke Rail Express Editor

© Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Will the grass be greener?

T

HE Government has bitten the bullet and declared the age of the railway franchising system to be over, hinting that a concessions-based approach will be the way forward.

The franchising model was already under pressure even before the coronavirus crisis, and it was widely predicted that the longawaited Williams Rail Review would recommend abolishing them. But the pandemic has brought forward that change, as the massive drop in passenger numbers across the country – which are still only around one third of normal – have left railway finances in tatters.

The first franchises took over services almost 25 years ago in early 1996, and it is fair to say there has been a mixed bag of success and failure since then. Pre-Covid, the private companies had driven passenger numbers to record levels, and the franchises as a whole were providing a net revenue surplus back to the Government. On the other hand, companies in the running for contracts were often tempted to overbid, and three East Coast operators (GNER, National Express, Virgin Trains) famously came unstuck when actual numbers did not match predictions.

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A fully-privatised railway would have seen uneconomic lines closed, while passenger fare income only covers about three-quarters of the total cost of running the network, meaning Government subsidy has always been part of the equation. It has always been a question of what the most appropriate and politically acceptable level should be.

So now instead of franchises we could have a system of concessions, where the Government is in control and pays private companies a fee for running services on its behalf, said to be around 1.5% of the cost base, including incentives to improve performance and grow passenger numbers.

But, once the pandemic is over, will this be enough to drive the same hunger for improvement seen over the past couple of decades? Only time will tell.

Paul Bickerdyke

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ADVERTISING

Group advertising manager Sue Keily skeily@mortons.co.uk Advertising Fiona Leak Tel: 01507 529573 Email: fleak@mortons.co.uk Publishing director Dan Savage Publisher Tim Hartley Production editor Sarah Wilkinson Designers Tracey Markham, Tim Pipes Sales and distribution manager Carl Smith Circulation manager Steve O’Hara

EDITORIAL

Editor Paul Bickerdyke Tel: 01507 529540 Email: RailExpressEditor@mortons.co.uk Editorial address Rail Express Magazine, Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ

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Christopher Westcott

Nigel Burkin Editor Rail Express Modeller

David Rapson

Gareth Bayer Power by the hour Wagons

Alistair Grieve

LU World (with Piers Connor)

Powerscene

William Watson Irish Angle (with Alan McFerran)

Shunters

‘Industry Witness’ News Writer

GLORIOUS DEVON: LSL subsidiary Statesman Rail ran the ‘Torbay Riviera

Statesman’ from Penzance to Paignton on September 26, which went forward to Kingswear via the picturesque Dartmouth Steam Railway. In full late summer sunshine, the return 16.23 departure is seen getting underway from Kingswear ‘top and tailed’ by Nos. 47593 and 47805. Running alongside the River Dart, the train is approaching the site of the former Britannia Halt – which opened in Victorian times to serve the Royal Naval College on the opposite side of the river, but was demolished in the late 1980s after the structure became unsafe. Robert Sherwood

ENDOFPREVI EW

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