Rail Express - August 2015

CONTENTS

Issue No. 231 August 2015

SPOT THE INTERLOPER! A fantastic view of Toton depot on July 3 shows nearly 50 locos on shed, including both serviceable and stored members of DB Schenker’s Class 08,

60, 66 and 67 fleets. The standout exception is the Deltic Preservation Society’s green-liveried No. D9009 (55009) Alycidon, which was at Toton ahead of working Pathfinder’s ‘Torbay & Dart Explorer’ from Derby to Kingswear the following day. Steve Donald

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13 13 16

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HEADLINE NEWS

Midland Main Line and trans-Pennine electrification on hold after Great Western overspend; Network Rail chairman replaced; jobs to go at DB Schenker; London Overground orders 45 more Bombardier EMUs; Chiltern auctions Class 67 nameplates.

PORTERBROOK 144e

Could this be the future for the ‘Pacer’ DMUs?

REMODELLING NORTON BRIDGE

On site at the Staffordshire junction, which is being rebuilt with a grade separated flyover.

BYE-BYE DUB-DUBS

It is now 25 years since Old Oak Common lost its allocation of ‘50s’ for services out of Paddington.

29 30

27

THEN & NOW: CANNON STREET

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0-60: CLASS 222

The changing face of the London terminus.

Could a ‘Meridian’ be our fastest DMU?

MODELLING The next few months look set to see a large number of new model releases, and leading the way are Locomotion’s Class 20 and Heljan’s ‘Warship’.

The D&E Files look at departmental tankers, and we show you how to model DCR grey locos.

EXPRESS MAILBAG

How Stratford depot got its Cockney Sparrow; was No. 50111 next for freight conversion?

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TIME TRAVELLER

73

LU WORLD

74

RAILTOURS

77

PRESERVATION

BR SURVIVORS: CLASS 56 ‘GRIDS’

The original fleet of 135 is now down to just 37, and we detail every one of the survivors.

DERBY TRAINMAN & REVIEWS

Tim Helme wrestles with the vacuum brake.

82 84 91 93 94 95 96

Looking back over the previous five decades.

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Routes for the Night Tube services confirmed.

Old times recalled as Class 20s reach Skegness.

Paperwork issues bar locos from NYMR gala; extended holiday for Ribble ‘Teddy Bear’; ‘Clayton’ confirmed for Severn Valley Railway diesel gala.

POWER BY THE HOUR

GBRf ‘Super EDs’ ready to start work; Colas poised to power Network Rail test trains.

POWERSCENE

Our monthly round-up of notable workings.

UNITARY AUTHORITY

More refurbished ‘456s’ enter service with SWT.

SHUNTER SPOT

A round-up of news from all operators.

COACH COMPARTMENT

Ex-Motorail vans return to service as barriers.

WAGONS ROLL

Hope unveils new JPA bogie cement tanker.

IRISH ANGLE

Highs and lows for GM diesel locos on tours.

A leading operator of Class 56s today is Colas Rail, and on April 28 the company’s Nos. 56078+56105 were in charge of the 6M51/15.24 Baglan Bay to Chirk Kronospan loaded timber train – seen passing Ponthir, north of Newport in South Wales. Tom Dumelow

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Paul Bickerdyke

01895 433600 Printed by William Gibbons and Sons, Wolverhampton Published Third Thursday of every month

Rail Express Editor

This issue July 16, 2015 Next issue August 20, 2015

Midland and trans-Pennine woes

T

HE Government announced on June 26 that electrification of the Midland Main Line and trans-Pennine routes had been cancelled.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin’s exact words were that the projects ‘had been paused’, but that was a thinly disguised euphemism for pulling the plug.

No doubt they will be wired eventually, as electrification has to be the future, but there is no money left for it in the current five-year spending plan to 2019 and who knows yet if there will be in the next.

The root cause is that Great Western electrification has gone way over budget, almost tripling in cost from the original estimate of £640 million to £1.7 billion. Some of that is accounted for by an extension of the project from Cardiff to Swansea, but whether the bulk of the extra is due to undervaluing the original specification or errors by Network Rail remains to be seen.

Since last September, Network Rail is no longer classified as a ‘private non-financial corporation’, so its debts are now on the Government’s books – which at £34 billion and rising were bound to come under close scrutiny sooner or later.

Something had to give, and so the two large projects serving the North were the ones to go.

There is some hope though as new NR chairman

Sir Peter Hendy has been tasked with looking into how and when the projects can proceed.

It cannot come soon enough for both lines, as the MML has long been overlooked for modernisation, while the line between Manchester and Leeds is bursting at the seams and desperately needs more capacity.

Meanwhile the ‘pausing’ puts a question mark over what stock will be used on both lines.

Electrification was meant to bring about a cascade of diesel units to improve and strengthen services elsewhere, which now cannot happen. Likewise if any ex-Great Western HSTs are drafted in to boost the MML, they will need a substantial rebuild to meet disability legislation from 2020. So perhaps redundant East Coast Mk.4 sets hauled by new diesel locos could be the answer.

As for cities like Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield, there is still the thorny question of what to do about the ‘Pacers’. Porterbrook has developed a solution for taking them beyond 2020 (see page 13), but when all said and done, it is still a ‘Pacer’.

For the moment, there are more questions than answers, and passengers in the Midlands and the North have no choice but to grin and bear it.

Advertising deadline August 6, 2015 ISSN No 1362 234X ©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.

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EDITORIAL

Simon Bendall Editor Rail Express Modeller Power by the Hour Shunter Spot Name Game Spectrum

Editor Paul Bickerdyke

David Rapson Powerscene

Christopher Westcott LU World (with Piers Connor)

RailExpressEditor@mortons.co.uk Tel: 01507 529280 Editorial address Rail Express Magazine, Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ Member of the Professional Publishers Association

David Russell Preservation Railtours Unitary Authority Coach Compartment

Gareth Bayer Wagons Roll

William Watson Irish Angle (with Alan McFerran)

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‘PEAK’ PERFECTION: The Pioneer Diesel Locomotive Group’s Class 45 No. 45060

Sherwood Forester has been touring the country this summer, attending the Swanage, Didcot and West Somerset Railway galas in May and June. Late June saw it move to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, where it was one of the stars of the diesel gala and 1970s weekend staged there on June 26-28. Looking great at the head of a mixed rake of Mk.1s and LNER Teak carriages, the split-box loco leaves Levisham on the middle day with the 17.04 Pickering to Grosmont. The loco features a dummy 0O00 headcode at one end and ‘domino spots’ at the other. Andy Mason

HEADLINE NEWS

Network Rail chairman is replaced By ‘Industry Witness’ LONDON’S transport commissioner, Sir Peter Hendy, has been appointed to succeed Richard Parry-Jones as chairman of Network Rail.

The Government has also appointed the former Eurostar chairman, Richard Brown, as a special director of Network Rail. His earlier work for the Department for Transport included undertaking an investigation of the franchising process following the failures exposed in the way franchise bids were handled at the time of the West Coast contract award.

The independent members of Network Rail appointed as a substitute for shareholders when the ‘not for profit’ company was established are also to be abolished.

The changes follow a series of criticisms about the delivery of NR targets in respect to the five-year investment and renewal programme, and day-to-day train service performance. At the end of the first year, overhead line renewals are 77% behind schedule with signalling renewals also 63% less than planned.

The shortfall for track renewals is less severe at 7%.

Among the issues causing the shortfall are a delay in agreeing new standards for overhead line equipment and new-generation signalling technology. Train service performance at 89.6% of the PPM was also below the 91% target of trains arriving within five minutes of the schedule (10 minutes for long-distance services).

NR points to the continuing increase in passenger numbers with an additional 63 million journeys in the year, 40% above that expected, and the impact this has on many aspects of train running such as station dwell time.

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Midland and trans-Pennine electrification on hold after Great Western overspend With Network Rail debt now on the Government’s books, costs are being capped and infrastructure schemes cut back to stay within the allocated budget.

By ‘Industry Witness’ A SIGNIFICANT cost overrun has occurred on work being undertaken to electrify the Great Western Main Line to Bristol and Swansea along with Oxford, Newbury and local feeder lines in the London area.

The original estimate for the scheme was £640 million, but the upgrade is now expected to cost at least £1.7 billion – although this includes extension of the wires beyond Cardiff to Swansea, which was not in the original specification.

The Great Western project is to proceed, but the Government announced on June 25 that plans to wire the Midland

Main Line and trans-Pennine routes had been shelved to ensure spending does exceed the Treasury budget.

There are many causes for the rise in costs, including local authority opposition to the closure of roads to allow bridge modifications, environmental objections about the design of the catenary, and the capacity of suppliers. Added to these is an overall lack of engineering expertise as a result of the long gap since a significant project of this type was undertaken in the UK (see box).

A similar escalation of costs has become apparent for the Midland Main Line, where an initial estimate of £800 million has increased to £1.3 billion. For

ELECTRIC v DIESEL AS the need to replace the ageing High Speed Train fleet became apparent, the Government decided that rather than require the Great Western franchise holder to procure new diesel trains, the route would be electrified and new rolling stock acquired as part of the InterCity Express Programme.

It was also realised that without electrification, continuing traffic growth – with passenger numbers up 59% in the last 10 years – would require a significant quantity of new diesel-powered vehicles to be acquired. With a 30-year service life, any such diesels would make it difficult to generate a future business case to electrify, and so the DfT decided against an order for

more than 200 Class 172 vehicles for interurban lines, assuming instead going ahead with electrification would lead to a cascade of diesels to meet service needs on other non-electrified routes.

It costs 47p per train mile to operate typical diesel traction compared with 26p for electric. Vehicle maintenance costs are also reduced from 60p to 40p per mile given the less complicated power and transmission systems, and less downtime for servicing means that fewer vehicles are required for a given number of diagrams.

Carbon emissions are also estimated at 2100g per vehicle mile for diesel and 1660g for electric.

the trans-Pennine project, a reassessment is desirable to ensure the work is compatible with the future proposal for HS3, which would be a highspeed link between Liverpool and Hull.

Network Rail published an electrification route utilisation strategy in 2009 after being tasked by the Government with evaluating where the greatest benefits of electrification would occur, and the Government was then to fund this as part of its programme to stimulate economic growth. The report identified that both the Great Western and Midland Main Line routes would provide a favourable benefit-to-cost ratio, along with two infill schemes between Liverpool and Manchester (the Chat Moss route) and the Tottenham and Hampstead crossLondon line. Edinburgh to Glasgow improvement was also supported.

WHAT FuTuRE NoW FoR MML?

THE Midland scheme involves wiring between Bedford, Corby, Nottingham and Sheffield with the intention of enabling a greater number of services to operate for longer-distance commuters not already catered for by the electrified Thameslink service that terminates at Bedford.

Postponement of this project means additional diesel-powered paths will have to be found for the additional traffic, for which a source of rolling stock could be HSTs displaced by electrification of the Great Western.

BIG PRoJECT ExPERIENCE

Sir Peter Hendy has led Transport for London since 2007 and is credited with overseeing the delivery of public transport services in the capital during the Olympic Games and providing a steady hand when the Public Private Partnerships, established to invest and maintain the London Underground failed, with the activity of both Metronet in 2008 and Tubelines in 2010 being returned to in-house management control after cost overruns occurred in modernisation work. With similar issues apparent in the relationship with contractors undertaking renewal work for NR it would not be a surprise if a similar direction was followed.

The appointment of Richard Brown has attracted some criticism, however, as a potential conflict of interest.

Brown is also deputy chairman of HS2 Ltd which, over the coming years, will be in negotiation with Network Rail over the £42.6-billion project.

8 RAIL EXPRESS August 2015

VIRGIN HST: The first East Coast HST set has been released in Virgin colours, featuring power cars Nos. 43312 and 43311. The

set is pictured at Frinkley Lane, just north of Newark, on June 21 working the 1E15/09.52 Aberdeen to King’s Cross. Jamie Squibbs

HEADLINE NEWS

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IN BRIEF IAN ALLAN

IAN ALLAN, the man credited with kickstarting the postwar trainspotting revolution, has died one day short of his 93rd birthday.

It all began in 1942 when, aged 20 and working for the Southern Railway, Allan published a list of SR locos in response to requests from enthusiasts for information.

This led to similar ‘ABC’ publications for the GWR, LMS and LNER locos. The interest was phenomenal, and by 1956 the Ian Allan Loco-spotters’ Club had nearly 250,000 members.

The ABCs eventually led to the eponymous book and magazine publishing company, which specialises in all forms of transport.

Allan was also a leader in railway preservation, becoming president of the Main Line Steam Trust, vicepresident of the Transport Trust and the Heritage Railways Association, chairman of the Association of Independent Railways and the Dart Valley Railway, and patron of the Mid Hants Railway.

He was appointed OBE in 1995, and is survived by his wife Mollie and their two sons.

7/7 VICTIMS REMEMBERED

IEP TESTING: The first of Hitachi’s Class 800 bi-mode fleet, No. 800001, continues trials at Old Dalby – seen moving under its own power in diesel mode at Asfordby on June 18. When these units enter service on the Great Western Main Line from 2017, displaced HSTs are one option for the Midland Main Line, which will not now be electrified as planned. Steve Donald However, these will require modification to post-2020 standards for passenger mobility needs, removing slam doors and preventing effluent discharge.

Mk.4 locomotive-hauled coaches displaced by Hitachi IEP trains on East Coast services are another option. It is unlikely these will go to the Great Eastern route between Liverpool Street and Norwich, where it appears a new EMU design is favoured to increase the number of passengers carried in a given train length. This is also a factor for future Midland services, but diesel haulage of these vehicles in a similar manner to the ‘crowd-busting’ Chiltern services may be a better option than modifying the obsolete HST Mk.3s.

NEW DIESELS FOR THE NORTH

The trans-Pennine route has overcrowding at peak times, and the options to enhance capacity without the intended cascade of Thameslink Class 319 EMUs are harder to identify.

There is also the problem of the pledge to remove ‘Pacers’ from Northern services, which was intended by a cascade of more modern diesels once trans-Pennine services were electrified.

There will be some new rolling stock, as franchise bidders were instructed to include the provision of 120 new diesel-powered vehicles in their tenders. This is not necessarily intended as a ‘Pacer’ replacement, however, as they will be used to upgrade services between the larger

population centres.

If ‘Pacers’ are to be replaced by something other than cascaded equipment, the cost will be significant.

There are two fleet owners, Angel Trains and Porterbrook. Angel has indicated it has no plans for upgrading the vehicles to meet the standards required in 2020, and so intends to withdraw the units by then.

Porterbrook has taken a different stance, with the production of a Class 144e prototype which it believes can be made suitable for short-distance services in urban areas (see page 13).

This evolution trainset has a metrostyle interior with more space to stand, as on the latest London

Underground rolling stock, and compliance with new standards.

The critical thing is the price of £350,000 per two-car set, which has to be compared with a new-build unit that could be in the region of £4 million.

Another publicised option is the Vivarail ‘D-Train’, which is rolling stock rebuilt from former London Transport ‘D’ Stock displaced from the District Line. Unlike the Pacers, these are bogie vehicles and interior designs have been offered that cater for City, Commuter, and Country markets. The re-engineering to provide diesel power will again be a fraction of the price of new equipment.

ENGINEERING SKILLS Skills had been maintained previously with a steady number of electrification projects carried out by British Rail throughout its existence using both 750v DC third-rail and 25kV AC overhead lines.

As a result, by the time of privatisation in the mid-1990s the East and West Coast Main Lines had been wired between London and Scotland via the main population centres served by the two routes.

Most London- and Glasgow-area commuter lines had also been converted to electric traction. The third rail system had also been expanded, and very little of the former Southern Region network had

not been provided with conductor rails by the time the Train Operating Companies took over operations two decades ago.

These projects had covered the routes where the most favourable business cases could be made, and usually reflected a decision point where the replacement of life-expired dieselpowered trains was required or there were productivity gains from infill projects that allowed improved rolling stock utilisation.

However, industry expertise was lost as no significant electrification projects were started between 1997 and 2009, other than the Airdrie to Bathgate link authorised in 2007.

TRANSPORT for London marked the 10th anniversary of the London Tube and bus bombings on July 7, in which 52 people died and more than 700 were injured.

A service took place at the 7/7 Memorial in Hyde Park, to coincide with the timing of the first explosion, followed by a service of remembrance at St Paul’s Cathedral.

At 11.30 announcements were made on Underground trains, stations and also on buses inviting passengers to observe a one-minute silence.

Later in the day, families of those who died or were injured attended the locations of the explosions, with media understandably not being permitted to be present.

JOINT REGULATION FOR THE CHANNEL TUNNEL

FRENCH rail regulator Araf and its British counterpart, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), took over responsibility for regulating conditions of access and infrastructure charges for the Channel Tunnel on June 16, when a bi-national committee of the two organisations held its first meeting in London. The Franco-British Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) will retain responsibility for safety in the tunnel.

Araf and ORR signed an agreement in March to take on the regulatory role and bring the Channel Tunnel in line with EU legislation, which requires independent economic regulation of infrastructure

by France and Britain.

Previously, this regulation was managed by the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC).

August 2015 RAIL EXPRESS 9

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IN BRIEF FORTH BRIDGE RECOGNISED

THE Forth Bridge has become the latest Scottish landmark to be awarded Unesco World Heritage Site status, which recognises sites of outstanding universal value to aid in their preservation for future generations.

The decision was announced in Bonn, Germany, after the UN’s cultural committee spent more than a year deciding on its merits. This is the sixth such award in Scotland, but the first related to its railways. There are 29 sites in Britain and around 1000 worldwide.

The bridge crosses the Firth of Forth between South and North Queensferry, and has been in use since 1890. The award puts it alongside the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China and the Sydney Opera House.

£600 MILLION ALLOCATED FOR WELSH VALLEYS

WELSH government transport minister, Edwina Hart, has earmarked £600 million to develop the next phase of the Metro for the Valley lines – but there has been no decision as to whether this will be tram or train. This follows £70 million for improving the Ebbw line.

The Government’s intention is to form a not-for-profit company to take the Metro plan forward. EU funding may well be sought but to secure this, the Valley Lines electrification would need to be completed by 2023.

Looking further ahead, the Metro plan could well incorporate a line to Cardiff Bay for which funding could come from the planned £1-billion City Deal for Cardiff.

PAY DEAL AVERTS RAIL STRIKE

NETWORK Rail has agreed a two-year deal with rail unions and averted a threat of a rail strike. This pay award amounts to a 2% pay rise this year and a pay increase in line with RPI inflation next year. There is also an assurance of no compulsory redundancies to the end of next year. Three unions were involved – RMT, TSSA and Unite. An earlier offer by Network Rail had been rejected and a strike threatened. This latest deal saw RMT members accept by 7449 votes against 1598.

LINDSAY ATKINSON

LONG-time contributor to Rail Express and other railway magazines, Lindsay Atkinson, passed away on July 2.

Lindsay, and her ‘better half’ Bill (her words), are both well-known for their photographs taken mainly in the Midlands and eastern England from their home in Grantham. She was one of the still quite rare breed of female linesiders, but sadly lost a five-month battle with cancer. Bill says that Lindsay was the only female patient on her cancer ward to be seen reading the latest railway magazines rather than a copy of Hello.

Lindsay was out photographing right up until the day before she passed away, and one of the last shots she took of GBRf’s ‘Super EDs’ can be seen on page 82 of this issue.

10 RAIL EXPRESS August 2015

‘SYPHONS’ STAR AT ELR GALA: One of the star attractions at the East Lancashire Railway’s summer diesel gala on July 3-5 was

the Scottish Thirty-Seven Group’s No. 37025 Inverness TMD, which has been restored for main line use at Bo’ness. On the gala’s first day it was paired up with the ELR’s own recent returnee No. 37418, so recently finished it was yet to receive its numbers and decals.

The pairing worked in tandem on the 15.10 Bury to Heywood and 15.37 return, which is pictured crossing Roche Viaduct. Neither loco was in the best of form, however, and No. 37025 was removed at Bury. No. 37418 also had teething troubles over the weekend that prevented it working all of its booked trains. Other visiting locos at the gala included Nos. 20020, 26038 and 47643. Tom McAtee

Jobs go at DB Schenker Freight firm makes 234 redundancies following a downturn in traffic.

DB Schenker has announced plans to cut 234 jobs, mainly across the north of England. It says the cuts are needed because of a fall in freight traffic, in particular the amount of coal now being transported on the rail network following a doubling of the UK’s carbon tax at the start of April.

The extra levy has meant power generators are switching to alternative fuels, and coal use generally is now said to be at its lowest levels since the early 1800s.

Job losses are understood to include 118 drivers as well as fitters, shunters, office staff and managers.

Traincrew depots will be closed at Worksop, Hunterston, Longannet, Tyne Yard, Barking, Ipswich and Hereford.

Those at Gateshead and Teesside will be merged, while the head office in Doncaster and sites in Carlisle and Warrington will also be affected.

DBS has not confirmed these figures and locations, and all redundancies are subject to negotiation with the trade unions - the RMT and Aslef.

An Aslef spokesman said making any of the 118 train drivers redundant was not permissible as its members had a three-year no compulsory redundancy clause in their contracts.

DB Schenker said in a statement: “The demand for coal is declining much faster than the industry and our customers could have reasonably predicted. Our customers in the energy sector remain hugely important to us

LIFE IN THE OLD DOG YET: A sight no one ever expected to see again – a Class 37 working the Fort William sleeper portion, made all the more remarkable as it happened twice in June. On June 10, DBS Type 5 No. 67007 failed before departure from Fort William with the 19.50 to Edinburgh and Euston, and the only available loco was West Coast Railway’s No. 37516, which was in the Scottish Highlands as back-up for WCR’s ‘Jacobite’ steam operation to Mallaig. It is believed to be the first ‘37’ to work the train since it switched over to ‘67s’ in June 2006, the loco returning to Fort William the next morning at the rear of the down sleeper portion, which was worked by No. 67004. However the ‘37’ was needed again on June 23, this time after the failure of No. 67009 en route to Edinburgh. The Type 3 is pictured after arrival at Waverley, and this time it worked the 04.50 Down sleeper portion back to Fort William later that morning. Jack Prenctice.

and we are committed to continuing to compete in this volatile market and to maintain and increase our share where possible.”

The company also said it would try to protect jobs “wherever possible”, including using a number of existing vacancies and looking at the possibility of relocating staff.

■ The downturn in traffic has led DBS to store a number of Class 66s or send them to Europe. At the end of June, the company had 74 of its 250-strong fleet in Europe with another 19 in store.

GBRf has also stored some of its ‘66s’, while Freightliner is understood to have done the same to a few locos on a temporary basis at its Leeds Midland road depot.

August 2015 RAIL EXPRESS 11

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IN BRIEF CHANCE TO RIDE THE HEATHFIELD BRANCH

AS part of the ACoRP Community Rail Festival being staged at Torquay on October 1-2, plans are being made to include a trip over the freight-only Heathfield branch from Newton Abbot.

The tour is likely to encompass TorquayMeldon-Plymouth-Bere Alston-PlymouthMount Gould Junction-Friary-Speedway Curve-Heathfield-Exeter. The four-mile Teign Valley line to Heathfield was used by timber traffic until recently. Following the serious damage to the sea wall at Dawlish in 2014, one of the suggested alternative routes has been to re-instate the link between Heathfield and Alphington.

ALLIANCE TAKES OVER BORDERS RAILWAY

WITH the construction of the Borders Railway complete, the line was handed over to a joint ScotRail (Abellio) and Network Rail Alliance from Sunday, June 14. This marked the formal completion by contractor BAM Nuttall. The £294-million project to rebuild the 30-mile former Waverley line as far as Tweedbank was completed on time and to budget.

Driver training has started in preparation for the start of public services on September 6. A royal re-opening special is anticipated, possibly using former Haymarket A4 steam loco No. 60009 Union of South Africa. Pathfinder Tours is also running a charter from Eastleigh ‘The Border Reiver’ on September 18-19.

NOVEMBER DEBUT FOR E320 EUROSTAR

AFTER months of testing, a date of November 20 has been selected for the first new ‘Eurostar’ Class 374 sets to enter service. One will form the 10.24 St Pancras-Paris Nord and the 16.13 return.

A total of 34 half sets will be built by Siemens, these Class 374 units being numbered 4001-4034. Eurostar plans to use them on expanded services to Amsterdam, Cologne and Frankfurt. Its existing Class 373 Eurostar units cannot operate in Germany or the Netherlands and are restricted to the core LondonParis/Brussels routes. A daytime test-run for the new stock took place on June 24 which saw an e320 unit work a 09.33 St Pancras-Paris test run.

CROSSRAIL ‘CONCRETE TRAIN’ ARRIVES: A unique ‘concrete train’ has been delivered to the site of Crossrail’s new depot

in Plumstead, south-east London. The train will be used by the Alstom, TSO and Costain (ATC) joint venture to fit out the new tunnels under London now that tunnelling has been completed (see last issue). TSO’s concrete train is formed of a welfare wagon, pump wagon, waste wagon, mixing wagon, two cement wagons, power wagon, water wagon and 12 aggregate wagons. It was overhauled in Narbonne, southern France, then brought up to and through the Channel Tunnel to Folkestone. There it was loaded on to Moveright lorries for the trip to Plumstead by road. A number of flat wagons have also been delivered to Plumstead by road.

Overground orders 45 more EMUs Bombardier to build the four-car units in Derby.

BOMBARDIER has won a £260-million contract to build 45 new four-car EMUs for London Overground similar to the existing Class 378s with walk-through interiors, air-conditioning and improved accessibility.

Thirty-one units will be used to replace Classes 315 and 317 on the newly acquired routes out of Liverpool

Street to Enfield Town, Chingford and Cheshunt via Seven Sisters as well as between Romford and Upminster.

Another eight will be used on the Gospel Oak to Barking line once that has been electrified in 2017.

The other six will be used to improve services on other Overground routes. It is likely they will be used on

the DC Lines between Euston and Watford Junction, allowing the five-car sets currently used there to move to the North London and East London lines.

The Bombardier deal includes maintenance, and also contains options for more trains beyond the initial 45.

Chiltern auctions Class 67 nameplates FOUR Class 67 nameplates, which have adorned DB Schenker locomotives allocated to work the MaryleboneBirmingham services, are to be auctioned for charity by Chiltern Railways now the ‘67s’ have been

superseded by Class 68s.

Chiltern is to donate the monies raised to its chosen 2015 charities – St Basil’s and the Brain Tumour Charity – which were selected by Chiltern staff.

Under the hammer at the GW Railwayana

Auctions on July 25 (10.00 at Pershore High School, Worcestershire), will be nameplates A Shropshire Lad (ex-No. 67012), Dyfrbont Pontcysyllte (ex67013), Thomas Telford (ex-67014) and David J Lloyd (ex-67015).

SUDDEN CLOSURE OF COLLIERY

HATFIELD Colliery was closed with a week‘s notice, at the end of June.

Usually, geological conditions are blamed, but the management cited low coal prices, a change to renewable energy and large coal stocks held elsewhere making it difficult to find a buyer. 420 jobs are affected.

The pit closed in 2001, but was restarted in 2007. After several owners, the present administration is the Hatfield Colliery Partnership. A major landslip of waste spoil blocked the adjacent main line in February 2013 for six months.

The last two deep mines at Kellingley and Thoresby are also slated for closure.

12 RAIL EXPRESS August 2015

COLAS STARTS TEST TRAIN WORK: Confirmation that Colas had taken over as traction provider for Network Rail’s test

trains came on July 5 when orange and yellow-liveried Nos. 37175 and 37219 top-and-tailed the first working, the 1Q06 Derby to Doncaster West Yard via Malton, seen at York on the outward leg. The following day they worked a round trip from Doncaster via Immingham. Some DRS traction is still expected on these workings, but Colas could also increase the size of its Class 37 fleet.

Alexander Cromarty

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A ‘Pacer’ for the next decade

Porterbrook has unveiled its Class 144 refurbishment demonstrator – the ‘evolution’ – to show how the unloved DMU design could be upgraded to meet future needs, including complying with 2020 disability legislation.

By Simon Bendall THE first day of 2020 is scheduled to see the introduction of stringent new disability legislation, which requires all passenger-carrying trains to be made accessible to people with reduced mobility. While modern rolling stock fleets largely comply with such rules, it is more of an issue for the DMU and EMU designs inherited from British Rail.

Faced with having a large number of multiple units deemed non-compliant but still needed in service, the rail industry has been examining ways in which fleets can be modified in line with the new rules, this process being led by the leasing companies, which unsurprisingly do not want their assets side-lined.

To this end, Porterbrook Leasing unveiled its solution to the issue on June 26 at RVEL, Derby, in the form of two-car Class 144 No. 144012, which has undergone an extensive internal refurbishment. Designed to not only tackle the issue of accessibility, the makeover is also intended to showcase how the ‘Pacer’ fleet can be made fit for use into the next decade, something that may well be needed given the slow pace of electrification and the consequential impact on rolling stock cascades (see also page 8).

Refurbishment demonstrator No. 144012 inside the RVEL workshops at Derby on June 26, the exterior of the unit now carrying a new lilac, purple and dark-blue Northern Rail livery. All photographs by Simon Bendall

EVOLVING THE BUS

Dubbed the ‘144e’ or ‘evolution’, the unit has undergone a complete internal refit, the centrepiece being the fitting of a new universal access toilet to car No. 55812. This was previously the Driving Motor Standard (DMS) but now becomes a DMSL (DMS Lavatory).

Located at the outer end of the vehicle, the toilet’s installation has brought the plating over of two windows on one side.

In turn, its partner vehicle No. 55835 has had its toilet replaced by seating, making it now a DMS. To provide wheelchair access, the doorway next to the new toilet on either side has been fitted with a hinged ramp to overcome the stepped floor of the ‘Pacers’. When not required, this lies flat in a recess in the floor and can be quickly lifted into position by the traincrew or station staff when needed.

The remainder of the interior has seen new seating, flooring, LED lighting, cycle spaces and draught screens fitted, while the overhead luggage racks have been completely removed in favour of floor-mounted luggage stacks. An additional wheelchair space is also provided, meaning the overall loss of seating in the unit is eight proper seats along with a small adjustment in the number of tip-up and perch seats.

Correspondingly, there is now more standing room.

Other modifications on the demonstrator include the fitting of wi-fi, digital passenger information screens,

The simple wheelchair ramp shown in position. When not required, it lays flat in the door recess.

A view inside car No. 55812, showing the new accessible toilet, seating and passenger display systems.

Above: The full ‘144 evolution’ branding is carried on the cabsides beneath the vehicle number.

internal CCTV cameras and an automatic public address system. Little work has been carried out to the cabs beyond new seats and fitting of forward-facing cameras, while the mechanical aspects of the Class 144 remain completely unchanged.

OLD VERSUS NEW

While Porterbrook would not be drawn on the exact cost of the refurbishment, it stated that such a unit would attract a

Left: Completely new seating has been installed, this being supplied by Spanish firm Fainsa.

The installation of the new toilet has required two bodyside windows to be plated over.

monthly leasing price of two-thirds less than a new-build DMU. No. 144012 is intended to be a full specification demonstrator to showcase all of the improvements that could be made, although in reality, most train operators are likely to plump for a reduced level of alterations as this will also reduce the leasing costs.

Crucially, Porterbrook believes a similar package of upgrades can be applied to all ex-BR multiple units,

including the ‘Sprinter’ designs and 1980s-built EMUs, many of which will be operating well beyond 2020.

With the project already several months behind schedule owing to the technical challenges involved, No. 144012 was due to be returned to Northern Rail by the end of July. Once accepted for traffic, it is likely to enter service on a particular route to allow feedback to be gathered from passengers.

August 2015 RAIL EXPRESS 13

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Remodelling Norton Bridge Major works at the Staffordshire junction will eliminate a bottleneck on the West Coast Main Line and increase capacity between Stafford, Crewe and Stoke.

By Paul Bickerdyke

BY ANY measure, the work to remodel the junction at Norton Bridge in Staffordshire is an enormous affair.

It involves six miles of new railway, 11 new bridges, four river diversions, one million tonnes of earthworks, three road diversions, nearly a mile of new road, and a new footbridge.

The aim is to eliminate a bottleneck on the West Coast Main Line and raise line speeds by replacing a slow ladder crossing of conflicting movements with a grade separated flyover.

Norton Bridge is situated at the busy junction of the lines from Stafford to Crewe and Stone, the latter used by trains heading to Manchester via Stoke-on-Trent.

The existing arrangement means trains heading to and from Manchester have to cross the WCML, restricting speed and temporarily blocking the main line. The new arrangement will see the Stone lines accessed by a flyover and the main lines slightly realigned to allow

at least 100mph running on both routes.

Remodelling Norton Bridge is the third part of a £250 million package of works in the area, which has already seen 18 miles of linespeed improvements completed and resignalling around Stafford due to be finished at the end of this year.

The work is being done by an alliance of Network Rail, Atkins, Laing O’Rourke and Volker Rail. Once completed next year, it will allow a new timetable to be introduced from December 2017 with two extra off-peak trains per hour on the main line, one extra to Manchester and one additional freight path through Stafford.

The deviation begins south of Norton Bridge at a new Little Bridgeford Junction, then climbs a 1-in-125 gradient through a cutting before curving over the main line to rejoin to existing formation towards Stone.

The cutting is 85m wide and 15m deep at its maximum, requiring around 700,000 cubic metres of earth to be excavated. All of the spoil is being reused

A view looking north at the newly created Little Bridgeford Junction, as DRS No. 68004 Rapid heads south with a short rake of autoballasters. The West Coast Main Line curves away to the right towards Norton Bridge, while the new formation towards Stone and Manchester heads to the left. The size of the hill being cut through shows why the Victorians decided to build the railway around it.

All pictures taken on June 24 by Paul Bickerdyke

on site, either to create embankments elsewhere or in landscaping.

The Down Slow main line will also use the new alignment to about halfway, where it leaves at a point called Searchlight Junction to head north and rejoin the existing formation. The Up Fast line through Norton Bridge station will be realigned to pass west of the platform, rather than the east as now, and a single line bi-direction chord will be retained on the existing Up Stone alignment for emergency use only. The current Down Slow and Down Stone lines will be lifted.

Norton Bridge station will remain out of use, although it will not be demolished as that would require a formal closure process. Technically the station is still open, but is only served by replacement buses.

Besides the engineering challenges, the alliance has had to consider the needs of the local communities and also the wildlife. Regular meetings are held in the area to keep residents informed of

the works, while bats, newts, otters, barn owls, fish and nesting birds have all had their needs taken into account. This is particularly illustrated by the new Bridge 6, which will carry the railway and a road over the Meece Brook. Here the structure had to be larger than required to let more light reach the stream beneath, which would otherwise have prevented the fish passing through.

A railhead has already been built at the southern end of the new formation into the cutting to allow ballast and other materials to be brought in by train.

These arrive from Bescot, with each 1200 tonne load saving 200 lorry movements in the rural location.

Construction began at the end of March 2014, and is roughly halfway towards its target of completion at the end of 2016, although many of the major structures have already been built. The earthworks are due to be finished this September, allowing track laying to begin.

Schematic map showing how the junction will change from a ladder crossing to a grade-separated flyover, allowing line speeds to be raised and eliminating conflicting movements.

Looking north from the east side of the line as an unidentified CrossCountry ‘Voyager’ heads south, showing how the new line behind must climb at a 1-in-125 gradient through the hill.

14 RAIL EXPRESS August 2015

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Left: Bridge 5 takes the new formation over the main line.

Methods of working allowed the abutments to be built without closing the railway, and a possession was only needed to place the span on top.

Looking south from the top of the new cutting as 11-car ‘Pendolino’ No. 390129 heads north. A length of track has been laid along the new formation to allow ballast and other construction materials to be brought in by rail.

Bridge 6 is a combined rail and road bridge over the Meece Brook. The structure had to be larger and higher than necessary to allow enough light to penetrate underneath so as not to affect the local ecology.

The current railhead in the new cutting, which is 85m wide at this point. Its excavation is a massive undertaking, with a constant supply of lorries being filled with 30 tonnes of earth every few minutes, 10 hours a day.

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NOSTALGIA

Bye-bye

Dub-Dubs

It is now 25 years since Old Oak Common lost its fleet of Class 50s. David Russell looks back to when the locos ruled the Thames Valley routes out of Paddington.

T

HE mid-1970s saw major changes take place in frontline traction employed on the Western Region. The last dieselhydraulics were withdrawn from traffic and Class 50 diesel-electrics, displaced after electrification of the West Coast Main Line north of Crewe, migrated south from the London Midland Region between 1973 and 1976 to take their place.

Old Oak Common gained its first of the English Electric machines in May 1974 when Nos. 50001/02/04/05/50 moved over from Bristol Bath Road. However, it was not until summer 1976 that the first members of the class began to appear on Paddington-Worcester turns. These duties, along with those on the Paddington to Oxford route, had been covered by Class 31s since the withdrawal of the ‘Hymeks’.

The ‘50s’ were to eventually take over the Oxford services, the locos

16 RAIL EXPRESS August 2015

being cascaded from long-distance duties following the introduction of HSTs between 1976 and 1981.

By 1982 and through most of the 80s, around a dozen Class 50 diagrams covered services between Paddington and Oxford and the various extensions to places such as Banbury, Hereford and Newbury.

After No. 50007 had been controversially named Sir Edward Elgar on February 25, 1984, in anticipation of the Great Western Railway’s 150th anniversary celebrations the following year, its first working in its new colour scheme was along the Thames Valley with the 12.15 Paddington-Oxford.

ENTER NETWORK SOUTHEAST The splitting of British Rail’s passenger operations into three divisions saw the Paddington-Oxford line become part of the London & South East sector (the other

two being InterCity and Provincial Services).

On June 10, 1985, the sector was, amid huge publicity, re-branded as Network SouthEast. Two Class 50s were involved from the start, one of which, No. 50017 Royal Oak, appeared on the 17.30 PaddingtonOxford as part of the launch.

Initially, although locos were allocated to individual sectors, this was merely a paper exercise. But by 1988 things were changing and it was becoming less common to see, for example, a Departmental sector Class 50 on a passenger working.

Before the end of 1988, No. 50021 Rodney had been transferred to Laira, while No. 50038 Formidable had been withdrawn from traffic following a main generator failure in August. Nevertheless, the Old Oak Common fleet total remained at 16, as Nos. 50046/50, which had previously been allocated

to the Parcels sector, were transferred in.

Three Class 47s had been added to the NWRA (Network SouthEast – Thames) pool: Nos. 47582 County of Norfolk and 47583 County of Hertfordshire having moved across from Stratford on October 1987, followed by No. 47573 The London Standard five months later. These had been made available following the electrification of the line to Cambridge.

Two of the NWRA Class 50s were withdrawn in 1989. The first, No. 50039 Implacable, failed on a Paddington-Oxford service on May 25, while, just under three months later on August 6, No. 50025 Invincible was involved in a highspeed derailment near West Ealing, caused by an obstruction on the track, while working 1F87/21.15 Oxford-Paddington. In addition, Nos. 50046/50 had returned to Laira.

NOSTALGIA

“A dozen Class 50 diagrams covered the Thames Valley services” Above: NSE-liveried Class 50 No. 50026 Indomitable and a rake of matching Mk.2s leaves Oxford on April 3, 1990 with the 09.30 to Paddington. This was just three months before these services went over to 47s and Old Oak’s last Class 50 was transferred away. Antony Guppy Left: Large logo No. 50021 Rodney hauls a rake of NSE-liveried Mk.1s out of Paddington on March 7, 1987 with the 11.17 to Oxford. DC Collection Right: The mid-1980s sees No. 50028 Tiger calling at Taplow with a morning commuter working to Paddington formed of blue/grey Mk.1s.

THE RUNDOWN BEGINS

1989 also saw the arrival of further Class 47s at Old Oak Common for use on Network SouthEast duties out of Paddington. Three examples, which had been trialled on the WaterlooExeter route from October 1988, Nos. 47473/547/587, moved north from Laira in May 1989, a decision having been made not to proceed with use of these locos on that route at the time (although Class 47s did appear in later years).

Nos. 47547/587 remained at Old Oak Common long enough to gain NSE colours and appropriate names for their use on Thames operations, becoming University of Oxford and Ruskin College Oxford respectively.

Nos. 47521/530 also joined the fleet in 1989.

It was, however, the appearance of the Class 47/7 fleet which impacted more on the Class 50s.

The introduction of Class 158s on

services between Edinburgh and Glasgow plus other routes rendered the locos surplus to requirements in Scotland, and they migrated south.

The first to be transferred south was No. 47714, which arrived in the spring of 1989, and was soon followed by No. 47705. Both Brush Type 4s lost their ScotRail colours in favour of NSE livery, being repainted at Stratford while undergoing F-exams before taking up their new duties.

Their arrival, plus the addition of the three Class 47s previously used on Waterloo-Exeter services, resulted in Nos. 50030/37/40 moving to Laira, leaving nine Class 50s in the NWRA pool.

Further Class 47/7s moved south in the first half of 1990, Nos. 47702/707/715/716 being reallocated to Old Oak Common from Eastfield. With the addition of another four locos from Stratford

(Nos. 47576/579/581/596) as a result of completion of the electrification of the CambridgeKing’s Lynn line in May 1990, this spelled the end of the road for Class 50s on Thames workings out of Paddington. Four locos were transferred away when the summer timetable came into operation, Nos. 50031/32/34/36 all leaving Network SouthEast control to join the departmental fleet at Laira.

THE FINAL FIVE

This left Old Oak Common with just five Class 50s, namely Nos. 50023/24/26/33/35. As more of the former ScotRail Class 47/7s entered traffic, the locos were gradually reallocated away.

Nos. 50024/26/35 were transferred to the NWXA (NSE, Waterloo-Exeter) pool on July 4, and immediately took up duties on the route. The two remaining examples

remained at Old Oak Common for just over a week longer, the final working to Oxford taking place on July 12, hauled by No. 50023 Howe.

It and No. 50035 Ark Royal then moved to Laira, although No. 50035 failed to last long in service – it was stopped on July 14 after working the 09.10 Brighton-Plymouth between Salisbury and Exeter, in need of main generator repairs, and never ran in BR service again.

The transfer away of Nos. 50023/35 on July 12 ended Old Oak Common’s association with the Class 50s. Rather fittingly, however, No. 50035 returned to the depot in August 1991 when, as the first member of the class to be preserved, it was handed over to the Fifty Fund by Network SouthEast’s managing director, Chris Green. It was followed in later years by several preserved members of the class for attention at the ‘The Factory’. E

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18 RAIL EXPRESS August 2015

North British

‘Warship’ arrives No

.1

36

DIESEL AND ELECTRIC ERA MODELLING

WEST COUNTRY

GREYS

Modelling the

NEW LOOK of Devon & Cornwall Railways

R YOU

GENSG A P LLI 40 O OF M

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HER

Modelling the ‘Green Goddess’ 32 years on from its retro repaint

Bachmann’s cut-back bufferbeam Class 37/0 makes overdue return Departmental tank wagons illustrated and modelled in ‘OO’

M4 RAIL EXPRESS August 2015