The Railway Magazine - September 2020 edition

TTIMBER TRIAL OVER FAR NORTH LINE

BRITAIN’S BEST-SELLING RAIL TITLE September 2020 • £4.60

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TRAGEDY IN SCOTLAND: Review of ‘at-risk’ landslip sites after fatal derailment

■ Bo’ness faces

£100k washout bill ■ Island Line winter upgrade

THE UNDERSTATED CLASS 91s

HOW MONOPOLY GOT ITS STATIONS

TYNE & WEAR METRO AT 40  PART 2

GOVERNMENT TO FAST TRACK TRANSPORT PROJECTS

Contents

September 2020. No. 1,434. Vol 166. A journal of record since 1897.

Headline News

Aerial view of the Stonehaven derailment showing the positions of the HST vehicles after leaving the rails.

KENNY ELRICK/THE PRESS AND JOURNAL

Storms cause fatal HST derailment in Scotland, historic Kerr’s Miniature Railway to close at the end of this year, volunteers adopt every station on Shakespeare Line, more Crossrail delays as costs rise again, chance of catching Covid-19 on trains is‘1-in-11,000’, Corby energised.

On the cover

MAIN IMAGES: Pioneer BR Standard Pacific No. 70000 Britannia, masquerading as No. 70022 Tornado, departs from Bristol Temple Meads with a Saphos Trains excursion down to Kingswear on August 2. JACK BOSKETT INSET 1: East Coast Class 91s in profile.

INSET 2: Exploring Monopoly’s stations.

INSET 3: Four decades of the Tyne & Wear Metrro.

Track Record The Railway Magazine’s monthly news digest 54 Steam & Heritage

Spa Valley line gains permanent Bulleid Pacific allocation, ‘7F’ to Mid-Hants for next two years, Bo’ness emergency appeal after summer storm washouts, more lines reopen after Covid-19 lockdown.

59 Industrial Steam 60 Irish 62 Narrow Gauge 64 Freight 65 Metro

Freightliner’s newly out-shopped Class 90 No. 90014 Over the Rainbow is posed for photographs outside the Crewe maintenance facility on July 30 after its naming.

GRAHAM NUTTALL

66 Network 70 Classic Traction 72 Railtours 74 World 76 Traction & Stock

GWR to increase ‘Castle’ HST fleet, first Orion Logistics Class 769 unveiled, ex-Greater Anglia Class 90 named by Freightliner, West Midlands Class 196 reaches Stratford on test.

Beyer, Peacock 0-4-0+0-4-0 Garratt ‘K1’ made its public debut following a return to steam earlier this year, hauling passenger trains during the Statfold Barn Railway’s first open days of the season over August 8-9. CLIFF THOMAS

Regulars

44 Readers’ Platform 46 Subscription Offer

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48 Panorama 52 From The RM Archives 94 Classifieds 97 Reader Services 98 Crossword & Where Is It

Right: Autumn is just beginning to take hold as the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s 2-6-2T No. 1213 climbs away from Rhiwfron towards Devil’s Bridge on October 23, 2019.

BOB GREEN

79 Stock Update 82 Operations 87 Traction Portfolio

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Setting sun: West Coast Railways’Class 37 Nos. 37516 and 37685 cross the Kyle of Sutherland at Invershin with one of the trial timber train workings over the Far North line from Georgemas Junction to Inverness on August 15. See story on p64. DEREK THOMPSON

Features

14 Voyages on the ‘Golden Hind’

John Heaton analyses select performances of the ‘Golden Hind’train between London and the South West, featuring the much-lamented Western Region hydraulics, HSTs, and the new Class 80x IETs that currently hold sway.

East Coast Main Line’s stalwart Class 91s, the final locomotives to be built by BREL more than 30 years ago.

30 All Aboard (game!)

Fraser Pithie considers the design, construction, introduction, maintenance and operation of the

Have you ever noticed that Euston, Waterloo or Paddington don’t appear on a Monopoly board, or that the four stations on the board all belonged to the LNER? Gary Boyd-Hope investigates.

SPEED TO THE WEST: Practice & Performance - p14

ECML SUCCESS STORY: Profile of the Class 91s - p20

20 The Understated 91s

38 Making it all Work

In the second part of The RM’s feature marking the 40th anniversary of the Tyne & Wear Metro, Graeme Pickering highlights the challenges it has faced and those likely to lie ahead.

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DO NOT PASS GO!: Monopoly board stations - p30

September 2020 • The Railway Magazine • 5

Panorama

Porterbrook – delivering a sustainable and reliable railway 50 • The Railway Magazine • September 2020

Panorama is brought to you in association with Autumn is just beginning to take hold as the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s 2-6-2T No. 1213 climbs away from Rwifron towards Devil’s Bridge on October 23, 2019. Sadly, the railway is not running any trains this year, but enthusiasts can hopefully look forward to scenes like this next year. BOB GREEN

www.porterbrook.co.uk September 2020 • The Railway Magazine • 51

PRACTICE & PERFORMANCE

VOYAGES ON THE

‘GOLDEN HIND’ John Heaton FCILT analyses some of the performances on the ‘Golden Hind’

O

train between London and the South West, covering diesel locos, HSTs and also the new Class 80x IET sets.

N THE evening of June 12, 1990, a freight train had been derailed at Hemerdon and single-line working was being initiated.

As area manager at Exeter, I made my way to St David’s. The operating team there was more than capable of handling the incident, but it never hurt to be seen when trouble was afoot.

On reaching the duty manager’s deserted office I found the telephone ringing incessantly. It needed answering.

“Duty manager’s office. Area manager speaking.”

“It’s the Penzance driver and guard of the ‘Golden Hind’ here on platform 4.”

“Yes……?”

It had been there half an hour. The crew would be wanting to get home.

“We were wondering how long we were going to be here.”

GWR Hitachi IET bi-modes Nos. 802007 and 802022 pass the former site of Creech St Michael Halt on July 30, working the Up ‘Golden Hind’, 1A76 from Penzance to London Paddington. STEPHEN GINN

From what I had picked up walking onto the station any attempt at a prediction would be just a guess.

“We can’t say just yet. I should get yourselves to the front of the station and start with a bus down to Plymouth.”

The driver’s response was preceded by a moment’s hesitation.

Importance

“We can’t do that!” he exclaimed. “Our LDC would make our life hell if we came home without the stock for tomorrow’s ‘Hind’.”

Click. By ‘LDC’ he meant the Penzance drivers’ staff representatives.

This one example demonstrates the importance of the ‘Golden Hind’ to the railway ethos of the West Country. Unlike many titled trains this name had its beginnings not in any of the many so-called Golden Ages of

pre-Nationalisation, and even pre-Grouping companies, but 16 years into the existence of British Rail, and in the teeth of the hurricane that blew away so much of the railway infrastructure during the 1960s – not only in the Beeching era but also during the incessant process of contraction that had preceded it.

Gerard Fiennes in his seminal biography I tried to run a Railway relates how the West Country became ‘pretty bolshie’. The 1963 Beeching Plan proposed closure of almost all the branch lines of Devon and Cornwall. The main line from Penzance to Plymouth was under threat, and it had been suggested that Fowey’s annual half-million tons of china clay traffic would not save it from extinction.

If ever a gesture of good faith had been crucial it was then. Fiennes credits Plymouth divisional manager David Pattison with the breakthrough. To a fanfare of publicity he

TRACK KRECORD The Railway Magazine news digest

The Talyllyn Railway ran a series of ‘shakedown’ trains during the week before it reopened to the public on August 1. The first train to carry passengers was a TRPS members special on July 30, hauled by the line’s No. 2 Dolgoch. The train is seen emerging from the shadows of Wharf Cutting on the approach to Pendre.

GARETH JONES

P54 STEAM P59 INDUSTRIAL P60 IRISH P62 NARROW GAUGE P64 FREIGHT P65 METRO P66 NETWORK P70 CLASSIC TRACTION P72 RAILTOURS P74 WORLD P76 TRACTION & ROLLING STOCK P79 STOCK UPDATE P82 OPERATIONS

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