The Railway Magazine December 2016 preview

Contents

December 2016. No. 1,389. Vol 162. A journal of record since 1897.

Headline News

On the cover

MAIN IMAGE: Tyseley's double-chimney 'Castle' No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe emerges from a very frosty Milford tunnel near Belper, Derbyshire, with Vintage Trains' 'Christmas White Rose ' charter from Tyseley to York on December 13, 2014.

BOB GREEN

Railways remember the fallen – p8.

Seven dead in Croydon tram derailment; Vintage Trains to apply for own passenger operating licence; HS2 Phase 2 route revealed; 2017 preserved line visits for Flying Scotsman announced; Hull electrification scheme scrapped; Seaburn hotel Pullmans up for sale; Britain's railways in Remembrance Day tribute; main line tests for VivaRail DMU; first Eurostar set scrapped.

INSET 1: Remembering the Ian Allan Trains Annuals and Locospotters' Annuals - see p30.

INSET 2: Philip D Hawkins witth his rendition of 'A1' No. 60156 Great Central - see p14.

INSET 3: Class 68 No. 68010 with a Chiltern service at King’s Sutton on July 19 - see p22. PAUL A BIGGS

Track Record The Railway Magazine’s monthly news digest 62 Steam & Heritage

LMS red will be new 'Patriot's' first livery; 'Crab' impresses at Severn Valley gala; NELPG celebrates 50 years in the business; flying start for Defiant appeal; 'Grange' steals the show during Birmingham debut.

68 Industrial Steam 71 Steam Portfolio 72 Irish News 74 Network

£10million pledged for Dawlish sea wall; improvements planned for Northern area; Stone foot crossing closed.

78 Classic Traction

Class 50 Alliance buys Hercules; first passenger work for SDR Class 24; last chance for Middleton's Olive; Briddon engines for Orient Express work... almost.

82 Metro 84 Traction & Stock

Class 387/3s enter service with c2c; refurbished Northern Class 158 unveiled; Class 800s in ERTMS tests; production of TransPennine carriages begins.

88 Traction Portfolio

Last rites for DRS Type 3 No. 37682 - p87.

90 Narrow Gauge Leighton Buzzard station formally opened; Derbyshire line under threat; new Mail Rail trains delivered.

93 Railtours 95 Railtours Portfolio 96 World 99 Operations Our round-up of news from the train- and freightoperating companies.

Regulars 12 Multiple Aspects 12 Railways in Parliament 28 Subscription Offer

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The sun sets on Kinlet Hall as the 4-6-0 bows out for overhaul - Panorama - p58.

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Your thoughts on the topics that matter to you.

60 From The RM Archives

52 Meetings

What The RM was reporting 20, 50 and 100 years ago.

Railway society meetings near you – all the details.

106 Heritage Diary

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114 Prize Crossword and Where Is It?

Follow us @railwaymagazine

57 Panorama Our monthly gallery of the best railway photography.

Details of when heritage railways and centres are open.

With the autumn colours providing a golden backdrop, Direct Rail Services Class 68 No. 68005 Defiant top-and-tails the three-coach 14.57 Lowestoft-Norwich service with classmate No. 68002 Intrepid alongside the River Waveney at Haddiscoe on November 18. JOHN WADDINGTON

Features

44 Putting a Peckett in the picture

14 The Railway Art of Philip D Hawkins

30 The Christmas gifts that kept on giving

To mark the 70th anniversary of a publishing favourite, Nick Pigott turns a nostalgic eye to the Ian Allan Trains Annual and Locospotters' Annual, which were once a staple feature found beneath many a tree on Christmas morning.

Peckett 0-6-0ST Ackton Hall No. 3 has not had the best of luck so far during preservation, but the Foxfield Railway hopes to change that. Gary BoydHope examines the railway's plans for the loco and its wider role within a pre-NCB heritage train.

22 Which way to Birmingham?

40 Will the 'Flyer' be grounded?

The threat of conversion into a guided busway hangs over the Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey branch, but resistance to the scheme is growing. Peter Brown takes a look at the proposals to see if there's still hope for the 6½-mile line.

50 The Spirit's Bridge

Christmas is traditionally a time for spooky tales, so this month we bring you our annual ghost story.

So sit back, dim the lights and allow Neil Taylor to regale you with the curious tale of the railway bridge and the phantom that saved a girl's life.

PHILIP D HAWKINS: A life on canvas – p14

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE: St Albans Abbey branch – p40

PLANS FOR A PECKETT: Foxfield Railway project – p44

Phil Hawkins is generally regarded as one of the finest railway artists of his generation, whose attention to detail has produced some of the genre’s most memorable works. Nick Pigott went to meet him to discuss his life, work and railway influences.

This month's Practice & Performance sees John Heaton explore the three main options for passengers travelling between London and Birmingham, sampling what each has to offer, and ultimately deciding which he believes is the best option.

December 2016 • The Railway Magazine • 5

Philip D Hawkins

For almost 40 years, artist Philip Hawkins has thrilled us with magnificent images of trains in all their glory. Now The Railway Magazine sketches the life story of one of the world’s greatest railway painters.

W

HEN it comes to art, one man’s meat is another’s poison… and that’s especially true in the world of trains, where a widespread passion for rivet-counting realism makes railfans the most severe of critics.

Pleasing these armchair pundits is no simple task. A remarkably high percentage are perfectionists and wherever two or more are gathered together, a debate on railway art can be guaranteed to produce a lively and often heated exchange.

For many enthusiasts, the more esoteric aspects of painting, such as surrealism and post-impressionism, can safely be consigned to the realms of academia. Of far greater importance are such issues as the shade of the livery, the size of the tender logo and the shape of the driving wheels.

If just one point has been badly executed – no matter how trivial the matter might appear to a non-enthusiast – the rest of the picture might as well not have been painted.

To be fair, some railway artists are their 14 • The Railway Magazine • December 2016

Phil Hawkins in his studio with several shelves of railway books, used as reference material. NICK PIGOTT

own worst enemies, portraying dreadful errors of perspective, wheels that don’t appear to run on rails, smoke that looks like cotton wool, coaches that bulge like balloons and numberplates that seem to fill half the smokebox. Engines depicted by such painters almost invariably have leaking cylinders, too. Why? Because the clouds of

THE NICK PIGOTT

Interview

steam conveniently hide all that horrible complicated motion!

It was partly to weed out such amateurish efforts that the Guild of Railway Artists (GRA) was established in 1979 and one of its founder members was Birmingham-based Philip D Hawkins, who went on to become the guild’s chairman and president. As such, he is a person against whom such criticisms can hardly be levelled.

“In the early days there seemed to be a lot of poor pictures in circulation and the guild was formed to set a standard of which we could all be proud,” he told me as we relaxed in his studio overlooking the idyllic Devonian resort of Dawlish.

Phil and his wife Sonya moved to the West Country from their native West Midlands in 2001 to be close to the South Devon coast he remembered so vividly from boyhood summer holidays in the 1950s.

The famous sea-wall section of the Great Western Main Line was a big influence in their decision too, for Phil never tires of portraying Swindon-built masterpieces.

PRACTICE & PERFORMANCE

Which way to

BIRMINGHAM? Passengers travelling between London and Britain’s second city currently have a choice of three operators over two routes. John Heaton FCILT experiences what the trio can offer to customers… and gives his considered verdict as to which he thinks is the best.

M

ANY supporters of railway Privatisation were under the impression that it would foster greater competition, but the vested interests of franchises, regulatory constraints and unpredicted congestion have all conspired to limit the opportunities to a handful of examples.

One of these is the London to Birmingham axis. It is not really a ‘corridor’, like King’s Cross to Doncaster, where three operators tout for business with express trains, because the three main contenders for London to Birmingham traffic use two different routes (plus a slight deviation via Northampton) and offer a different product in terms of stopping patterns and therefore journey times.

My first trip was a London to Devon detour via Birmingham to catch the 14.07 ManchesterPaignton through train home to Dawlish using a plan that involved Virgin West Coast’s excellent 20-minute-interval walk-up service, a level of frequency which we could never have imagined to be sustainable.

A ‘walk-up’ service means ‘walk-on’ fares though. If one wants to take advantage of

bargain prices then a nominated train is usually involved so the flexibility of the 20-minute interval is lost once a train has been chosen, but the financial benefit usually provides sufficient incentive.

The relatively random train I used was the 13.43 departure, having just missed the 13.23, following LUL problems. The platform number was called commendably quickly after the 13.23 disappeared from the departure screens, giving the impression of commitment to seamless product provision even when demand is relatively low in the post-lunch hiatus.

Ticket check

Queues began to form at the gate to platform 6 for an inconvenient and tedious ticket check, which counteracted the ‘walk-on’ effect, and should not be necessary on long-distance trains with the first stop 50 miles away. However, those 50 miles are scheduled to take only 30 minutes, beyond the capability of a single-train manager on an 11-coach ‘Pendolino’.

The xx.43 path from Euston is an example of imaginative timetabling as it reaches Birmingham in good time to form a reliable

Class 68 No. 68010, with DVT No. 82302 at the rear, passes Kings Sutton, just south of Banbury, on July 19 with 1K50, the 17.15 London MaryleboneKidderminster Chiltern Railways service. PAUL A BIGGS

xx.15 to Scotland, with the dual advantage of creating extra journey opportunities from some stations not previously served by direct Scottish services, and providing larger trains than the single ‘Super Voyagers’, provided previously, which were routinely overcrowded.

Even after these musings I was still not much nearer the front of the queue. The adjacent platform 7 was hosting the 13.30 direct Glasgow express, boarding almost complete, with ticket examiners waiting for custom. Shouldn’t the staff have volunteered to split the 13.43 queue?

Probably not, in order to keep the way clear for late-comers for the 13.30, but it created a poor impression to the shuffling mass of Birmingham passengers.

Reaching the barrier as the 13.30 departed, it was an initial disappointment to see the nose of a Class 221 ‘Super Voyager’ nudged towards the buffers. Had I been going beyond Birmingham my discontent might have been more than ‘initial’, but it was a relief to find it was a double set. Subsequent investigation on Realtimetrains revealed that four of the six xx.43 departures from 11.43 are in fact timed for ‘Voyager’ working.

ANNUALS

Christmas Gifts The

That Kept On Giving

THE STORY OF TRAINS ANNUAL AND LOCOSPOTTERS’ ANNUAL To mark the 70th anniversary of a publishing favourite, Nick Pigott looks back with nostalgia at what many of us found under the tree each year.

C

HRISTMAS mornings in our house would have been exciting enough even without presents, but the thought of one special gift always set my pulse

books bought to keep me quiet during wet afternoons and had been blissfully unaware that such things as hardback railway annuals even existed. However, from that moment onwards I was hooked and resolved that all future Yuletide ‘wants’ lists would include a request for such a book.

This happy state of affairs continued for the next two years but, for Christmas 1962, my parents must have considered me ‘more grown up’, for out of the pillowcase dropped its older brother – Trains Annual.

Again, I can remember the cover as though it was yesterday, such a deep impression did it make on me. It was the famous Terence Cuneo painting of Clapham Junction with ‘Battle of Britain’ Pacific No. 34087 prominent.

What wonderful memories… and I know that thousands of fellow enthusiasts have similar fond recollections of those marvellous books.

Apart from being high quality with glossy photo plates, they contained articles and illustrations that pushed back the frontiers of knowledge and could be used as works of reference for many decades afterwards.

Traditionally, Locospotters’ Annual was written for schoolboy readers and featured a larger type size, pictorial quizzes and so on, but after a few years, it became harder to tell it apart from Trains Annual and some of the articles in the junior version assumed a reasonably high degree of knowledge. The publishers, Ian Allan

1960

Trains Annual

racing.

It first arrived as a surprise on December 25,

1959 and I vividly remember the thrill I felt when setting eyes on its magnificent cover – a splendid colour portrait of a ‘Castle’ storming Sapperton bank. The title of this most welcome intruder into my life was Locospotters’ Annual.

Until then, I’d only ever had softback train

30 • The Railway Magazine • December 2016

LINES UNDER THREAT

‘Flyer’ be Grounded?

Will the

Opposition to converting the semi-rural Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey line into a guided busway is mounting. Peter Brown takes a look at the proposals.

T

HE name of ‘The Abbey Flyer’ sounds rather like a title for a comedy film on the lines of something similar to The Titfield Thunderbolt.

However, in reality, this is no laughing matter as the future of a vital 6½-mile community branch line running through Hertfordshire could well be under threat, with a consultation currently taking place; one of the options is to rip up the tracks to convert the route into a guided busway.

This uncertainty hanging over the route of the 16-minute journey between St Albans

Abbey and Watford Junction is nothing new.

Many residents have seen similar stories in local newspapers for years, talking of the service being reduced or axed, which is certainly a long way from when it was opened by the London & North Western Railway as a bustling line on May 5, 1858.

These days, however, it is just a single track, and when the London Midland-operated Class 319 EMU leaves Watford Junction it enters a world of bygone years in some places as it makes its way to the stations of Watford North, Garston, Bricket Wood and How Wood, Top: Until the recent replacement by Class 319s, Class 321 EMUs ran on the Abbey Line. Here, No. 321417 pulls into Bricket Wood station with a London Midland service to Watford Junction.

Left: Hyde Lane crosses the Abbey Line next to How Wood station, where there used to be a crossing keeper’s cottage.

BOTH: PETER ALVEY

40 • The Railway Magazine • December 2016

before arriving at its destination.

The latest fears about the route stem from Hertfordshire County Council’s Transport Vision 2050, a public consultation on a new local transport plan, which ends on December 14.

Driving the plan is Coun Derrick Ashley, cabinet member for transport at Hertfordshire County Council (HCC). He is responsible for planning how transport should develop over the next 35 years so that the area “can continue to prosper as our population and economy grow”, according to the consultation publicity material.

Congestion

The document adds: “By 2050 forecasts predict that the population of Hertfordshire will have grown by around 300,000 to over 1.5m, having a huge impact on congestion and journey times, particularly during peak travel periods. That is why HCC is developing a new long-term strategy that sets out how we can manage this extra strain on our transport networks. This strategy will provide a framework to guide all our future transport planning and investment.”

Although 2050 may seem a long way off, the vociferous and highly active Abbey Flyer Users’ Group (Abfly) is concerned that those looking at the line are claiming that it is not commercially viable, are reaching conclusions on false assumptions, and fail to appreciate a passing loop is needed as well as an understanding of its

CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY

Spiritss Spirit’ Bridge ridg The

By Neil Taylor

I

STILL remember the disappointment I felt after checking that box of slides.

I’d spent the previous Sunday morning photographing a forgotten ivy-covered Victorian railway bridge straddling a stream at the edge of a wood that no-one seemed to visit, and every shot was under exposed.

Russian cameras, I thought: Great lenses but terrible light meters – it was no wonder the Berlin Wall had just fallen.

A few years before I had read a pamphlet in my local library describing how a group of photographers had researched and recorded images of a branch line before its closure and suggested another short line – long closed even then – would make a suitable subject for a future historian, and had decided I would be that person.

The bridge was almost the only physical reminder of that route, most of it having been built over after closure almost 30 years before. Fortunately for me its scant remains were matched by the by-passing of its history by fellow researchers, largely I thought, by its dismissal as a ‘small tramway’ in an MA thesis in the 1920s; an oversight perpetuated by historians ever since.

Theory

Through checking newspapers and trade journals published at the time of its opening, I had developed a theory that it had been a broad gauge locomotive-worked line from the outset with privately owned engines hauling goods to a main line junction, but I was having problems finding evidence to prove my belief.

I had placed an appeal in a local

50 • The Railway Magazine • December 2016

newspaper asking for any documents, photographs or information on the line, but had only received one reply from an elderly lady who claimed her grandmother had a connection with it.

Initially, I thought she was confusing it with another route which had boasted a small halt, but out of courtesy I had made an appointment to visit her.

She lived in a neat Edwardian cottage facing across fields, with woods to the north, taking in a view of the colliery and ironworks where my line had ended. After a welcoming cup of hot tea, served in an antique cup and saucer, she told me the story her grandmother had passed on to her as a child.

“When the plate was developed and printed, a fourth figure was present...”

“My grandmother was born deaf and one day when she was eight years old her mother sent her on an errand to deliver her father’s dinner to the ironworks where he worked. Normally, he was a very fastidious man, but on that day, actually it was Guy Fawkes day, he’d left his tin at home.

“The quickest way to the works was over the old railway bridge, and even though she knew it was forbidden she ran over it and delivered the meal to him. On the way back she dawdled in case her mother gave her another task and stopped at the bridge to throw stones into the river below.

“She was so occupied she did not notice

a train coming out of the works behind her and due to her impairment could not hear the whistle from the engine as the driver frantically tried to warn her. He had applied the brake, but knew he could not stop. However, just as it seemed she would be struck, she jumped out of the way and tumbled down into the water below.”

Danger

The old lady continued: “Having finally stopped, the driver and fireman clambered down the slope and carried her back to the warm footplate. Being a small community they knew her father and he was summoned, and using a pencil and scrap of paper she told him a ghost had frightened her and she had fallen, unaware of the very real danger she had been in.

“Shaken, she was taken home, but an incident such as this would have to be reported and a week later her father was summoned to the manager’s office where he was met by the works owner, the local MP, who also owned the private railway line on which his daughter had been trespassing.

Fearing he was about to be fired her father was amazed the owner wanted to meet his daughter and question her about the episode. Unknown to my greatgrandfather, as well as being a politician and businessman, the owner also had keen interests in photography and spiritualism and wished to photograph the little girl at the scene of her vision to illustrate a talk he was due to give in London.

“He arranged for her, the driver and fireman, along with their engine, to be photographed at the bridge,” the woman

Panorama

Southern meets Western as Bulleid Light Pacific No. 34027 Taw Valley approaches the GWR semaphores at the Severn Valley Railway’s Bewdley station with a Kidderminster-bound departure on October 9. BOB GREEN

Seen negotiating the ups and downs of the LSWR main line between Buckhorn Weston Tunnel (in the far distance) and Templecombe station, South West Trains three-car unit No. 159021 forms the 12.20 London Waterloo-Exeter St David’s service on September 24. JOHN VAUGHAN

Iarnród Éireann’s street-running section through Wexford remains a constant source of fascination, even though the days of ‘071’-hauled trains to Rosslare have long passed. On October 10, Class 29000 railcar No. 29428 works a Rosslare-bound service alongside the picturesque harbour. FIONNBARR KENNEDY

December 2016 • The Railway Magazine • 57

TRACKRECORD The Railway Magazine news digest

ALSO INSIDE:

P62 STEAM

‘NELPG’ celebrates 50 years

P78 CLASSIC TRACTION Class 50 Hercules sold

P84 TRACTION & STOCK

c2c Class 387s enter service

P68 INDUSTRIAL P72 IRISH P74 NETWORK P82 METRO P90 NARROW GAUGE P93 RAILTOURS P96 WORLD P99 OPERATIONS

Traction & Stock Track Record COMPILED BY

CHRIS MILNER

Call: 01507 529589 email: cmilner @mortons.co.uk

Your reports and pictures are most welcome.

Highly competitive rates are paid, especially if exclusive to The RM.

Class allocated for new fleet of Northern units

ORDERS for a new DMU and EMU fleet for Northern Rail that will be built by CAF have been given Tops numbers.

The 43 EMUs being built will see the three-car sets numbered 331001-031, with the four-car sets as Nos. 331101-112.

For the DMUs, two-car units will be in the 195001-025 series, while the three-car trains will be Nos. 195101-130.

Construction of both fleets is due to start in 2018.

Anglia loco diagrams extended

UNAVAILABILITY of DMUs for Greater Anglia means the Class 68 diagrams between Norwich to Yarmouth/Lowestoft will continue until at least the end of 2016, and possibly to the end of March 2017.

The Class 37 diagram over the same route is also set to continue until further notice. All locos are provided by DRS.

DB Cargo to sell Class 67s

DB CARGO has put two Class 67s up for sale on its latest disposal list.

The surprise move has seen No. 67023 and 67027 offered for sale on an ‘as seen and where lying’ basis.

No. 67023 is at Crewe, having been stored in September, and the other loco at Toton, out of service since April 2015.

DB has found a lack of work for the Class 67s since Chiltern brought in Class 68 for its mainline services between London and Birmingham.

It also lost the Caledonian Sleeper contract to GB Railfreight, and currently has nine other locos stored.

c2c Class 387/3s are in service – tendering begins for new trains

By Keith Fender

C2C introduced the first two of its six new Class 387/3 EMUs on November 14.

Sets 387301 and 387302 will operate the 07.43 service from Thorpe Bay to London Fenchurch St. The same units had been used for a first passenger special, working from Southend to Barking and back on November 11, carrying local stakeholders and the media. c2c has leased six Class 387s from Porterbrook for three years. The contract for the trains – ordered by Porterbrook from Bombardier as part of a speculative order for 20 trains – was agreed in May, with the trains having since been built at Derby.

The interior of these trains is similar to Class 387/1 units used by Southern, with the 387/3s also fitted with third rail conductor shoes (and having been tested on the Brighton Line). The controls to lower the third rail equipment have been isolated while in use with c2c.

Bombardier will maintain the trains alongside the Class 357 fleet at East Ham. c2c plans to phase all six sets into use by December, with the last set due to be delivered in late November.

Thw company will introduce a new timetable from January 9, which will use the 387/3s as two 12-coach trains operating, initially at least, only on weekday peak-hour services to minimise the mileage run.

Two up trains from Shoeburyness and Thorpe Bay in the morning peak and two return workings from Fenchurch St to Leigh and Shoeburyness

Unit No. 387302 arrives at Southend Central for the first passenger-carrying special trip on November 11. ALL PICTURES KEITH FENDER

Above: Interior of c2c unit No. 387302.

Left: Old and new: c2c unit No. 387302 and a Class 357 at Southend Central on November 11.

are planned: 05.56 Shoeburyness and 07.29 Thorpe Bay to Fenchurch St and 17.43 and 17.46 from Fenchurch St to Leigh and Shoeburyness, respectively From January 9, several other peak-hour services will be

strengthened by Class 357 units freed up by the new Class 387/3 units; around 1,400 extra peak-hour seats will be available.

The tendering process for the 19 new EMUs, promised as part

of the c2c franchise award, is now underway. The lease with Porterbrook for the 387/3 fleet is flexible in terms of when c2c can hand the trains back to the ROSCO as the new trains are due for delivery from 2019 onwards.

Hitachi Class 800s begin European traffic system tests THE first testing of Hitachi’s Intercity Class 800 series trains using digital signalling technology has taken place.

The ‘800s’ were tested at Network Rail’s European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) National Intergration Facility in Hertfordshire.

The new trains are due to enter service with GWR during 2017.

Hitachi has been using set No. 800002, running on an isolated section of the Hertford loop near Watton-atStone that is used for ERTMS testing.

No. 800002 runs through Watton-at-Stone on November 8 during ERTMS testing. JOHN PINK

84 • The Railway Magazine • December 2016

These runs have allowed function testing of driver interface up to what Hitachi call ‘baseline 3’, which will offer enhanced performance on both commuter and inter-city routes.

Baseline 2 has been given approval for use on passenger

services, with baseline 3 tests leading to approval for use on the GWML and ECML routes.

With ERTMS, trains can be spaced much closer together than conventional signalling, which will allow more trains to run, increasing passenger capacity.

More testing in Devon for Class 800 Nos. 800001 and 800002, seen at Newton Abbot after working a test run from Plymouth on November 4.

ROBERT SHERWOOD

Operations Track Record COMPILED BY

ASHLEY BUTLIN

Call: 01507 529589

email: railway @mortons.co.uk

Your reports and pictures are most welcome.

Highly competitive rates are paid, especially if exclusive to The RM.

Railhead Treatment Trains

THE Railhead Treatment season is well underway with a variety of reports received from around the country. Observed on October 14, DRS Class 66 Nos. 66423 and 66429 arrived into Carlisle from the south around 11.20 then reversed down the Maryport and Carlisle railway. On October 17 the same pair was again seen, this time northbound at Lancaster at 11.30.

Surrounded by beautiful autumn colours, InterCity 'Swallow'-liveried power car No. 43185 Great Western leads 1C83, the 13.05 London Paddington-Plymouth past Oath, east of Taunton, on October 31. STEPHEN GINN

ON THE south coast, Littlehampton has been visited by a variety of Class 73s.

On October 12 it was Nos. 73107+73109 seen visiting the station; on October 15, Nos. 73212+73109; October 17, Nos. 73128+73107; October 22, Nos. 73213+73119; and on October 23, Nos. 73212+73141.

Observed at Horsham on October 31 was Nos. 73212+73213.

A TOTON to Toton diagram was reported with Nos. 66194 and 66050, taking in the Pinxton branch and Kirkby-in-Ashfield to Shirebrook section of the Robin Hood Line.

THE Midland Main Line south RHTT season began on October 18 when DBC Class 66 Nos. 66194+66050 top-andtailed the 3J92 23.42 Toton TMDWest Hampstead North Junction and 3J93 11.53 return. The train didn’t run on October 19, but it was back on October 20 when Class 67 Nos. 67002+67018 was in charge. These two ‘67s’ then became the regular traction for the workings, being employed when the trains were seen on October 25, 26, 27, 28 and November 1.

DBC Class 66 Nos. 66160 and 66238 worked through Newton Abbot with a Down train on October 20 at 13.52.

NOS. 66145 and 66065 were observed at Leicester on October 27 top-and-tailing a RHTT set in the sidings, before pulling away, heading north, possibly towards the Peterborough line at Syston South Junction.

A PAIR of GBRf Class 66s – No. 66738+66724 – top-and-tailed a RHTT set through Redhill on the afternoon of October 19, heading towards Tonbridge.

COLAS is operating track treatment duties covering the main Cotswold lines – Gloucester to Swindon and Oxford to Worcester – and the Malverns line as far as Ledbury. On November 3 the service was operated by Class 56 Nos. 56302 and 56096. The service to Ledbury runs in the early morning from Swindon (05.29) via Gloucester and Worcester.

At Ledbury the train reverses direction on the Hereford side of Ledbury viaduct and returns (10.27) to Gloucester Horton Road. In previous years the Worcester to Ledbury line was treated at night.

THE 1S03 07.10 LeedsEdinburgh Waverley, Virgin Trains East Coast service was diverted via the Tyne Valley and Carlisle and Carstairs on Saturday, October 8. It was observed passing Thankerton at 11.03 with East Midland Trains Power Cars Nos. 43058 and 43081, powering a regular East Coast-liveried train set.

EMT Class 43 power cars Nos. 43047+43075 were on hire to VTEC on October 18, being observed at Doncaster. The following week, on October 25, No. 43047 was paired with VTEC No. 43308, and No. 43050 with No. 43305, while on November 1 the hired-in pair was Nos. 43059+43061.

CLASS 90 No. 90036 and a rake of Mk4 coaches made a test run from Bounds Green to Grantham and back on the morning of October 13 before the 14.08 King’s Cross-Newark and return.

ON THURSDAY, October 27 a trespassing incident on the ECML at Stevenage caused knock-on delays to several

northbound services. As a result, the 10.00 King’s Cross-Aberdeen train arrived in Waverley 29 minutes late. The service was powered by Class 43 Nos. 43308 and 43238.

SERVICES on the West Coast were seriously disrupted on the evening of November 6 following a reported incident south of Preston when a northbound‘Pendolino’ struck a person on the track.

ON OCTOBER 5, a correspondent on the 11.45 HST London-Bristol Parkway left on time with roughly 50 passengers. It came to a halt after Didcot Parkway following a stone strike that broke the driver’s windscreen.

Engineers advised proceeding at about 50mph to Swindon, where the train would be taken out of service. It met red signals approaching Swindon and over the next 30 minutes the following messages were relayed to passengers: ‘Too

many trains in Swindon waiting for an empty platform’; ‘fire alarm at signal centre, all staff evacuated’; ‘false alarm, all staff returning’; ‘fire alarm shut down computer system’; ‘system reboot, moving soon’.

Finally the train arrived at Swindon 60 minutes late at a very crowded platform. It was immediately requisitioned to return to London (driver’s windscreen undamaged at the other end).

THE 06.29 ex Cardiff-Bristol – Class 158 No. 158958 – hit a trespasser at Newnham on October 19. The train continued at 09.00 to Gloucester, where it terminated. Passengers were transferred to the 08.35 to Weymouth, which was held until 09.15 and terminated at Temple Meads.

THE next two Class 387 units to arrive at North Pole were No. 387135 on October 13 and No. 387137 on October 11. Both entered traffic on October 28.

A VISIT to Norwich on Tuesday, October 11 produced sightings of Class 37 Nos. 37422+37425 top-and-tailing Yarmouth/ Lowestoft services. Class 68 Nos. 68004+68024 top-and-tailed a further coaching stock set. In addition, Class 68 Nos. 68002 and 68022, Class 57 No. 57303, and Class 37 No. 37405 were in the carriage sidings.

A CONVOY on October 12 saw Class 68 No. 68002+Class 90 No. 90012 and DVT No. 82132 run from Crown Point to Bounds Green, the Class 68 returning with DVT No. 82143 and Mk3 No. 12024 to Crown Point.

DB Cargo No. 90029 hauls Virgin East Coast 1Y32, the 12.25 Newcastle-King`s Cross through Peterborough on October 27 after a fault developed on the Mk4 set. PHIL BEVAN

SWT Class 158 No. 158886 was the traction on November 2 for the 13.10 Cheltenham-Swindon working. It is seen about to leave Cheltenham. JOHN STRETTON

ON OCTOBER 13, the two short sets working from Norwich to Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth were top-and-tailed by Class 37 Nos. 37422 and 37425 and Class 68 Nos. 68004 and 68024.

December 2016 • The Railway Magazine • 99