Rail Express

DECEMBER saw significant changes on two of our major main line operations, as LNER brought to a close more than four decades of HST operation on the East Coast route and Virgin Trains gave way to Avanti on the West Coast after 22 years in charge. The

THE Quorn Wagon and Wagon group is to be recognised in February’s Heritage Railway Associated Awards 2020 for its work restoring the former departmental vehicle Test Car 2 (see last issue for our in-depth article on the project). The group will recei

THE Rail Accident Investigation Branch has issued its preliminary conclusions into the fatal accident at Margam, South Wales on July 3, 2019 in which two track workers lost their lives after being hit by a Great Western IET. The accident occurred bec

■ Category 1: A Level 1 or 2Photography Course provided by the Jessops Academy, depending on the winner’s experience. Winners, if aged under 16, must be accompanied by an adult; a year’s subscription to one or more magazines published by the sponsors

BY the time you read this, the era of East Coast HSTs out of King’s Cross to the North of England and Scotland will almost be over, with just the farewell tour due to run after more than 40 years of service on the route. HSTs were first introduced to

HERE at Rail Express we have a proud, longstanding tradition of highlighting work from many of the country’s best railway photographers. Now RE is seeking to highlight the best from the next generation. The prestigious Rail Camera Club (RCC) is organ

BUILT to test design concepts in readiness for an order of replacement Central Line trains at the start of the 1960s, only 12 1960 Stock driving motor cars were ever constructed. The DMs were used alongside two refurbished pre-1938 Standard Stock t

IN a surprising – but welcome – move, UK Railtours is to start a tour at Derby rather than the usual London area. The Welwyn-based tour operator says it is “in response to many requests from our friends in the Midlands”. However, it does perhaps help

WEST Midlands Metro tram No. 20 was the first to work through to Centenary Square in Birmingham on October 23, as testing continued along the new Westside extension from Grand Central (New Street). This city centre extension is the first stage of a m

MANGAPPS Railway Museum took delivery of another Class 03 at the end of October, bringing its fleet of the popular shunters up to seven examples. The latest acquisition is that of No. D2158 (03158), which arrived from Titley Junction (Herefordshire)

AFTER a large amount of bodywork attention costing around £30,000, A1A Locomotives Ltd has repainted No. 31414, which it acquired in early 2016, into Civil Engineers’ ‘Dutch’ grey/yellow colours as No. 31514. It carried this colour scheme for a numbe

IN one of the least surprising moves of the year, the six former National Power and EWS/DB Cargo Class 59/2s, Nos. 59201-59206, have been bought by Freightliner, the new operator of the Mendip Rail aggregates contract. Built in 1994 (59201) and 1995

THE first of three Class 67s planned to receive their new Transport for Wales livery, No. 67025, was re-instated from the WQAA to WACC pool at the start of November. Stored in April 2015, its 52 months on the sidelines made it one of the longest ‘6

ANOTHER Transport for Wales ‘153’ was dispatched to Long Marston for refurbishment and PRM (persons with reduced mobility) work, which includes relocating the toilet to the opposite end of the vehicle, on November 7. No. 153333, which already carries

OUT of action since early September, No. 314203 left Shields depot for the last time on November 25 when it was collected by No. 47727 Edinburgh Castle/Caisteal Dhun Eideann and taken to the now closed Glasgow Works pending disposal. Still active in

STILL in EWS livery, Harry Needle’s No. 08798 was moved from European Metal Recycling at Attercliffe (Sheffield) to Barrow Hill on November 14, seven years after it arrived at EMR and five years after being sold to HNRC. Still present at EMR are EWS-

RAILWAY Support Services had a swap round of its shunters at the end of October. No. 08738 was moved from Eastleigh depot to the yard, freeing up No. 08632 (which only arrived in June) to be shipped to Bescot Yard to replace out-of-use No. 08927, whi

THREE of ScotRail’s ‘classic’ HST sets have been removed from service in recent weeks. October 31 saw the departure of Nos. 41136, 42047/207 and 44015, the four coaches being taken away by No. 37800 Cassiopeia as the 5L46/10.07 Haymarket-Ely Papworth

■ DB CARGO: HTA hoppers have started visiting DBC’s Stoke-on-Trent works for running gear attention, with 12 vehicles delivered to the site during the period under review as follows: Nos. 310466/786/809,311015/40/103 (October 25), 310328/50/810, 3110

THE 2018/19 Translink Annual Report has indicated that the rail and bus operator recorded a total of 84.5 million passenger journeys, an increase of 4% on the previous year. Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) recorded 15.8 million passenger journeys – t

IRISH Rail is to purchase 41 new DMU intermediate cars from Hyundai Rotem of South Korea. The Government-funded investment of €150million, which was announced on October 30, will see the vehicles used to strengthen the 234-strong fleet of 22000 Class

■ TRAFFIC AND TRACTION: Belmond-liveried GM No. 216 was working Mk.4 push-pull trains on Heuston/Cork services on a regular basis following completion of the Grand Hibernian’s 2019 season. On October 22, the GM 201 Class+De Dietrich/Mk.3-worked Cross

TWO older models in the Hornby range have re-emerged decorated in GBRf colours, including Class 59/0 as No. 59003 Yeoman Highlander (R3760) and the original Hornby Class 92 as No. 92043 (R3741). The Class 59/0 is supplied in a Hornby ‘Railroad’ box w

Kidlington Scout Rail 2020. Exeter Hall, Oxford Road, Kidlington, Oxfordshire OX5 1AB. 10.00-16.30 both days. Adult £4, child £2, family £10 (2+2). www.scoutrail.org.uk 4th Annual ‘Define’ Modellers Day. D&E Modellers Day. Risley Village Memorial Hal

TWO new ready-to-plant GWR lower quadrant signals, with a new design of control module, have been released by Dapol in recent weeks, including a 20ft 'wooden' square post ‘Home’ signal in ‘O’ gauge (7L-001-001) and a 25ft tall right-hand junction sig

A ONCE familiar sight on the privatised railway, the pair of former Fragonset Class 31/6 locomotives are no longer seen on the mainlines and the full size No. 31602 was scrapped on the Weardale Railway in the summer of 2018, making the re-issue of Ho

THREE new paint packs containing six 22ml pots of acrylic paints covering common BR livery colours from Nationalisation to the late 1980s pre-sectorisation liveries have been released under the LifeColour brand by Astromodel SAS. LifeColour paints ar

HORNBY has used its new ‘OO’ gauge Mk.2f coach to offer a close fit model of the Network Rail Plain Line Pattern Recognition vehicle (PLPR1) No. 72631 (R4928). The coach was once part of the Gatwick Express Class 488 fleet and was an ‘outer’ vehicle

A VERY useful collection of 4mm scale industrial building doors have been added to the rapidly growing Scale Model Scenery range, which will assist modellers scratch building structures or modifying existing kits. Five different sizes of doors are av