Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2025 i Rail Express

BUCKINGHAM Palace has decided to call time on the Royal Train. With a dedicated Royal Train having graced Britain’s rail network since 1869, the decision has been made to decommission the current Royal Train. The contract to operate and maintain the nine-carriage train is held by DB Cargo but expires at the end of March 2027, and the decommissioning process will aim for that date. Recently, Class 67 No. 67005 was repainted and named King’s Messenger. While the decision is a cost-saving measure, the timing is curious considering DB announced on March 4 it had been awarded a new contract to operate the train. The train will be replaced by two new helicopters and is part of ongoing plans to modernise the monarchy. Other royal travel will be by car…

THE Rail 200 exhibition train, called Inspiration, was formally launched at the Severn Valley Railway on June 27. The five-carriage train emerged from Loram’s workshops on the evening of June 25, making its first appearance at London Paddington for seven hours the following day, before travelling to Kidderminster on June 26 for the official launch. Here, press and visitors were able to visit the travelling exhibition for the first time. The train comprises four carriages plus a generator vehicle. Each vehicle has a range of information panels and interactive displays, and is aimed at promoting the past, present and future of the railway, helping to attract the next generation of pioneering talent. More than 200,000 visitors are expected to visit the train during its year-long tour. Other than former ‘Nightstar’…

BELMOND’S ‘Britannic Explorer’ set made its debut appearance on mainland UK tracks in early June, when eight of the 10 coaches which have been prepared for the set were moved from Assenta Rail’s workshops at Hamilton to Arlington, Eastleigh, for final preparation work in advance of the upmarket train’s planned introduction on July 4. The eight former Irish Rail Mk.3 coaches (which have now received TOPS Nos. 99101-103/106-110) left Scotland for Eastleigh behind No. 66307 Ipswich Town on June 2, arriving at their destination the next morning. One of the two remaining coaches, No. 99104, departed for Eastleigh on June 27. The 10 vehicles, several of which were constructed by BREL at Derby in 1984/85 and the rest under licence at Inchicore, have been refurbished for use on Belmond’s new…

Looking for a use for a set of the attractive Hornby Rail Adventure HST power cars? A recent film special may provide the answer! In June, Rail Adventure ran a series of filming trains in Scotland, including the 5Z12 10.45 from Inverkeithing GL to Kyle of Lochalsh via Aberdeen and Inverness. The train consisted of No. 43468 (leading) and No. 43480. The train was composed of two former Cross-Country Mk.3 sliding door trailers: TGS No. 44021 and a TCC catering car No. 45001. On the following day, the train returned to Inverkeithing GL as the 5Z15 0650 from Kyle of Lochalsh, running via the Highland line and Ladybank. The train also traversed the West Highland line during its June tour of Scotland. All of the vehicles making up the train…

CLASS 20s have made a number of high-profile visits to France in the last 30 years, including RFD 20s on Channel Tunnel work and the DRS-operated Train for Life to Kosovo. Their most well known, and most significant, work on the continent was their freight role with CFD in the Burgundy region of Central France in the 1990s to early Noughties. The Compagnie des Chemins de Fer Départementaux, or CFD Industries was founded in 1881 and operated a wide network of secondary lines across France. The company has become smaller over the years, concentrating its business on rolling stock manufacture and maintenance, and moving away from train operations. Beginning in 1939 the CFD operated freight and passenger services under contract over the 170km/106mile-long SNCF line between Cravant Bazarnes and Montchanin…

HAVING previously acquired 140 MWA box wagons from Greenbrier Europe in Poland in two batches between 2016-9, Freightliner has now received the first four vehicles in its third order, which will eventually total 76. Like the previous builds, the new MWA-C will utilise recycled TF25 bogies and brake equipment from scrapped HHA coal hoppers, although pleasingly the construction has been repatriated to this country and is being undertaken by WH Davis of Langwith Junction, with finance provided by Porterbrook Leasing. The first two batches of MWAs were almost identical aside from their paint scheme, the orders being placed either side of Freightliner’s corporate image change from the original green to the Genesee & Wyoming-influenced grey. However, the new MWA-Cs are distinctly different with chunky vertical and horizontal framing that make…

50 YEARS AGO… AUGUST 1975 ■ APT-E SPEED RECORD BR’S EXPERIMENTAL gas turbine-powered Advanced Passenger Train (APT-E) achieved 152mph while on test between Swindon and Reading on August 10, 2mph above its design speed. The top speed was 9mph above the 143mph achieved between York and Darlington by a High Speed Train (HST) during trials two years earlier. 40 YEARS AGO… AUGUST 1985 ■ GREEN IS THE COLOUR AS PART OF the Great Western Railway 150 year of celebrations, the Western Region of British Rail painted four Class 47s in GWR Brunswick Green livery, although there was a false start when the wrong shade of green was used initially. On August 17, a photoshoot at Old Oak Common depot was staged with green Nos. 47079, 47484, 47500 and 47628. Also…

FOLLOWING emergency Government action to prevent the British Steel Scunthorpe steelmaking plant closing, the Department for Transport has announced a deal for the manufacture of a minimum of 337,000 tonnes of rail for Network Rail over the next five years. The announcement, made by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, will secure thousands of jobs in the manufacturing sector, and comes after British Steel’s Chinese owners, Jingye Group, announced it intended to shut down the site’s blast furnaces and some other key steelmaking operations. With the closure of the Port Talbot blast furnaces by Tata last year, had Scunthorpe closed, the UK would have lost its ability to make virgin steel which is why the Government stepped in with emergency legislation back in April. The Scunthorpe plant has been producing rail since…

HAVING made their way from Stadler Rail’s plant in Valencia, Spain, the first two GB Railfreight Class 99s, Nos. 99001 and 99002, arrived in the UK at Avonmouth Docks on June 10. They are the first of a planned fleet of 30 of the 75mph dual-mode electro-diesels ordered by GBRf in April 2022. As well as featuring a Co-Co bogie configuration, the first six-axle locomotives in the Stadler/ Vossloh family of products delivered to the UK, they are also notable for including a more powerful 2400hp (1790kW) Cummins QSK50 engine compared to the ‘last mile’ variants installed in the Class 88 and 93 (940hp and 1200hp respectively). The power output from the 25kV overhead wires is also significantly higher than their forerunners, developing 8270hp or 6170kW. After a week in…

CLASS 20 LSL Nos. 20118 Saltburn-by-the-Sea and 20132 replaced No. 87002 at Carlisle on the 1Z20 08.23 Crewe-Inverness (June 21) and went forward with the SRPS ‘Lochalsh Choppers’ tour tailed by No. 37403 Isle of Mull. An out and back trip to Kyle of Lochalsh followed the next day before the Type 1s returned the tour to Carlisle (on June 23 again with No. 37403) where No. 87002 Royal Sovereign was waiting to complete the journey back to Crewe. The HN Swietelsky duo of Nos. 20302+ 20311 ventured to Kent on June 18 to collect new Tyne & Wear Metro sets Nos. 555031+555017 running as the 6Q23 22.25 Dollands Moor-Wembley Reception. The next morning, they continued to Holgate Sidings at York (via the Hertford Loop) and that night terminated at…

00 GAUGE 4mm scale 1950 to 1980s ERA About the models MODELLERS HAVE wondered why such an important and numerous BR wagon type has been produced, decades after their withdrawal, as a scale model. Following demand from modellers, Accurascale took up the challenge of producing the BR HOP21, 21t coal hopper wagon in ‘OO’ gauge, announcing both the once common original BR welded five-rib unfitted wagons (Diagram 1/146) along with the two-rib rebodied with and without vacuum brakes (Diagrams 1/147 and 1/149). The underframe tooling possibly opens the door for a YCV ‘Tope’ and other infrastructure wagons built on the underframe when HTVs gradually became redundant in the 1980s. BR constructed large numbers of steel-bodied hopper wagons between 1949 and 1959 for coal traffic, mostly as unfitted wagons to several different diagrams…

THE LMS-designed ‘Salmon’ bogie wagon is a remarkable survivor, seeing use well into the 2000s with the help of several upgrades and modifications. It is a rich area for Hornby to exploit with its new ‘OO’ gauge model which was reviewed in last month’s issue (REM255). In the 1980s, those ‘Salmon’ deemed to be in sufficiently good condition were modernised with air brakes and other fittings such as footsteps and ratchet tensioners whilst the remaining unfitted YMO were withdrawn from service in the 1980s. Airbrakes were fitted to BR ‘Salmon’ with both the long and short wheelbase plate back bogies as seen in the reference photographs. They were used into the 1990s in the role they were designed for including track panels and sections of rail. The archaic plate-back bogies…

THE target set by the Deltic Preservation Society, of £85,000 to return No. 55019 Royal Highland Fusilier to main line status, has been reached. This has been a most successful appeal and has been well supported by members and well wishers, as well as the DPS Friends. This latter initiative was started a few years ago and offers tangible ‘rewards’ as a thank you to members who kindly donate £10 or more in a month. It is now bringing in some £15,000 annually. The monies raised have allowed the DPS to secure the necessary equipment which has been introduced or upgraded since the last time the locomotive was on the main line – 2005. This equipment includes GSM-R radio, TPWS and OTMR (On Train Monitoring Recorder). There are still residual…

LONG-TERM infrastructure upgrades to Dublin Port have led to IWT container services to Ballina ceasing on May 31, with road haulage taking over, albeit on a temporary basis. The Dublin Port Company (DPC), IE and IWT discussed alternative arrangements, including using road shunts for transferring containers between the dockside and the new IE handling facility at North Wall (RE 350), but a road-based option was the decision, with road haulage throughout from the port to Ballina. However, it was unclear if the road shunt option would have worked satisfactorily because of the extra handling involved. The loss of the Tara Mines ore contract to road haulage, a bulk traffic that had been successfully rail-hauled for over 45 years, and the laying of tarmac over sections of the port track network…

TRAIN operator Southeastern and Network Rail’s Kent Route have become united under a single leadership team in a move which will drive investment and efficiency. Southeastern has been under control of the Department for Transport since October 2021 and going forward, the Network Rail/ SouthEastern Railway team will be overseen by managing director Steve White. Since coming under public ownership Southeastern have delivered some of the lowest cancellation rates nationally and have forecast a £50million reduction in taxpayer subsidy. The move also marks a significant milestone towards vertical integration under Great British Railways, eventually creating clear accountability for performance, delivering better public transport. The change reflects a contractual arrangement, and no accountabilities are being transferred, each organisation will remain responsible for decision-making for its respective accountabilities. For more than a…

0 GAUGE 7mm scale 1958-1980 ERA Introduction CLASS 24s were introduced in 1958 when a ‘pilot scheme’ batch of 20 Class 24/0 locomotives was constructed at Derby works. Pilot scheme locomotives were built for evaluation purposes and clearly the Class 24 was regarded as a success, with a fleet of 151 locomotives being built by 1961. The story did not end there, with the newer Class 25 following on, based on the same design, but fitted with an uprated Sulzer 6LDA engine and other refinements. The building of this family of locomotives became a long programme, with the final batch being completed in the mid-1960s. They were designated as Type 2 mixed traffic locomotives for lighter duties. The traffic intended for the type quickly disappeared as branch lines were closed and local…

N GAUGE 2mm scale 1991 to present ERA INTERNATIONAL and domestic steel traffic is one of the areas where a variety of different wagons can still be observed today. A mix of different wagons can be seen in the same train, including the modelled Fauvet-Girel IHA-F (UIC coded Sfhimmns). It is a short wagon designed to carry delicate steel which is protected with a flexible hood when in transit. The new ‘N’ gauge model from Revolution Trains will add variety to layout themes with a time line starting in the early 1990s to the present day. The hood means that modelling a load won’t be necessary and the model can represent the wagon in both empty and loaded condition. They were first introduced in 1991, with a total of 250 IHA-F wagons…

THE INFLUX of new and super-accurate wagon models in ‘OO’ gauge over the last few years may make one believe that the art of detailing and enhancing models is no longer as important as it once was, when models were less refined. Well, this is not the case, as the following modelling tips will show. Further, increasing numbers of modellers are eking out their budgets by buying older models that might be considered obsolete compared to contemporary products. Quite a few useful wagon types can be found for attractive prices by scouring trade stands at smaller shows. They may be less detailed, but a lot of them are reasonably accurate and can be bought for as little as £5 in the case of Lima PGAs. Older model designs also make…

MULTIMODAL freight company and operator of the Port of Middlesbrough, AV Dawson has unveiled its contribution to this year’s festivities to mark the bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) by launching a specially-liveried Class 08 shunter at its Middlesbrough terminal. The group’s managing director, Charlie Nettle, is actively involved in efforts to commemorate the S&DR, and has plans to mark the 200th anniversary of the opening of the branch to Middlesbrough in 2030. For now, it is No. 08600 that is the centre of attention, the shunter having been in Dawson’s ownership since 1999 after it was purchased from EWS after a spell on hire for a couple of years. The shunter is best known for its time spent as Slade Green depot pilot during the 1980s, during…

Piccadilly stock now delayed until late 2026 DURING mid-June, Transport for London (TfL) announced the introduction of the new Piccadilly Line 24 Tube Stock (TS) on passenger services had been delayed until the second half of 2026. Previous statements from TfL indicated the first of the new trains would be introduced into service by the end of 2025. The announcement of the delay may not have been unexpected, following rumours of technical issues in recent months. The only 24 TS unit to have been delivered to London Underground has been seen across the length of the Piccadilly Line at night once regular services had ceased. The unit has also been noted stabled at both Northfields and Ealing Common depots. To date, Underground engineers have been evaluating the train to understand…