Sam Hewitt

WORLD-famous Gresley ‘A3’ No. 60103 Flying Scotsman will be visiting both the East Lancashire Railway (ELR) and Nene Valley Railway (NVR) later this year as the National Railway Museum loco begins a new six-year spell under the custodianship of Ian Riley. The close relationship between Heywood-based Riley & Son (E) and the ELR will naturally reap…

Continue reading »

SINGLE-chimney ‘King’ No. 6023 King Edward II will see its operation restricted to heritage lines for the foreseeable future after the Great Western Society (GWS) put its main line aspirations for the Collett 4-6-0 on hold. The road to main line certification has not been a smooth one for the Didcot-based ‘King’, and since its return…

Continue reading »

A TWO-CAR former London Underground ‘D’ stock unit – No. 230002, converted by Vivarail at Long Marston to run on battery power – will be tested this summer on a passenger route. The batteries fit on a raft that replaces the space used by the genset in unit 230001, with four batteries to each train (two…

Continue reading »

By Keith Fender   EUROSTAR launched its new direct service to Amsterdam and Rotterdam on February 20, running an inaugural train in the timings of one of the two planned daily services. When regular services begin on April 4 these will be the first direct trains connecting the UK and the Netherlands. The train, with invited…

Continue reading »

The Department of Transport’s aspiration to ban the use of diesel trains after 2040 could inadvertently lead to a revival for older DMUs that were planned for withdrawal over the next two years. The move comes a few months after the cancellation of a rolling electrification programme that would have seen EMUs cascaded around the…

Continue reading »

AWARDS to preservation groups, societies and individuals to recognise their achievements in specific categories were presented at the annual dinner of the Heritage Railway Association in Birmingham on February 10. Barrow Hill Roundhouse won the Mortons Media (Heritage Railway) Interpretation Award for the conservation and restoration of what was once a common, but now unique, key part…

Continue reading »

By Ben Jones FEBRUARY 8 saw the first two completed Class 802 bi-mode trains unveiled at the Hitachi Rail Europe (HRE) plant in Tuscany. Five-car AT300s Nos. 802003 and 802004 (T4/T5) are the first of 33 trains being built in Pistoia to replace Great Western Railway (GWR) InterCity 125s on the West of England route. A…

Continue reading »

RAIL watchdog Transport Focus (TF) has accused Network Rail of badly letting down passengers after it was announced confirmed timetable information, which allows the booking of advance tickets, would not be available for the next six months to the usual rolling 12-week window from the May 20 timetable change. Known as ‘T minus 12’, it…

Continue reading »

CLASS 88 bi-mode locos have been going ‘off the juice’, with Nos. 88009 Diana and 88010 Aurora making a trial run on diesel power from Carlisle Kingmoor to Seaton Carew, Teesside on January 12. A pair of locos can muster 1,900hp in multiple, and up to four FNA nuclear flask wagons should be within the capability…

Continue reading »

BEACON Rail and Govia Thameslink Rail have repainted the first-built second-generation EMU to its original BR blue & grey livery. Set No. 313201 was repainted at Wolverton Works as part of a planned C6 overhaul that has included body repairs and work on the door mechanisms. The units were built in 1976 by BREL York and…

Continue reading »