Sam Hewitt

SOUTHERN REGION ‘Hastings’ DEMU No. 1001 broke new ground for the class on July 1 when it visited the Lincolnshire coastal resort of Cleethorpes. The ‘Cleethorpes Clipper’ treated passengers to a 507-mile round trip from Hastings via Tonbridge, the West London and North London Lines, the East Coast Main Line, Spalding and Lincoln. The six-car…

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REBUILT ‘Merchant Navy’ No. 35028 Clan Line continued its comeback with two visits to its old haunts – 50 years after the end of Southern Region steam in July 1967. The Bulleid Pacific powered a convincing re-creation of the legendary ‘Bournemouth Belle’ from Waterloo to Poole on July 5, hauling the Belmond ‘British Pullman’ set. Four…

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AFTER hot weather and dry conditions forced the use of a diesel loco on June 18, the ‘Torbay Express’ suffered more misfortune on July 2 when the booked steam loco – No. 60163 Tornado – failed before departure from Bristol. Injector problems discovered the previous day prevented the ‘A1’ from hauling the train, and it…

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A CHARITY rail event organised by A V Dawson and the Branch Line Society to celebrate the growth of the Teesside freight terminal raised thousands for local charities. More than 200 people joined a Class 08-hauled tour of A V Dawson’s 100-acre site in Middlesbrough on June 25, taking advantage of the rare opportunity to…

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UK RAILTOURS has obtained an agreement to run two railtours over the much-requested Old Dalby test track in Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire, five years after its initial efforts failed. Now known as the Rail Industry Development Centre (RIDC) Melton, the 13-mile Network Rail-owned facility is used to test a wide variety of new trains for use on Network…

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By Anthony Sayer SIX British Class 86s which were delivered to the Black Sea port of Varna, Bulgaria, on May 4 have been renumbered in the Bulgarian 85xxx range. Nos. 86213/231/701/702 were moved to Ruse, with 86234/235 transferred to Sofia for repair work to be carried out. Ultimately, all six locomotives congregated at the Express…

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ALSTOM’S new technology centre for train modernisation in Widnes was opened on June 29 by Lord Prior of Brampton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Alstom claims it is the largest rolling stock modernisation centre in the UK, with more than 13,000 sq m of space. Its…

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ALSTOM and Eurostar have been working together to support the donation of two Eurostar power cars to the National College for High Speed Rail. Eurostar had previously decided to retire some of these vehicles, and two power cars – Nos. 3101/3102 – are to be fully refurbished by Alstom and will be placed on display…

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CASCADING Class 166 DMUs to the Severn Beach branch from July 3 has allowed passengers to enjoy luxuries such as free wi-fi, air conditioning and at-seat plugs. The delivery of Class 387 EMUs for Thames Valley services has allowed GWR to move some ‘Turbo’ units west in the first step to modernise commuter train services…

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PRODUCTION of ScotRail Class 385 EMUs is well underway at Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe plant. The three- and four-car sets are being manufactured in the North East by local staff using many locally sourced components, with the painted bodyshells being imported. Hitachi has confirmed that assembly of the sets is now in full flow. Testing of…

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