Sam Hewitt

THE Branch Line Society will run its first charter with the Rail Operations Group (ROG) on September 9. The tour will feature rare track and interesting traction and will employ a pair of ROG Class 37/7s and preserved Class 86/2 electric No. 86259 Les Ross traversing rare lines in the West Midlands, and the much-requested Royal…

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FORMER England football team manager Graham Taylor had a London Midland Class 350 ‘Desiro’ No. 350377 named after him on June 2 – the unit number chosen to match 1977, the year he joined Watford. Mr Taylor, who also managed Lincoln City, Watford, Aston Villa, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, died in January and still lived in…

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FOLLOWING repairs and modifications after a fire on board Vivarail Class 230 prototype No. 230001, the rebuilt train was tested on the Cotswold line on June 14. The tests were ahead of using the unit on June 21-22 as a demonstrator, ferrying from Honeybourne to the Rail Live event at Long Marston. Now configured as…

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VIRGIN Trains East Coast (VTEC) has signed up to the Time to Change pledge, a national campaign that tackles the stigma around mental health discrimination. To promote awareness in the issue, VTEC will invest more than £700,000 a year to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of its staff. As part of this investment, the…

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THE first Class 88 dual-power locos have begun work on revenue-earning freight traffic. As expected, the locos have taken over the Daventry to Grangemouth Tesco train, the first working taking place on June 12, when No. 88003 worked train 4S43 north while No. 88004 worked the return south, 4M48. A third loco, No. 88002, has…

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THE Spa Valley Railway (SVR) has agreed a five-year deal with the Mid-Norfolk Railway to accommodate 3-CIG EMU set No. 1497. This was one of the pair of three-car sets, with No. 1498, which were retained after the demise of slam-door stock, for an extended period of operation on the Lymington branch, Hampshire, where it was…

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PERMANENTWAY Type 27A MkIII rail trolley No. WD9024 (Wickham 7090) was returned to service last year. It is currently based on the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway. It was delivered new in 1955 to the Ministry of Supply at Kineton, Warwickshire, and sold to the Battlefield Line on August 18, 1977. Passing to the Swanage Railway…

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GREAT Northern Railway (Ireland) 4-4-0 No. 85 Merlin was back to winning ways on June 4 when it worked the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s ‘Midland Compound’ railtour from Dublin to Maynooth and return. The RPSI had been working tirelessly to cure the ‘V’ class Compound’s big end bearing issues that had plagued it during…

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A FORMER signal cabin that controlled part of the GNR(I)’s Bundoran Junction in Kilskeery, County Tyrone, has been reopened at the Downpatrick & County Down Railway (DCDR), thanks to a £10,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In its heyday ‘Bundoran Junction North’ cabin sat at the northern end of the busy triangular junction, where…

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