Features

There’s been a lot of emphasis on the days leading up to the end of steam on BR. But what did enthusiasts discover on the first day of a new era? David Percival provides a personal account in words and pictures. IT WAS Monday, August 12, 1968. On the previous day, the ‘Fifteen Guinea Special’…

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For 79 days between July and October, East Midlands Trains used Barrow Hill as a temporary depot, servicing HSTs and ‘Meridians’ during the Derby blockade. Ben Jones spent a night with the team. It’s midnight and an early autumn chill has descended on this corner of Derbyshire. For the first time since the 1980s, there’s…

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In the second part of his history of the ‘Pacers’, Gary Boyd-Hope looks at the coming of the first of the production types – the Class 141s and 142s – along with the later railbus demonstrators that were heavily influenced by the Class 141s. BY THE start of 1982 British Rail (BR) was in desperate…

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Rail services in the Thames Valley in the past 60 years have undergone radical transformation from steam, to diesel, electric and also bi-mode. In the first of a two-part feature, Keith Farr reviews steam performances leading up to the introduction of DMUs. Mention ‘Thames Valley’ to Great Western enthusiasts and their thoughts focus on Brunel’s…

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With many new train operators providing services, The RM is reviving a feature it ran many years ago, where one of the team reports on the good and bad aspects of a recent rail journey. Hopefully, this will give a snapshot of how franchisees are performing. THE combination of an early morning flight from Stansted…

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In the first of a regular series of columns, The RM will be visiting the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) to look at life there through the eyes of its apprentices. The SVR set up its pioneering Heritage Skills Training Academy in 2013 to bring new blood into heritage railway engineering, and to future proof the…

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By the time this issue of The Railway Magazine goes on sale, the first Northern Rail ‘Pacers’ should have been withdrawn, so beginning the ‘end’ for the ‘Nodding Donkeys’. Gary Boyd-Hope, a self-confessed ‘Pacer’ fan, explores the origins and history of this much-maligned type, which began 40 years ago this year. PACERS’ – arguably one…

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St Pancras was the Midland Railway’s contribution to the London railway scene. Its splendours were not surpassed by any terminus built subsequently. Robert Humm reviews the life and times of the great station. In this feature I shall be looking at the history of the ‘operational’ side of St Pancras station, the opening of which…

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Preservation of electric multiple units can be overlooked, despite the fact they are often the backbone of commuter operations. Martyn Hilbert looks at the history as well as an update on the work to restore a Class 502 EMU – a type first introduced by the LMS in 1940. When the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway…

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Robert Drysdale has a huge interest in the East Fife Railway, which stemmed from numerous family holidays in the area. Here, he recalls some of the peculiar operating practices that were carried out at the picturesque town of Anstruther. The June and July 2016 editions of The Railway Magazine carried a fascinating two-part article by…

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