News

WITH less than three months before the planned introduction of Vivarail Class 230 DMUs on Bedford to Bletchley services, the first unit – No. 230003 – arrived on September 18 to begin tests. The two-car set, complete with London Northwestern Railway branding as well as ‘Marston Vale’ decals, arrived by a circuitous route from Long…

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SEPTEMBER 13 saw the first of 665 Class 720 EMU vehicles for Abellio Greater Anglia (GA) unveiled to stakeholders and the media at Bombardier’s Derby Litchurch Lane works. Three part-finished cars from five-car set No. 720501 were displayed, offering visitors a glimpse of the next generation of East Anglian commuter train. Bombardier is building 89 five-car…

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THE first ‘Flex’ Class 769 has moved to the Great Central Railway at Quorn for testing following a number of lengthy delays because of a raft of technical issues. Porterbrook has been heavily involved in the project to convert what was an EMU to a tri-mode unit able to operate on 25kV, 750v DC and…

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TESTING has started on the West Coast Main Line of the first fixed formation of an order for 13 five-car carriage rakes from CAF for use with TransPennine Express. The sets, known by TPE as ‘Nova3’, are being hauled by Class 68 locos provided to TPE by Direct Rail Services. Each set has a driving…

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STATFOLD Barn Railway’s (SBR) September 8 Open Day featured two visiting locomotives. Both First World War veterans, Greensand Railway Museum Trust’s Baldwin 4-6-0T WDLR No. 778 was appearing at SBR for the first time, while War Office Locomotive Trust’s Hunslet 4-6-0T WDLR No. 303 returned to run in public following its private July 8 launch at SBR.…

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MANX Electric Railway’s (MER) 125th anniversary was celebrated over September 1-8 with a daily programme of events and photo opportunities featuring its fleet of power cars, trailers and non-passenger stock. Highlights included the September 3 official launch into service of 1898-vintage MER ‘Ratchet Car’ No. 14 following a three-year restoration project. The big day was September…

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THE visit of Brienz Rothorn Bahn (BRB) rack locomotive No. 2 and BRB coach No. B1 to the Snowdon Mountain Railway (SMR) came to fruition through the month of September. The unprecedented project had been five years in the planning, and is unlikely to be repeated. No. 2 was built by Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of…

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FIFTY years to the day after the closure of the ‘Waverley Route’ on January 5, 1969, Pathfinder Tours is organising a Deltic-hauled train to Tweedbank to mark that sad anniversary. Famously, the penultimate passenger train over the whole line 50 years ago was hauled by No. 9007 Pinza, and it was subject to a series delays…

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PEPPERCORN ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado will enter its second decade of main line work with a programme of five tours between Edinburgh and Aberdeen during March and September 2019. The launch train for the ‘Aberdonian’ will run on March 14, followed by the main series of late-summer trains on August 1, 8, 31 and September 7.…

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SEPTEMBER 6 was Horse Tram Day at Crich Tramway Village, providing an opportunity for some of the National Tramway Museum’s non-powered trams to steal the limelight. Making a rare appearance in front-line service was Sheffield Corporation horse tram No. 15 (pictured), built in 1874 by the Starbuck Car & Wagon Company of Birkenhead. The car survived…

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