News

THE exceedingly rare sight of two Hawksworth ‘Modified Halls’ running on the same stretch of railway will be just one of the highlights of the West Somerset Railway’s spring gala on March 22-25 as the Minehead branch ‘Goes Great Western’. The Great Western Routes & Branches event will bring together a combination of visiting and…

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SCOTRAIL Class 156 DMU No. 156458 was derailed as a result of a landside above Loch Eilt on the West Highland line extension on January 22. The unit was working the 06.03 Mallaig-Glasgow Queen St when it came to grief, but remained upright as the slurry from the landslide lifted it off its wheels. There were…

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THE collapse of Carillion, one of the UK’s largest construction and infrastructure management firms, has caused major difficulties for Network Rail and a number of other rail-related projects. The compulsory liquidation of the group in January put thousands of jobs at risk and raised fears major rail projects such as High Speed 2 (HS2) Phase…

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LONDON Bridge’s vast new concourse and five new platforms opened to the public on January 2 after five years of reconstruction and redevelopment work. Following the latest 10-day closure over Christmas and New Year, trains to and from Cannon Street can once again call at London’s oldest railway station. Since work began in 2013, London…

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A MAJOR fire that damaged some of the period features at Nottingham station is being treated by the British Transport Police (BTP) as arson. The fire broke out at around 06.15 on January 12 in a ladies’ toilet in the new southern concourse off Queen Street, close to the multi-storey car park. However, flames quickly…

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PICTURE the scene: A passenger train of chocolate & cream carriages runs into the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway’s new Broadway station, hauled by a gleaming Churchward ‘38XX’ ‘County’ 4-4-0. The tableau is almost pure 1920s Great Western, yet both the station and locomotive are in fact 21st century re-creations of the originals. It may sound…

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AN IN-DEPTH report by the National Audit Office (NAO) into the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise has revealed it has not delivered value for money as a result of high levels of passenger disruption. The report also concludes that between September 2014 and September 2017 passengers using the franchise have experienced the…

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GREATER Anglia has released the first pictures of its new trains being built by Stadler. The bodyshells are manufactured by Stadler in Hungary before being transported to its Bussnang factory in Switzerland, where they are fitted out. In addition to the large picture windows, the air-conditioned carriages will include wi-fi, and both plug and USB…

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