News

THE first Class 399 tram-train sets entered service on the Sheffield Supertram network on September 14. The fleet will be initially restricted to the tram network until the connection to Rotherham Parkgate via Network Rail metals is completed in 2018. No. 399202 was chosen for the first run, which ran empty from the depot at…

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DAVID SHEPHERD CBE, FRSA, FGRA 1931-2017 THE art and railway worlds are mourning the death of David Shepherd, who died on September 19. He was 86 and had been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. After leaving school, David travelled to Kenya with aspirations of being a game warden, but was turned down. He faced further rejection by an…

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By Keith Fender FOLLOWING the collapse on August 12 of a new railway tunnel being built under the German town of Rastatt, the Karlsruhe to Basel main line railway (above the new tunnel)was badly damaged, with significant track deformation leaving it closed to all rail traffic for at least eight weeks. This two-track section between…

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AFTER a low key start to the new South Western Railway (SWR) franchise the new era was formally launched at London Waterloo on September 4. SWR took over from South West Trains on August 20. The offical launch was delayed until platform extensions at Waterloo were completed. First Group and MTR jointly operate SWR, and…

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DECADES of campaigning and fundraising finally came to fruition during the early hours of September 3 when the Great Central Railway’s new bridge over the Midland Main Line at Loughborough was lowered into position. The £2.5million structure represents the most significant piece of the GCR’s Bridging the Gap project, which will ultimately see the northern…

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By Steven Knight THE Rail Delivery Group (RDG) has confirmed to The Railway Magazine that plans to simplify rail fares (RM June 2017), announced in February, are still being progressed. Despite the RDG and the Department for Transport (DfT) initially suggesting the three-fares projects would go live by May this year, the earliest start date…

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Test and training runs with ‘e320’ high-speed trains have started in the Netherlands, ahead of Eurostar’s London to Amsterdam services starting in Spring 2018. Nos. 4013/14 visited Amsterdam Centraal on September 15, prior to starting tests on the HSL Zuid high-speed line between Rotterdam and Breda the following day. The train was also tested on…

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EXCLUSIVE By Ben Jones More than 5,000 visitors flocked to Barrow Hill Roundhouse to celebrate the depot’s reopening on September 22-24. The lure of seeing ‘A3’ No. 60103 Flying Scotsman and ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado together proved irresistible for many. Highlight of the weekend was the first double-header of the two Pacifics – the first…

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A PLANNED repaint has seen the first of 56 Class 390 ‘Pendolino’ trains emerge in a revised livery. The new livery is the first major change since the sets were introduced 15 years ago, with this mid-life repaint needed as part of the leasing arrangements. Its style and colour is similar to how Virgin says…

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