News

SOUTH West Trains and train manufacturer Siemens have given a preview of their new Class 707 EMUs to a small party of railway journalists. SWT has ordered 30 five-car EMUs from Siemens, which are part of the ‘Desiro City’ family and similar to the Class 700 units being built for Govia Thameslink. Although the units…

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BELMOND’s all-new luxury train for Ireland, the ‘Grand Hibernian’, is set to take to the rails on August 9. After three years in the making, preparations are well underway at Iarnród Éireann-Irish Rail for accepting the train into traffic. The ex-Irish Rail Mk3s acquired have all been fully overhauled and cosmetically restored externally at Brodie’s,…

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A TEN-year contract to deliver biomass to Lynemouth power station has been won by GB Railfreight, securing drivers’ jobs in the North East. The power station opened in 1972, then owned and operated by Alcan to provide energy for the production of aluminium at the nearby Lynemouth Smelter, which closed in March 2012. Power continued…

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PREDICTIONS of a 49% increase in demand for rail travel across the West Midlands and Chilterns regions by 2023 have led to proposals for longer trains, an increase in services, extended platforms, and upgraded stations. Both regions, covering the areas around Birmingham, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, already cater for in excess of 50million passenger journeys…

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THE month-long upgrade of Glasgow’s Subway system is taking longer to complete, and is now expected to be finished in mid-August – two weeks after the planned reopening. The Subway, which forms a circular route through the centre and west of the city, closed on July 2 for track renewal works. The work centred on…

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TALYLLYN Railway’s The Grand Finale gala lived up to every expectation. The July 1-3 event specifically celebrated the 150th birthday of TR’s Fletcher, Jennings 0-4-0WT No. 2 Dolgoch, while rounding off the series of events marking TR’s 150th anniversary. Bluebell Railway’s standard gauge Fletcher, Jennings 158/1877 Captain Baxter, steaming at 2ft 3in-gauge Talyllyn Railway’s Wharf…

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NETWORK Rail has unveiled a paper that documents maximum permitted loads for steam locomotives for the first time since Privatisation. It follows an unhappy sequence of stalls and struggles by steam on the national network, which has a serious knock-on effect to other services. One of the most notable was when ‘Battle of Britain’ No. 34067…

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THE well-known steam railway museum in the historic Japanese city of Kyoto reopened to the public on April 29. The museum was closed for extensive refurbishment in 2015. It now has much more display space, which has enabled the collection to be expanded to include examples of more important modern diesel and electric traction, including…

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BIG strides have been made in the Great Western electrification project. On July 16 the overhead wires between Reading and Didcot were energised, allowing two Class 800 Hitachi IEP five-car sets to run on electric power. This section will be used as a testing ground for the Class 800s until further sections are energised. Until…

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TRAINS will be able to traverse the full length of the Settle & Carlisle line from the end of March next year as Network Rail continues to work on stabilising the 500,000-tonne landslip that severed the line at Eden Brows back in February. The £23million repair project involves the construction of an extensive concrete and…

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