The Railway Magazine

TWO elements of the HS2 project have received Parliamentary approval for construction... but delivery of the core Phase One route between London and Birmingham and the connecting Phase 2a line to Crewe has been described as unachievable by the Infras

A stunning view of a GWR ‘Castle Class’ HST (with power cars Nos. 43042 Tregenna Castle and 43194 Okehampton Castle) as it crosses Coombe Viaduct, Saltash, on August 9, with the 2C77/13.00 Cardiff to Penzance, shortly after entering Cornwall via the

THE measures being taken following the Carmont crash (see separate story) are reflected in NR’s £4.2 billion Strategic Business Plan for Scotland for Control Period 7 (covering April 2024 to March 2029), where 19% of planned renewals will cover earth

STAFF AT TransPennine Express have been told by managing director Chris Jackson that the operator plans to stop using the loco-hauled‘Nova 3’sets from the December timetable change. In a memo to colleagues on August 25, he said it will instead cover

ON the evening of August 25, BR‘7MT’No. 70000 Britannia suffered a mechanical fault in the Surrey Hills at about 20.30 while operating Steam Dreams’ ‘Sunset Steam Express’circular tour from London Victoria. It is understood the 4-6-2 suffered a broke

THE Railway Correspondence and Travel Society (RCTS) and Mortons Media have launched Steam or Modern; People and the Environment. The 2023/24 RCTS Photographic Competition. The contest will offer existing and fledgling photographers of all ages the c

A SPECIAL day for Railway Magazine readers (as well as for those of Mortons Media’s other rail titles (Heritage Railway, Rail Express, Railways Illustrated and Steam Days) is to be held at the Statfold Barn Railway near Tamworth on October 7. The sta

THE arrival of Class 43 power car No. 43170 and two Mk.3 coaches Nos. 41100 and 44094 on Wednesday, August 2 at Great Yarmouth docks by road from store at Ely caused quite a stir among local enthusiasts. These were followed the next day by Nos. 43022

BETWEEN mid-July and mid-August, engineers in the West Midlands moved three new bridges into place and demolished one old structure to accommodate the alignment of HS2. In what is believed to be the UK’s heaviest single-span bridge drive, a 56 metre-

AS we near the 200th anniversary of public railways, the days of the humble four-wheel freight wagon – which have existed since the very earliest railways – are now definitely numbered in revenue service in Britain. One step closer came in August wit

IN the first Midland Transitions article (June issue), we left the steam era on the former Midland Railway’s main line from St Pancras to Leicester at the end of the 1950s with ‘Jubilees’ gamely fighting for survival alongside ‘Royal Scots’ and ‘Brit

ANEW daily service is now running over the 115km (71 miles) between Montreux and Interlaken in Switzerland – despite the through-trains having to change gauge, voltage and even height en route! Regular services began on June 11, with one train pair,

THE National Railway Museum in York opened a new permanent exhibition called ‘Wonderlab: The Bramall Gallery’ on July 27, the first project from its ‘Vision 2025’ masterplan to be completed. Wonderlab has been in development for five years, and featu

RCTS president Canon Brian Arman recalls a story concerning the repurposing of the Class 56s with new technology to emerge as Class 69s. Back in 1977, when he was studying for his postgraduate degree at Durham University, he managed to persuade his g

MYSTERY surrounds the identity of the new owner of LMS‘Black Five’No. 45110 – although reports suggest it has relocated to the North West of England. The sale of the out-of-ticket 4-6-0 was announced by the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) on August 16, t

THE weekend of July 14-16 saw the Foxfield Railway celebrate Knotty 100, the centenary of the end of the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR). Although the grouping was officially January 1, 1923, for legal reasons the NSR did not actually cease to exis

THE High Legh Miniature Railway, Knutsford, put a new loco into traffic in late August after a long and complex build. An 0-4-0+0-4-0 battery electric Garratt was completed and underwent a successful test run with 11 coaches at the 7¼ in gauge line o

ON July 1, 1873 the first stretch of the Isle of Man railway opened between Douglas and Peel with the steam operated lines later branching out to serve Castletown and Port Erin. Over the following 15 decades the line reached a peak in passenger trans

BLACKPOOL Transport has donated‘Centenary’car No. 645 to the National Tramway Museum (NTM) in Crich, where it will be assessed with a view to turning it into a second accessible tram for visitors. Conversion to allow it to carry wheelchair users and

PLANS for a major refurbishment of Keighley station have been outlined by the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (KWVR) which shares two of the station’s four platforms with Northern. Ultimately, the station is Network Rail owned. The multi-million poun

DB CARGO UK has blamed“the continuing high cost of energy” for its decision to withdraw its last remaining operational Class 90 electric locomotive from service. The company has 24 members of the class in its fleet and No. 90039 joined the rest in st

THE first Class 398 Tram Trains (part of a fleet of 36 which will ultimately operate services in the South Wales valleys) have been unveiled by Transport for Wales. The £100 million depot at Taff’s Well, north of Cardiff, which will be their base, is

SOLAR panels at Bedford, Three Bridges and Selhurst depots are expected to generate 3.7 gigawatt hours of electricity between them each year. The panels will be installed following a successful trial scheme at Streatham Hill depot in south London, wh

AS Chiltern Railways prepares to consider options for replacing its existing diesel fleet with more environmentally-friendly trains, a report outlining its plans for the future says decarbonisation “cannot afford to wait for track electrification”. I

GBBS GBRf Class 57WAEC DBC Class 67 ETCS fittedWBET DBC Class 66 ETCS fitted Allocations 37605 sent for disposal55022 LSLS-LSLO57305 KM/XSDP-LR/GBBS57306 KM/XSDP-LR/GBBS57310 KM/XSDP-LR/GBBS57312 KM/XHAC-LR/GBBS-PZ/EFOO60092 TO/WCBT-WQ/WQBA66039 WQ/

HEAVY rain and flooding caused a number of AWC services to be cancelled or terminated mid-way through their journeys on Sunday, July 23. Among the altered services was 1M10, worked by Class 390 ‘Pendolino’ No. 390157, which departed from Glasgow Cent