2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

EKLR EMU gala

Sat Sep 19 2009

Saturday 19 September 2009: On the weekend of September 19th and 20th, the East Kent Light Railway held their annual EMU gala, celebrating the largest collection of serviceable historic EMU vehicles in the country. Since my last visit in 2007, two more vehicles, both MLVs, have arrived from the Colne Valley Railway, making this also the largest collection of ex-BR battery power in the UK, although not all will ever operate as intended again. 4CEP 7105 continues its slow restoration work and 2EPB 5759 has had a recoat of BR green, whilst group-owned ex-Connex Class 09 EE shunter 09025 now has a full side in green. I visited on the Saturday, a day that stayed a bit grey unfortunately, and was able to witness three of the departures with variations in the consists, all pushed/hauled by 09025, the final run I saw would have some mileage under battery power courtesy of 68001, this should have happened at the spot I went to, North Bank crossing, at the top of the grade from Shepherdswell station but for some reason the crew decided to keep 09025 attached across the crossing and through to Eythorne. I had to leave them to it to catch my train home, on a day where the journey took over 4 hours each way via Hastings due to buses between Lewes and Brighton and poor connections elsewhere. I would like to help out on occasions, they need all hands, but the journey is quite long .... Full image captions to be loaded at a later time.

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

The Aylesbury vale venturer

Sat Sep 5 2009

Saturday 5 September 2009: On Saturday 5th September, a new railtour company, Joint-Line railtours, ran a trip from Barrow Hill to London Marylebone and back, the Merry-le-bone, with an add-on return trip to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton Road north of Aylesbury, handy for those down-south. The tour was operated by WCRC with 33207 'Jim Dent' and 37516 in top-and-tail mode and with reasonable fares, especially for the add-on, was popular for the 50-mile loco-hauled run over this DMU-dominated network. The run-through to Quainton road provided an easy way to get a taster of this heritage site, recently improved with the re-erection of Oxford's Rewley Road station building that, I'm told, has vastly improved the visitor experience. The tour's participants did have a rather rapid experience, with slightly late northbound running shortening the time there to only forty minutes but it was sufficient to see most of the rolling stock present and get a 'feel' of the place. The museum's collection is varied, mostly with a Metropolitan / London feel but with the addition of the Sentinel / Cammell, Birmingham-built articulated 3-car steam railcar that had been exported to Egypt, saw 11 years service and 23 years withdrawn, and was re-imported in 1985, as well as a 3-foot gauge South African Garrett steam loco built in Glasgow. A return visit could be on the cards, with rail shuttles regularly operated by Chiltern's sole passenger 'heritage' DMU, 55020, on Bank Holidays from Aylesbury to the centre, the line through Quainton Road is usually only used by containerised waste trains to Calvert land-fill site. The tour actually carried on to Claydon Junction for reversal, although why isn't clear, and passengers were permitted on this leg after some confusion, but having bought my entry ticket to the centre I stuck with that option. As well as views of the tour at London and Quainton Road, we also see the depot at Aylesbury with its collection of heritage DMUs, mostly used on Sandite / de-icing workings but also including 55020, stabled outside and the withdrawn units stored by Aylesbury platforms.. Captions to be uploaded soon, I need to sleep at this point (been a long day...)

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

Spa Valley diesel gala

Sun Aug 9 2009

Sunday 9 August 2009: On the weekend of the 9th/10th August, the Spa Valley Railway at Tunbridge Wells held their regular summer diesel gala featuring resident traction, this time Class 33 33063 'R J Mitchell', Class 37 37254 'Driver Robin Prince MBE', and Class 73 E6047 (ex-73140) featured, along with resident Thumper 1317 (207017) in 2-car formation and on-hire Class 20 20110 from the South Devon Railway, staying here for most of the rest of the year, making three locomotives from Totnes that have so far made the journey over the years to Tunbridge Wells. Class 12 15224 also made an appearance on a shuttle to High Rocks with 1317, the previously-resident Class 09 09004 has now left the railway leaving it with two 350hp shunters. One of the resident Class 115 DMU power cars was receiving some attention in the shed, albeit not pictured here, possibly indicating some new power to be sampled in due course ? I attended on the Saturday, again with glorious weather, and made my acquaintance with 1317 operating, this being the first opportunity I'd had to have a ride with it although it has worked on a few previous occasions. The interior has had most work, particularly the motor coach, but the exterior is still a work-in-progress as can be seen. The extension to Eridge is still awaited but progress is ongoing there too, I hear, with much work completed on the station platform and its facilities.

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

Dartmoor Railway

Sun Jul 19 2009

Sunday 19 July 2009: On Sunday 19th July, being in the area, I decided to take a brief trip to the private railway operator at Okehampton, the Dartmoor Railway. One of the main reasons for doing this jaunt is the FGW-operated summer Sundays 2-hourly shuttle from St James Park, a suburban halt near Exmouth Junction in Exeter, to Okehampton, a service which I believe is unique in that it takes a franchised train operator (FGW) over non-Network Rail tracks regularly. The service meets the Dartmoor Railway trains side-by-side in Okehampton station, a well-restored example of a Southern Railway country junction station. Unfortunately, my train from Taunton to connect at Exeter was 30-odd minutes late, meaning I missed the 11:12 departure out to Okehampton and had to wait for the 13:12, making the trip briefer than intended. The service is operated by ex-Northern Pacer DMUs, which makes for a lively run at line-speed, 60mph?, down the tree-lined tunnel that is most of the usually freight-only branch from Coleford Junction to Okehampton, owned by Aggregate Industries from the junction. The connecting Dartmoor Railway service onwards to Meldon is at the minute formed of 2-car Southern Region DEMU 1132, and isn't really much to get excited about on its short level run but it was good to be re-acquainted with the unit. The railway operation has been under management changes, and indeed had closed for a year, and is now owned by an American outfit, British American Railways, who have also taken on the troubled Weardale railway as part of the same deal. Much stock has recently been removed from the site, many of which was Fragonset-owned before its collapse in 2006, and the operation is now at a basic level. The remaining stock, which includes another non-operational DEMU 205028, a Weymouth line 4TC 417, ex-Lymington 3CEP 1198 and recent arrival 47701 'Waverley' is stored around the quarry loading area. The line runs alongside a footpath/cycle-track, which carries on along the redundant trackbed towards Tavistock over Meldon viaduct, it would have been nice to had a walk over the viaduct but it wasn't really the weather for this.

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

A day in the broads

Sat Jul 4 2009

Saturday 4 July 2009: On Saturday 4th July I made my way to London Liverpool Street to join the 10:00 service running through to Great Yarmouth, a loco-hauled service that only runs through in the high summer, worked by a Class 90 as far as Norwich with a Class 47 dragging it forward for the final 35 minutes or so. The corresponding 13:10 return is also dragged back, along with the 12:00 departure from Liverpool Street which then returns empty to Norwich. On this occasion DRS's 47802 'Pride of Cumbria' was in charge on the diesel leg, in previous years Class 47s operated by Cotswold rail have been used but this is the first year of DRS being involved. The first run had 90013 in tow, with its rake of eight Mark 3s and DVT, the second run had on-hire 90019, in First Scotrail (!) colours. The 'Wherry lines', as the network around Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth is known, had some timekeeping troubles on this day and I ended up getting stuck at Great Yarmouth in between the two loco workings, if one wants to catch the second run en-route by train then you must catch the 13:17 out of Great Yarmouth but an error by the Yarmouth signaller saw this and the delayed 13:10 loco-hauled service leave within a couple of minutes of each other. After my enforced wait at Yarmouth, seeing the service depart and later return, I did manage to photograph the empty stock run at Brundall, an attractive small junction station en-route back to Norwich. We also see one of the NXEA-liveried locos and carriage sets at Norwich, with the recent news of NXECs defaulting on payments these colours could disappear completely ....

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

WSR Mixed Traffic weekend

Fri Jun 12 2009

Friday 12 June 2009: Over the long weekend of 12th-14th June, the West Somerset Railway held the annual Mixed Traffic gala, primarily for the resident diesel fleet to stretch their legs and bring in the enthusiasts, this year also including visitors Class 14 D9520 from the Nene Valley Railway, making its third visit, D1062 'WESTERN RANGER' from the Severn Valley Railway and star-of-the-year new-build steam loco 60163 'Tornado' at the end of its fortnight-long visit. Locos used from the resident fleet were D9526, freshly repainted in the weeks before, D7523, D7017 on her first passenger runs since the power unit rebuild was completed, long-term visitor D832 'ONSLAUGHT' after her power unit repairs were also completed and D1661 'NORTH STAR'. 33048 was the Williton stand-by loco, not required, and D1010 sadly could not team up with D1062 as her repairs are on-going and she was on-shed. An additional and new attraction was locos being turned on the turntable at Minehead, not strictly necessary for double-ended diesels but an interesting experience for viewers, and crews having their first taste of pushing anything upwards of 55 tonnes around ! I was on-duty for the three days, second-manning on the class 14 pairing on the Friday working the 10:57 Minehead - Bishops Lydeard and 13:40 return, on the Saturday with D7017 working the 09:15 Bishops Lydeard - Minehead, 10:57 return, 12:40 ex-Bishops Lydeard and 15:40 ex-Minehead with D1062, unfortunately I wasn't able to get an image of this pairing, then finally on the Sunday I worked with D1661, again starting with the 09:15 Bishops Lydeard - Minehead, 11:40 return, 15:30 ex-Bishops Lydeard and the 17:30 Minehead - Bishops Lydeard. Many of the images here were taken during my duties as trained staff giving me access to some parts of the railway not normally available to the public, and only when I was not required to do anything. The event was well-supported by the public and hopefully can be repeated in 2010 with another good line-up to attract the visitors.

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

Long Marston open day

Sat Jun 6 2009

Saturday 6 June 2009: Over the weekend of 6th and 7th June, the former military base at Long Marston, with an extensive internal rail network, opened to visitors. This site, closed by the MoD in 1999, is now owned by St Modwen, who also own the Eastleigh site, and the railway operation is run by a logistics company, Motorail, who saw a gap in the market for storage of temporarily redundant rolling stock. Many redundant vehicles, usurped by more modern stock, have passed through here and currently the former WCML and Anglian electric loco fleets are here for evaluation for potential re-use, in the UK or abroad, indeed almost half the Class 87s formerly used by Virgin have been exported to Bulgaria, with all remaining set to follow apart from 87027, the former 'Wolf of Badenoch', to be stripped for spares and then scrapped, and two Class 86s are moving to Hungary for testing prior to decisions on any more. A further two 86s so far are being overhauled for UK spot-hire work. A large proportion of the site is currently in use for storage of wagons, of all shapes, sizes and functions, mothballed due to the economic downturn. I visited the open day on Saturday 6th, travelling up from Littlehampton by train via Guildford and Reading. The day was sadly rather grey and did not get better, indeed the grey turned to rain by Oxford which continued throughout the day (such a contrast to Eastleigh and Mid-Hants the weekends before) and this did not help the mood of the 60+ plus who disembarked at Honeybourne, the nearest station to Long Marston, to find the advertised bus-link had been cancelled with a 16-seat minibus standing in. After about 80 minutes of waiting, the charter operated by UK railtours and hauled by 66060 arrived and paused briefly, long enough for three people to leap on board, myself included, before pulling away, so I was glad to get out of the rain ... As stated, the rain did not stop so I decided to simply get as much of the stored stock pictured as I could with an emphasis on the AC locos as these may be out of reach once exported. Many images here have some droplets in them, which couldn't be helped given the weather. I had hoped to see the areas of the site not open by joining a shuttle train round the perimeter, unfortunately the shuttle train set derailed over a set of points, and I couldn't even photograph this, as after 111 images my camera decided it had had enough of the rain and packed up ! All-in-all, a bit of an eventful day with some disappointments, personal and organisational, but well-worth the long trip anyway to see this location which only opens once a year.

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

Mid-Hants Railway diesel gala

Sat May 30 2009

Saturday 30 May 2009: Over the weekend of 29th-31st May, the Mid-Hants Railway held their first diesel gala for four years. This event, eagerly anticipated by enthusiasts, promised a lot of action with shunter-hauled brake van rides, thumper 1125 making its first runs for two years after repairs, visiting main-line 73s 73107 'Spitfire' and 73201 'Broadlands' and visiting 37905 & 56098, roaded in from the Battlefield line in Warwickshire. Resident on-hire 33053 would also participate, this has been brought in in place of 33208, needing repairs and soon to visit Shackerstone for these repairs. The resident DMU vehicles, Class 122 single-car 55003 and 3-car Class 117 51405, 59515, 51363 were also in use. I attended on Saturday 30th, and in the main, the event didn't disappoint, although the brake-van rides didn't run with the two shunters, 08032 & D3358 (08288) performing cab-rides instead due to a shortage of guards. 08032, seen here previously at Merehead the previous June, is on-loan from Aggregate Industries being of little use at the Somerset quarries being vacuum-braked only. The 122 had earlier failed with fuel-supply problems, which caused some delays and sadly these compounded during the day with 56098 also needing attention, the day ended with services some hour adrift. 37905 performed well, and noisily, through the day, the 73s were popular too although they saw little use on passenger workings, being mostly occupied with various 'demonstration' freight workings, and 56098 emerged towards the end of the day having been topped-up after low-oil. It was good to see 1125 in action again too, having been here four years this was my first run with it, and the weather certainly didn't disappoint. There were a few issues that the railway could do with heeding, many felt that the day-rover ticket should have included a roster in its _18 price, this being sold separately, the recovery from the disruptions didn't go well and perhaps a working or two could have been cut-short to help here, and on one occasion a service was announced as being delayed and held at Ropley where-on it was immediately dispatched to Alresford, several people got a bit heated as they had no time to get to it and had trusted the '10-minute wait' announcement. All-in-all though, a welcome return for the railway to the attention of diesel enthusiasts. Visting loco 37905 will be staying for a while, presumably as back-up for 33053, hopefully workings of this, and 1125, will be prominently advertised to encourage return visits from those who appreciate these things.

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

Eastleigh Works open day

Sun May 24 2009

Sunday 24 May 2009: Over the Bank Holiday weekend of 23rd to 25th May, the railway works at Eastleigh opened its doors to the public for a three day feast of railways celebrating the sites centenary. The works, which was shut in 2006 by then-incumbent Alstom, following completion of its last workload on Class 455 EMU refurbishment for SWT, after a 97-year period of continuous operation since opening by the LSWR in 1909, had been unlikely to see its centenary and the site looked like being redeveloped, the buildings tools and facilities were cleared as far as practicable and demolition seemed inevitable. A small company, Knights Rail Services, which had started as specialist asbestos contractors working at MoD Shoeburyness for the leasing companies on effective disposal methods for the redundant slam-door fleet, both AC- and DC-powered, took out a short-term lease on part of the site when SWT started to run down its Class 442 fleet after gaining its new franchise. The 442s, a fleet certainly not life-expired, needed somewhere secure and preferably with energised third-rail to be stored, while their future was decided. At the same time, the works site was deemed inappropiate for residential development, sitting as its does directly under Southampton Airport's flight-path, and with the financial market retrenchment starting, continuing use for railway purposes seemed to be the best way for St Modwen, the site owner, to continue benefitting from the land. Since the first use, simply as secure storage for the 442s followed by other redundant rolling stock, including loco-hauled and HST carriages and off-lease DMUs, further companies, of railway and non-railway functions, have taken space and KRS have developed their services to make better use of the facilities and staff skills. This weekend, as well as effectively marking the centenary when many thought this wouldn't be possible, also showed a little of the work capability of the companies on site. As is the norm for large events like this, a good range of attractions are brought in to give the visitors interest and maximise the through-put, in order to raise as much as is possible for the charities benefitting from the event proceeds. This was no different, with several steam locos, mostly of SR if not Eastleigh origin, on site for the period, along with a good range of more modern traction, both preserved and current. A large number of traders and charitable railway sales stands, along with railwayana and catering, gave plenty to see and do. The full list of motive power exhibits, some quoted from other observations, was: Steam; M7 30053, 30096 'Normandy', Beattie 30587, 850 'Lord Nelson', 34028 'Eddystone', 34070 'Manston', 35005 'Canadian Pacific', 35028 'Clan Line', 3MT 41312 Diesel / electric; 07007, 20110, 20301 'Max Joule', 20305 'Gresty Bridge', 20309, 20314, D7612, 31108, 33002 'Sea King', 33012 'Stan Symes', 33103 'Swordfish', 37059, 37411 'CAERPHILLY CASTLE', 37422 'Cardiff Canton', 37516, 37608, 37706, 45060 'Sherwood Forester', 47580 'County of Essex', 47712 'Pride of Carlisle', 50026 'Indomitable', 50135 'Ark Royal', D1015 'WESTERN CHAMPION', 55022 'Royal Scots Grey', 59001 'Yeoman Endeavour', 59103 'Village of Mells', 59206 'John F Yeoman', 73006, 73109 'Battle of Britain', 73119 'Borough of Eastleigh', 73136 'Perseverance', 73201 'Broadlands'. Units; 143611/619, (42)1497, (42)1881, DTC 76838 only of (42)1884, (42)3417 'Gordon Pettit', (44)2415, 508301 Some of these items were arranged on display outside, some inside the works buildings with some work-in-progress (20301/9, 33012, the 143s). Several of the exhibits were making their public debut at the event after restoration, with 33002, 47580 & 50026 all being new entrants to the preservation fleet, albeit 47580 is main-line registered and 50026 is seeking the same. 50135 was unveiled in its Load-Haul colours, never applied to a 50 but a rather splendid 'what-if?', and re-dedicated by the captain of the RN vessel of the same name, whilst 73006 had been repainted specially in corporate blue for the event, as the last loco built at Eastleigh, 73119 was repainted for and named during the event and is newly-bought by KRS and 73201, another 'private' main-line loco, was also unveiled in its coat of blue with a white roof and re-united with its former name carried as 73142 when it was the SR 'royal' loco. 4-CIG 1881, acquired by KRS as referred to elsewhere on my site for restoration for main-line running, was making its public debut in private ownership too, albeit still with work ongoing, and of course 3417 was on public show for the first time since arrival from the Bluebell railway. I attended on the Sunday, having already decided that the Saturday, which had been advised as sold-out for advance purchase some time before, would likely be extremely busy, I spent this day viewing some of the tours that came this way for the event that you can see in my 'railtours' collection. I arrived at 10:05 by train, gates opened at 10, to find an ample queue already formed for entry on what was turing out to be a very warm day. The first batch of images I got were in the earlier part of my visit, with the sun in the east this wasn't optimal for the layout of all the vehicles, so much later in the day I revisited many of the locos outside when the sun shone from the west for better-lit views. In between I had a good look at the stands and indeed spent some time chatting with some of the stall-holders who I know from elsewhere, after this chatting with the heat inside the building I had built up a thirst so the real-ale bar, at _2.50 a pint, was very welcome indeed. All-in-all, a very welcome and well-attended event that hopefully will not be too long before it is repeated, although a few improvements could be made for the next, the 'programme' was more an introduction and explanation of the event than a guide and as such had no time-table, I missed out on 73119s naming being uninformed as to when this would happen. The event could really have done with being open an hour or so later as the sun only really shone nicely onto many of the exhibits from 3 or so onwards and the site was firmly and swiftly cleared for a 5pm closure. With families and other 'normal' punters milling around many of the exhibits it was tricky for us enthusiasts to get unencumbered views in the best light and indeed I missed out on a view of the three SR pacifics lined-up at 17:08 with a site steward being very obstructive and insistent on my departure to the extent of standing over me with arms out-stretched somewhat aggressively, this for me was unnecessary as it was the very last image I wanted and I would have gone quicker without his intervention, this spoilt the end of the day a bit for me. Saying that, I hope it was an isolated incident and it hasn't detracted excessively from the enjoyment of the day.

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

London Underground

Sun May 17 2009

Sunday 17 May 2009: This gallery contains images of services on the London Underground network, starting with the special running on Sunday 17th May, involving Metropolitan railway number 12 'Sarah Siddons', part of the heritage fleet and certainly the oldest running electric loco in the UK, top-and-tailing the ex-BR 4TC set, now carrying a strange 'scumbled' paint effect, with hired-in class 20s 20189 and 20227. The running was on the Metropolitan line north of Harrow and we see the special at Chorleywood, Moor Park, Pinner and Harrow-on-the-Hill, on a day that was mostly overcast but did finally brighten up. The next addition is of another special working, of the museum's preserved operational 4-car 1938 stock, over the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line and on up to Edgware twice in conjunction with an event at the RAF museum, Hendon, on Sunday 21st June. I captured the workings at Golders Green, where the tunnel section starts, Brent Cross, Hampstead underground and Burnt Oak. Apologies for the quality of the latter images, I am using a back-up D70 since Long Marston and it performed a bit strangely ...

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

Swanage diesel gala & beer festival May 2009

Sat May 9 2009

Saturday 9 May 2009: Over the weekend of Friday 8th - Sunday 10th May, the Swanage Railway held their third beer festival AND diesel gala, with visiting locomotives again supplementing the small home fleet and the beer tent at Harman's Cross, with approximately 60 brews on offer. Complementing Class 33s 33103 'Swordfish', newly-arrived from Barrow Hill for a summer loan, and 33111, also restored at Barrow Hill and now resident in place of 33012 undergoing heavy work at Eastleigh, were 20107, again newly-restored and 26007 from Barrow Hill, 31108 and 45060 'Sherwood Forester' from Butterley, all collected and brought in by rail by 55022 'Royal Scots Grey', running on one of its two engines. Once again I attended Saturday and Sunday on the line and in the beer tent, staying at Woodyhyde farm campsite, near Harman's Cross station and with the line running through it. All traction was pictured at some point during the weekend, which thankfully once again was blessed with bright if not sunny weather throughout, at the camp-site or any of the four stations. All vehicles performed well, although 26007 did suffer a small failure before my arrival on the Friday but was made operational in time for Saturday's running. 45060 exhibited some unusual noises that I hadn't heard from a Peak, on pulling away, noticeably during the Saturday evening beer-exes, the traction motor blower seemed very loud, drowning out the exhaust, and yet it wasn't doing this the next day. A well-attended event with crews playing to the galleries was enjoyed by all and we shall await the developments for next year's event, see you there ... Apologies for the dust flecks in some views, a hazard of interchangeable lenses not always visible on-screen, it was rather windy on Saturday.

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen

Amberley industrial railways gala

Sun Apr 26 2009

Sunday 26 April 2009: On Saturday 26th April Amberley working museum held another industrial railways gala on a fine sunny spring day. The main attraction for many was visitor 'Cloister', from Kew Bridge steam museum, west London, working out her last few months of her current boiler ticket. A two-train passenger service was provided, with the ex-MoD Wickham trolley supplementing the main bogie rake of carriages, and much use was made of the revised Redcar sidings. I was only able to stay for a little while and observed Cloister, RR80, RH187071, HE3653 and battery locos T8033 and 4998 in use, unfortunately my camera appeared to take a dislike to the slightly dusty atmosphere and a lens jammed but not before getting a few images of the demonstration runs.

Published in 2007 onwards pictures by Stephen