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EDITORIAL
Editor: Chris Milner Deputy editor: Gary Boyd-Hope Consultant editor: Nick Pigott Senior correspondent: Ben Jones Designer: Tim Pipes Picture desk: Paul Fincham and Jonathan Schofield Publisher: Tim Hartley Production editor: Sarah Wilkinson Sub-editor: Nigel Devereux Editorial assistant: Jane Skayman Classic Traction News: Peter Nicholson Operations News: Ashley Butlin Narrow Gauge News: Cliff Thomas Metro News: Paul Bickerdyke World News: Keith Fender By post: The Railway Magazine, Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR Tel: 01507 529589 Fax: 01507 371066 Email: railway@mortons.co.uk © 2020 Mortons Media ISSN 0033-8923
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Accepted photographs and articles will be paid for upon publication. Items we cannot use will be returned if accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope, and recorded delivery must clearly state so and enclose sufficient postage. In common with practice on other rail periodicals, all material is sent or returned at the contributor’s own risk and neither The Railway Magazine, the editor, the staff nor Mortons Media Ltd can be held responsible for loss or damage, howsoever caused. The opinions expressed in The RM are not necessarily those of the editor or staff. This periodical must not, without the written consent of the publishers first being given, be lent, sold, hired out or otherwise disposed of in a mutilated condition or, in any unauthorised cover by way of trade or annexed to or as part of any publication or advertising, literary or pictorial matter whatsoever.
This issue was published on January 3, 2020. The next will be on sale on February 5, 2020 .
Is the industry really putting passengers first? INSIDE the Network Rail headquarters is a sign which says Putting Passengers First. This acts as a reminder that NR wants to embed a customer service mindset in its staff, and ensure a better focus on performance, therefore putting the passenger’s experience at the very heart of what it does. While welcome and laudable, because of failings within train operating companies is ‘putting the passenger first’ actually working? The start of the new timetable has been marred by cancellations or services being terminated short of destination because of staff shortages, sickness and on-going training on new stock. For too long passengers have been promised new and better trains, but delays introducing new trains, allied with crew training delays and poor implementation planning, the industry has been dragging its feet for too long, failing to deliver its promise to the fare payer. Throw in the industrial disputes and staff not working rest days or overtime, leading to many train cancellations, the result is a toxic mix. Putting passengers first is failing in other areas, too. On the afternoon of December 14, there was an overhead line fault between Carlisle and Beattock, necessitating single line working for several hours, with many delays and cancellations. Passengers were desperate for information as to their options, yet details on ticket acceptance for other routes was hard to obtain for the first couple of hours. From messages I’ve seen, the speed of decisions on acceptance (and also
TRAIN OF THOUGHT
Editor’s Comment travel deferment), were slow, and because of the timing of when the last services ran on a Saturday, it resulted in some passengers unable to reach destinations. Look at the tweets (right) of a frustrated passenger trying to get from Glasgow to Lockerbie, which show he was told by Avanti West Coast to take the circuitous route via Edinburgh, Newcastle and Carlisle! He was also told there was no ticket acceptance via Dumfries, from where transport for the 12 miles to Lockerbie could be obtained. How is that customer focused? Elsewhere, passengers were stuck on cold platforms unsure when they would move; elsewhere trains remained at stations awaiting fresh crews. There also seems to have been a change in the transfer of the West Coast franchise from Virgin to First Group (Avanti), where although seats can be booked and reserved online, passengers could not get a choice of seats using the seat picker. In short, you could be travelling backwards, with a blank panel next to you or not get the table you require to work. How is this customer focused? If these shortcomings were found in schools or the NHS, then the establishment would be put in special measures. It begs the question just who is monitoring or undertaking franchise regulation and waving the big stick? It seems some, but
not all, train operators are giving passengers a really poor experience, and that’s simply not good enough. It must improve, quickly. There are also concerns on how the industry treats passengers with both visible and invisible disabilities, as well as its customer service to able-bodied passengers – something The RM has investigated and will report on next month.
A year of change – out with the old... and in with the new 2019 will certainly go down as a year of change, and for many people it has signified the end of an era. Gone are the LNER HSTs, the GWRs long-distance HSTs, ScotRail’s Class 314s, and big inroads are being made into the ‘Pacer’ and Class 315 fleets, in the move to disability compliant trains. While progress introducing new trains is not being made as fast as some might like because of technical problems and driver training issues, we’ve seen the ‘Azumas’, ‘Paragons’, TPE’s ‘Nova 1/2/3’
trains, Vivarail Class 230, CAF Class 195 and 331, the Mk5 sleeper carriages, Stadler Class 755 and Bombardier Class 710s all enter traffic, bringing some improvement to the problem of overcrowding. But for 2020, the focus of the industry has to be on getting more new trains into traffic as quickly as possible with the minimum of delay. For too long passengers have suffered, and the rollout of new trains just can’t come quickly enough. CHRIS MILNER, Editor
January 2020 • The Railway Magazine • 3
Contents
January 2020. No. 1,426. Vol 166. A journal of record since 1897.
Headline News
Avanti West Coast’s plan for the WCML includes an order for 23 Hitachi AT300 electric and bi-mode trains to increase capacity and replace the Class 221 ‘Super Voyagers’. HITACHI RAIL EUROPE
HRA awards for Richard Croucher and Bob Meanley, First/ Trenitalia takes over West Coast Main Line operations, more disruption as new timetables fail to deliver as planned, TPE‘Nova 2’in service, LNER says farewell to HSTs, Scottish Government curtails Abellio franchise.
On the cover
MAIN IMAGES: On the first day of its farewell tour, LNER HST Nos. 43312 and 43202 (both renumbered and repainted as they were in the late-1970s, pass Pettycur Bay, between Burntisland and Kinghorn, on the way to Aberdeen and Inverness. IAN LOTHIAN INSET 1: Horwich Works in its heyday.
INSET 2: Serious incidents are often managed from the National Operations Centre. INSET 3: A Northern Class 158 at Hexham.
Track Record The Railway Magazine’s monthly news digest 66 Steam & Heritage
‘4F’ and ‘56XX’ leave West Somserset for new homes and a return to steam, ‘Scotsman’ to visit Mid-Hants, £160k pledged for ‘T3’ overhaul, Corwen track-laying complete, ‘P2’ tender progressing well.
71 Industrial Steam 72 Steam Portfolio 74 Irish News 76 Narrow Gauge 78 Miniature 80 Network 82 Freight
December 1 was the first day in traffic for GWR 2-8-0T No. 5239 Goliath at the East Somerset Railway following its two-year contract overhaul at Cranmore. PETER NICHOLSON
85 Classic Traction 88 World 90 Metro 92 Railtours 94 Railtours Portfolio 96 Traction & Stock
Hull Trains ‘802s’ in service, Class 142s and Mk4s scrapped, GA ‘FLIRT’ loses pantograph, £9m Grand Central ‘180’ refurbs complete, ScotRail ‘314s’ retired as Class 385 deliveries complete. ‘Peak’ No. 45133 undergoing restoration at the Midland Railway-Butterley. ANDY MARRISON
99 Stock Update 100 Traction Portfolio 103 Operations
Regulars
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40 Years Apart - Swindon 52 Meetings 54 Reviews 56 Readers’ Platform 59 Winter Panorama 64 From The RM Archives 108 Heritage Diary
The Railway Magazine's audited circulation of 34,543 copies per month makes it by far the
Grimey Stanier ‘Black Five’ No. 44675 leaves Horton-inRibblesdale with a short train of Gresley and Mk1 stock that forms a Bradford Forster Square to Carlisle service on November 27, 1965. LES NIXON
121 Reader Services 122 Crossword & Where Is It
Call 01507 529529 or see page 32 for our latest offers Like us facebook.com/ TheRailwayMagazine Follow us @railwaymagazine
‘Our’loco, No. 66503 The Railway Magazine, has been freshly repainted in Freightliner’s new livery by Arlington Fleet Services, Eastleigh. It is seen at Southampton Maritime depot on November 27 preparing to depart for Trafford Park. JACK BOSKETT
Features
12 A Miscellany of 0-6-0s
26 Mission Control
42 American Diesel Extravaganza
In this month's Practice & Performance, Keith Farr analyses the performance of three classes of humble 0-6-0 tender engines, which were also used on passenger duties.
Phil Marsh visits Network Rail’s National Operations Centre, which maintains an overarching view of Britain’s railway network, second-by-second, 24 hours a day.
Following a fact-finding trip to the Severn Valley Railway, the USA’s Illinois Railway Museum held its first diesel gala last August. Keith Fender reports.
20 Bouch’s Other Bridges
The reputation of Sir Thomas Bouch was shattered by the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879. Dr Joseph Brennan looks at some of the Victorian engineer's other bridge designs.
34 The Tyne Valley Line
Graeme Pickering looks at this key 60-mile artery linking Carlisle and Newcastle through scenic, rolling countryside along the course of the River Tyne.
The L&Y’s vast engineering centre is being demolished to make way for new homes. Howard Johnston tells the full story… and how Horwich may have influenced the design of Flying Scotsman.
YOU ARE BEING WATCHED: NR National Ops Centre - p26
WEST ROAD: A visit to the Tyne Valley Line - p34
WHEELS KEEP TURNIN': Diesel gala USA style - p42
46 Horwich Works
January 2020 • The Railway Magazine • 5
Winter Panorama A grimey Stanier ‘Black Five’ No. 44675 leaves Horton-in-Ribblesdale with a short train of Gresley and Mk1 stock that forms a Bradford Forster Square to Carlisle service on November 27, 1965. LES NIXON
Porterbrook – at the heart of UK Rail for 25 years 62 • The Railway Magazine • January 2020
Panorama is brought to you in association with
www.porterbrook.co.uk January 2020 • The Railway Magazine • 63
INFRASTRUCTURE HISTORY
BOUCH’S OTHER BRIDGES The reputation of Victorian engineer Sir Thomas Bouch was shattered as a consequence of the Tay Bridge disaster in December 1879. Dr Joseph Brennan looks at some of Bouch’s other bridge designs, including the magnificent Belah Viaduct on the Stainmore route.
“I
t could not be diffidence in his own powers which led Mr Bouch to ... [propound] a scheme for bridging the Firths of Forth and Tay, and expressing his determination, if he lived, to carry it, or something analogous to it, into execution.” This remarkable statement — from the 1878 book The Tay Bridge: Its History and Construction, by Albert Grothe, an engineer on the bridge — is hauntingly prophetic. For in the year following its publication, Sir Thomas Bouch’s railway bridge across the Tay in Dundee would falter in a storm, plunging a passenger train into the icy waters and claiming the lives of all on board. With one report from the official inquiry into the disaster ruling that it had been “badly designed, badly constructed, and badly maintained”, and much of the responsibility for the disaster resting with Bouch, work on his Forth Bridge (at that point underway) was halted — and replaced with the magnificent UNESCO structure we have today — and the once-celebrated, recentlyknighted engineer was dead the following year, wholly disgraced. But what of the fate of Bouch’s other rail bridges? And how do these structures, some still standing — and dotted across the English
and Scottish landscapes — shape the legacy of Victorian Britain’s most disreputable railway engineer? Writing just after the 140th anniversary year of the Tay disaster, do these other examples of Bouch’s engineering redeem him in any way, or do his other bridges function simply as further evidence of his recklessness for the regard of safety and, as described in his obituary, a “pattern for cheap construction”?
Tragedy
Although Bouch’s most (in)famous bridge over the Tay is not the focus of this feature – there is no shortage of writings on that topic, and I did not feel the need to add one more – I do contend with it here, as much understanding of Bouch’s other structures and how they came to be regarded following the tragedy can be gained from the extensive material that exists on the original Tay Bridge. Take, for example, his viaduct over the South Esk at Montrose, a concurrent project to the Tay Bridge that, following the Tay collapse, Bouch hastily attempted to reinforce. But to no avail: it was demolished a year after his death when it became severely distorted following extensive testing with dead and rolling loads.
Above: An inverted bowstring truss bridge at Greta, Cumbria. IAN CAPPER Right: The grave of Sir Thomas Bouch is located in Dean Cemetery, just west of Edinburgh. WIKIPEDIA
20 • The Railway Magazine • January 2020
His 1871 Redheugh (Road) Bridge in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and 1874 Bilston Viaduct, on the now closed Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin line, also did not see out the century — though the need to replace Bilston was a result of coal work undermining rather than defects in Bouch’s design.
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