Misc steam railway, traction, station and rail-related news

[teuchter]

Just another bit of gratuitous loco photography for a gloomy day.





This image was taken in Nottingham just the other day but transports me straight to being a teenager loitering around Inverness station some winter last century.

 

[StoneRoad]

I'm quite a fan of 37s, having them on the Cumbrian coastal line and pottering along the Tyne Valley is a treat for the ears ...

There's a shortish tunnel [Corkickle], which starts at the end of Whitehaven's main platform, so hearing the 37's roar off into that was quite memorable and was even audible all across the harbour.


TiG - 37409 Lord Hinton par StoneRoad2013, on ipernity

Somewhere, I've got some showing them working RHTT and 'flask' trains ...

 

[teuchter]

Yes, I extended my trip from London to Scotland, for christmas, by several hours a couple of years back in order to go via the Cumbrian coast. Battling through a quite lively atlantic storm behind one of those machines was most enjoyable.

 

[Roadkill]

Gratuitous class 37 pic which I took in Great Yarmouth in 2015, when two of them were doing the Norwich-Yarmouth services.

 

[teuchter]

View attachment 251643

Gratuitous class 37 pic which I took in Great Yarmouth in 2015, when two of them were doing the Norwich-Yarmouth services.

Snap -


(my last trip on them in Norfolk, in 2019)

 

[Roadkill]

Snap -


(my last trip on them in Norfolk, in 2019)

View attachment 251646

View attachment 251647

I like 37558's livery - suits it much better than the DRS colours on the others.

Yarmouth station is a dismal old dump, though, isn't it!

 

[teuchter]

I like 37558's livery - suits it much better than the DRS colours on the others.

Yarmouth station is a dismal old dump, though, isn't it!

Not the original station of course, one of those sad victims of terrible 1970s town planning decisions which shoved the station to the edge of town and used the space reclaimed from it to build car parks and ring roads which now isolate the station from the town centre.

 

[teuchter]

Oh yeah and the DRS liveries (all of them) are rubbish. Over-fussy and amateurish, they look like they were designed by a teenager in the 1990s.

 

[quiet guy]

Brought back memories of my trips to school from Bangor to Llandudno Junction

 

[editor]

Latest news on some of the Class 37s in service

lass 37s are set to remain in traffic with Direct Rail Services for up to five more years, with a core fleet of 13 locomotives to be retained.

The remaining ten examples will be disposed of via competitive tender, in a process that should already have taken place, but which was delayed by COVID-19.

With the first of the 309-strong class reaching their 60th anniversary, the number of main line-registered Class 37s in action has declined in recent years. DRS retains the largest fleet with 23 examples, ten of which are to be disposed of with the rest running (potentially) until 2025.

In an exclusive interview with RAIL, DRS Head of Fleet Management and Stores Andy Grundy explained that this decision is not about nostalgia, but rather that it makes operational sense with the company retaining duties that only the veteran Type 3s can perform.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Class 37s: life still remains in DRS’s veteran locomotives

Direct Rail Services Head of Fleet Management and Stores Andy Grundy talks EXCLUSIVELY to RAIL about plans for the Class 37 fleet

www.railmagazine.com

 

[A380]

I like 37558's livery - suits it much better than the DRS colours on the others.

Yarmouth station is a dismal old dump, though, isn't it!

I like the platforms, and the views on the journey to Acle between the Acle straight and Breydon Water ranks with many in the UK

 

[gosub]

The Two New Northern Line Stations - YouTube

 

[ska invita]

i reckon you'll like this little train drive simulator game - theyve put some amazing accuracy into this

i wonder if therell be a uk/london one at some point

techmoan video - he's really good

 

[cybershot]

You can get dangerously lost watching people play train simulators on twitch/YouTube.
Sucker for the west coast mainline.

 

[ska invita]

You can get dangerously lost watching people play train simulators on twitch/YouTube.
Sucker for the west coast mainline.

hah i shouldve know this already existed!
ive just had a look at a sim of london lines i know well and its impressive the accuracy of the stations and lines
i hate commuting though so im feeling a bit triggered lol

 

[Puddy_Tat]

modest amount of 'mechanical horse' (scammel scarab) action on tweeter today

(Dunton Road, Bricklayers Arms)

 

[editor]

Euston station RIP

 

[StoneRoad]

Bow Street (Wales, not London)

Station reopening at Bow Street brings first trains for 56 years - BBC News

If I hadn't got a place in Halls, I might have lodged there, or in Borth, back in the early 1980s when I did a course at Llanbadarn Fawr. Turning out some stored boxes, to dump more rubbish, I found the prospectus for the year following mine ...

 

[editor]

Loads of period detail here. Lasted as late as 1970.

Sign in - Google Accounts

 

[editor]

Two Class 73s in Brixton

A 55 year old Class 73 locomotive rests awhile on a bridge over Pope’s Road, Brixton

 

[teuchter]

Although the 73s were built in the 60s, a number of them were rebuilt to become 73/9s (as in the photo) about 5 years ago when they were fitted with brand new modern diesel engines.

Built in the 1960s… rebuilt for the 21st century

RICHARD CLINNICK reports from Brush Traction, Loughborough on the GB Railfreight projeect to re-engineer Class 73s

www.railmagazine.com

The 73 is about as "Southern" as you can get (they can work off the third rail) but part of that 73/9 project involved adapting a number of them for use on the caledonian sleeper trains and led to the initially bizarre sight of them running in the north of scotland (where they seem to have been pretty successful). Hence I see the blue and orange ones rolling through loughborough junction on test trains on a regular basis .... and now they also take me home to Inverness or Fort William when I go on the sleeper.

 

[editor]

In action!

 

[editor]

This has to be the oddest bit of trackwork I've ever seen:



From here:

 

[davesgcr]

Although the 73s were built in the 60s, a number of them were rebuilt to become 73/9s (as in the photo) about 5 years ago when they were fitted with brand new modern diesel engines.

Built in the 1960s… rebuilt for the 21st century

RICHARD CLINNICK reports from Brush Traction, Loughborough on the GB Railfreight projeect to re-engineer Class 73s

www.railmagazine.com

The 73 is about as "Southern" as you can get (they can work off the third rail) but part of that 73/9 project involved adapting a number of them for use on the caledonian sleeper trains and led to the initially bizarre sight of them running in the north of scotland (where they seem to have been pretty successful). Hence I see the blue and orange ones rolling through loughborough junction on test trains on a regular basis .... and now they also take me home to Inverness or Fort William when I go on the sleeper.

In today's trendy world - "bi-modes" - excellent engines and never really used in NR Southern days (apart from those thrashed on the loco hauled Gatwick Express - when it was a "proper" express not some over priced rip off EMU with no discernible difference to the other trains) - they tick a lot of boxes.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

This has to be the oddest bit of trackwork I've ever seen:

slightly odd trackwork with interlacing is / was not entirely uncommon where a curve would be too tight with a more normal track layout

Beresford Square / Woolwich New Road -

Tram is coming towards the photographer on the track to the right, crossing over the track that led round to Plumstead Road (map at this scale doesn't quite do it justice but the best i can get)

 

[davesgcr]

slightly odd trackwork with interlacing is / was not entirely uncommon where a curve would be too tight with a more normal track layout

Beresford Square / Woolwich New Road -

Tram is coming towards the photographer on the track to the right, crossing over the track that led round to Plumstead Road (map at this scale doesn't quite do it justice but the best i can get)

View attachment 254707

 

[teuchter]

There was something a bit like that at junction of Herne Hill Rd / Coldharbour Lane too. Trams had to go onto "wrong" track before taking the corner.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

There was something a bit like that at junction of Herne Hill Rd / Coldharbour Lane too. Trams had to go onto "wrong" track before taking the corner.

picture from here

also shows the remains of the double track south to west curve that was taken out of use some time previously

1915 OS map -



1950 OS map -



Robert Harley's 'Camberwell & W Norwood Tramways' records that the single track curve was controlled by a flag / lamp man at one time until a signal light system was installed in later years.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

an alternative style of interlaced track - Leidsestraat, Amsterdam

 

[teuchter]

picture from here

also shows the remains of the double track south to west curve that was taken out of use some time previously

1915 OS map -

View attachment 254752

1950 OS map -

View attachment 254749

Robert Harley's 'Camberwell & W Norwood Tramways' records that the single track curve was controlled by a flag / lamp man at one time until a signal light system was installed in later years.

I recently got a copy of this book

Special London`s Non Standard Trams Track 1946 1952 by Thompson Don - AbeBooks

Special. London`s Non-Standard Trams & Track 1946-1952. by Don Thompson and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.co.uk.

www.abebooks.co.uk