The Railway Magazine – August 2019

August2019 •TheRailway Magazine•

‘T9’,Reptonand

ClaytonforGreat

Centralthis autumn

TWOformerSouthern Region

4-4-0s have beenline dup

to star at the GreatCentral

Railway’s (GCR)annual

AutumnSteam Gala on

October3-6.

TheNationalRailway

Museum’s Drummond

‘T9’4-4-0 No.30120 and

the NorthYorkshireMoors

Railway’s ‘Schools’No. 926

Reptonhave both been

confirmedforthe event,

which will alsofeaturemany

of the GCR’s residentfleet.

No.30120’svisit will

provide one of the last gala

appearancesby the Swanage

Railway-bas ed‘Greyhound’

beforeits boilercertificate

expires next year.

Meanwhile,the Diesel

Traction Group’s Clayton

Type 1No. D8568 will be the

star guestat the GCR’s Diesel

Gala onSeptember 6-8.

Thecentr e-cab loco

will line up alongside the

South DevonRailway’s

Class 25 No.D7535 and seven

membersoft he home fleet,

includingrecent ly acquired

Class 50 No.50017RoyalOak.

Fordetails on both events

visit:www.gcrailway.co.uk

TPE ‘Nova3'set for

August debut?

TRANSPENNINEExpress (TPE)

hasmade good progress with

driver andcrew trainingonits

‘Nova3'C lass 68-hauled trains.

No.68025 hauled thefirst

workin gtobeoperated by

TPE underits ownsafetycase

on atest run from Liverpoolto

ScarboroughonJuly19,writes

TonyMiles.

AsTheRMclosed forpress,

indicationswerethe firstsets

wouldpossi blyenter service

aweek early inAugust.

Four chargedover

modelrailwaydamage

LINCOLNSHIREPolice has

chargedfour teenagers aged

16 and anotheraged 15 with

criminal damage inconnection

with vandalismto trac klayouts

at MarketDeeping Model

Railway Club’s annual displayin

Stamford on May18.

They willappearat Lincoln

YouthCourtonAugust19.

Asocial mediafundraising

appeal pageraised nearly

£108,000forthe club.

Springburn mothballed

THEcompletionofacontract

to refurbish Class 156units

forScotRail hasmeantthe

remaining60orsoworkforce at

SpringburnWorksinG lasgow

have lost their jobs.The Gemini

Rail Services site has also been

mothballed.Unionsarefighting

to bringmorework to what

wasonceknown asSt Rollox,

howeverGemini's lease on the

siteexpiresin March.

Swanage winners

THE competitionfortickets

on the UKRailtours‘Swanage

SundaySpecial’produceda

fantasticresponse.Theanswer

to thequestion‘Inwhich county

is Swanage’was Dorset.Winners

were CarolWebb,Derek Higgs,

FrancisWaddingtonand Sharon

Highway.

SIDELINES

FIRST CLASS195 COMPLETED INWALES: CAFhas completedthe fit out of the first Class 195at its factory in Newport, Gwent. In this

exclusivepictur e, No.195007 sits outside the factory on June 20 beforeinitialtesting and deliverytoNorthern.PHIL MARSH

Haveyougotastoryforus?Email: [email protected]

ByBenJones

THE Rail Safety StandardsBoard

(RSSB)annual healthand safety

reportfor 2018/19confirms

Britain’s place as th esafes tof

the EuropeanUnion’s10biggest

railway networks.

However, RSSBwarns thereis

no room forcomplacency, citing

arise in the number of signal

passedat danger(SPAD) incidents

during theyear,to3 07.

Issues suchasfatigue and

managementofchange also

remainkeyrisks to safety across

the network.RSSBisc allingfor

moreaction to co mbatverbaland

physical assaultson rail staf f, and

formanagementteams andstaff

to takeamoreproactiveapproach

to health andsafet y, especially

giventhe structuralchanges that

arelikely to occur in thecoming

years asaresult ofNetwork Rail’s

devolutionprogrammeand the

Williams Review.

Concern

During theyear,10people

died in incidentsat stations

(excluding trespass and suicide),

seven of whichwereat the

platform edge,but not boarding

or alighting trains.Afurther 22

people died trespassing on the

railway andtwo rail workers

died in accidentsat work.

Thesafet yofpeopleworking

on thetrackremainsaprimary

concern,withthe number of near

misses with trainsremaininghigh,

andthe first workforc efatality

from being struckby atrain in

nearlyfiveyears.

Unfortunately,two more track

workers died on July3after being

struckby atrain in SouthWales

(see separatestory on p8).

However, it is nowmorethan

12 yearssincethe last on-train

fatali ty of aBritish passenger

causedby aderailmentor

collision.With almo st 1.8billion

passenger journeysmadein

2018/19,Britain averaged just

1.4fatalities per billiontrain

kilometres,considerablybelow

the EUaverage of 24.2.

Safest

Of Euro pe’s 10 largest rail

networks, Spain hasthe highest

fatalityrate at89.2, while

Germanyaveraged 11.4 and

France7.2.

UK rail remains among the

safestforms oftransport, being

26 timeslessrisky than travelling

by car,400 times saferthan

cycling and 1,500 timessaferthan

motorcycling.

British railways stillEurope’s safest–but SPAD risk rises

SECR ‘E’and Highland‘SmallBen’tobere-created?

AHIGHLANDRailway‘SmallBen'
and aSouth Eastern&Chatham
Railway‘E'are the latest in aline
of pr e-Grouping 4-4-0s that
could bere-created by new-build
locomotivegroups to fill gaps in
the preservation ranks.
TheDrummond‘SmallBen'
is the brainchild of New-Build
Locomotive(Scotland), and hopes
to rightanhistoric wrongby
buildingareplica of‘lost’
No.54398BenAlder.
The1898-built locomotivewas
the last of the class in service
when withdrawnin1953, after
which itwasearma rke dfor
preservation, and spentthe next
14 years in storage.Sadly,after
roving around numerous sheds,it
wasscrapped in 1967.
Thenew groupisb eing ledby

Scottish preservationists Anthony

Waiczek ,Gavin Johnson, Jack

Goodall and Ross Isdale,who

hopeto be ableto co mpletethe

buildforaround £1million

in 15-20years' time.

Expertise

Thehope isto keep it aScottish

projectasmuch as possible,

making use of the nation’s

heritage and engineering

expertise.

Meanwhile,the team behind

the construction of LBSCRAtlantic

No.32424BeachyHeadat the

BluebellRailway has informed

supporters of its desiretomake

an SECR‘E’class the subjectofi ts

next project.

TheBrightonAtlanticProject

optedforthe 1906Wainwright

design, the last of which

disappeared in 1956, ahead

of another Brightontype

on practicalitygrounds,and

estimatesthe lococould cost

morethan £2mto co nstruct.

However, BluebellRailway

trustees have not ratified the

schemeowing to co ncernsover

the raising of the necessaryfunds,

and the ongoingavailabilityof

expertise ableto co verwhatwill

be at least a10-year project.

Inroads

To date thereare already four

groups aimingto re-create other

pre-Grouping 4-4-0s.

The567 Loco Group isworking

on aManchester,Sheffield &

LincolnshireRailway (Great

CentralRailway)Parker Class 2

No.567 at Ruddington, while

the Churchward CountyTrust

is ma king inroads on its GWR

‘County'4-4-0 No.3840Countyof

MontgomeryatTyseley.

Elsewhere, the Claud Hamilton

LocomotiveGroup is atte mpting

to co nstructGreat EasternRailway

‘D16/2' No.8783 and theGeorge

the FifthSteam LocomotiveTrust

is actively buildingLondon &

NorthWesternRailway‘George

the Fifth' No.2013PrinceGeorge

foreventual main line use.

Formoreinformation on the

BenAlderre-creation projectvisit

the group'swebsiteat: http://www.

benaldernewbuild.com or email

[email protected]

■On July 24 the BrightonAtlantic

Projec ttook deliveryoft he new

tank forBeachyHead’stender.

Still wearingaWick (60D)shedplate,the original Highland

Railway‘Small Ben’4-4-0 No.54398BenAlderstandsat Lo chgorm

(Inverness)worksonMay 13, 1953.RAIL PHOTOPRINTS

Ex-SECR‘E' class 4-4-0 No.31159 in use as stationaryboiler

at StewartsLane onAugust 18, 1959.HUGH BALLANTYNE/ RAIL

PHOTOPRINTS

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