The Railway Magazine – August 2019

EDITORS NOTE

Publicationofaletter does not imply that

the editor or staffofTheRailwayMagazine

necessarily agree with itscontents.

TALKING POINTS STAR LETTER

PUTTING THE RECORD

STRAIGHT (RMJULY)

Page 92:Paul Moxon, from the

Railcar Society, advisesthatvehicle

No.M51188 (paired with the NRM’s

trailer No.M56352)wasrepaired and

repaintedbythe NNR’s Carriage &

Wagon staff andvolunteers (not the

WeybourneTraction Group), and

is maintained mechanicallyby the

NNR’s diesel fitters.

TheNRM’s powercar No.M51192

is awaitin gthe fitting ofapair of

Leyland enginesto return itto

service, afterwhich it will run with

M56352, and M51188 becoming a

spare.

Terrible state of the lineside

• RM readers voiceconcerns

IAMadriverwith aUKtrain operator

and raised the issue of the state of the

lineside about eightyears ago with

Network Rail,citing the points thatboth

TheRMandDavid Nattress made.

Their answer?“Weand ourcontra ctors

clean-up afterevery job andwe

recovered enough scraprail to go to

the moon and back.” (orsomething like

that).They also asked thatIpointout

to my manager whereIsaw materials

dumped: as ifIcould; it is literally

ever ywhere.

Ialso see all sorts of chemicals left

to be absorbed,brand new materials

delivered,which arethen not used,nor

recovered.

At this time ofyear,when Network Rail

has to carryout emergencychopping-

backto resolveasignal-sighting issue,

Ioften see materials reve aled thathave

beencoveredbyplant growth.

It’s appalling. It makesmy workplace

depressing as it is literally likedriving

throughaThirdWorld rubbish dump,as

it encourages fly-tipping and appears

thatnobody cares,and in this age of

supposed increasing environmental

awareness.

Network Rail’s ‘dark-ages’stanceon

recogn ising and tackling the problem is

backward to saythe least

Name supplied but withheld

FURTHERto David Nattress’letter

(RMJuly)regarding the state of

tracksides,Iwould liketoadd what

Ihave beenreadin gint he la test issue

of TheWoodlandTrust’s magazine

Broadleaf.

Inside isashortarticle on the

devastation Network Rail is wreaking on

the trees andvegetation alongside its

railway linesand further back.

It claimsalot of this has been done

during the nesting time of birds,

causing the destruction of eggs and the

death ofyoung birds.

TheJohn Varley report, orderedby

TheDepartmentfor Transport, was

published in November and calledfor

an urgentculturechange on these

matters.However,there is little sign

Network Rail is doing anything about it.

They mustcome up withaway of

sustainingasafeand environmentally

friendlyrailway as soon as possible.

Ian Davie

Shepshed,Leicestershire.

AFTERreading the letter from David

Nattressregarding debris along the

trackside,lhave to agreewith him.

Ioften travel around theSouth East,

and have been dismayedabout the

amountofdebris leftonthe track side;

theremust be scrapvalueint he old

track and sleepers and so on.

Youoften see old cutting discs and

piles ofrail clips just discarded.

Moreover,lfeel ashamed of the

tracksidevegetationgrowing up,as

well as between the tracks; this does

look unsightly.

lrealise everythingcomes downto

cost,and suppose its notapriorityfor

the rail companies,but wherehas our

pride gone?

MSlater

Chessington

Alinesidevegetation management

strategywaspublishedbytheDfTinJuly

toguide NR.It will becoveredinSeptem-

ber TRM-Ed

Extr apadding needed

on South Western’s

Class450 EMUs

IAMentering anothercontenderfor the

‘hardest,most uncomfortable seatona

modern train’?

My nomination is theFirstClass seats

of therefurbished Class 450 EMUson

South WesternRailway.

As partoft he refurbishmentoft hese

units,First Class has been movedfrom

the middle of one of thecentre carriages

to behind each driving cab,reducing the

number ofFirstClass seats per unit from

24 to 16.

Thereare nowonly eightFirst Class

seats behind each cab,but the seats are

rock-hard–evenworse than those in

StandardClass.

Afellowpassengerremarked:“Would

youpay extramoneyto sit on these

seats?”

InoteGreater Anglia is promising its

Class 745/0 trains will have seats in them,

which have“the maximum padding

allowedunder stricterfireregulations”.

My new settee has three-inches of

padding in the cushions andconform

to latest fir eregulations,although

Irealise somebody will pointout the fire

regulationsfortrain seats aredifferent

forsettees.

CHRISVale’s exce llentphotoofHST

No.43198 underconstructionat

Crewein1982 wasagem. However,

the locounderconstruction is

probably not 89001 buta‘56’,as

Crewebuilt the last batch, with

Doncaster busy building‘58s’.

MatthewTowe

By email

THE featureonthe‘Metropolitan

Special’broughtback childhood

memories of the event, but

also of standing onKing’s Cross

Metropolitan Line station in the

late-1940s,when astrange noise

heralded the emergenceofafreight

train from the tunnel,hauledby a

GWR pannier tank.Irecallasimilar

occurrenceint he early-50s.

Does anybody have anyrecords of

freightmovements on theLondon

Underground lines?It would make

areally interesting articleat some

time in the future.

JohnTurner

By email

Hardtobelieve thisiso ne ofLondon’s premierterminals,with vegetation on the

tracks of platforms1and 2morethan threefeet high.What kind of impression

does thisconveytopassengers?PICTURE:FRASER PITHIE

In 65 years-plus of travellingby train,

Icannotremember one instancewhen

apassenger seat cushion has caught

fire, including in all thoseyears when

smokingwaspermitted.

I’msureitmust be possiblefora

manufacturerto co me up withtwoor

three inches of train seatpaddingwhich

conformsto the latest fir eregulations?

Martin James

Egham, Surrey

Firestandards for trains,buses and

domestic furniturearevastly different for

differentreasons,someobvious,someless

so,but still begs the question whypadding

is so thin.Cananyreaderfamiliar with

regulations offeraconcise explanation,

considering howrareatrain fireis?Ed.

Grea ttos ee those

superb Humphrey

Platts pictures

WHATawonderfulcollection of pictures

from HumphreyPlat ts (RMJuly).

I’mabit younger than Humphrey,but

Ican remember streamlined‘Duchesses’

working between Shrewsburyand Crewe.

Seeing thatpictur eofthe filthyCity

of Glasgowmakes onewonder if a

streamlined‘Duchess’inthatcondition

wasone of the ugliest locomotives ever

to taketothe rails.Tobehonest,even

when brand new,the streamliningwas

never the most aesthetically pleasing

example of this 1930s trend,certainly

whencompared with the glorious

‘A4s’, but with stripes and generally

immaculate paintwork theywere

impressivebeasts.

Iremember seeing one suchat Wem

on aCrew e-bound stopping train when

heading in the oppositedirection

MichaelHCBaker

By email

Readers’ Platform

Sendyourlettersto:TheRailwayMagazine,MediaCentre, MortonWay,

Horncastle,Lincs LN9 6JR.email:[email protected]

NB.PublicationofaletterdoesnotimplythattheEditor orstaff

ofTheRailwayMagazinenecessarilyagreewithitscontents.

62 •TheRailway Magazine•August2019

THANKyoufor the excellentfeature

in the July magazine about the

‘ForgottenGems’decaying around

the countr y.

Another engine of particular

significanceisManchester,Bury,

Rochdale&OldhamTramway

0-4-0VBTNo. 84 (Beyer,Peacock

2734/1886), the only surviving

standard-gauge steam tram loco

builtforservic einBritain.

My photograph shows its

condition back in 1966 when it

wasstoredwith other locomotives

designatedaspartoft he National

Collection, most of which have

subsequently beenrestored.

RoyThurley

Llandudno

Thetramengineisinthe custody

of the NationalTramwayMuseum,

Crich,which has stored it offsite.

Currently dismantled,work is taking

placetocatalogue the surviving

parts,plus anymissingcomponents,

asapreludetoanyfuturerestoration

project–Ed.