The Railway Magazine – August 2019

FROM THE RAILWAYMAGAZINE ARCHIVES

TheRCTS:thenandnow

100 YEARS AGO: Schull &SkibbereenRailway 3ft-gauge 4-4-0T No.3Kentwith a

single bogiecoach at Schull,County Cork.DBBRADSHAW

YEARSAGO

AUGUST 1919

O

NTUESDAY July 15th, theLondon,

Brighton andSouth Coast Railway

resumedaday passenger service

between London andParis.The service

wasarrangedto run tri-weekly to the

25th and dailycommencing on July 28th.

Thetrains leave Victoria 9.a.m. and arrive

Paris (S tLazare)at 6.45p.m., thereturn

train leavesParis (StLazare)at 10a.m. and

arrivesat Victoria 7.35p.m.

W

Eunderstand thatanumber of

the large 2-8-0 engines builtfor

WarOfficeuse to the designs ofMr.J.G.

Robinson, of the GreatCentralRailway,

arenow being takenover by the railways

of thiscountr y. Prelimi naryarrangements

have allocated30tothe London and

NorthWesternRailway,tobeemployed

mainlyto the north ofStaffor d. Th eGreat

WesternRailway is taking 20, numbered

from 3000 upwards. We believethatafew

of thistype ar ealso goingto the Midland

Railway.

I

Nanswerto aquestion inParliament,

Captain Guest(Joint Parliamentary

Secretarytot he Treasury)recent ly stated

that423 locomotivesowned by British

railway companies arestill retained in

France; 36 have beenreturned and the

remainder arebeing returned as they

can bereleased and as speedily as trans-

Channel facilities permit.Thereare in

addition 786 locomotives inFrancewhich

arethe property of th eWar Department.

YEARSAGO

AUGUST 1969

P

LANSto co nvert the 1,500V DC

electrified line between Manchester

Oxford Roa dand Altrinchamto 25,000V

AC have been announcedby the London

Midland Region of BritishRailways. At

the same time,anew signalling system

will be installed andcontrolofa ll tr ain

movementsover most of theroute

will be transferredto the signalboxat

ManchesterPiccadilly.Total cost,including

the signalling,will be around £1 million.

Work is dueto begin shortly and will be

completed early in 1971.

S

ECONDPART ofa£21.3 million orderfor

836 coachesto replacethe remaining

pre-warBRSouthern Region electric trains

by the end of 1972 has been approved

by the Minister ofTransport. Thefirst

twobatches,totaling 400coaches,

areatpresentbeing deliveredbyYork

Workshops and areenterin gservic eonthe

Waterloo-Portsmouthroute. Thebalance

of the order,436 coaches,will be allocated

mainly on Sussexand Hampshireservices.

Of the 836coaches,392 ar etof orm‘4-VEP’

sets,404 willform‘4-CIG’sets; and 40 will

form‘4-BIG’sets with buffet carsformain

line work.

T

HEPASSENGER SERVICE between Bristol

and Severn Beach, which had been

proposedforwithdrawal,istoberetained

by theWestern Region.This follows a

decisionby the Minister ofTransport

thatclosurewould causeconsiderable

hardship.

YEARSAGO

AUGUST 1999

S

ERIOUS loss of lifewas narrowly averted

on June 23 whenaVirginTrains express

ranintothe rear of astationary‘Pacer’unit

on theWest Coast Main Line nearWinsfor d.

The06.30 Euston-GlasgowCentralwas

runningat line speed of 100mph–under

clear signals–when driver RoyEccles saw

the obstruction in the distance. In the 10

or 15 seconds beforeimpact, he managed

not onlyto apply the train’s full emergency

brak ebut to use the loco’ssanding

equipmenttoi ncrease friction before

takingrefuge in the equipmentroom.

R

AILTRACK’sattemptto ban heritage

vehiclesforwhatmanyconsiderto

be no goodreason apartfromtheir age

has promptedafuriousreaction from the

Main LineSteam Operators Association.

Railtrack’s Safety &Standards Directorate

plansto placerestrictions on the use

of oldervehicles onregular timetabled

services.Avehicle de-registeredformore

than 12 monthswould be deemed a

‘heritagevehicle’and preventedfromuse

on scheduled services,but not one-off

railtours.

DURING the 1950s and 1960s,the RCTS

gained an almost unrivalledreputation

foritr ail tours,most of whichwere

organisedby volunteer local branch

officers.

One of the most activewas theWest

Riding branch, and thecomplexityof

some of their trips,eventoday, wasquite

astonishing.

The‘FestiniogScenic RailTour’, run

on Sunday, July 22, 1962,wastypical of

the genre, andeventodaylooking back

at the itineraryitisremarkable thetour

ranaswell as it did.

Firstly,two portionswererun, one

from BradfordExchange and the other

fromLeeds Centra l. Both trainsshould

have departedatt he same time and

combinedat Halifax.

TheBradfor dcoaches arrived on

time at Halifax in charge of‘RoyalScot’

No.46145TheDukeofWellington’s

Regiment,ana ppropriate choicewith

the regiment’slinks to Halifax, but the

Leeds portionwasdelayedand arrived

late behind‘Jubilee’No. 45565Victoria,

resulting ina40-minutelate departure

from Halifax.

Arrivingat Hebden Bridge 50

minutes down,‘Princess Royal’No.46200

ThePrinces Royalwaswaitingforthe

run to Llandudno Junction. Here, the

passengerswere split into twogroups,

and those travelling clockwiseround the

circularroutetoBlaenau Ffestiniog and

Caernarfonweresoon on their diesel

multiple unit and travelling up theConwy

Valley.

Meanwhile,No. 46200 came off and

wasreplacedby apairofS tanier‘3Ps’–

Nos.40116 and 40078–which worked

anticlockwise throughCaernarfontoAfon

Wenand Portmadoc.

Threemiles pastBetws-y-Coed the

leading axle of the diesel multiple unit

fractured.Branch members sprung into

action setting offto find atelephone

(thesewerethe days long beforethe

invention of the mobiletelephone)to

diver tthe coacheswaiting at Blaenau

Ffestiniogforthe road triptoTan-y-Bwlch

to co me to the rescue.

At Tan-y-Bwlch, the‘Festiniog’

decidedto save time by combining the

RCTS special with the 3.35pm service

train, with‘DoubleFairlie’Earl of Merioneth

at the head andGeorge England

0-4-0STTPrincein the middle,amost

unusual practice.

At Harbour station thecoaches then

took the anticlockwise participantsto

Betws-y-Coed,whereasubstitutediesel

multiple unitwaswaiti ng –something

thatwould be unlikely on the modern

railway.

Abrisk walk throughPortmadoc

took theremaining membersto the main

line station, wherethe twoStanier‘3Ps’

werewaiting to retrac etheir steps backto

Llandudno Junction.

ThePrincess Royalwasserviced and

waiting,and despitea68-minutelate

departurerecovered nine minutesby

Chester.Here, No.46145wasreadyforthe

run over thePenninesto Huddersfield.

Standard‘5MT’No.73044 proceededto

takethe Leeds passengers backto ce ntral

station, while No.46145returnedto

BradfordExchange via Halifax.

Therailtourmarket istoday

dominatedbycommercial operators,

but whowould have predictedthatthe

columnsoft heRailwayObserverwould

have been ableto record the activities

of members offour of the fiveclassesof

mainline locomotiveused on thattour as

well as thetwo Ffestiniog engines,more

than 50yearslater.

Forinformation on the societyvisit:

http://www.rcts.og.uk

Britain’s leadingRailwaySociety

RM Archive

68 •TheRailway Magazine•August2019

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Thelocomotivehavingthe lion’s shareofthe work on the Ffestiniogtour (see

main article)wasNo. 46200. Sister 6201Princess Elizabethis still going strong in

2019, and is seen herenearWhall ey on March 28 onatest run fromCarnforth and

back via Hellifield andPreston.IAN PILKINGTON/RCTS