Cutdown HYA fleet in focus
Rail Express|June 2020
A guide to the HYA and IIA bogie coal hoppers that have been shortened in length and given a range of liveries for different traffic flows.
Gareth Bayer
Cutdown HYA fleet in focus

SINCE early 2016 when the first ‘shorty’ HYA aggregate hopper was released from WH Davis, Langwith Junction, almost half the fleet of former HYA and IIA coal hoppers has been reduced in length for a new life, purpose-converted for aggregate traffic. While the conversions themselves, all undertaken at Davis, have been broadly uniform, the exterior finish of the rebuilt wagons is not, with only some vehicles repainted, while the fleet sports a plethora of different brandings.

A development of the Thrall Europa HTA hopper for EWS, some 368 wagons were built by International Railway Services (Romania) from 2007-2009, and by WH Davis in the UK from 20092010, for GB Railfreight and Fastline Freight, with many of the British-built GBRf wagons being modified or built from new for biomass traffic.

The collapse of the coal business following the doubling of the UK’s top-up carbon tax in April 2015 had immediate repercussions on rail traffic, with hundreds of coal hoppers sidelined almost overnight. Some of these vehicles were switched to aggregate flows, but as stone is more dense than coal, the wagons could only be partially filled as otherwise they would be too heavy.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 2020 من Rail Express.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة June 2020 من Rail Express.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من RAIL EXPRESS مشاهدة الكل
LNER puts remaining ‘91s' into warm store
Rail Express

LNER puts remaining ‘91s' into warm store

The ongoing pandemic restrictions and major engineering works have resulted in the complete withdrawal of the last remaining ‘Electras’ from passenger service, although the plan is to resurrect them in the summer.

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2021
Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet (RBR) cars
Rail Express

Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet (RBR) cars

A SURPRISING number of Mk.1catering cars have survived to see service on the privatised railway, in private operator and charter trains. They may turn up on anything from an enthusiast special to higher-end dining trains and have been formed in trains as prestigious as the locomotive-hauledBlue Pullman’ set, the ‘Great Britain’ tours operated by West Coast Railways and the ‘Northern Belle’ tour train.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 2021
Powerscene
Rail Express

Powerscene

Our authoritative class-by-class review of newsworthy locomotive workings.

time-read
10+ mins  |
March 2021
End for Freightliner Class 86/6s
Rail Express

End for Freightliner Class 86/6s

The company’s Class 86/6 fleet down to just two examples as seven locos are stored.

time-read
1 min  |
March 2021
Service reductions as Covid cases increase
Rail Express

Service reductions as Covid cases increase

An increase in Covid-19 cases in early January saw the governments in Ireland and Northern Ireland impose stricter lockdown measures that impacted on public transport.

time-read
6 mins  |
March 2021
East West Rail funding go-ahead
Rail Express

East West Rail funding go-ahead

Although it was expected, £760 million of funding has now been confirmed to build the Western Section of the East West Railway scheme.

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2021
Travellers-Fare with Hornby's Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet car
Rail Express

Travellers-Fare with Hornby's Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet car

Hornby expands its range of retooled ‘OO’ gauge Mk.1 coaches with a brand new tooling for the Diagram 24 Restaurant-Buffet car (RB) and the Diagram 33 refurbished version (RBR). It models the vehicles in both original form, finished in BR maroon and Southern Region green, together with the RBR refurbished coaches. They remained in frontline service well into the 1990s, including Cross-Country workings.

time-read
4 mins  |
March 2021
Class 92 revolution
Rail Express

Class 92 revolution

Despite its complex shape and high detail ratio compared to other modern six-axle locomotives, Revolution Trains chose the Class 92 to be its first 'N' gauge locomotive model.

time-read
7 mins  |
March 2021
Bottling it!
Rail Express

Bottling it!

A dig into the Rail Express archive has revealed some rarely-seen photographs of the former rail-connected Express Dairy bottling plant in South West London, which today is the site of a large mosque.

time-read
2 mins  |
March 2021
1990s ‘N' gauge Class 950
Rail Express

1990s ‘N' gauge Class 950

Work on the ‘N’ gauge Class 950 Track Recording Unit project, a conversion based on a standard Graham Farish Class 150/1 model, is concluded by finishing the model in 1990s condition.

time-read
8 mins  |
March 2021