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.
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Denne historien er fra June 2020-utgaven av Rail Express.
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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.
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.
Powerscene
Our authoritative class-by-class review of newsworthy locomotive workings.
End for Freightliner Class 86/6s
The company’s Class 86/6 fleet down to just two examples as seven locos are stored.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
