HPMRS Raildate 16 Jan 04

News

RAILDATE: the weekly newsletter of the Hursley Park Model Railway Society: http://steam.to/hpmrs

TPO RIP

We mark the ending of the Royal Mail TPO services with a collection of items that have come my way over the last week.

Richard Buckby from the Wirksworth Railway discussion group has kindly allowed me to forward this piece about his visit to Derby Midland to witness the last TPO working...

I had resolved to not miss the final TPO calling at Derby and to that end collected a lurking Ecclesbourne Railway colleague with the wonderful name of Hylton Holt, who was lurking in Belper at 11 pm, and we proceeded to platform 1 at Derby station. En route we did wonder if we were going to find the place totally deserted, with us looking very silly, or alternatively we would find it awash with spotters, being held back by riot police! However, we arrived at the station at 23.20 to find a fair selection of spectators there but everything good humoured and no sign of 'jobs-worths' trying to shoo us away. At first sight, we thought we had missed half the fun, as there was a mail train already in the station, but this turned out to be an earlier northbound 'bag' train which departed shortly after our arrival.

It was interesting to see how much rail activity takes place at that time of night with terminating HSTs being stabled, several freights passing and the very noisy Loram rail grinding train waiting for the road towards Birmingham. There was an air of subdued excitement and eventually an announcement was made that the TPO was imminent and would we please stand back. I wonder if it is the first time that the Derby station announcer has actually announced the arrival of a TPO ?

I must have looked a very sad person wandering around wearing headphones and apparently talking into a hip flask. I had e-mailed BBC East Midlands TV and also BBC Radio Derby suggesting that they send someone along to record the occasion. Both said that they could not afford the overtime to send someone at that time of night! However instead Radio Derby said that if I was going anyway, could I record a few impressions of the occasion - for free of course! So they lent me a very high-tech solid state recording device and I wandered around mumbling a few thoughts amongst all the noise and bustle. I was glad that the noisy grinding train moved off before the big event!

I am not a reporter and I was suffering from a bad cold and sore throat, so the whole thing will probably sound very amateur, but I was very interested to hear the thoughts of an Afro-Caribbean lady there with her two sons. She had brought them along to witness the event and told me that in her youth at school in Jamaica she had been taught about the TPO and had learned the famous Auden poem off by heart!

It was nice being allowed on board, I had a brief word with one of the sorters who said he is taking redundancy and would now finally get a home life after 30 years! I was interested to see that despite all the excitement, sorting was still continuing. Some of the visitors were asking for souvenirs and mail bags, TPO bag tags and even the labels off the pigeon holes were being snapped up! I had taken a letter to the station which I posted in the special mail slot on the side of the sorting vans. Many others were doing the same thing.

A nice atmosphere I thought, it was good to see the handshakes exchanged between the sorters and the Derby Royal Mail staff. Many of the sorters were hanging out of the van doors as they departed, waving and taking pictures as they headed for Bristol. This was not the final TPO, the Mid North was due about 30 minutes later but I was already in enough trouble with my wife, so we reluctantly headed home.

I did not have the camera with me as I had my hands full, but I hope pictures of the event will appear on the Net or in the magazines - I will certainly not forget last night!

Cheers, Richard, Ambergate, Derbyshire.

Well, Richard might not have had his camera with him, but one of the other onlookers did. Ralph Barrett has posted some nice pictures of the events at: http://www.beano.de/tpo/

(Picture 11 features the aforementioned Hylton Holt in the foreground, standing next to Richard Buckby chatting into a microphone.)

Pictures of the last days of the North East TPO at Peterborough plus other related information, can be seen here: http://www.tpo.org.uk

Marcus Dawson visited Rugby and has put some pictures and videos at: http://www.rail-net.co.uk (Look in Photo Archive => Last Night of the TPOs.)

There is an excellent pastiche of "Night Mail" here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3394227.stm

Finally, with some irony, on Tuesday 13th February, the Royal Mail issued its latest set of commemorative stamps, the subject being Classic Locomotives:

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?catId=6100033&mediaId=6300022

NICK WHEAT'S NETWATCH

A few pictures added of Yarmouth Vauxhall (name on box is displayed as Yarmouth Vaux) including an unusual modern block instrument:

http://mysite.freeserve.com/Johntilly/Gallery/gallerysig.lwp/odyframe.htm

There is a new discussion group for the South Eastern Railway (and Chatham, presumably!):

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheSouthEastern/

If you are interested in joining, you can either go to:

TheSouthEastern-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Or, if you have problems, contact Glen Woods at glen@rws1993.co.uk

Two interesting, nay eclectic, websites:

http://www.steamindex.com/

http://freespace.virgin.net/neil.worthington/

http://www.rroast.freeserve.co.uk/railsf.html

A list of books, videos and DVDs on the subject of the Somerset & Dorset Railway:

http://tomba.free.fr/S&DJR-Publications.htm

A huge database of buses used in films and TV programmes:

http://www.busstation.net/screen/screen.htm

And finally, thanks to Richard Buckby who spotted this:

Hundreds of railway carriages could be placed into a national strategic reserve for a mass evacuation of Britain's cities in the event of a terrorist attack. The new Civil Contingencies Bill, published last week, gives ministers the right to take emergency powers to evacuate cities and requires railway operators to provide services in an emergency. However, railway industry sources say that the most modern trains, like the Pendolinos and Voyagers introduced over the past few years, could not be used because of their limited capacity and route availability.

But there are plans for a reserve to be created from the hundreds of relatively modern carriages, owned by leasing companies such as Porterbrook and HSBC, that will be displaced by the modernisation of the West Coast Main Line. By the end of the year, carriages on these services will have been replaced by new tilting trains. Although they are comfortable and air conditioned, the redundant Mark 2 and Mark 3 carriages, built by British Rail in the 1970s and 1980s, have low residual value, since there is no obvious buyer for them. As they are withdrawn, they are already being placed into secure storage at Ministry of Defence sites such as Kineton in Warwickshire and Shoeburyness in Essex. Should they be needed in an emergency, there are already enough modern freight locomotives to haul them anywhere in the country.

IN THE NEWS

South West Trains to replace "Juniper" stock: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3388679.stm

Sctotrail bid hits the buffers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3394479.stm

Birmingham New Street evacuated: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/3402599.stm

Network Railway wants later arrivals: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3401839.stm

Commuters to train boss: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3393953.stm

Train named after Rugby star: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/3397437.stm

Train "gunman" released on bail: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3388219.stm

Australian North-South rail link opens: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3398545.stm

India and Pakistan restore rail link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3395901.stm

TV and Radio

Events

See Mainline Steam Tours page for up-to-date info on many of these tours, and others, often with timings.