HPMRS Raildates 03 Feb 06

News

RAILDATE: the weekly newsletter of the Hursley Park Model Railway Society: http://www.ibmhursleyclub.org.uk/ss/hpmrs/

NETWATCH

The Great Central Railway's bid to link two sections of line, including a fantastic video describing the project:

http://www.bridgingthegap.org.uk/

Issue 43 (February 2006) of West Somerset Express, the unofficial online newsletter of the West Somerset Railway is available here:

http://trainsferriesbuses.co.uk/westsomersetexpress.htm

A new DVD "Southern Steam 1923-1970" is available from West Sussex Record Office, all libraries in West Sussex and the Bluebell Railway. It is also available online at

http://www.westsussex.gov.uk

Price is £15 (plus p&p £1.50). Running time is one hour, and it contains some interesting footage of the Southern Railway, including Footplate Rides 1939, Brighton Shed 1937, Ashford Works 1947 and Coastal Steam (including freight traffic in the Worthing Area) 1937.

Update from GWR Autotrailer Coach 163 Trust - click on the "Update January 2006" link:

http://www.cambrian-railways-soc.co.uk/~autocoach/

Coupé News is a well-produced monthly newletter for anyone interested in Pullman Car services on British railways. If you would like to be added to the mailing list, contact the editor, Terry Bye, at:

pullmancarservices@yahoo.co.uk

There are two Yahoo discussion groups on the subject of Pullman car services:

A general group: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/BritPull/

And one specifically for Blue Pullmans: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/blue_pullman/

A discussion group about the history, operation and future of Devon's Dartmoor Railway which runs from Meldon near Okehampton to Crediton:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/dartmoorrailway

>From Ralph Rawlinson...

The long planned work to quadruple the eleven mile Tamworth - Lichfield - Armitage section of the WCML gathers pace this month as Network Rail starts work in the Armitage area. The Trent Valley Four Tracking (TV4) project, which involves work to widen the railway allowing two extra lines to be added, will take place between now and December 2007. The work also includes the replacement of several bridges. Excavation work to widen the track cuttings and embankment is also due to start. This has to be carried out at the weekend when there are no trains running. It will take place from 3 February 2006 until mid June 2006 and will involve overnight work to remove excavated material.

Ref the Eurostar distances given last week, they were taken from Fawkham Junction, not Fakenham Junction as stated. Full details of the CTRL project can be found here:

http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/chunnel/

>From Neil Kearns...

Next time you switch on the tumble drier this winter, don't forget to say thanks to the members of the Network Rail Information Management Infrastructure team. They have played a part, with the help of the London North Western Performance team, in helping to keep the coal flowing to power stations this winter over the Settle and Carlisle route by making sure signal boxes are being hooked up to modern computer systems.

It's all part of the national Small Sites Connectivity programme, which is giving signallers in over 450 sites, sometimes in remote locations, access to TRUST. That can mean modernising existing IT equipment, or even installing everything from scratch to give them electronic reporting for the first time.

John Talbot, Information Management programme manager said: "Enzo Masiello and Tony Sexton from Information Management are the heroes in this: they pulled out all the stops to switch the schedules round and get most of the boxes wired up quickly this winter."

"A lot of these sites really are in the middle of nowhere," said Enzo. "Some don't even have a BT phone line! We made sure that we were able to get engineers on the job ahead of the existing schedule: this was complicated by a lack of road access in some places, so we could only use PTS-certified engineers to get to the box."

The programme is sponsored by Operations and Customer Services, and Clive Evans, current operations manager, praises the difference it can make: "It's a real help to the senior train running controller in Manchester: because the passing times are in the TRUST system, it allows decisions to be made promptly to maximise performance."

A North American example of how not to build track (a long video, but you'll get the picture after the first few seconds!):

http://www.trainweb.org/oaksmodelrr/Video/060110.B738.mpg

An excellent and comprehensive source of private owner wagons in N and 00 gauge is Robbie Burns. He started doing transfers for himself for wagons of the Abergavenny Junction area that weren't available off the shelf. Then others asked him for transfers, and ultimately he began building wagons in the two scales. He now markets transfers and RTR wagons, in addition to printed coach and container sides (for N gauge only).

In 00, the RTR wagons are currently restricted to 5- and 7-plank open wagons, but tank wagon transfers are also available. He can do tank wagons in 00 as RTR, but has to make an additional charge for either building a kit, or stripping and reliverying a Bachmann or Hornby wagon.

In N gauge, all the wagons on the site can be done either as transfers or as RTR.

To keep costs down, Robbie tries to use unpainted wagons as a base rather than stripping ready-printed wagons. So, in 00 he uses Dapol wagons as a base, and in N, the standard wagon is Peco, although he can use N Gauge Society, Parkside Dundas or Parkway wagons as necessary. It is possible that Bachmann might be offering their Farish N gauge wagons as kits, so he will be investigating that source.

Because the different manufacturers wagons are all different sizes, he will print transfers to fit the wagon if the sizes of the sides are specified.

There are over 800 wagons already in the lists, and he will also make up transfers (and wagons, if required) from data supplied by the customer. Several one-offs have been done already for personalised wagons and owners discovered by customers. The business is run mainly through the internet but he also attends several shows each year as a trader. All designs can be viewed at:

http://www.robbiesrollingstock.co.uk

Another source is West Wales Wagon Works, who produce limited edition Dapol Welsh private owner wagons:

http://www.westwaleswagonworks.co.uk

Andy Sollis has added the first pictures of 2006 of the Oakamoor layout to the website:

http://www.cvmrd.freeserve.co.uk/oakamoor.htm

IN THE NEWS

State of railway stations under fire: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4672098.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4673344.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4673970.stm

Appeal for better transport links in Suffolk: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4669290.stm

£8m boost for Yorkshire rail routes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4675868.stm

Plans for Liverpool transport upgrade on show: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/4660230.stm

Direct London train for Wrexham: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/4667780.stm

New station in Welsh rail plans: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/4662304.stm

Glasgow airport line objectors get their say: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4665022.stm

Millions for rail freight: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4665542.stm

The rural alarm clock: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4662954.stm

India and Pakistan fix rail date (RAILDATE?!): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4665392.stm

Sabotage caused Pakistan rail crash: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4661042.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4661374.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.