HPMRS RAILDATE 08 Dec 06

News

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

BOOK NEWS

LSWR Carriages, Volume 4: Goods, Departmental Stock and Miscellany by Gordon Weddell

Gordon's existing three volumes of carriage drawings constitute the definitive work on the subject, and this additional volume completes the series by filling the miscellaneous gaps left by his own books, and those by other authors on the subject of LSWR rolling stock. ("LSWR Carriages, Volume 3: Non-Passenger Carriage Stock" is still available from Kestrel.)

This new book contains detailed information about the 19th century LSWR goods and departmental vehicles, including gunpowder vans, cattle wagons, china clay wagons, brake vans, travelling gasholders and travelling cranes. In addition, it covers various other items that do not fall into any convenient single category, such as lineside structures, road vehicles, yard cranes, platform items, Pooley vans, a shunting truck and the engineers' inspection train.

Incorporating many highly-detailed scale drawings, mostly to 4mm scale, LSWR Carriages, Volume 4 includes numerous contemporary photographs, together with detailed information on build dates and renumbering.

The publication of this volume marks the conclusion of an authoritative series of books on the London and South Western Railway, and it is difficult to think of any other railway company whose rolling stock has been so comprehensively covered. (Please note that although all carriages have been dealt with in the preceding volumes, and none actually appears in this book, it concludes the series as "Volume 4" for consistency.)

Hardback with jacket: 168 pages with 190 photographs and scale drawings ISBN: 978-1-905505-01-2 Price: £25.00

Full details on the Kestrel website: http://www.kestrelrailwaybooks.co.uk

NETWATCH

Useful advice for enthusiasts visiting working railway locations from British Transport Police. Hopefully the TOCs will recognise these guidelines as well, and we'll see an end to officious station staff giving photographers the order of the boot. Might be an idea to print this down and have it in your camera bag...! http://www.btp.police.uk/railenthusiasts.html

"SS Jolly Roger", the flagship of the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway's Santa Specials, had her flag raised for the first time at the weekend. Sea trials will commence as soon as Derbyshire gets a decent drop of rain. RAILDATE correspondent (and WyvernRail Director) Neil Ferguson-Lee was fortunate to be present with his hand-cranked movie camera, and the results of his filming can be seen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ_xGw_dbQw

(Details of EVR's Santa Specials are in the dates section.)

Also, to celebrate 6 years work restoring the Wirksworth branch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP-rA6SyM58

Andy Sollis has updated the Staffordshire Type 4 (ST4) website with new pictures of 47192 under restoration and in service at the Churnet Valley Railway http://www.st4.org

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been following the progress of Tom Baldwin's plotting of the trackbed of the S&DJR in Windows Live Local (WLL). The first part (the Bath Extension) is here: http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=9A770B99E60A13E1!247

He later added the three branches: http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=9A770B99E60A13E1!330

The final part is the stretch from Evercreech to Wimborne and Bournemouth West: http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=9A770B99E60A13E1!435

Inside the pushpins for the stations you'll see a 'More info...' option that takes you to an 1890 map. (Since the Bridgwater branch did not open until that year it isn't on the maps.)

Some modelling discussion groups and related websites...

A huge database of resources from the Central London Area Group: http://www.clag.org.uk/

Modelling Scottish Railways: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ScottishModellers/ http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/scottishmodellers-photoalbum/ http://www.modelrail-scotland.com/

Diesel and Electric Modellers United: http://www.demu.co.uk/forum/index.php

Diesel and Electric Modellers United members in the Scottish Lowlands: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/demuslag/

Modelling Civil Engineers Stock: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CEnet/

DCC operation: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DCCUK/

Proto87 - finescale HO gauge modelling: http://www/proto87.org

John Wills has posted a downloadable and printable Southern Railway-themed 2007 calendar at: http://www.southernrailway.net

There is also one (subject should be self-evident) at: http://www.londontramways.net

Modratec is a company that sells kits for locking signal frames to your own design. They provide a free piece of software to build the locking. http://modratec.com/

A reminder of John Hinson's wonderful signalling website: http://www.signalbox.org/

And the Severn Valley Railway's telecomms site: http://www.cgwright.demon.co.uk/svrt.htm

Hornby's website has been considerably revamped: http://www.hornby.com/

Once again, I'm grateful to Ralph Rawlinson for this week's European News.

The key dates as far as the 2006-2007 timetable is concerned are 10th December when it all starts and 10th June 2007 which will see the début of the Ligne à Grande Vitesse Est Européen, the most significant high-speed project in France since the LGV Méditerranée opened exactly six years earlier to the day.

Fast and frequent in Germany... From December the majority of ICEs to Munich from Cologne, Hamburg/Hanover and Berlin will use the new Nuremberg-lngolstadt high-speed line, many running non-stop between Nuremberg and Munich and benefiting from a time saving of around 30 minutes. As well as being linked by two ICE trains per hour, the latter two cities will have a 125mph regional service every two hours serving intermediate stations, including two new ones, Kinding and Allersberg, the only stations to be situated on the high-speed stretch. Curiously some of the Ruhr - Munich ICE trains in the previous timetable managed to miss the main stations in both Cologne and Frankfurt by calling at Cologne Messe/Deutz (across the river) and Frankfurt Slid, but sensibly the new timetable has an increased hourly service calling at Hbf in both cases, as well as serving Frankfurt Airport. Cologne and Munich are also linked by a new early-morning ICE Sprinter train, covering the journey in under four hours, and Frankfurt - Munich in under three.

Increased frequencies seem to be the order of the day, with the ICE service Berlin - Leipzig - Munich becoming hourly; these start back from Hamburg meaning that Hamburg - Leipzig also benefits. The Frankfurt Flughafen - Leipzig - Dresden corridor similarly has hourly ICEs (previously two-hourly), alternating via Frankfurt Hbf or Sud. Other routes with an enhanced service include Cologne - Leipzig, with two-hourly IC trains via Hanover, and Cologne - Frankfurt, which gains extra trains via the high-speed line.

International changes affecting Germany include the extension of an Amsterdam - Frankfurt ICE through to Munich, reached in 7hr 30min, and an improved Stuttgart -Zurich service with an ICE every two hours, some of which replace Cisalpino trains, which will no longer extend into Germany. The Munich - Vienna Eurocity train will become an ICE, and there will be a second Berlin to Vienna train.

Overnight trains to Prague are overhauled: the Frankfurt train will travel via Decin instead of Cheb and will start from Wiesbaden, whereas the Munich train will become a CityNightLine operation under the name "Orion"; the Stuttgart portion will be dropped. Two CNL routes will, however, be withdrawn: the "Andromeda" Stuttgart - Dresden and "Sirius" Zurich - Norddeich. The night trains from Berlin to Poland and beyond will drop Lichtenberg, instead starting at Zoo and calling at Berlin Hbf. Finally, there will be a new Dresden to Budapest night train, with portions for Vienna and Kosice.

Eurostar... Eurostar services to and from Belgium are scheduled to become more reliable from 10th December, with the opening of a new £7.5 million, 435 metre viaduct outside Brussels Midi station. This station is currently one of the busiest on the Belgium network. Each day it handles over 1,200 trains across 22 platforms, six of which are dedicated to international services. The new viaduct is the final section in the Belgian high-speed line that runs from the French border, near Lille, through to Brussels. It carries two dedicated tracks over 22 other railway lines at the entrance to Brussels Midi station, and separates Eurostar and other high- speed TGV and Thalys services from the busy domestic traffic. It will mean that Eurostar services, which have previously had to cross all the tracks to arrive or depart from Brussels will have much easier journeys into and out of the station and will cut the 2hrs 15min run to 2hrs 11mins. This will drop further to 1hr 51min when the new high-speed route starts on 14th November 2007 and by 2008 journey times between London and cities such as Amsterdam and Cologne will be reduced by between 20 and 30 per cent.

Steve McNally's photographs of railways in the Sydney area following his recent trip down-under. Includes photos of their XPT units, the power cars of which were based on, and look like, our HST. http://steve-mcnally.fotopic.net/c1149119_1.html

More information on these interesting units is given here: http://www.railpage.org.au/xpt/

A website with information on industry and industrial tramways in New Zealand: http://www.koekejunction.hnpl.net/Frames/Frame.htm

An interesting website on coalmining in north Wales http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/history/coal.shtml

IN THE NEWS

Rail chaos as power lines damaged: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/6218278.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6219070.stm

Facelift for Liverpool Lime Street: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6211938.stm

Restoration plan for Royal train: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/6203960.stm

Transport "roadmap" for way ahead: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6208312.stm

Trains to become billboards: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6213664.stm

Tube lines to get £3.1bn upgrade: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6213384.stm

Tube firm plans to axe cleaners: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6209524.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.