HPMRS RAILDATE 22 Jun 07

News

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

NETWATCH

Railways at War: http://www.mixedtraffic.net/war/war.htm

An interesting site about the LSWR, which includes a particularly useful colour chart, that covers RGB, CMYK, BS colours: http://website.lineone.net/~earlygen/index.html

Museum of Internal Fire Power, Tanygroes: http://www.internalfire.com

North Star Models: http://www.northstarmodels.co.uk/

Home of '0' Gauge closed its doors earlier this year when they could not find anyone to buy the business. Now, evidently, Derek Harris of Redcraft Ltd has bought the Mega Kits that were marketed by Home of O Gauge and should have all the kits available once more in a few months' time. They do not appear to have a website at present, but may be contacted at: Redcraft Ltd, Unit 8 Royal Stuart Workshops, Adelaide Place, Cardiff, CF10 5BR.

The first phase of the £55 million project to completely renew the track and signalling through Lincoln starts in August and includes a new signalling control centre being built at West Holmes. There will be no rail services at all through Lincoln from 11th August to 2nd September; Central Trains will replace trains running between Lincoln and Newark, Lincoln and Gainsborough, Lincoln and Cleethorpes, and Lincoln and Spalding with buses, which will call at local stations in between. In addition, faster, direct buses will run morning and night for commuters between Sleaford and Lincoln. Northern Rail's hourly service between Sheffield and Lincoln will terminate/start at Gainsborough Lea Road, with a replacement bus service operating between Gainsborough, Saxilby and Lincoln. A second phase of the work is scheduled to follow in summer 2008 when on this occasion, trains through Lincoln will cease to run for six weeks between July and September! The new track and signalling should be operational by September 2008,with the complete scheme completed in early 2009. (Thanks to Ralph Rawlinson)

France's latest high-speed line LGV Est Éuropéen linking Paris with Stuttgart and Frankfurt opened on June 10. The route provides connections with cities in Germany, and in a publicity run at the end of May a German ICE3 set ran the 370-mile journey from Stuttgart to Paris in just over four hours, cutting two hours off previous times and heralding a new era in European rail travel that will see TGVs running deep into Germany and vice-versa. Deutsche Bahn approved construction of the link in 2001, but the project has been delayed by a number of petty issues, including disagreements over detonators, arguments over who should serve refreshments and even whether plastic crockery should be supplied.

(Thanks to Ralph Rawlinson, who notes that the sight of ICE3 sets next to TGVs at Paris Gare de I'Est will now be commonplace but, because of Eurotunnel's intransigence over safety issues, it is likely to be a long time before an ICE and a TGV are seen alongside a Eurostar at St Pancras!)

IN THE NEWS

It looks as though there is an end in sight to the resignalling fiasco at Portsmouth. Reliable sources say towards the end of October, during Hampshire half term week. Unfortunately this will mean a total shut down of lines including all those south of Haslemere.

Serious accident at the Swanage Railway: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/6764095.stm http://tinyurl.com/2z7q7e http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/6766225.stm

Accident at Chandlers Ford http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6225522.stm

Storms disrupt rail services: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6755461.stm

Severn Valley Railway storm damage: http://www.svr.co.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects/SVR.woa/wa/news http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/21/nrain121.xml

Bridge bash on ECML - County Durham http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6221174.stm

South West Trains denies ticket fare row: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6763113.stm

West Midlands Franchise announcement http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6225170.stm

New operator for North London Line (Transport for London franchise) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6766737.stm

Mystery railway line on leaflets: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/6764181.stm

Study into 300mph Glasgow-Edinburgh rail link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6766423.stm

And a London-Birmingham high-speed rail link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6766803.stm

Loco naming at Millbrook FLT: http://www.freightliner.co.uk/news/newsdt.asp?NewsID=54

Freightliner HeavyHaul purchase LaFarge wagon fleet: http://www.freightliner.co.uk/news/newsdt_hh.asp?NewsID=53

DB may purchase a share of EWS (Prussian eagle to join the three heads on EWS locos?): http://tinyurl.com/2x29ys

DRS charter train in connection with Carlisle open day: http://www.directrailservices.com/news/19.asp

DRS driver recruitment: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/6766309.stm

Larbert station facelift: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/6756725.stm

Waverley route politics http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/6221120.stm

Support for Edinburgh trams, but not airport link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6220840.stm

Trolleybuses for Leeds: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/6755469.stm

Hovercraft link across Forth estuary. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6765737.stm

QE2 to be sold to be sold for use as a floating hotel in Dubai: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6762901.stm

Spotters: Neil Kearns, Reg Nerps

TV and Radio

Events

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