1344

Number 1344 (Items 193 - 348 & MR 13 - MR 20) (E-BLN 118 PAGES) 25 Jan 2020

BRANCH LINE NEWS

A societas est iens ut loca
Published 24 times a year by the Branch Line Society; founded 1955.

branchline.uk https://m.facebook.com/BranchLineSociety/

Membership queries: Lisa Sheppard [email protected]
186 Anlaby Park Road South, Hull, HU4 7BU. 07873354464

British Isles news from members; an international section is available.
Opinions are not necessarily athvaoislaebolef .the Compilers or the Society.

BLN 1345 is dated Sat 8 Feb; all contributions by Wed 29 Jan please.…

………..Date Event and details  = Please Book Online BLN Lead Status

Sun 26 Jan Merseyrail Undergroundcie&tyO. Svoecriegtryo.und Explorer 1343 MG OPEN
Fri 14 Feb Newcastle - Carlisle signal box visits APPLY WAITING LIST 1343 NJ NOTIFY

Sun 23 Feb SAVE THE DATE - Tanfield Railway (MR p9) TBA TBA Claimed

Sat 7 Mar The Fenny Crompton, Lancaster to London Paddington 1341 MG OPEN

Sun 8 Mar The Devonian Crompton, London Victoria to Waterloo 1341 MG OPEN

Mon 9 Mar The Park Royal Parkinson, Paddington - Lancaster 1341 MG OPEN

Fri 13 Mar  The Little North Western Grid; Track & Traction tour BELOW MG OPEN

Sat 14 Mar The Power of Aire; Track & Traction tour (Doncaster) BELOW MG OPEN

Sun 15 Mar The Eric & Ernie Doncaster to Carnforth; Track & Traction BELOW MG OPEN

Sat 21 Mar Padstow & The Lizard RNLI Funiculars :ONLY 3 PLACES LEFT: 1342 MG OPEN

Sun 22 Mar North Cornwall (10¼") Miniature Railway all liner 1343 MG OPEN

Sun 26 Apr Unusual London area railtour in planning - save the date TBA TBA Claimed

30/4 - 3/5 Four day Irish long weekend - save the dates TBA TBA Claimed

Sat 2 May All day 'stand alone' Dublin based BLS Irish Rail tour TBA TBA Claimed

21-31 May BLS railtour in northern Sweden; save the dates 1337 IS Claimed

3-5 June Tom's Comprehensive Kent Connector - notify interest 1341 TG OPEN

26-28 June The Niedersachsen Explorer (NW Germany) *NOW OPEN* BELOW MG OPEN

Sat 15 Aug Lengthy private 15" railway in Buckinghamshire, save date TBA TBA Claimed

Mon 31 Aug Bank Holiday Scunthorpe summer steel spectacular (No21) TBA TBA Claimed

12-15 Nov Thur-Sun; PROVISIONAL DATES 65th Anniversary 2020 AGM TBA TBA Claimed

IS = Iain Scotchman; MG = Mark Gomm; NJ = Nick Jones; TG = Tom Gilby; Contact details on back page.

193] Fri 13 - Sun 15 Mar; The Aire Freshener:: The team behind our 20 Jul 2019 'Luca Pezzulo Express'
has been working on a 2020 programme which will also raise more money for the wonderful Martin
House Children's Hospice at Wetherby, near York. After months of negotiation, a bid has been placed
for a charter, with interesting traction over interesting/unusual routes in Yorkshire. Details of the days
are below; there is a significant discount for booking all three days: ●Members Standard Class £169;
●First Class (Standard Fri & Sun) refreshments on Saturday only £229; ●First Class at a table for two
(Standard Fri & Sun) refreshments Saturday only £244 FULLY BOOKED;●U18s (must be accompanied
by an adult) £84.50 reduction; ●Non-members £36 surcharge. Bookings per BLN 1343.6 (11 Jan 2020).

Please choose carefully if booking for any of our 13-15 Mar tours. Due to the high workload for our
volunteers, alterations will require cancellation (90% refund) and rebooking - subject to availability.

194] :Fri 13 Mar; The Little North Western Grid:: Operated by West Coast Railways (WCR), with a
Colas Class 56 at the sharp end, and a WCR ETH Class 47 for reversals and heating. A single journey
from Carnforth to Doncaster, for our main event the following day. A buffet car service of drinks and
refreshments will be available, including a selection of hand pulled real ales. Huge thanks to Colas Rail
for all their assistance; we will be working to secure one of their more sought after Class 56s. There
may be a surprise at Rylstone, additional to the route shown below! Standard Class ONLY. ●Members
£49; ●U18s (all U18s must be adult accompanied) £24.50 reduction; ●Non-members £12 surcharge.
Provisional validated timings and route as submitted to Network Rail:

Carnforth P2 (09.05 PU) - Hellifield Up Goods - Skipton P4 (10.38 PU/rev) - Down Shipley Slow (rev)
- Rylstone Tarmac (No1 bunker road requested/rev) - Skipton (rev) - Engine Shed Jn - Altofts Jn -
Calder Bridge Jn - Pontefract Monkhill - Knottingley South Jn - Shaftholme Jn - Doncaster (15.30 SD).

195] :Sat 14 Mar; The Power of Aire:: Operated by WCR, with a much sought-after Colas Class 70,
a WCR ETH Class 47 inside and a Colas Class 56 for reversals. Rare track includes Selby Curve,
Ferrybridge Wagon Repair Depot, Drax Power Station, Gascoigne Wood Sidings, Doncaster Carr Sidings
& Sudforth Lane Sidings. A buffet car service of drinks and refreshments will be available, with a
selection of hand pulled real ales; First Class passengers benefit from complimentary refreshments.
Huge thanks to Colas Rail, Davis Wagon Services, Ferrybridge and Drax Power for all their assistance
with this project. ●Members Standard Class £94; ●First Class with refreshments £144; ●First Class with
refreshments at a table for two £159 FULLY BOOKED ●U18s (must be accompanied by an adult) £47
reduction; ●Non-members all fares £12 extra. Provisional validated timings, route submitted to NR:

Doncaster P8 (09.34 PU) - Holgate No1 Road - York P11 (10.30 PU/rev) - Holgate No2 Road -
Sherburn Jn - Hagg Lane (rev) - Run Round line (rev) - Hambleton West Jn - Hambleton South Jn
- Doncaster P1 (PU 11.32) - Carriage Siding No2 (rev) - Doncaster - Shaftholme Jn - Haywood Jn -
Knottingley South Jn - Ferrybridge North Jn - Ferrybridge Davis Wagon Services (rev) - Pontefract
East Jn - Pontefract West Jn - Prince of Wales Signal Box (rev) - trailing X/O - Pontefract West Jn-
Pontefract East Jn - DB Cargo Knottingley TMD - Sudforth Lane No3 - Drax PS Reception No3 -
'B' Road - Sudforth Lane No1 - Knottingley East Jn - Knottingley South Jn - Shaftholme Jn - Doncaster
Two Way Goods (rev) - Hare Park Jn - Oakenshaw UGL - Turners Lane Jn - Castleford - Milford Jn -
Milford West Road No12 - Gascoigne Wood Sdgs (rev) - Sherburn Jn - Church Fenton P3 - Holgate
No3 Road - York P10 (19.41 SD/rev) - Hambleton East Jn - Selby Canal Jn - Doncaster P1 (20.35 SD)

196] :Sun 15 Mar; The Eric & Ernie:: Operated by WCR, with a Colas Class 56 and WCR ETH Class 47 for
reversals. A single journey from Doncaster back to Carnforth, via Copy Pit, Morecambe and Heysham
Port. Rare track includes the Harrogate (middle) Through Line, Selby Curve and Whitehall Road
Engineers Sidings. A buffet car service of refreshments and drinks will be available, including a
selection of hand pulled real ales. Huge thanks to Colas Rail for all their help. Standard Class ONLY.
●Members £49; ●U18s (must be accompanied by an adult) £24.50 reduction; ●Non-members £12
surcharge. Provisional validated timings and route as submitted to Network Rail:

Doncaster P8 (09.59 PU) - Selby Canal Jn - Selby West Jn - Hambleton North Jn - York P10 (10.56 PU)
- Harrogate Through Line - Leeds P9 (12.52 PU/rev) - Engine Shed Jn - Hunslet Station Jn (rev) -
Whitehall Road Jn (rev) - Whitehall Road Engineers Sidings (rev) - Whitehall Road Jn (rev) - Engine
Shed Jn - Altofts Jn - Wakefield Kirkgate P2 (14.03 SD) - Horbury Up Goods Loop - Horbury Jn Up
Slow - Brighouse (photo stop) - Hebden Bridge - Copy Pit - Blackburn Up & Down Goods - Farington
Curve Jn - Preston P4 (15.57 SD) - Lancaster Down Main - Carnforth Up & Down Goods 1 - Carnforth
P2 (16.45 SD/rev) - Morecambe P2 (rev) - Heysham Port (17.37 SD/photo stop/rev) - Morecambe
P2 (rev) - Carnforth Up & Down Goods 2 - Carnforth P2 (18.42 SD)

197] :Fri 26 - Sun 28 Jun; BLS Niedersachsen Explorer:: (BLN 1343.11) We are delighted to report that
our three day railtour, organised by Paul Griffin, in North Germany with maximum daylight is open for
bookings, initially for BLS Members booking the full three days. If space remains single days and non-
member bookings will be available later. Latest details are on our website. Please book online if at all
possible or ask someone to do this for you. Alternatively, for a printed booking form and details send
an application with an A5 (BLN size) SAE to our Bookings Officer, Mark Gomm (per back page) please.
For those who have not been to Germany before, some familiar faces will be there to help/advise.

1344 HEAD LINES (Paul Stewart) [email protected]

ABBREVIATIONS: TC = Temporarily Closed; RO = Reopened; P = Passengers; A = All; G = Goods

198] Newhaven Harbour Jn - Newhaven Marine ('Wharf Road platform' in the Sectional Appendix,
also known as Newhaven Harbour P3!): (BLN 1308.1372) TCA Mon 21 May 2018 with the timetable
change (last train - ECS use - Fri 18 May 2018). The new layout was commissioned with resignalling
from 2 Dec 2019. First use 21.08 Mon 9 Dec 2019 by the Rail Head Treatment Train and thereafter
(instead of running to Seaford). Regular ECS moves restarted on Mon 16 Dec 2019 with the timetable
change; SSuX 06.14 Brighton to Newhaven Harbour & 19.21 Newhaven Harbour to Brighton Lovers
Walk. There is the prospect of freight traffic at Brett Aggregates (TRACKmaps 5 p17A Aug 2019).

199] Manchester Liverpool Road, *Science & Industry Museum: (MR p8) The internal passenger trips
(permanently curtailed by the Ordsall Chord since running on Tue 5 Jan 2016) ceased in 2019 (2018?) -
does anyone have a date they last ran please? The Power Hall closed from mid Aug for urgent roof
repairs and refurbishment costing £6M until summer 2021. *Previously Museum of Science & Industry.

200] Mountsorrel Railway; Nunckley Hill (96m 26ch) - Mountsorrel (95m 78ch): (TRACKmaps 4 p23A)
(MR p7) TCP after public service on Sun 25 Aug 2019. The next trips on Sun 29 Oct (and subsequently
advertised) only went to Nunckley Hill due to concerns over limited clearance beneath Swithland Lane
overbridge just beyond that station and the risk of heads etc protruding out of the DMU windows.

201] Addlestone Jn - Byfleet Jn (both directions) PSUL: Passenger Service Suspended 2 Dec 2019;
Passenger Service Resumed 2 Jan 2020; another casually of the South Western Railway Dec RMT
strikes. Since 12 May 2005 the line has been used by an all year SuO hourly Woking - Waterloo service.

202] Portobello Jn - Bushbury Jn: (BLN 1343.27) The line was used, as booked, by the 23.30 Euston to
Glasgow/Edinburgh & 23.15 Glasgow Central combined with 23.25 ex-Edinburgh Caledonian Sleeper
on 17 & 24 Nov and 1* & 8 Dec (10 Nov they ran via Wolverhampton station). *Down train only.

203] King Edward Bridge North Jn - King Edward Bridge East Jn: (BLNs 1343.84 & 1332.1698) ROP Tue
17 Dec 2019; booked to be used by 06.00 (SSuX) Newcastle P8 to Saltburn PSUL in the new timetable
and has generally run that way (but went via High Level Bridge on Mon 16 Dec). This routing is thought
to be due to east end bay P1 (which it previously left from) being used by the 05.53 TPE Newcastle to
Edinburgh train. The last previous regular booked use was Sat 19 May 2018, before the timetable
change, by 18.33 (SO) Middlesbrough to Newcastle & 19.26 (SO) Nunthorpe to Newcastle.

204] Dorking (excl) - Horsham Jn; total 3 stations: TCP Thur16 Jan; ROP Mon 20 Jan 2020; due to an
embankment slip on the Up side near Ockley. Originally discovered just after midday on 14 Jan, there
was Single Line Working over the Down line after 16.00 and on 15 Jan. There is no Sunday service.

205] Worcestershire Parkway: (BLN 1343.35) OP Sun 26 Jan 2020. First train is 08.29 to Paddington
(08.15 ex-Worcester Foregate Street) at the single 290yd high level P3 (116m 60ch from Paddington).
Situated on the Up side of the North Cotswold line between Worcester Shrub Hill and Pershore, it can
take a 2x5-Car IET. The first Down train is 09.57 to Great Malvern (the 07.37 from Paddington).

The first train at the 290yd low level P1 is 10.40 to Cardiff Central (10.12 ex-Birmingham New Street);
and at the 259yd low level P2, the 12.14 to Nottingham (10.45 ex-Cardiff Central). Both are 68m 13ch
from Derby on the Stoke Works Jn - Abbotswood Jn direct line between Bromsgrove & Cheltenham.

BELOW: The former Manchester Liverpool Road station (a passeng
Three pictures from Tue 5 Jan 2016, the final day of internal public rides be

ger station a long time ago) now 'The Science & Industry Museum'.
efore they were shortened at the Ordsall Lane end to 14ch. (Ian Mortimer.)









GWR manage the new £23M Worcestershire Parkway employing seven new staff. There is a 500 space
car park; at the time of writing parking charges were a closely guarded state secret. Worcestershire
County Council which sponsored the scheme has expressed the hope that car parking charges would
not be too high as to put passengers off using the station. [They are relying on them to help pay for it!]
Certain ticket validity is being extended: Worcester to Cheltenham/Bristol tickets are valid direct or
changing at Worcestershire Parkway increasing the service from two hourly to three in two hours.

Birmingham Off-Peak Day Return is £9.90 (railcard £6.55) as at Worcester Foregate St or Shrub Hill.
Similarly the Worcestershire Parkway to Bristol TM Off-Peak Day Return is £14.80/£9.75 as at other
Worcester stations, so considerable savings can be made between Birmingham and Bristol (£60.30/
£9.90) for example, splitting tickets at Worcestershire Parkway and changing trains at Cheltenham.

206] Mid Hants Railway; Alton - Medstead & Four Marks (excl): (BLN 1343.42) A fully booked Flying
Scotsman evening dining special is due to make two trips of the line, non-alighting, from Alresford on
Fri 14 Feb 2020. ROP (public services) is still expected Sat 15 Feb; TCA after last running 1 Jan 2019.

207] Accrington (excl) - Daisyfield Jn with Church & Oswaldtwistle and Rishton stations; also Gannow
Jn - Colne; total five stations: (BLN 1343.84) TCP Sat 15 Feb; ROP Mon 24 Feb 2020. A 9-day half term
closure to replace an underbridge over the Leeds & Liverpool Canal between Church & Oswaldtwistle
and Rishton stations. SSuX trains from York/Manchester Victoria via Copy Pit turnback at Accrington
(a Preston end ECS shunt); trains from Blackpool North turnback at Blackburn (some in P4).

208] Keeping Track, (extra to Head Lines) significant passenger service suspensions: *= new/altered

BLN Start (incl) Reopens Location (stations 'exclusive' if bracketed) bold = closed now

1343.36 19 Jan 20 8 Feb 20 *Whitland Jn - Pembroke Dock [ from 23.00]

1331.1539 2 Jan 19 15 Feb 20 *Mid Hants Railway; Alton P3 - (Medstead & Four Marks)

1343.37 1 Feb 20 17 Feb 20 *Brundall Jn - Acle - Great Yarmouth

1343.38 3 Feb 20 17 Feb 20 *[Norwich] Whitlingham Jn - Brundall Jn

1343.40 3 Feb 20 17 Feb 20 *Oulton Broad North Jn - Lowestoft /(Beccles)

1343.39 3 Feb 20 24 Feb 20 *Brundall Jn - Oulton Broad North Jn

1343.41 20 Oct 18 24 Feb 20 *Reedham Jn - Berney Arms request stop - (Great Yarmouth) (?)

1343.43 15 Feb 20 22 Feb 20 *[Yeovil] Pen Mill Jn - Dorchester Jn

1338.2530 15 Feb 20 24 Feb 20 Blackheath Jn - Bexleyheath - Slade Green Jn/Crayford Creek Jn

1338.2531 15 Feb 20 24 Feb 20 (Truro) - St Erth; [Penzance - St Ives TCP 15 Feb 20; ROP 19 Feb 20]

1343.45 3 Mar 20 6 Mar 20 *Liskeard bay P3 - Coombe Junction Halt - Looe

1343.34 2 Jan 20 21 Mar 20 *West Somerset Railway; Norton Fitzwarren Jn - Minehead

1343.46 14 Mar 20 30 Mar 20 *(Castle Cary) Castle Cary Jn - (Taunton) Cogload Jn

1343.29 22 Dec 19 Mar 20? *Redhill South Jn - (Edenbridge) [ from 08.00]

1343.33 29 Dec 19 4 Apr 20 *Severn Valley Railway, Kidderminster Town - (Bewdley)

1343.47 30 Mar 20 6 Apr 20 *(Crediton) - Barnstaple

1343.30 10 Apr 20 19 Apr 20 *Guildford P3 to 8 - Woking Jn/Ash/Reigate/Haslemere

1333.1883 16 Feb 19 2020 Dolgarrog station (BLN 1338.2630); pictures e-BLN 1337

1330.1399 4 Nov 18 2020 Llangollen Rly, (Carrog) - Corwen East site [last public train]

1344 BLN GENERAL (Paul Stewart) [email protected]

209] :REMINDER: 2020 Society Constitutional Review: (BLN 1341.2885) Our Constitution & Standing
Orders went to members as a supplement to BLN 1341 and is available on our website. A reminder to
please send any further ideas or comments about what an updated version might/should or should
not contain for the Society as an unincorporated body. Any comments please to your Chairman, John
Williamson, at [email protected] or by post (postage rates are the same as for the UK) to:
La Marguerite, Croit-e-Quill Road, Laxey, Isle of Man, IM4 7JD. All ideas are welcome! Particularly
desirable would be good ideas for us to consider from the constitution of other similar Societies.

210] Railway Ramblers: Your BLN Editor has been asked to share the North West Group Newsletter
(No37, Jan 2020) with anyone who might also find it of interest (that's you lot!). This interesting
illustrated publication of 16 pages is available as an e-BLN download. There is a programme of walks
to 20 Jun (non-Railway Rambler members may go one or two on a 'trial' basis, and then need to join
for insurance purposes). This is followed by May to Oct 2019 Walk Reports showing how active and
extensive the NW group is with organised events in Sussex (three days), Derbyshire, Cumbria, along
the Waverley Route (3 days), Lancashire, Snowdonia (5 days)! Railway Ramblers membership is only
£10 per year for a household (at the same address) including four high quality illustrated magazines
and occasional walk reports supplements. https://adobe.ly/2sPOhN6 has the new Jan 2020 Railway
Ramblers prospectus and promotional leaflet (pass it on). BLN 1345 will have the paper version.

211] BLN 1342 Quiz Answers: (BLN 1342.3052) With thanks to our member Peter Dawson.
❶ Leeds has the most operational platforms in England outside London, 17 (18 soon) some are 'a' - 'd'.
❷ London Northwestern Railway, TfW & South Western Railway are contracted to run Vivarail units.
❸ The Manchester Ship Canal which carried/carries passengers and freight celebrated its 125th
……anniversary on 1 Jan 2019. It was opened and griced by Queen Victoria on 1 Jan 1894.
❹ Preston and Boston both have operational rail connected dock branches in common.
❺ The Network Rail signalling system describes 10 train classifications '0' to '9' (0 = light engine etc).
❻ The acronym RHTT stands for Railhead Treatment Train used in the leaf fall season.
❼ The Tanfield Railway in County Durham claims to be the oldest operating railway in the world.
❽ The principal railway stations are named Atocha and Chamartin in Madrid.
❾ GB Railfreight (GBRf) has its principal locomotive depot at Roberts Road in Doncaster.
❿ 23 Deltic locomotives were built, 22 production models and one prototype/demonstrator.
⓫ The Deltics were built at the Vulcan Foundry Company Ltd, Newton-Le-Willows.
⓬ The National Tramway Museum is in Crich, Derbyshire near Matlock.
⓭ In 1860 (not 1863) the appropriately named American entrepreneur George Francis Train began ....
……the first UK street tramway (horse drawn) in Birkenhead. Its electric successor closed 17 Jul 1937.
⓮ Listed alphabetically, the first Network Rail station is Abbey Wood.
⓯ Listed alphabetically, the last Network Rail station is Ystrad Rhondda.
⓰ There are 120 vehicles in the current Manchester Metrolink operational fleet.
⓱ George Stephenson is buried in Chesterfield at Holy Trinity Church, not far from the station.
⓲ The London Underground Victoria Line opened 50 years ago on 7 Mar 1969.
⓳ The first excursion train, which was organised by Thomas Cook in 1841, ran from Leicester to ……
…….Loughborough for a Temperance Society meeting. It is believed that real ale was not available.
⓴ Ely Cathedral has a large stained glass window collection & museum; one window is sponsored by,
……and includes the name of, the former British Railways Board. It has the iconic double arrows logo.

LEFT: The window (Maxine Stewart, 17 Jul 2000).

212] My First Railway Memories (22): (BLN 1343.56) By
Bob Watt (Member 510 and our previous Scotland BLN
Regional Editor). I arrived in this world in Dec 1948, at
Insch War Memorial Hospital, handy for rail transport -
but how soon did I use it? My parents were both of
rural Aberdeenshire origin and my Dad was working in
the mechanical element of BR Motive Power Depots by
that time, living in the Glasgow area. However, we had
both sets of Grandparents in Inverurie, where I no
doubt paused for a while. Whether my first ever rail
journey was arriving at Insch or departing there I
cannot tell; but there is little doubt that I would have
arrived in Glasgow Buchanan Street in early 1949.

My first definite memory is living in one of the railway-owned tenement flats at 583 London Road,
Glasgow, from the fourth floor of which, standing on an orange box, I could look down on the four
platform Bridgeton Central terminal station (CP 4 Nov 1979). I watched the comings and goings which,
as I understood by this early age, my Dad was involved in. Holidays were taken in Aberdeenshire; a
notable memory was travelling to Carron on the Speyside line, where I had an Uncle in the P'Way
Department, who walked me across on the rail side of the Spey Viaduct, being able to look straight
through to the rushing waters; sadly I do not know if I managed any other lines on the former Great
North of Scotland network, other than to Fraserburgh probably when I was about nine years old - that
was certainly memorable because I managed to trap a finger in a closing door on our return departure
from 'The Broch' (Scots for Fraserburgh)! The full 'Strathspey' eventually came at Easter 1967 at the
age of 18, with the Scottish Region's magnificent 'Grand Scottish Tour' on Sat 25 Mar 1967….

Edinburgh Waverley (08.12) - Portobello - Millerhill - Hardengreen Jn - Galashiels - Hawick -
Riccarton Junction - Carlisle - Beattock - Law Jn - Mossend Yard - Gartsherrie South Jn - Greenhill
Lower Jn - Carmuirs West Jn - Larbert Jn - Perth - Forfar - Bridge of Dun - Kinnaber Jn - Aberdeen -
Keith - Dufftown - Craigellachie - Aberlour - Knockando - Grantown-on-Spey - Boat of Garten -
Aviemore - Perth - Stirling - Larbert - Falkirk Grahamston - Polmont - Edinburgh Waverley (22.15)

[This was the same weekend as our Society three day Scottish Rambler No6 joint railtour with The
Stephenson Locomotive Society http://bit.ly/3a5ISSA which included steam haulage and brakevans.]

When I was about 5 or 6, our family travelled from Glasgow to Filey Holiday Camp terminal station -
but what route exactly did our trains take? Interest in that was rekindled in reading the various BLN
items during the last year or so, featuring the PSUL sections in North Yorkshire which saw Summer
Saturday services. Alas, no exact dates - I can only dream!

We lived in Perth from 1955-1959, where Perth South MPD (63A) was at the bottom of the garden;
I remember the preserved Caley Single, No123, coming to visit in 1958, and having a look at her.
Curious behavioural feature from about that time… I started taking loco numbers - but only when on
journeys; not when the shed yard was full of them!

I joined the Railway at Glasgow in 1966; folk whom I met in the Industry at that time were responsible
for getting me to visit lines that were closing - notably our member the late, great Willie McKnight.
In May 1971 I became a Society member, where the mysteries of PSUL etc were laid open to me!

213] Britain's Least Used Stations 2018-19: The new premier league below follows release of the
latest figures on 14 Jan with some well known names from previous winners and old BLN favourites.

Do you know where all the stations are? ‡Denton and Reddish South had help with their achievement
from Northern guards and their Saturday strikes - unfortunately, their service is only one SO train each
way but there were none at all after 18 Aug 2018 until 16 Feb 2019 so they lost half of the year in
question. Stanlow & Thornton has three trains in each direction SuX but is nowhere near any housing
and is surrounded by industrial and former industrial land. Teesside Airport and Shippea Hill clearly
have cult followers now. Barry Links (not at Barry of course, what else would you expect) benefitted
from being 'linked' with the 147th Open at nearby Carnoustie from 19-22 Jul 2018.

Pilning has the best figures for a station with a unidirectional service on a bidirectional line particularly
considering there are just two SO trains - Polesworth is another example of this but has 300% more
trains - one early morning Down train, six days a week. Despite its name, Loch Eil Outward Bound has
inbound trains too. Breich, considered for closure, was reprieved but then did close from 23 Jun until
24 Sep 2018 for reconstruction, has started to show growth after the rebuild and much improved
service. Let's hope all those locals who made such a fuss about losing their station don't Breich their
promises and actually use it. IBM lost all services from 9 Dec 2018, so next year we can expect a 'zero'
return (and single). Avid BLN reader/s will know that Berney Arms has sadly been 'temporarily' closed
since 20 Oct 2018 but reopens next month (possibly…). Passenger numbers fell at Falls of Cruachan.

Six pictures of Stanlow & Thornton joint winner of our least used station in 2018-19 with 46 recorded
passengers - far more trains than passengers - by John (he gets about a bit) Cameron on 15 Oct 2016.

BELOW: His train leaving for Ellesmere Port (it did come back later and John isn't still there).





LEFT: A genuine issued ticket (not a fake) with reflected
light. Although an Anytime Single it can't be used at any
time as Redcar British Steel is, of course, closed.
The machine declined to sell one to Newhaven Marine.

The outstanding performance was registered by British
Steel Redcar, an 800% increase in patronage - from 40
journeys in 2017-18 to 360 in 2018-19, rocketing from
2,559th position in the rankings to 2,537th. In a masterful
piece of insight the ORR commented that (the) least used station in 2017-18 'may have attracted
visitors'! The stationmaster is of course delighted and would like to congratulate his staff on their
achievement. He is looking forward to receiving his plaque at the annual awards ceremony, but is
somewhat disappointed not to have made the final round in the 'Best kept station garden' category…
 These statistics relate to 1 Apr 2018 to 31 Mar 2019 so do not include the main period of our
'campaign' to persuade members to visit British Steel Redcar, or at least buy souvenir tickets.
These will be in the 2019-20 figures, available in Dec 2020 (the election delayed publication of 2019
figures). Even though the station will only be open for nine months of that accounting year, your
NE editor is reasonably confident that the station has already gained further significant patronage.

Last, but by no means not least (in fact, the most), in the relegation zone at the bottom of the table, to
reach the least used station in Wales requires 44 entries as it is our 2,518th best used station with over
700 passengers. All those obscure Cambrian and other Central Wales stations had even more!

Station Passengers Change Station Passengers Change

1= Stanlow & Thornton 046 -50% 23= Beasdale 342 -18%

1= Denton‡ 046 -34% 23= Breich 342 235%

3 Reddish South‡ 060 -42% 25 British Steel Redcar 360 800%

4 Barry Links 122 135% 26 Achanalt 394 -9%

5 Havenhouse 158 -8% 27 Locheilside 396 32%

6 Elton & Orston 164 19% 28 Altnabreac 408 -38%

7 Kildonan 168 -18% 29 Shippea Hill 432 56%

8 Lochluichart 180 -72% 30 Berney Arms 442 -54%

9= Polesworth 186 -29% 31 Chapelton 446 140%

9= Sampford Courtenay 186 -1% 32 Lakenheath 454 -3%

11 Kirton Lindsey 190 -35% 33 Pilning 458 -4%

12 Coombe Junction Halt 204 31% 34 Portsmouth Arms 466 5%

13 Teesside Airport 206 178% 35 Duncraig 484 19%

14 Buckenham 216 7% 36 IBM 506 -34%

15 Scotscalder 238 31% 37 Kinbrace 510 36%

16 Henshall 252 -37% 38 Nethertown 516 -4%

17 Thorpe Culvert 258 74% 39 Rawcliffe 522 53%

18= Culrain 280 -7% 40 Falls of Cruachan 538 -26%

18= Golf Street 280 5% 41 Whitley Bridge 544 -56%

20 Clifton 282 1% 42 Ince & Elton 552 -16%

21 Invershin 284 -35% 43 Loch Eil Outward Bound 554 1%

22 Acklington 320 -14% 44 Sugar Loaf 708 -62%

214] On Railway Hotels, Part 5: (BLN 1343.57) By Rhys Ab Elis. A week later, in Nov 2005, another
hotel stay was added to the collection, near Moretonhampstead, the very different Manor House
Hotel, on the edge of Dartmoor. The building was constructed as a country retreat for the son of Henry
Walton Smith, the famous newsagent (founded 1792) with station connections. His son, William Henry

Smith (1792-1865), was the 'WH Smith'.
Subsequently his son, confusingly also
William Henry Smith (the '& son' in
WH Smith & Son), was designated the 1st
Viscount Hambleden but died before
Queen Victoria could convey the title so in
1891 his widow became the 1st Viscountess
of Hambleden. The hotel (LEFT) was
originally called North Bovey Manor.
William Frederick Danvers Smith, 2nd
Viscount Hambleden (1868-1928), son of
the first Viscount designate, lived there
until his death in 1928.

The building was then sold to someone who
presumably had hoped to make a profit
(the term 'fast buck' comes to mind) and sold it on to the Great Western Railway in 1929.

The GWR, with an eye to tapping tourist potential at the start of the motor car age, added an
extension in 1935 in an identical pure pseudo-Jacobean style; it even has a Minstrels' Gallery. (There
were no minstrels performing at the time of my stay - perhaps they were travelling‽). Guests arriving
at Moretonhampstead terminus by train were conveyed by taxi and estate car to and from the hotel.
As that branch lost its train service from 2 Mar 1959, that facility had ceased, but they did collect (and
deliver) me from and back to the rail replacement bus stop in Moretonhampstead. I doubt that many
guests use the bus service, now! On the
homeward journey from Moretonhampstead,
I stopped off at the former Station Hotel at
Yatton on the Up side, once owned by the
Bristol & Exeter Railway. The contrast was
total. From Minstrels' Gallery to a basic beer
'n crisps pub; no overnight accommodation at
Yatton, these days! Now the 'Railway Inn' - it
underwent a £142k refurbishment at the end
of 2018; reports welcome. RIGHT: The Old
Station Hotel at Yatton in 2007.

May and June 2006 saw visits to three hotels
once owned by the South Eastern Railway
(SER). The first was at London Charing Cross station. I picked a date at the second attempt that gave
the most advantageous rate for accommodation; my earlier enquiry had the 'rack rate' quoted (four
times as expensive; applied when there's an event on, to be milked for all its worth). The hotel is

directly on top of the station; it is quite
characterful, with a glass fronted conservatory
(restaurant) overlooking the forecourt. Amazingly,
the traffic noise from the Strand was not intrusive.

A month later I had two nights at the Imperial
Hotel. (LEFT: View of the back of the hotel from
the seashore.) It opened as the Seabrook Hotel
1 Jul 1880 by the SER but soon renamed - at
Seabrook, Hythe. This is as in Romney, Hythe &
Dymchurch Light Railway and SER Sandgate
branch, Kent.

The latter terminus CP/CA 1 Apr 1931 when the branch from Sandling (then) Junction was curtailed to
Hythe which itself finally CP/CA 3 Dec 1951. This four star hotel, as the name implied, was on a grand
scale as hotels go, but quite agreeable. The South Eastern Railway's armorial device, with motto
'Onward', graced the façade just below the roofline, with a modern copy at the driveway entry as well.
There were, and still are, two strange features to this hotel. Firstly, although on the Hythe seafront, it
faces inland. Secondly, it was not close to the railway. Hythe SER station on the branch was a good
mile away. Even the Hythe & Sandgate Tramway (SER owned) was 200-300 yd away. This was nearly
the last horse tramway in England, closing in 1921. (The horse tram depot was and is at Hythe. A stone
tablet proclaiming its SER ownership, dated 1894, may still be seen, but is above, and to rear of, a Thai
restaurant. It is best seen from the upstairs of a double deck bus.) ABOVE: Inland (front) view of hotel.

I had taken the bus into Folkestone to explore railway remains in the Harbour station area. There, the
dominant building is the Grand Burstin Hotel, a product of the 1960s, mostly in white concrete. It is on
the site of the SER's Royal Pavilion Hotel, originally opened in 1843 coincident with the start of boat
trains and Channel Packets by the SER. However, a chance walk down the side of the Grand Burstin
proved something of a revelation. There, at the rear, was what looked like an extension that was
actually the last extant part of the SER hotel. Enquiries revealed that though no accommodation was
available in the rear extension, it did house the hotel's restaurant, appropriately called 'The Victorian'.
And yes, dinner was available. Having (literally) had my fill, [to the point of 'Burstin', Rhys?] in the last
remnant of the Royal Pavilion Hotel, I headed back to the Imperial. Unfortunately, I had already
booked dinner there too (ordered before my discovery at Folkestone Harbour). There was only one
thing to do; emulate Geraldine Granger (Dawn French) in that famous Christmas Edition of 'The Vicar
of Dibley' or the late Chancellor Kohl of Germany, and tuck into a second dinner...

I also visited and photographed the SER's Lord Warden Hotel, at Dover Docks. It closed as a hotel in
1939, and became offices at the heart of the war effort. It is still there, a most impressive building, but
any chance of it returning to hotel use is zero as it is now in the middle of a huge lorry park; less than
appealing surroundings. It does though bear a blue plaque commemorating the historic reuniting of
Emperor Napoléon III of France with his Empress, Eugénie. They had fled from France during the
Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, thus ending the monarchy in France, They took up residence in
Chislehurst, where Napoleon III died in 1873, and Eugénie lived on, in a life of idle comfort, until 1920.

The SER had five other hotels, all now demolished. They were at Cannon Street, Holborn Viaduct,
Deal, [some good deals there once?], a second hotel at Charing Cross (The Craven) and Port Victoria.
Spot the odd one out … the last one, beyond the end of Thamesport Bulk Terminal - Isle of Grain, was
a crummy, clapboard shack on a pier to match, on the Medway Estuary, a remote spot. Surprisingly,
Queen Victoria favoured Port Victoria station and pier for her Continental journeys. Seemingly she
opined: It is the only place I can go from, without thousands of cheering people. How ungrateful...

In August 2006, the action moved to Liverpool, and the Midland Railway (MR) Co's Adelphi Hotel.
This much rebuilt establishment began life in 1826, with a rebuild in 1876, and was purchased by the
MR in 1892. The hotel is about five minutes walk from Liverpool Central station, which was the MR's
route into the city, through its one-third ownership of the Cheshire Lines (mostly in Lancashire of
course!), shared with the Great Central and the Great Northern Railways. Another total rebuild during
1912-1914 created essentially the hotel that is open today, with quite an elaborate Art Nouveau
ambience, and features such as the sunken dining room. After Grouping, the London, Midland &
Scottish Railway chose to concentrate its Liverpool hotel provision on it. The hotel is in fact equidistant
from both Central and Lime Street stations and was chosen because it was much more modern than
the London & North Western Railway's North Western Hotel, built integrally with Lime Street station.
The latter hotel opened in 1871, and closed to the public in 1933. It is though still very much there,
today providing student accommodation, with a pub as part of the ground floor provision.

BELOW: The Royal Station Hotel (York) is on the right by the main station entrance (2005).
NEXT PAGE TOP: You would never imagine that this is a different view of the same hotel - but it is.

Later that month, the North Eastern Railway hotels in Hull and York were stayed at, during a tour by
car photographing closed branch line stations in North and East Yorkshire. Both are the 'Royal Station
Hotel'. The one in Hull, opened at Paragon station in 1851, was visited by Queen Victoria in 1854 and
is now Grade II listed. Both were built for the York&North Midland Railway(Y&NMR),one of the three
original constituents merging to create the North Eastern Railway in 1854. The hotel at Hull station
was designed by GT Andrews, the architect who designed nearly all the stations for the Y&NMR, and it
continues to serve the public on a grand scale as 'The Royal Hotel' - now part of the Mercure chain.

The very first station hotel at York (The York Royal Station Hotel) opened on 22 Feb 1853 as an
addition to the original York terminal station; again the architect was GT Andrews. It became
redundant after opening of the new station in Jun 1877 and was converted into offices. The current
hotel opened 20 May 1878 as the Royal Station Hotel, York. The architect was the NER's William
Peachey. It was designed as an integral part of the new station and the NER's flagship hotel (and as
such was managed by the NER directly).

This impressive hotel with a presence is a five-storey building of yellow Scarborough brick featuring
elegant, high ceilinged banqueting rooms and originally had 100 large bedrooms. It cost 14 shillings
(70p) a night, equivalent now to about £86. A 27-room west wing was added in 1896, named
'Klondyke' after the then Klondike Gold Rush. In 1923 with grouping, management and ownership of
the hotel transferred to the London & North Eastern Railway.

Along with the railways themselves, York's railway hotel was nationalised in 1948, initially part of the
British Transport Commission 'Hotels Executive'. In 1953 the British Transport Hotels brand began.
An annexe was opened in 1981 in the ex-NER catering building, called the Friars Garden Hotel; the
final investment under nationalised ownership. The hotel turnover was then £1.23M (= £4.7M now)
with 135 bedrooms and 23 in Friars Garden; 24 rooms were not en-suite. In Oct 1982 privatisation
came and nowadays it is the Principal Hotel York. Refurbished in 2016 there are 164 rooms and suites.

Oct & Nov 2006 saw stays at the Great Northern Hotel, facing Peterborough (North) ex-Great
Northern Railway station, and the Royal Victoria (Station) Hotel, Sheffield, by the site of the closed
Great Central Railway Victoria station. Both very well appointed hotels, the Sheffield establishment
hosts the Great Central Railway's WWI Memorial Wall, following closure of Victoria station in 1970.

215] BLN, further back numbers to spot: (BLN 1343.58) All the BLNs for 1986 & 1987 are now on our
website. Thanks to our member John Hampson for his excellent progress on this project.

216] Britain's LEAST 'Least Used' Stations 2018-19; the 10M Club: Now the real losers, the bottom
league that have no hope of ever winning the title of Britain's least used national station. Once again
London Waterloo (terminal) secures the wooden spoon. Below is the table of all stations with over
10M passengers recorded in 2018-19 - a total of 580 stations had over one million. There may be more
though, as no figures were revealed for (in no particular order) Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3, Heathrow
Terminal 4, Heathrow Terminals 5, Manchester United Football Groud, Barlaston or Wedgwood.

[BLN 1344]

Station Passengers Change Station Passengers Change

42 Lewisham 10,325,546 -4% 21 Vauxhall 21,009,688 2%

41 Waterloo East 10,506,762 6% 20 Gatwick Airport 21,225,246 4%

40 West Ham 10,717,126 2% 19 Canada Water 23,725,794 -5%

39 Bristol TM 11,367,652 0% 18 Edinburgh 23,872,996 2%

38 Moorgate 11,508,936 10% 17 East Croydon 24,769,874 5%

37 Richmond 11,666,916 2% 16 Clapham Junction 29,520,132 0%

36 Cambridge 11,983,320 4% 15 London Charing Cross 30,235,856 7%

35 Blackfriars 12,139,538 12% 14 Manchester Piccadilly 30,251,948 9%

34 Cardiff Central 14,204,684 10% 13 Highbury & Islington 30,439,574 3%

33 Liverpool Lime St 14,221,388 -11% 12 Leeds 30,838,554 11%

32 Whitechapel 14,412,690 0% 11 Glasgow Central 32,797,088 0%

31 Barking 14,451,652 7% 10 King's Cross 34,645,924 2%

30 Liverpool Central 14,605,748 -11% 9 St Pancras International 35,984,204 4%

29 Farringdon 15,087,488 20% 8 Paddington 38,181,588 4%

28 Marylebone 16,146,552 -3% 7 Stratford (London) 41,206,226 3%

27 Reading 17,080,738 1% 6 Euston 46,146,456 3%

26 Glasgow Queen St 17,207,208 5% 5 Birmingham New St 47,927,772 8%

25 Brighton 17,384,634 5% 4 London Bridge 61,308,364 27%

24 Wimbledon 18,497,284 0% 3 London Victoria 74,715,808 0%

23 Fenchurch St 18,507,676 1% 2 Liverpool St 74,715,808 4%

22 Cannon St 20,614,904 -12% 1 London Waterloo 94,192,690 0%

217] Points & Slips: ●●BLN 1336.2279] Regarding Parliamentary Trains, it was the specific clauses
(6-10 incl) of the 1844 Act http://bit.ly/2NGkxcr relating to 'parliamentary trains' - rather than the Act
as a whole - that were repealed by http://bit.ly/2RcmT5l the Cheap Trains Act 1883. The requirement
for trains carrying passengers at 1d per mile was carried forward into the new 1883 Act, with a new
provision for workmens' trains in defined areas and at defined time periods at reduced fares.

The detail of what form such accommodation should take was replaced by a requirement for 'proper
and sufficient' accommodation, so Parliament still believed it was necessary to legislate for - as the
title of the 1883 Act indicates - 'cheap trains'. However, the previous requirement for at least a train a
day was not included. This explains how the Cleobury Mortimer & Ditton Priors Light Railway got away
with operating a passenger service four days a week in 1908. The 'inducement' to the railways was
that they would not have to pay passenger duty on the 1d a mile fares. (Incidentally, the last remaining
passenger revenue duty was withdrawn by the Finance Act in 1929.)

What constituted a 'closure' stemmed from the Transport Act 1962, clause 56(7) which starts: "Where
the Railways Board or London Board propose to discontinue all railway passenger services from any
station or on any line (hereinafter referred to as a closure)...". The requirement is plain enough - 'all'.
That word 'all' - not 'some' or 'part' - has been handed down through subsequent legislation (and the
voluminous guidance notes from the DfT to the relevant sections of the Railways Act 2005).

●●2347] Birmingham New Street bay P4C is a 'tongue' platform sticking out between P4B tracks on
the right (facing Wolverhampton) and P4C tracks on the left - in other words, it makes sense to be
related to P4 rather than P5. Part of it had formerly been Engine Line 1 (Quail 4 p16 Oct 1990). Engine
Lines 2 & 3 were those in front of New Street Power Signal Box (3 closer to the box) recently lifted.

●●BLN 1339.2708] It is since 20 May 2019 that most Watton-at-Stone weekday trains to/from
Stevenage have been replaced with buses (rather than 10 Dec 2019); at weekends trains are booked
to run all day.

●●BLN 1340.2794] Leicester Square - Covent Garden might be the shortest LUL journey between two
stations at 284yd, but, wait a minute, is scheduled to take more like 1min 9sec rather than 9 seconds
which, a member has calculated, requires a start to stop average speed of 65.4mph!

●●BLN 1342.3083] Regarding trains running to Kirbymoorside after the line's closure date, a member
is able to confirm that R Silcock & Sons Ltd were (well known) cattle and poultry food manufacturers.

●●BLN E-1343.15] The train of empty coal wagons on Castleton South Curve was photographed on
21 May 1975 (not 1985). In fact, the final coal train to Rawtenstall ran on 4 Dec 1980 and the line later
closed beyond Heywood (Wagon Works) from 8 Apr 1981.

●●BLN 1343.26] (TrackMAPS 5 P25 Aug 2019) During the 14 Dec to 6 Jan closure south of Ewell West
due to the Epsom landslip, complicated by SWR strike action, the first passenger train of the day
(and for two days, the second too) did start from, and terminate at, Motspur Park (to/from Waterloo
respectively). The ECS from Wimbledon ran nonstop through Motspur Park P2 to Chessington South
(7 or 8 min nonstop for 4¼ miles) to reverse then start in service at Motspur Park P1. Worcester Park
crossover was not used by any ECS. Similarly, some late evening Waterloo to Motspur Park trains
terminated there in P2 then ran ECS to Chessington South and back to Wimbledon. It was also noticed
that some trains booked to Ewell West terminated at Motspur Park (and 'vanished') while others
normally running to Epsom were diverted, as booked in advance, to Chessington South. Some days
there was no service to Ewell West due to a shortage of qualified MOMS/Pilotmen for the Single Line
Working of passenger trains beyond Worcester Park over the trailing crossover in the Up direction.

The procedures and time taken for Single Line Working to Ewell West and back meant there was little
spare time; invariably every 4th or 5th train or so would be terminated at Motspur Park P2, run ECS to
Chessington South and back to pick up its path to Waterloo (with 5-10 min wait in Motspur Park P1).

Raynes Park, Worcester Park & Tolworth country end trailing crossovers are all locally controlled, so
require a person on the ground (as at Worcester Park for the Pilotman Single Line Working to/from
Ewell West). Tolworth crossover (used by stone trains) has not been used by a passenger train for
many years - nowadays trains either run to Chessington South or it is buses on the whole branch.

An Up departure from Motspur Park P2 on the Down Epsom would also require pilotman working, but
Raynes Park country end trailing crossover can be done. For example on Sat 11 Dec Up trains from
Guildford via Effingham Junction and Epsom turned back in Raynes Park P1, so doing it on departure.

Finally on Sun 15 Dec services to Epsom/Chessington South ran Waterloo to Motspur Park P2 and
returned from P1 to Waterloo 10 min later. These were all ECS moves (not shown in the schedules) to
Chessington South and back again. Buses ran to Chessington South & Epsom/Effingham Junction.

●●95] (also BLN 1335.2182) Wigan Springs Branch depot and sidings opened Mon 16 Dec 2019 and
can stable a total of 24 Northern EMU and eight DMU coaches rather than units.

●●135] Luxulyan Valley Quarry Tramway remains: A vital second 'before' escaped from the fifth
paragraph. Here it is in its correct place: Treffry's Tramway was taken over by the Cornwall Minerals
Railway (CMR on the plan) on 1 Jun 1874 when the Carmears Incline route was closed; replaced by the
present Newquay branch up the valley. There is some evidence that the then new railway was already
in some sort of use before that date. They had a derailment recorded on 30 May even though it was
:before: the advertised opening day for freight traffic [Mon 1 Jun 1874]; passenger opening was later.

The whole point about the derailment on Sat 30 May on the new alignment was that it was before the
advertised opening day for freight traffic (a 'route learning' or gricing special perhaps...).

●●139] The 16.03 (SSuX) Filton Abbey Wood to Bath Spa PSUL via 'Rhubarb Curve' is '2R23' not
'2R03'. Before the 15 Dec 2019 timetable change it had been '2R98' - 15.54 Bristol Parkway to Bath.

●●183] In our 'Type 3 to the Sea' report all caption references to 37707 should be 3706 (just testing).

●●184] Regarding the 'Mike McCabe Memorial Chair' at British Steel Redcar during our 14 Dec visit,
Mike, our Scottish Regional Editor, wishes to point out that reports of his demise are premature…

218] Most main line interchanges, 2018-19: The figures in the table are additional to passengers using
a station as their starting point or final destination. Crewe is traditionally thought of as a station to
change trains but it is only 40th in the national table. Perhaps the numbers at Paddington gives an idea
of how many arriving there by main line trains go on to Heathrow from the station? What do Thetford,

Burnley Central, Appleby and Pontefract Baghill all have in common? They are each shown as having
just one passenger changing between mainline trains in 2018-19; it must have been a BLS member!
Perhaps the most unlikely is Thornford (a request stop just south of Yeovil Pen Mill) with seven?

Rank Station Interchanges Rank Station Interchanges

01 Clapham Junction . 29,324,019. 24 London Paddington 2,291,135.
02 London Bridge 9,506,040. 25 Cardiff Central 2,187,063.
03 Birmingham New Street 7,073,880. 26 Willesden Junction 2,093,042.
04 London Waterloo 6,505,658. 27 Liverpool Lime Street 2,091,236.
05 East Croydon 6,367,324. 28 Glasgow Queen Street 2,043,906.
06 London Victoria 5,800,177. 29 Basingstoke 1,874,963.
07 Stratford (London) 4,634,903. 30 Slough 1,732,888.
08 London St Pancras 4,517,641. 31 Doncaster 1,728,900.
09 Hackney Central 4,170,043. 32 Gatwick Airport 1,687,742.
10 Reading 4,142,855. 33 Edinburgh 1,658,675.
11 Highbury & Islington 3,964,059. 34 Brighton 1,621,658.
12 Liverpool Street 3,946,313. 35 Southampton 1,618,612.
13 London Euston 3,775,724. 36 Richmond 1,578,103.
14 Glasgow Central 3,748,791. 37 Gospel Oak 1,576,688.
15 Leeds 3,242,403. 38 Herne Hill 1,537,016.
16 Hackney Downs 3,108,544. 39 Cardiff Queen Street 1,518,923.
17 Finsbury Park 2,987,609. 40 Crewe 1,513,868.
18 Peckham Rye 2,874,669. 41 Bristol Temple Meads 1,453,933.
19 London King's Cross 2,711,284. 42 Woking 1,424,174.
20 London Blackfriars 2,659,638. 43 Preston (Lancs) 1,399,791.
21 Lewisham 2,633,684. 44 Orpington 1,387,228.
22 Manchester Piccadilly 2,522,889. 45 Shenfield 1,331,306.
23 Stevenage 2,452,157. 46 London Marylebone 1,328,300.

219] The Longest D(el)ay: One Sunday evening at the end of Sep in the late 1960s a correspondent,
who cannot remember the exact year, caught the Up Royal Highlander London sleeper. This was with
Aldersbrook BRSA (British Rail staff Association) returning from a football match against Inverness
BRSA. It left Inverness on time behind a Class 47 (no sanding equipment). This change of loco from the
smaller Type 2s had been resisted by the rail unions who said the absence of sanders could present a
problem on a cold and frosty night and so it came to pass. Not long into the journey, alongside the A9
road gritters, the train slowly ground to a halt (probably climbing to Slochd summit) and the driver
came back along the train saying he had to walk some miles to a signal box to summon assistance but
he would leave the engine running to provide train heat. This was pre-mobile phone days, or course.

There was nothing to do other than to retire to the bunks but on waking the train was speeding south
behind a Class 86. In the Warrington area it again ground to a halt as there were problems with the
overhead electrification further on. Eventually a Class 40 was attached to the front and, along with the
dead Class 86, the train set off via Manchester Victoria where one of many crew changes took.
The train was on an outside platform with a left hand curve possibly with a bridge at the end of the
platform. The train buffet had been completely cleared out of all supplies by now. The poor old Class
40 could not get away with the heavy train on that curve and gradient so further assistance was
summoned at the rear to bank.

[BLN 1344]
The subsequent route escapes our correspondent's memory but eventually the West Coast Main Line
was rejoined. The Class 40 was detached for the final run to Euston. Unfortunately, and unusually, the
train actually hit the buffer stops on arrival there and injured one of the team's star players who had
his head out of the window for a quick getaway. The scheduled arrival was about 07.30 and the train
actually made it in around 13.30. Our passenger had to use a platform phone to ring Liverpool Street
Control to say he would be late for his 14.00 to 22.00 turn. It would be interesting to hear if any of our
readers might be able to recall more detail of this train journey from the time or can beat this six hour
single train trip delay.

1344 EAST MIDLANDS (Graeme Jolley) [email protected]
{Derbyshire (except Buxton & Hope Valley), Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (including South Humberside),

Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland}

220] Hubberts Bridge: This station has joined the expanding 'unidirectional club'. With 1,262 recorded
passengers in 2018-19, it is at the end of the eight mile double track section between Sleaford and
Boston on the Skegness branch. From 15 Dec 2019 timetable change Up P2 (to Sleaford) was taken
out of use due to its condition. The platform has been slipping into the adjacent Forty Foot drain
[that's a long way to fall] - only the front door of stopping trains was opened. Its use now has been
deemed unsafe and the platform has been removed. Rebuilding could take about six months.
Up stopping trains all now have an extended dwell time at Swineshead or Heckington awaiting time.
A Boston to Sleaford bus is provided for Hubberts Bridge passengers. Down trains are unaffected.

Stations served in one direction only also include: Pilning, Polesworth, Teesside Airport, Heathrow T4
(Piccadilly Line) and (arguably) Moorfields, Liverpool Lime Street & Liverpool Central (deep levels).

221] East Midlands Railway Dec 2020 Timetable: (BLN 1343.61) For clarity the consultation proposes
that alternate Sheffield trains will omit Long Eaton, East Midlands Parkway & Loughborough. Trains
from Sheffield to St Pancras via Nottingham calling at Langley Mill and Alfreton cease, being replaced
by extra regional services. Alternate Nottingham trains omit Beeston, East Midlands Parkway and
Loughborough. Two morning trains start from Lincoln with two evening return workings. The Saturday
St Pancras - York and return working continues, but from 2021 there will be no summer Saturday
extension to Scarborough (so 2020 will be the last year for this). A result of the proposed timetable is
that journeys from Sheffield, Chesterfield or Derby to stations south of Kettering involve TWO
changes - at Kettering plus another. EMR advise that they cannot path a stop in the Sheffield services,
disappointing in view of the spend on the Midland Main line at Derby, Market Harborough, Kettering
etc in the last year or so. One wonders if it's more to do with accelerating long distance services?

222] HST Charity Cab Ride: On Tue 10 Sep 2019, our member Dave Gilbert and a friend, Richard
Knight, as winners of a railtour charity cab ride auction to raise money for Railway Benefit Fund,
enjoyed a cab ride (or three to be precise) on the Midland Main Line. They met up with their kind host
Martin Ward, Head of Workforce Strategy at East Midlands Railway, at Derby station. The day started
with a tour of Etches Park depot, including the wheel lathe and maintenance sheds. As well as the
various Class 222s in the depot, they caught a glimpse of 41001, the prototype HST power car, at
Etches Park awaiting repairs, and also had a peek inside shunter 08899.

As HST enthusiasts, the two were keen to spend as much of the day as possible on these trains. Martin
had organised for them to experience both the MTU and VP185 engines. The first cab ride was Derby
to Sheffield on 5C52 (an ECS move from Nottingham via Derby (12.55/12.59) to Sheffield (arr 14.46) in
the cab of 43468, one of the ex-Grand Central buffered power cars (43467 'British Transport Police
Nottingham' was on the rear). Derby departure at 12.53 was 3 minutes early, and running was 2 or 3
minutes early for the duration, until being held for a few minutes before Sheffield to arrive 13.50, four
min late. At Chesterfield North Jn this ECS move crosses over to go via Barrow Hill and then Beighton
Jn to Woodhouse Jn to enter Sheffield P8 from the north. It then forms 1C52, the 13.59 to St Pancras.

ABOVE: Dave and Richard in the Sheffield end cab of HST 43468 at Derby station.
BELOW: The route is set for the facing crossover onto the Barrow Hill line north of Chesterfield P1.



PREVIOUS PAGE TOP: St Pancras International.

PREVIOUS PAGE LOWER: In the cab of 43055.

LEFT: 125mph near Leagrave, naturally with a
very mucky cab windscreen.

(Pictures with thanks to Dave Gilbert.)

On this leg 125mph was experienced for the first
time. Following a three minute late departure
from Sheffield, it arrived at St Pancras 16.22,
two early, giving 12 minutes to cross from P4 to
P3 and jump into 43055 for the final cab ride of
the day, on 1D53, the 16.34 departure to
Nottingham. After experiencing another stint at
125mph, Nottingham was reached on time at
18.18 and the day ended.

With the clock ticking for HSTs in scheduled
passenger service, it was a particular privilege to
have had this experience. Thanks to Alex Wood
from 125 Group who was travelling on 1C52
from Sheffield to Leicester and who took some
photos of us at Leicester, and to Richard Cooper
who captured a video of us going through
Woodhouse. And many thanks in particular to
Martin Ward for organising and being our host
for the day, and also to the three drivers who let
us join them in the cabs. It was altogether a
fantastic, very memorable day. (Dave Gilbert)

223] Spalding - Boston: 28 Jan 2020 is the 50th anniversary of a fatal accident at Dowdyke Bank Public
Crossing (No83) at 100m 3ch on the Absolute Block signalled double track section between Surfleet
signal box (96m 71ch) and Kirton signal box (103m 38ch). The crossing keeper inadvertently opened
the gates for a sewage disposal tanker to pass over the crossing without properly checking the crossing
indicator with disastrous consequences. The 13.50 Peterborough to Skegness, a 2-car DMU travelling
on the Down line in thick fog, visibility 50-100yd, ploughed into the tanker injuring the driver and
killing his colleague. The driver and guard of the DMU were slightly injured, and the six passengers, a
railwayman travelling home, and the crossing keeper suffered from shock or minor injuries.

Exhaustive tests were carried out on the Down line crossing indicator at Dowdyke Bank to see if there
had been a technical fault or a signalling error, but these conclusively proved that the signalmen at
Surfleet and Kirton had operated their Down line block instruments correctly, the Down line indicator
at Dowdyke Bank had been showing 'Train in Section' which, sadly, the crossing keeper overlooked.

Ironically the official Department of Environment Railway Accident report wasn't published until over a
year later on the 26 Feb 1971, by when the line itself had sadly been closed from 5 Oct 1970. All the
formation from two miles north of Spalding to almost Boston has been used for the A16 trunk road.

224] East Midlands Gateway: (BLN 1344.28) The first service mentioned to/from Felixstowe South
terminal is expected to run five days a week each way with a capacity of up to70 containers per train.
The new 17 acre East Midlands site includes a 740,520 ft2 rail terminal interchange which required
50,000 tonnes of concrete to construct. It can handle up to sixteen 775m long trains daily. There is
storage capacity for about 5,000 standard shipping containers. It has three Sany reach stackers and
two Sany container handlers.

Planning permission was granted last year for a 3-storey, 20,000ft2 office at East Midlands Gateway,
new headquarters for Maritime's rail subdivision, Maritime Intermodal. The area will ultimately have
up to 7000,000ft2 of warehousing; Amazon, Shop Direct and K+N are on site.

225] Nottingham: Wireless chargers for electric cars without the hassle of plugs and leads are to be
trialled on British streets for the first time. The DfT is running a £3.4M trial at a taxi rank by the station
to assess the convenience, speed and times-saving benefits. Hopefully the outcome will be positive.

1344 GREATER LONDON (Geoff Brockett) [email protected]
226] 55 Broadway: (BLN 1329.1268) This Grade I listed building was designed by Charles Holden for
the headquarters of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (and latterly headquarters
of LUL). Built between 1927-29, it has now been sold to Integrity International Group on a 150-year
lease for £120M. As yet no definite proposals have been made for its future use. ('London Railway
Record') TfL describe it as an Art Deco masterpiece, considered to be 'London's first skyscraper', not
due to the height but because it was built on a steel framework. St James's Park station is unaffected.

227] Barking Riverside: (BLN 1343.69) 'IanVisits' website http://bit.ly/2RlmrjP has photos of work on
the new branch. There is good progress on the core structure for the station, and also the tall viaduct
leading up to the elevated platforms, all of which is on an impressive scale. There will be provision for
an intermediate Renwick Road station to serve future housing development and for a tunnel under
the Thames to Thamesmead. If there are no further delays the new station is due to open 12 Dec 2021
in 'Zone 4' with four trains per hour. London Overground services would run through Barking P7 & 8
instead of terminating in bay P1 as most do now. The website suggests the station will be on the site of
sidings at Barking 'A', 'B' & 'C' Power Stations, although Joe Brown's London Railway Atlas (5th Edition
P29 D6) disagrees. Study of old Ordnance Survey maps and plans for Barking Riverside shows that Joe
Brown is correct; the branch and sidings to the Power Stations were further west towards London.

228] Cricklewood: (BLN 1343.23) VolkerFitzpatrick has won the contract to build the new £40M
Brent Cross West station on the Midland Main Line, due for completion May 2022. ('Building' website)

229] West Ham: A second entrance, on the east side of the station at the south end of the Jubilee Line
platforms, is being proposed connected with a new housing development. (London Railway Record)

230] Central Line Microgricing: http://bit.ly/2Y5VTVD has Working Timetable (WTT) No70 dated
26 Jan 2020. The guide to WTT No69 was at BLN 1263.1612 in Aug 2016. The peak train service
requirement is reduced from 78x8-car trains to 75x8-car and 2x4-car. This saves two trains for fitting of
new traction equipment and internal refurbishment under the Central Line Improvement Scheme.

A morning peak train was previously removed from the old WTT (BLN 1330.1419) by a timetable
notice. The reduction of one train in each peak is now dealt with by slightly reducing the number of
trains between Epping and Loughton. Unsurprisingly this has led to protests from Essex commuters.
The number of booked reversals at Debden is reduced to two trains in the morning peak, which start
there after running empty from Loughton sidings. The two 4-car trains are used on a shuttle service of
3tph (trains per hour) between Woodford and Hainault, replacing the through service from the west
end of the line. This reverts to the original method of operating the Hainault Loop pre-1991. On the
plus side, there are extra trains before 07.00 SSuX, between 22.00 & 23.00 SuX and 16.30 & 18.00 SuO.

The new WTT brings some bad news; the only westbound departure from Loughton P4 (FO 14.35¾)
disappears. Also, Woodford loses its only eastbound P2 departure (SuX 06.01½). However, there is
good news: the Woodford - Hainault shuttle operation brings both of Hainault's north-end crossovers
back into play, and Woodford gains a weekly arrival at bay P1. All running lines, crossovers and
platforms are in passenger use throughout traffic hours except the following, for which the booked
passenger service is given with thanks to our member Bill Lynch for his considerable time and effort.
Running numbers of trains otherwise difficult to identify on the day are shown in [square brackets].

 = Known recent use also to turn back in service during planned engineering.

…..Epping P1: Gaps in peaks and towards close.

…..Debden (track plan is thanks to
..Martyn Brailsford and amends
..TRACKmaps 5 p42A of Aug 2019; it
..was correct on p38B of Nov 2008.)

P2 departures via Siding '22':
SSuX 05.41¼ ([105] 05.33
ex-Woodford); SO 05.39 ([006]

05.31¼ ex-Woodford); SuO 07.15¾
([021] 07.13¼ ex Loughton).
P1 departures via Siding '22': ECS only (which only run in the opposite direction during turnbacks).

…..Loughton
P2 (=P3) westbound arrivals: SO 07.51¼ [022], 23.49½ [324]; SuO 07.52 [110].
P3 eastbound departures: SSuX 04.56¼; SuO 06.36½, 06.56¼, 08.21.
P2 westbound departures: All the arrivals listed above then continue. Also all starting trains in
these periods: SSuX 3+ tph 07.09½ - 22.33½; SO all 02.03 - 05.03, 3 tph 07.16¾ - 22.16¾, 23.50;
SuO all 02.03 - 06.23 (except 03.43, 05.03), 07.52½, 2¾+ tph 09.39½ - 21.38¼.
P3 eastbound arrivals: All terminating trains, ie: SSuX 3+ tph 07.02 - 23.08;
SO five 01.26¼ - 03.46¼, 07.21, mostly 3 tph 08.27¼ - 22.08½; SuO all 01.46¼ - 06.06¼
(except 02.26¼), four 09.30¼ - 10.36¾, mostly 3 tph 11.21¾ - 21.57¾, 22.33; MO 00.07¼.
P4 westbound departures: ECS only.

…..Woodford P1 arrivals: SuO 22.38 [026].

…..Woodford P2 eastbound departures: ECS only.

…..Woodford P3 westbound departures: ECS only (in opposite direction).
…..(The only signalled route west from P3 is via the 21 Road loop.)

…..Hainault, north (Woodford) end: All trains use P1 with the following exceptions.
P2 arrivals: SO 18.07¼ [171]; SuO 08.19 [061], 18.41¾ [172], 23.40¼ [171].
P2 departures: SSuX 19.28; SO 18.07¾.
…..Hainault, south (Newbury Park) end:
P1 arrivals: SSuX 09.29¼ [061]; SO four 00.40½ - 01.59½ ([111, 034, 257, 213]), 12.29 [143], 18.03½
[146], 18.11½ [140]; SuO all 04.39½ - 05.59½, 06.39½ [020], 18.35½ [047], 18.45½ [074], 23.45½ [011].
P1 departures: SSuX four 06.47¼ - 07.48¼, 09.35¾, 14.55¼, 15.35¾, 16.33¾; SO four 00.50 - 02.10,
six 05.42 - 08.36¼, 11.53¾, 12.37¾, 12.52¼; SuO 03.30, all 04.10 - 06.10, 06.48¾, 06.57, 07.18,
09.23¼, 10.12¼, 10.55½, 18.41½.
P2 departures: FO gap 23.41½ - 06.31¾SO; SuO gap 00.30 - 07.36.
P2 arrivals: Gaps SO 00.32 - 06.46¼ (except 02.59½); SuO 00.41 - 07.55¾.
P3: North to south turnrounds daily throughout except arrivals gap SuO 04.19½ - 06.19½
and departures gap SuO 03.50 - 06.30.

…..Newbury Park
P2 departures via Siding: SSuX 06.52¼ ([001] 05.53¼ ex-Ealing Broadway); SO 06.53¾ ([121]
05.53¼ ex Ealing Broadway).
P1 departures via Siding: ECS only (in the opposite direction).

…..Leytonstone east end: Trains from the Wanstead line use P1, those from the Snaresbrook line use
P2, and all eastbounds use P3, with the following exceptions…
P1 arrivals from Snaresbrook line: SSuX 05.47¼ [022], 06.02 [013FX, 213FO], 06.09¼ [016];
SuMTX 00.38¼; SO 00.55¼ [232], 05.48¾ [040]; SuO 07.37¾ [016], 09.03½ [073], 17.11½ [065].
P2 arrivals from Wanstead line: SSuX 05.34 [004]; SuO 09.02 [023], 09.07½ [032], 17.08½ [056].
P1 departures (to Snaresbrook line): SSuX 05.36.
P2 departures (to Snaresbrook line): SSuX 05.50, 06.03, 06.10¼; TWThFO 00.55¼.

[BLN 1344]
…..Leytonstone west end:
P1 departures direct to Westbound line: SSuX 05.47¾, 06.02¾, 06.09¾, all 06.58¼ - 09.26½, all 15.47
- 18.58¼; SO 00.55¾; SuO 07.13¼, 07.24¼, 17.12. All other P1 departures use the Westbound Loop.
P2 eastbound arrivals: TWThFO 00.54¾ [120]. All other eastbound arrivals are at P3.
Trailing crossover: No booked use.

…..Bethnal Green, trailing crossover: No booked use.

…..Liverpool Street, trailing crossover: No booked use.

…..Queensway, facing crossover: No booked use.

…..White City
P2(=P3) westbound arrivals: All terminating trains, ie SSuX mostly 3 tph 07.17 - 23.49½; SO 3 tph
01.04¾ - 04.44¾, 05.24¾, 3+ tph 07.46½ - 23.36¾; SuO 3 tph 01.04¾ - 06.04¾, mostly 3 tph 08.02¾ -
22.22¼, 23.50½. Also TWThFO 00.47¾ [051], SuO 00.47¾ [110], 15.27¼ [042], MO 00.03¼ [061].
P3 eastbound departures: All starting trains (except SSuX 05.33¾, 10.03;
SO 02.15½, 03.55½, 04.35½, 04.55½; SuO 03.15½, 04.15½, 04.55½, 05.55½).
P2 westbound departures: MSX 00.48¼; SuO 15.27¾; MO 00.03¾.
P3 eastbound arrivals: SO 00.12 [104]; SuO 00.12 [105], 00.18¼ [104],
five 22.37¾ - close ([070, 047, 006, 004, 030]).

…..North Acton
P2 connections at east: Turnrounds west to east arriving: SSuX 05.44½, 3+ tph 08.00 - 09.57¼,
three 15.44¼ - 16.51½, 3+ tph 17.34¼ - 22.51¾; SO 07.28¼, 3+ tph 08.14¼ - 22.57; SuO 09.29,
three 17.27 - 19.01½, six 21.05 - 22.37¾.
P2 westbound departures: SuO 07.38¾.
P2 eastbound arrivals: SuO 07.23¼ ([002] 07.05½ ex West Ruislip).

…..Ealing Broadway: Gaps in use of both platforms during Night Tube.

…..Northolt, trailing crossover: ECS only.

231] Hackney Central: A second entrance, on the south side of the station in Graham Road, is being
considered to relieve pressure on the existing entrance. ('London Railway Record')

232] London Overground Ticket Offices: (BLN 1328.1156) Over the next few weeks reduced opening
hours are being implemented at various stations. Hours at some busier stations are unchanged but
quite a few ticket offices will only be open during the morning peak SSuX. See: http://bit.ly/2FTV4Ie

233] Crossrail: (BLN 1342.3065) Crossrail Ltd issued its latest progress update on 10 Jan. The
timetable has slipped again; opening of the core section from Abbey Wood to Paddington is now
expected in summer 2021. The full service between Shenfield/Abbey Wood and Heathrow/Reading is
forecast to be running by mid-2022. Previously the intention had been to do this in two stages, with
Shenfield services linked to the core first, and presumably this will still apply. It is hoped that Bond
Street can be opened with the rest of the central section; no further increase in funding is expected.

The central section remains on schedule to be mostly complete by the end of Mar, except for
Bond Street and Whitechapel stations, where work should conclude at the end of the year. Fit out is
nearing completion at many stations, with all physical works complete in the tunnels, shafts and
portals. Full timetable trial running is expected to start in the autumn and time will then be required to
fully test the line before it can open for passenger service. This includes a final phase known as 'Trial
Operations', involving people being invited on to trains and stations to test real-time service scenarios.
Members may like to look out for appeals for volunteers, particularly if rare track might be involved!

On 6 Jan it was noted that the country-end staircase to island P3/4 at Romford had been closed as
part of the lift installation work, with trains now stopping further along the platform.

234] Lea Valley: (BLN 1339.2668) 'London Railway Record' reports on a 2018 Freedom of Information
request about the seeming incompatibility of the third track between Tottenham Hale and Meridian
Water with future quadrupling. The reply states that the project includes passive provision (for a
fourth track) where practical, but in some cases the track and masts provided might require alterations
at some point in the future, as they were sited in such a way as to avoid land acquisition and
unnecessary disruption to the existing lines during the work. A 2017 NR document states that the third
track scheme includes passive provision for a fourth line between Northumberland Park and Meridian
Water. This implies that it does not do so elsewhere, as is borne out by observation.

235] Paddington: (BLN 1343.74) London Street overbridge was built in 1912; in 1950 the steelwork
was partially replaced and clad in brickwork. This was to protect the steel from ongoing damage
caused by steam locos. When the brickwork was removed in 2018 the steelwork was found be severely
corroded. NR is now consulting on a proposal to make the shortening of P11 & 12 permanent, filling it
to expand the concourse area. This will relieve the existing bottleneck between the main concourse
and the access to the P12-14 barriers and the taxi rank. The hydraulic buffer stops will be removed and
donated to a heritage railway. Changes will also be made to the nearby Bakerloo Line entrance. This is
part of the 'Paddington Cube' development on the site of the former Royal Mail sorting office next to
the station. As part of the planning agreement, new Bakerloo Line entrances and a new ticket hall will
be built to replace the present very cramped facilities. The number of ticket gates will double to 12.

BELOW: On Sun 12 Jan a Chiltern unit is signalled to turn right at Greenford West Jn onto the
West Ealing line. Just as well because the straight on 'principal' route is a dead end now. (Ian Hutton.)

236] West Ealing: On 11 & 12 Jan Chiltern Railway services were unable to use Marylebone due to
engineering work in the Neasden area. 2tph operated from West Ealing, running alternately to
Aylesbury and Oxford. There is no GWR service between West Ealing and Greenford on Sundays, but
the service on Sat 11 Jan was suspended to accommodate the diversions. This was the first time that
the branch had been used for engineering diversions since Chiltern ceased running into Paddington
from 10 Dec 2018. All except one of the West Ealing to Oxford trains was booked to use West Ruislip
Up P4. This was because Down P3 was occupied by the hourly West Ruislip to Oxford service that had
shunted via South Ruislip. Also of note was an hourly Chiltern Oxford - Banbury - Birmingham Moor
Street service. On 12th at least four LU engineer's trains were seen, most unusually, on the Up Main
Line at West Hampstead. This was in conjunction with relaying the Northbound Metropolitan Line.
Other work on this line meant that the only service running on 11/12th was between Northwood and
Amersham/Chesham via Watford and the North Curve.

237] Wimbledon: From 20 Jan the Down Fast to Up Slow crossover at Durnsford Road was renewed a
little closer to Earlsfield, at 6m 13ch (Down Fast) and 6m 17ch (Up Slow). Weekend engineering work
in the area resulted in only Thameslink (national) services serving Wimbledon for all four weekends in
Jan. Diversions via Staines meant that there were 7tph an hour in each direction via Addlestone.

1344 NORTHERN GENERAL (John Cameron & Geoff Blyth)
238] Non-Integrated Ticketing: Transport for the North wishes to roll out a £150M scheme to allow
passengers to use the same contactless bank card for journeys on public transport across the North,
with a cap on charges. The scheme was envisaged to allow travel on all modes of public transport,
including buses. However it will now be limited to rail and tram travel only as the major bus operators
in the region have pulled out. It is hoped that bus operators will change their minds and join later.

1344 NORTH EAST & YORKSHIRE (Geoff Blyth) [email protected]
{Cleveland, Durham, North Humberside. Northumberland, Yorkshire and Tyne & Wear}

239] Wakefield: NR wants to remove most of the OHLE (about 790m) in Wrenthorpe Sidings just
north of Westgate station on the Down side from 176m 14ch north to 177m 00ch. This results from
regular trespassing, including a Jul 2015 episode which resulted in a fatality and injuries to two other
people who climbed on top of a freight train stabled there. The OHLE will be removed where trains are
likely to be stabled for an extended period of time although 210 metres will be left for Northern to
stable up to two Class 331 EMUs if needed. Our 20 Jul 2019 'Luca Pezzulo Express' traversed this line.

The sidings originally formed one side of the Wrenthorpe triangle. The Great Northern Railway
Wakefield - Dewsbury Central - Laisterdyke (- Bradford Exchange) line diverged west from the main
line at Balne Road Signal Box, just north of Wakefield Westgate. The Laisterdyke line continued west
at Wrenthorpe South, while the goods lines continued north, rejoining the main line at Wrenthorpe
North. The non-passenger third side of the triangle ran from Wrenthorpe West to Wrenthorpe North.

The Laisterdyke line CP 7 Sept 1964 and
Wrenthorpe South - Wrenthorpe West CA from
15 Feb 1965. The rest of the line, Wrenthorpe
North - Wrenthorpe West - Roundwood Colliery,
CA 1 Nov 1965.

LEFT: 1961 map, Wakefield Westgate is bottom
right. The line to Leeds is off the top. The corners
of the triangle are respectively Wrenthorpe
North, West and South - the goods lines are
shown between South and North left of the
Wakefield to Leeds Line. The route to Bradford,
Laisterdyke was off lower left.

[BLN 1344]
240] Blyth & Tyne: During a visit to the North East the Transport Secretary gave his backing to plans to
reopen the line to passengers, although significantly there was no announcement of any funding to
allow the long mooted scheme to go ahead. The government has committed to establish a £500M
fund to explore reopening former routes which could benefit communities which lost their services.

Reopening the B&T (BLN 1322.1745) is expected to cost about £100M. The 'Northern Echo' says the
Minister went to Blyth, although there is no railway of any description in the town centre any more.
A picture of him at a level crossing, with a Lynemouth biomass train passing, is actually at Newsham
(signal box in the background), on the fringes of Blyth. A minister has said about £4bn was planned for
the region's transport network as part of a pledge to repay former coalfield communities for 'lending'
the Tories their votes in the Dec election. However, the bulk is presumably allocated to road schemes.

241] Tyne & Wear Metro: ❶The 20 & 21 Dec strikes (BLN 1341.2941) were the first days that a local
member is aware of in recent years with no service at all. Apparently some units ran on 21 Dec but one
through Monkseaton mid-evening, described as for 'infrastructure proving', was ECS. No services are
advertised on 25 Dec and 1 Jan, of course, but the last services on both Christmas and New Year's Eve
return to the depot after midnight so it is possible to board and alight from a Metro service on both
Christmas Day and New Year's Day! In response to the overtime ban, a full service ran on 24 & 26 Dec
2019!! Normally it is reduced, hourly after 19.00 on 24 Dec and a Sat service 08.00-20.00 on 26 Dec.

❷A new deal was agreed in principle with the unions in five hours of negotiations on 27 Dec, so a
reduced service ran on 31 Dec from 22.00 with the last Metros running at their normal times. The
overtime ban and strike planned for 6 & 7 Jan were cancelled. The deal offers drivers three basic salary
rises by Oct 2021, equivalent to 18.5% and taking their pay to £45,000, but boosted further by cost of
living increases which are yet to be negotiated. In return drivers will give Nexus greater flexibility with

their working days, to reduce the over reliance on
overtime, as well as 12-week notice periods allowing
more time to replace drivers who leave for other
jobs. The proposed new agreement is described as
'within existing budgets' but cuts may be needed
beyond next year amid heavy pressures that also
include high maintenance costs and lower than
expected Metro fare revenue.

❸The new temporary Howdon depot (BLN 1320.61
& e-BLN 1313.1970 with a track plan) is taking
shape, with ballast, rails and sleepers in place, along
with drainage and site access. Work starts soon on
the buildings; the depot is due to come into use by
the end of the summer. It will play a key role in the
phased delivery of the new Metro fleet, scheduled
to begin arriving at the end of 2021.

❹11 Aug 2020 is T&W Metro's 40th anniversary
[Tynemouth - Haymarket via South Gosforth OP.]

❺There was no service between South Gosforth
and Heworth on the weekend of 11 & 12 Jan, due to
overhead line work. Work was observed in progress
on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge overhead.

LEFT: Latest state of the art information technology
(John Cameron, Jan 2020)

BELOW: At Newcastle work on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge overhea

ad line electrification took place on 11 & 12 Jan 2020. (John Cameron.)

❻ BLS T&W Metro Railtour III: The Metro is undergoing considerable change. 2020 includes
complex track renewal over many weekends this summer (watch out for rare crossovers). Howdon
Depot is to be completed and commissioned. There will be two base timetable changes, including
using Howdon Depot; this fundamentally changes the whole method of operation. New planning
software is being introduced. This all means we will not be able to have a 2020 T&W tour. However,
Nexus is planning for us to have one in 2021, when the new infrastructure will all be in place...!

242] TPE: ①The 17 May 2020 timetable is now on Realtime Trains. All seven Scarborough diagrams
are timed for 160 tonnes with Diesel power - an unusual tonnage. According to a member's reckoning,
a Mk5 set weighs 161 tonnes! It appears that TPE plans to roster 11 of the 13 Mk5 loco hauled sets
and 16 of the 19 Class 802 bimodes. However, three diagrams to Redcar and one to Newcastle will
remain worked by Class 185 DMUs. Also from 17 May, timings have appeared for two daily early
morning and late evening ECS movements between Scarborough station and the new stabling and
servicing facilities. There are on the site of the former Appleton Associates oil terminal (BLN 1296.69),
beyond the previous carriage sidings and turntable. On TRACKmaps 2 p39E Oct 2016 the three carriage
sidings have been replaced by a single longer depot line (the gate is beyond the second run round loop
shown - at the York end). The one road holds the two sets booked to stable there together overnight.

②Although the hourly TPE Liverpool - Newcastle - Edinburgh service (BLN 1343.90) was due to start
on 15 Dec, six of the ten diagrams were then cancelled. This was due to late delivery, commissioning
and late acceptance of the new bimodes which severely delayed driver training. Surely planned
cancellations in advance are much better than random ones on the day? When planning the timetable,
which, as always, has a long lead in, TPE did not know that the rolling stock would be delivered so late.

On at least one day, just one train ran through to Edinburgh. A member wondered if originally TPE was
working on the basis that the trains would all be Class 802 bimodes but, certainly since 1 Jan when the
service has come close to running as advertised, Class 185s DMUs have been used. As at 21 Jan: far
fewer planned cancellations are shown from 1 Feb, with just one from 10 Feb and none after 15 Feb.

243] Barnsley‡: NR permanently closed Jumble Lane level crossing, at the south end of the station on
31 Mar 2019 [was there a jumble sale of surplus equipment afterwards?]. NR regarded it as one of the
most dangerous crossings in the country. A temporary footbridge was provided for pedestrians to
cross the line until the new Market Gate Bridge, which will provide a new accessible gateway to the
town centre, is installed. Anyone unable to use the temporary bridge has an alternative accessible
route via the station lifts and pedestrian bridge. However, the station is closed between midnight and
05.00, when anyone needing to use the lifts then needing to contact Barnsley Interchange‡ control
room to allow staff to meet and escort them through the building. It appears that the original intention
was to open the crossing for pedestrians on Barnsley FC match days so fans could walk to Oakwell
ground via 'Jumble Lane #'. However, the temporary footbridge is closed on these occasions as is the
bridge from the bus station to the railway platforms. ('#' per Barnsley FC website).

Although the crossing is 'Jumble Lane', the actual road is Kendray St. A 1948 6" map shows Queen's Rd
extends from the east right up to the railway, although oddly now seems to be in two parts, separated
by Kendray St. Perhaps Jumble Lane was one of the tiny alleys in the locality, too small to be named on
the map? The crossing was controlled by Jumble Lane Signal Box, at the south end of the northbound
platform. The junction at the north end of the station was controlled by Barnsley Exchange Junction
Signal Box, renamed Barnsley Station Junction from 25 Sep 1972. Both boxes were superseded by the
new Barnsley SB (BY) on 11 Apr 1998, at the crossing and diagonally opposite Jumble Lane SB. This is a
double height elevated portable building on a brick base with an NX (Entrance Exit) panel.

NEXT PAGE TOP: Barnsley station looking north, Jumble Lane Box (with 'Kendray Street' name attached)
and crossing on 20 Sep 1997. Left hand P2 takes 8 coaches and P1, right, five. (Angus McDougall.)

BELOW: The decrepit Barnsley Station Junction Signal Box (labelled Barnsley Exchange Jn)
on 2 May 1970 - weren't the signallers young nearly 50 yaers ago? (Angus McDougall.)

ABOVE: The current Barnsley box on 2 Feb 2008, Meadowhall and Sheffield are to the right.
The ground level portable building has been entombed in brick (Angus McDougall.)

‡There is a jumble regarding the station name too. The combined bus and rail Barnsley Interchange
officially opened 20 May 2007, the date of a new national rail timetable. The Sectional Appendix still
calls it 'Barnsley' as do online systems and planners (presumably tickets are 'Barnsley'?). However, the
station and platform signs are 'Barnsley Interchange' as is Northern's paper and online timetable map,
but the bank of stations within is 'Barnsley' (possibly for conciseness). TRACKmaps (Sep 2006 and Oct
2016) have 'Interchange' but it is losing this suffix for the next edition with a note about the platform
nameboards. Michael Quick (Apr 2019) has 'Barnsley' with no mention of Interchange. Barnsley
Exchange (as it was from 1 Aug 1924 until 13 Jun 1960) would be an appropriate name for an
interchange! BLN policy is to consider each case on its merits, generally following the Appendix and, in
the case of station names, the printed timetable station bank. 'Barnsley' station it is then.

244] Railfuture (RF) North East: At the RF Summer Conference in Jun 2019, the Tees Valley Combined
Authority (TVCA) Cabinet Member for Transport called for a major revamp of both Middlesbrough and
Darlington stations (BLN 1319. 2746), the development of hydrogen powered trains for short distance
services [no comment!], and enlargement of the loading gauge to W12 between Eaglescliffe and
Northallerton, to allow the largest containers from/to Teesport to avoid having to run round at
Darlington (BLN 1331.1585). Responding to the TVCA Strategic Transport Plan, local User Groups and
RF NE all urged that one of the two CrossCountry trains per hour between Northallerton and
Newcastle should, instead of the proposed termination at York, be rerouted via Stockton and the
Durham Coast. This would improve main line connections between (York) Northallerton, Tees Valley
and Newcastle (not very good now), and create a path on the ECML north of Ferryhill for a local
service, in particular the new 'Northern Connect' between Middlesbrough and Carlisle via Stillington.

'Roseberry Parkway' P+R interchange, between Nunthorpe and Guisborough (BLN 1336.2307), was
also discussed. County Durham Transport Plan includes reinstating the Leamside line from Ferryhill to
Pelaw as a 'desirable project', and gives assurances that the trackbed will continue to be protected.

Rail Future North East would like to see the Council's wholehearted commitment to the project, with
all the possibilities that would hold for connectivity in that line's catchment area.

245] Hartlepool: (BLN 1341.2937) The smart looking modern new customer lounge, financed by Grand
Central, with wireless charging points and breakfast-bar style workstations has now opened.

246] Darlington: Darlington Railway Preservation Society (DRPS) occupies the goods shed southeast of
North Road station. DRPS houses and restores locos, wagons and railway artefacts that have a
connection with Darlington and the area (e.g. were built or worked there). The Local Democracy
Reporting Service claims that the shed, dating from 1833, is the oldest railway building in the world
still in railway use. No rail activities currently take place at Manchester Liverpool Road (see item 199).

The former goods shed is Grade II* listed by Historic England, whose entry includes:

The building is at the eastern side of the site known since the 1830s as North Road and developed by
the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company (S&DR) between 1831 and 1853. It became the location
for most of the S&DR's subsequent development in Darlington and all of the key buildings on this site
are therefore from the first generation of the railway age. The goods shed was the first building to be
erected on the site, designed by the S&DR Company's chief engineer Thomas Storey as the main point
of goods handling for the S&DR and originally known as the 'merchandise station'.

Documentary evidence shows that contracts were let in Nov 1832 and the building was completed in
1833. In 1839-40 it was doubled in size by the addition of a range to the north designed by John Harris
who had taken over as S&DR Company's chief engineer in 1836. Harris also constructed the clock
tower, which had been planned at Darlington since 1838. In 1857 the goods shed ceased to be the
main point of goods handling for the S&DR and, between 1870 and 1898, it was converted into a fire
station. In 1951, the fire station was converted into a depot for the maintenance of railway vehicles.

This 1833 goods shed was designed by Thomas Storey and John Harris for the S&DR Company and it
falls into the important first phase of development of the railway system between 1825 and 1841.
It is of special interest because of its early date, its importance in the pioneering development of early
goods station design and its rarity as a surviving example. It also possesses clear group value as a
component of the S&DR terminal complex, the world's first modern railway.

However, the building has been deemed dangerous and the council has told the society this cannot be
allowed to continue and they must vacate it by March. A company which surveyed it was apparently
amazed that the tower was being propped up by one of the locos! A founding member of the society
said that the shed had been in a poor state for 12 years and the council had said there was no money
for repairs. The council recently announced plans to capitalise on the town's rail heritage with a visitor
attraction on the site. Officers want the building vacated quickly because they are 'acutely aware' of
the pressing deadline to remedy structural problems before the S&DR 2025 bicentenary celebrations.

The society has begged for more time as it would be impossible to move the 700 tonnes of machinery
before the deadline. They claim there are 37 years of items to move, equipment worth about £2M,
and that it is very big stuff needing specialised transport, at £8,000 a vehicle. They have proposed that
they remain in half of the building while the other is revamped. The Council leader has now asked
Officers to see if they could be flexible with the timescale and help devise a plan for the move.

247] Horden: (BLN 1336.2305) The Transport Secretary also visited the new Horden station under
construction, filling a 13 mile gap without a station between Hartlepool and Seaham. It is expected to
open on Sun 17 May. He spoke some suitable ministerial waffle: 2020 will be a year of action on the
railways with the north sitting at the heart of the improvements. Investing in new stations like Horden
Peterlee will deliver more modern, reliable services for passengers. We are also ambitious to restore
connections to communities who have lost out… The local User Groups have been lobbying for a half
hourly Durham Coast service. A local member points out that Horden is not particularly well served by
buses to Middlesbrough or Newcastle, and journey times to Sunderland and Hartlepool are not good

248] Community Rail Partnership (CRP): Ever a mine of information, BLN can report that a new
'Yorkshire Coalfields' CRP has been established with South and West Yorkshire Combined Authorities,
and Barnsley, Wakefield and Doncaster Councils. Its Action Plan has four main areas of work, based on
relevant parts of the DfT Community Rail Development Strategy. Until a development worker can be
funded, the three councils will resource the CRP, which will work closely with the Penistone Line CRP.

249] Stocksbridge Railway: (BLN 1335.2174) 'Railway Bylines' May 2007 states that from the outset
(14 Apr 1877) the company provided a passenger train service between Stocksbridge and Deepcar.
However, Quick (Apr 2019), notes that the railway did not submit passenger returns to the Board of
Trade until 1887, and gives an opening date of 14 Feb 1887. It is impossible to know now if the lack of
returns resulted from: (i): 10 years of inertia on the part of the Stocksbridge company. (ii): Denotes
when the passenger service actually started. (iii): Perhaps when a public (as opposed to employee)
passenger service started. No evidence has been found that the line was ever inspected by the Railway
Inspectorate for the carriage of passengers; this was required if the passengers paid a fare or not.

Regarding the Ewden Valley line, https://adobe.ly/32bdzBf (plan), WWI resulted in little construction
work being done that was not required for the war effort. However, there was obviously a big increase
in munitions production, so some residents of 'Ewden village' began working at Stocksbridge. The
assertion that a workmen's service ran to Stocksbridge originally appeared in The Journal of the
Stephenson Locomotive Society, Oct 1968, p304, stating ".... it is understood that Samuel Fox provided
the engine and trains and did indeed exercise running powers over the Great Central Railway (GCR)".

The Jan 1917 GCR working timetable, for which the detail came from the local traffic superintendents,
contains no mention (or even hint) of such a workers' service. That does not of course prove there
wasn't a service, either on some locally arranged basis or earlier in the war but then discontinued, but
no direct evidence for its existence is known to our correspondents.

A member suggests that, as the eastern passenger terminus on the Ewden Valley line was where the
road from Bolsterstone met what is now the A6102 (SK 2971 9570), just short of Wharncliffe Wood
sidings, it is likely that the men rode one train from Ewden village to the terminus and then walked to
Deepcar station to pick up the Stocksbridge train. However, this walk (over a mile) would be almost as
far as walking straight across the hill from Ewden to Stocksbridge, which would have avoided making
(and paying for?) two separate train journeys. The 'two train option' may well have been a much more
attractive prospect in the winter than struggling across the hills.

By the 1920s the Stockbridge Railway 'Paddy' train left the eastern terminus about 7.15am, connecting
with Sheffield to Stocksbridge buses. It returned with villagers such as schoolchildren and shoppers
and then came back to the village. The train made return trip at 1.00pm to bring back the shoppers
(and presumably schoolchildren too) from the towns with a final run at about 5.00pm to the eastern
terminus for workers after their shift. Does any member own a copy of Harold Bowtell's later book
Reservoir Railways of Manchester and The Peak which they could lend to your Regional Editor please?

250] Goole: A property developer has submitted a planning application to East Riding of Yorkshire
Council, on behalf of Siemens Mobility Ltd, for a £6M rail innovation hub north of their proposed
manufacturing facility (BLN 1301.637). The 3,200m2 building is Phase 1 of the Rail Accelerator and
Innovation Solutions Hub for Enterprise (RaisE) building 'cluster', supported by a network from the UK
rail industry and higher education. It will be a facility for start-ups and small and medium enterprises
mainly linked to railway supply chains and manufacturing. Siemens is the main occupier of the top of
Phase 1, which building will be a base for providing research and development support, a key focus,

Outline planning permission has been secured for the 80,000m2 of manufacturing, commissioning,
warehouse buildings, offices and stabling sidings. Detailed plans for the manufacturing facilities will be
submitted to the council early this year. Assuming they are approved, construction should begin by
early summer, with the first phase of manufacturing facilities scheduled to open in 2023.

[BLN 1344]
251] South Yorkshire Joint line: Passenger closure was more complex than given in BLN 1340.2796.
Services were reduced to Saturdays only on 1 Jun 1917 but resumed running SuX from 1 Apr 1920.
All services were withdrawn from Apr 1926 but resumed 25 Jul 1927. North of Maltby they ended
from 8 Jul 1929, leaving one round trip from the south, which ceased from 2 Dec 1929. A Saturdays
only service resumed over the whole line (Doncaster - Worksop) from Feb 1935, but ended in 1937
(month unknown). At opening, Brancliffe Jn was spelled Brantcliffe Jn (with a 't') until around 1917-18.

252] Newton Aycliffe: 250 of the 900 staff at the Hitachi plant just south of Heighington station are to
lose their jobs. The management stated that Hitachi Rail remains committed to the North East and the
UK. The factory is due to start building 61 new trains by the end of the year and is investing an extra
£8.5M in new welding and painting facilities. The end of the GWR and LNER IET orders and the Class
385s for ScotRail are factors. However, Hitachi recently won orders from East Midlands Railways and
West Coast Partnerships, providing work until 2022. Last year there was speculation that Hitachi would
not be awarded the contract to build the new fleet for the T&W Metro; claims were made that the
additional costs and risk assessments of Brexit were to blame. Nexus stated that they had spoken to
Hitachi and were given an assurance that the decision is not linked to their bid to supply new T&W
Metro units. Hitachi state that their decision is not related to Brexit. The company is also moving from
being just a manufacturer to becoming a train maintenance company, so work is moving from Newton
Aycliffe to depots such as Doncaster and Stoke Gifford IET depots.

The unions and the Tees Valley Mayor have been vocal critics of the government's procurement
policies, saying that contracts are too readily awarded to foreign companies. They do have a point: in
spite of the EU requirement that all contracts have to be open to competition from within the EU, the
French have succeeded, up to recently, in never awarding a contract to a foreign manufacturer!

253] Ilkley: (BLN 1344.91) On the first Boxing Day departure for many years, the 09.15 to Bradford FS,
33% of the passengers were actually from the Society - the other two were thought to be 'normals'.

254] Bradford Forster Square: The City Council has appointed a design and build contractor for the
£17.3M station redevelopment. BLN 1309.1570 had details and pictures. Funded by the Combined
Authority's West Yorkshire-plus Transport Fund, the scheme will also create better access to the city
centre and the nearby Broadway shopping centre. The plans complement the recently announced
Transforming Cities Fund bid plans for four major transport schemes in Bradford city centre:
(i): Improvements to Bradford Interchange. (ii): A south Bradford (electric bus) Park & Ride. (iii): A City
Connect cycle route extension to the west of the city. (iv): A package of measures in the city centre.

1344 NORTH WEST (John Cameron) [email protected]
{Cheshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire (Buxton & Hope Valley), Greater Manchester, Lancashire & Merseyside}

255] Preston South End: (BLN 1342.3094) Our member enquired when the P7 signs were installed and
was informed 'years ago' although they were only noticed by him following the recent mention in BLN.
The P7 signs are at the bottom of the footbridge steps and by the side entrance opened in Dec 2016.

P7 has also gained, at an unknown time, a yellow line. The yellow line painter dutifully marked it at a
constant distance from the platform edge. However, the south end of P7 curves away from the Up and
Down Goods line as the track previously went to the East Lancashire side of the station. That, the
original P10-13, closed in 1972 and the then remaining P3-9 were renumbered 1-7. Unfortunately this
curve is followed by the yellow line; it could do with being shortened by about 25 yd as its southern
end is about ten feet from the running line. It may be the yellow line is there to warn station users of
the curve in the platform to prevent them walking off the platform edge. However, the area is only
likely to be used by railway photographers as there is nothing south of the lift which would be required
by an *ordinary station user. [*That excludes all BLS members then.]

256] Fiddler's Ferry Swan Song: A member on a 20p Northern return trip to Liverpool recently was
surprised to see the power station in steam. All three operational 500MW units were running. It is due
to close completely on 31 Mar but has a significant stockpile of coal - most of which came by rail from
Ferrybridge Power Station. Generation ended there in Mar 2016 following a fire in Jul 2014. Both
power stations are owned by Scottish & Southern Energy. It is unlikely anyone will want the Fiddlers
Ferry coal in the UK and the alternative to burning it (at a loss if necessary) is selling it cheaply on the
continent with yet more transport costs. Outward Gypsum trains still run to New Biggin (eg Fri 17 Jan).

257] Manchester Piccadilly: On the recently rather barren P13 & 14, new seating and windshields have
been installed, the latter with the City of Manchester 'Bee of Industry' symbol etched onto them.

258] Metrolink, Trafford Park: (BLN 1343.99) On 8 Jan a member walked the new line from Trafford
Centre to Village. All stops were fenced off and still being worked on. Other than this, the line was
finished, although a few sections of drainage work were taking place. At each stop (and the others he
had previously visited on the branch) the stop names were on display and as advertised except at
Event City. It may have to change its name, as the building after which it is named is due to be
demolished and a replacement built elsewhere. In its place a 'wellbeing' centre called Therme Resort is
planned which will include a public park. [See map on page after next followed by a series of pictures.]

259] Cheshire: NR has produced a briefing for the Cheshire Continuous Modular Strategic Planning
principles (!). It aims to set out what question(s) need answering, how and who might answer them, by
when and what the cost might be. It has been reviewed and approved by Cheshire West & Chester
Council, Cheshire and Warrington Local Economic Partnership, Transport for the North and the DfT,
and it is being circulated to the North West Industry Planning Advisory Group for review and approval.

The briefing document highlights issues currently being explored in the Chester and Cheshire area:
Planning work in and around Chester station, the eighth busiest in the North West during 2017/18.
Master planning activity is considering access to/from the city centre, land around the station, station
facilities and rail operations, particularly for the railway to help deliver economic growth.
Shrewsbury - Rosset Jn (- Chester): Potential interventions increasing services between Cardiff,
Shrewsbury & Wrexham including those committed in the Wales & Borders Franchise.
Wrexham - Bidston: Faster journeys, more services and even possibly through trains to Merseyside.
North Wales line: Speed improvements west of Chester.
Crewe: Consider how local services could best be linked into the HS2 services at Crewe in the future.
Middlewich: A Strategic Outline Business Case is being developed for passenger reopening
Hooton - Ellesmere Port - Helsby: Strategic Outline Business Case Work on service enhancements.

ABOVE: (Item 257) New screen and seats at Manchester Piccadilly P13 & 13. (John Cameron, 7 Jan.)

260] Crewe: Northern continue to run new CAF Class 195 DMUs and Class 331 EMUs on crew training
and mileage accumulation ECS workings before commissioning. This leads to the unusual sight of
Northern trains in Crewe north bay P10. A diagram on 15th Jan: Allerton Depot - Crewe P10 (BELOW
John Cameron) - Liverpool South Parkway - Crewe (P12 this time) - Lime Street - Allerton Depot.

258] (REPEATED) Metrolink, Trafford Park: (BLN 1343.99) ABOVE: On 8 J
pictures follow). All stops were fenced off and still being worked on. Oth
work were taking place. At each stop (and the others he had previously v
except at Event City. It may have to change its name, as the building af
elsewhere. In its place a 'wellbeing' centre called Therme Resort is planne

NEXT PAGE: BLN 1342.99 had pictures of the new Metrolink Trafford Park e
They continue along the new branch with this view at 'Village' stop lookin

Jan a member walked the new line from Trafford Centre to Village (some
her than this, the line was finished, although a few sections of drainage
visited on the branch) the stop names were on display and as advertised
fter which it is named is due to be demolished and a replacement built
ed which will include a public park.

extension (map on previous page) from Pomona to Imperial War Museum.
ng west towards The Trafford Park Centre. (All Ian Mortimer, 8 Jan 2020.)





BELOW: 'Parkway' tram stop looking towards The Trafford Cen

ntre, the line then curves left through the traffic island ahead.

BELOW: At Parkway (actually a road name, but parking is on the right); for som