Rail Express

TEN 10-car tri-mode trains have been ordered by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) from Spanish manufacturer CAF. The trains will feature electric, diesel and battery power and will be assembled at the manufacturer’s factory in Newport, south Wales.

WEST Coast Railways has been granted a further three-month exemption by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to continue operating Mk.1 coaching stock on the national network. A previous exemption had been due to expire on November 30, 2023, and the lat

ALSTOM is planning a significant reduction in activity at Derby Litchurch Lane which could involve the loss of more than 1300 jobs. The Midlands site has no confirmed work after the first quarter of 2024 until final assembly work on the HS2 train fle

THE first of West Midlands Trains’ Class 730 Aventra electric multiple units entered revenue-earning service on November 13, when one of the sets of diagrams previously worked by Class 319s went over to ‘730’ operation. The diagram on the first day,

ALTHOUGH the past few decades have seen hundreds of Bogie Bolster D and ‘Salmon’-based vehicles being sent for scrap, a rump of useful wagons still remained in service. This changed at beginning of October as DB Cargo UK began to make serious inroads

AFTER two years out of traffic, Colas Railfreight No. 37057 Barbara Arbon returned to service on November 13, while Locomotive Services’ No. 37409 returned to main line action on November 29, after three-and-a-half years out of service. However, Dire

RECENT weeks have seen little activity among the shunters remaining in use with main line operators, but this has been compensated for by several developments concerning preserved machines. Unusually, much of this has centred on the Class 03s, where

OFFERED for sale earlier this year by Harry Needle Railroad Company (HNRC), No. 20087 has been bought for preservation, and arrived at the Kent & East Sussex Railway on November 11. The English Electric Type 1 has been purchased by the owner of two p

THE Downpatrick and County Down Railway (D&CDR) suffered significant flood damage caused by heavy rainfall that began on October 30 and which continued into the next day. Downpatrick was one of the worst areas affected by the floods in Northern Irela

Passing through Tamworth High Level station at 16.30 on November 23, the 6X21 14.42 Butterley-Bescot was in the hands of Nos. 20142/189. The pair had run light from Kidderminster to collect Railvac No.4, prior to heading light to Tyseley. A rare duty

MORE High Speed Train Mk.3s have arrived at Eastern Rail Services’ Great Yarmouth site pending sale and export abroad. By November 23, no less than 40 such coaches could be found on site. On November 8, RailAdventure Nos. 43468/480 took three slam-do

GREAT Western Railway is once again preparing significant changes on its network. Since 2014, the Great Western Main Line has been electrified, between London Paddington and Cardiff Central, and from Reading to Newbury. Planned electrification from D

AS custodian of London’s transport heritage, the London Transport Museum (LTM) has a huge responsibility. It displays and stores its conserved exhibits in two exhibition sites. The flagship is the 1872 Grade II listed former Victorian Flower Market i

SIEMENS Mobility unveiled the first completed pre-production 24 Tube Stock [TS] unit on November 16. Although the unit was built in the Austrian capital Vienna, the event was held at the company’s Test and Validation Centre in Wegberg-Wildenrath, Ger

TRANSPENNINE Express was due to remove the Class 68-hauled Mk.5A Nova 3 sets from traffic as this issue of Rail Express went to press. Although they will remain on lease to TPE until May (RE331), the plan is for the operator to store the CAF-built st

ON November 15, Rail Minister and HS2 Minister Huw Merriman delivered his six-month update on High Speed 2. Although this is a twice-yearly event anyway, this came little more than a month after the Government axed the planned new railway north of Bi

WARLEY SHOW announcements came thick and fast, and not least among them was the revealing of an ‘O’ gauge Class 24 by Heljan, with samples showing a wealth of detail, much of it locomotive specific. Dubbed as ‘24s for 24’, by Heljan, the brand-new mo

RARELY REGARDED with much affection by many enthusiasts, the Class 323 EMU comes of age in the modelling world with an announcement of a ‘OO’ gauge model by Dapol, and that is one of the surprise announcements alluded to above. At last, modern and se

00GAUGE7mm:1ft 1976 to preservationERA HIGH STANDARDS continue to be upheld by brand new ‘O’ gauge models from Heljan, with the Class 55 continuing the trend set by the recently released Class 58 and particularly the Class 73/1. The 2023 edition of

00GAUGE4mm:1ft 1979 to 2004ERA IT HAS BEEN a number of years since the release of the as-built Class 411, 4-CEP model which represented the class from its construction until the 1980s refurbishment programme undertaken at Swindon works. The new mod

00 GAUGE4mm:1ft 1941-1960ERA THE ‘RAZOR EDGE’ AEC express parcels railcar is a unique vehicle of which only one was constructed by the GWR at Swindon in 1940. It spent most of its working life under BR ownership and lasted until 1960 where it would

DB CARGO UK is withdrawing its Class 60 fleet from service, replacing them with modified Class 66s. Speculation had suggested that the ‘60s’ would be withdrawn by the end of 2023, but no date has been confirmed by the freight operator. However, Pathf

THE decision of DB Cargo to eliminate its Class 60 fleet (see Headline News) is, perhaps, not surprising in view of the downturn in traffic, with the operator already in discussion with unions regarding a reduction in its workforce (RE331). The ‘Tug’