Page 29 - Rail Express - September 2019
P. 29
TIME TRAVELLER
YEARS AGO...
50 SEPTEMBER
1969
CENTRAL WALESLINE SAVED
The passenger service between Llanelli
andShrewsbury over the Central
Wales Line, which had been proposed
forwithdrawal,was reprieved. The
decision wasmadebythe Minister
of Transport following astudy of the
TUCCreport and all other relevant
factors, accepting that considerable
inconvenience and some hardship
would be caused by the closureand
that asuggested bus replacement
service would not provide an entirely
adequate substitute forlong-distance
through-passengers. The heavy annual
grant of £300,000 paid to the Railways BRAINTREE DMU: AviewofBraintree &Bocking station, Essex, on September 22, 1969. The line wasformerlyathrough
Boardfor the retention of service route connecting the Great Eastern Main Line at Witham to the West Anglia Main Line at Bishop’s Stortford, but the section beyond
wasconsideredjustified on social and Braintree closed to passengers in 1952 and completelyin1972. Here aClass 101 has just arrived with the 12.50 from Witham, the
economic grounds. line not being electrified until1977.
plus Plymouth andExeter. The full HST
YEARS AGO...
YEARS AGO...
40 SEPTEMBER serviceoverthis route wasinaugurated 30 SEPTEMBER of problems with the gearbox. The
Voith transmission had proveditself
on May12, 1980.
in service on other types of second
1989
1979
DART GO-AHEAD
generation DMUs, and wasapplied
Coras Iompair Eireann (CIE) wasgiven
successfullytothe BR’s own‘Pacer’
permission to start work on electrifying
the 22.5 miles of double-track between fleet in 1988. The agreement paved
the way forthe conversion of the
Howth and Bray via Dublin Connolly, fleets funded by the PTAs of Greater
GREATWESTERN RECORD which carriesDublin’s only suburban ‘PACER’ UPGRADES Manchester,Merseyside, Tyne &
An InterCity 125HST coveredthe rail service. Traction powerwould be at British Railways andthe Passenger Wear and West Yorkshireinarolling
305 miles between Penzance and 1500V DC viaoverhead line. Total cost Transport Authorities reached programmeover18months. ‘Pacers’
Paddington in 4hr 44min on of the project–including 20 four-car agreementonthe conversion of the thus became cheaper to operate as
September27– an averagespeed of EMUs, fivesub-stations, resignalling, remainder of the ‘Pacer’ diesel DMU aresult, and this lifted the threat
64.4mphthat British Rail claimedasa three newstations, refurbishing fleet to Voith transmissions. Since their of legal action by the PTEs, which
record.The demonstration run –which Fairviewdepot to service theelectric introduction in 1987, performance and wanted compensation foranticipated
wastomark the extension of HSTs to trains, andcomputer-based automatic reliability of the Pacers had fallen well losses should the ‘Pacers’ continue to
the London-West of England service route setting–was set at £46 million. belowexpectations, mostlybecause underperform.
from October 1–included stops at The system opened in July 1984 (see
sixintermediate stations in Cornwall also Irish Angle). YEARS AGO... which wasoriginallyopened on
20 SEPTEMBER October 26, 1970 forthe development
of the Advanced Passenger Train. The
1999
building spanned tracks7and 8ofthe
former RTC,and could accommodate
up to four locos at atime. Substantial
workshop space surrounded the
tracksinside the building, including
FRAGONSET OPENS IN DERBY twooverhead cranes with combined
Fragonset Railwaystook overthe 50-ton lift capacity.The first locos to
disused Advanced Projects Labatthe arrivewereNos. 47701, 47710, 31468
former DerbyRailway TechnicalCentre and 33207. Fragonset mergedwith
as amajor workshop and locomotive Merlin Rail to become FM Rail in January
repair facility.The Tyseley-based 2005, but the companywent into
companyleased the two-track building, administration at the end of 2006.
YEARS AGO...
10 SEPTEMBER foranumberofMk.3s (which could
have been regauged), therewas little
interest –despitethe need forthem in
the UK –and so theywent forscrap at
2009
Waterfordand Inchicoreinstead. All IR
services were theneither DMUs or DD
(‘Enterprise’) Stock of CAFMk.4 push-
pull sets.The Mk.3s were BR-based
SOMERSET STONE: AClass 70 has recently been trialled on the stone trains FINAL IRISH MK.3S vehicles built forthe Irish 5ft 3in gauge,
between Somerset and London (see page79), but 40 yearsago Class 47s were still the Irish Rail ranits last train of Mk.3 and the first were constructed forIRin
traction of choice –these later giving waytoClass 56s and then in turn to Class 59s carriagesonSeptember 21, the 13.45 1986 –someinDerbyand others under
with an evergreater need forpower. Here No. 47119 heads an empty rake of hoppers Dublin-Cork relief hauled by 201 Class licence at Inchicore. Morethan 120
westbound back to Westbury at Little Bedwyn on September 29, 1979. No. 219. Although IR invited tenders were produced.
September 2019 RAIL EXPRESS 29
