"Preserving the steam locomotive legacy..and more...on film"
FRONT PAGE
Blue King's debut at Didcot-2nd April 2011 (C)Dick Bodily
CONTENTS
Welcome..and site news..
Steam Tube Video and Photographic Highlights
ON THIS DAY
AN ANTONIOORGA FILM
AMERICA'S NEWEST OPERATING STEAM LOCOMOTIVE!LEVIATHAN
The Stratford Upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway - The whole line in 2011
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 RAILWAYS:No 12. Irkutsk to Beijing
My Railway Career- Part 2. Robert Ife
Pennsylvania RailRoad "Opening a New Frontier" 1955 - American Trains
Copper Day - 100 years in the making (Cordova Times)
Pilatus Bahn - Cogwheel Railway Switzerland
Montserrat Cremallera Funicular Railway-simon389 on YouTube
One day in Severn preview - video125co
Christian Wolmar Newsletter
The Powerhaul Story
Welcome
It is a pleasure to welcome you all to this May 2011 edition of On Shed..Steam Tube's monthly news and features magazine.
On 1st May 2011, Steam Tube (TM) has a great new look! Andy Thompson (TFC) has been working hard to create the kind of easily accessible site for all members to enjoy to the full. We hope you enjoy the new look..and please feel free to let us know what you think..that way we can get to include items on the site..and here in our monthly newsletter and features magazine..that you appreciate.
We now have 583 members, along with the on 511 followers on Twitter, and the 1713 friends on Steam Tube's Facebook page. Total page views to the three main sites...Steam Tube, Stratford-on-Avon & Midland Junction Railway and The Railway Chronicle came to around 60,000 for the last month (March 2011) . This month's features include a Blue King, a sad elegaic piece from antonioorga, an American new build steam locomotive(Leviathan), Robert Ife's recollections of his early railway career, a cogwheel railway, a funicular railway, a look at activity on the Severn Bridge signalbox, the Powerhaul story, and Christian Wolmar's latest newsletter.
Enjoy!
Steam Tube Video and Photographic Highlights
Videos
Rowan uploaded a sequence of clips of CP2816 on a series of 6 short excursions east from Medicine Hat to Dunmore and back to raise money for Local Charities. This clip is a composite of those runs.
Mollsmyre uploaded this film report of the Chasewater Railway's Spring gala (March 19/20th 2011)
..and here are some more videos to enjoy......
See more at www.steamtu.be
Photographs
March 19th 2011. Bishops Lydeard to Minehead(TFC)
(TFC) 
(TFC)
(Tim Stanger LRPS)
On the WSR:John Pile AFIAP DPAGB LRPS
And here are some more!!
See more at www.steamtu.be
ON THIS DAY
02/05/1859
The Royal Albert Bridge, two 450 feet arched spans over the River Tamar, linking Devon and Cornwall, is opened
03/05/1903
The Mersey Railway, operating between Birkenhead and Liverpool by tunnel beneath the River Mersey, England, converts from steam to electric traction
03/05/1926
U.K. General Strike commences, continuing to affect railways until May 12
06/05/1994
The Queen and France's President Francois Mitterrand have formally opened the Channel Tunnel during two elaborate ceremonies in France and Britain. After travelling through the tunnel, which took eight years and billions of pounds to build, the Queen said it was one of the world's great technological achievements.
The tunnel is the first land link between Britain and Europe since the last Ice Age about 8,000 years ago. The first leg of the Queen's journey took her from London's Waterloo station through the tunnel by high-speed Eurostar passenger train. She arrived at Calais at the same time as the President Mitterrand's train which had travelled from Paris' Gard du Nord via Lille. Nose to nose encounter The two locomotives met nose to nose - a computer that prevents two trains travelling on the same track was switched off for the occasion.
Super Structures1/5 - Eurotunnel(Channel Tunnel). Discovery Channel
09/05/1904
City Of Truro heads the Ocean Mail special down Wellington bank at a reputed 102.3mph
(John Edkins)
12/05/1911
Electric trains begin work between London Victoria station and Crystal Palace
15/05/1929 Golden Arrow 1st class Pullman service introduced Victoria-Dover and Calais-Paris
Courtesy: SouthernRailwayFilms
17/05/1906
The Simplon Tunnel between Italy and Switzerland, the world’s longest tunnel until 1979, opens to rail traffic
19/05/1907
Benjamin Baker, British civil engineer, designer of the Forth Railway Bridge dies. (b. 1840).
20/05/1892
Last Broad Gauge train runs from Paddington to the West of England.
Iron Duke"(replica) at the G&WSR, Toddington. June 2010(P.Lewis)
22/05/1915
In the Quintinshill rail crash, four trains including a troop train collide, the accident and ensuing fire causing 227 fatalities and injuring 246 people at Quintinshill, Gretna Green, Scotland; the accident is blamed on negligence by the signalmen during a shift change at a busy junction
24/05/1900
Nottingham Victoria railway station opens in Nottingham, England
31/05/1879
The first electric railway opens at the Berlin Trades Exposition
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AN ANTONIOORGA FILM
An elegaic film........
Current State of what was the international station of Canfranc, March 2011.
This small village (altitude 1190 m.) was largely created due to the inauguration of a railroad crossing the Pyrenees on 18 July 1928. The trains continued running until an international train accident destroyed the bridge at nearby L'Estanguet and severed the link on 27 March 1970. Canfranc Estación is most well known due to the rumours of "German gold" arriving here during World War II .
Also, British espionage smuggled information and people from Vichy France to the consulate in San Sebastián through Canfranc since the nearer Irún bordered with occupied France. The train station is the highlight of the village and was used during the filming of Doctor Zhivago. There has been talk for some time of reopening international train traffic between France and Spain[1], but until that time the area is profiting from its nearness to the ski resorts of Candanchú and Astún. The current population is 454. (Wikipedia)
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AMERICA'S NEWEST OPERATING STEAM LOCOMOTIVE! LEVIATHAN
In 1868, the Central Pacific Railroad purchased four locomotives from Schenectady Locomotive Works. They were The Jupiter #60, The Storm #61, The Whirlwind #62 and The Leviathan #63. In 1999, David Kloke, owner of Kloke Construction and Kloke Locomotive Works, LLC., had a dream of replicating The Leviathan #63. And so construction began. After 10 years of work by several talented people David's dream became a reality.
The Leviathan #63 is AMERICA'S NEWEST OPERATING STEAM LOCOMOTIVE!
ABOUT DAVID H. KLOKE
David H. Kloke, owner of Kloke Construction and Kloke Locomotive Works, LLC., has been in the construction business for 40 years. His business started in Wisconsin doing construction work and renting heavy equipment. He moved to Illinois twenty years ago and set up shop in Cook county where he resides today. Of his many accomplishments through the years the Leviathan63 is his pride and joy. His "hobby" took him 10 years to create and it "WOW'S" everyone who sees and hears it. The Leviathan63 is truly a beautiful site! With the help of many a non-profit organization has been created named Historic Railroad Equipment Assoc. Through donations he hopes to rebuild and replicate several historic railroad equipment for educational purposes. He can make this possible with donations from people like you. If you are interested in donating please email us @ DAVEKLOKE@GMAIL.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO: http://www.leviathan63.com/
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The Stratford Upon Avon & Midland Junction Railway - The whole line in 2011
The SMJ was a small enigmatic line which ran across the empty heart of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. Born out of a the 19th century railway boom and an iron ore discovery at Blisworth and gone by the mid 1960's. Trace the line as it is in 2011. For more information on the SMJ, go to www.smj.me
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AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 RAILWAYS:No 12. Irkutsk to Beijing
A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Ulan Batar, Mongolia by TravelPod blogger Surgeongeneral titled "From Beijing to Irkutsk via Mongolia." Surgeongeneral's travel blog entry: "It was a 48 hour train ride from Beijing to Irkutsk, which involved passing by the great wall (which I missed), changing the rail gauge at the Chinese-Mongolian Border, passing through the Gobi desert, and hanging out at the Russian-Mongolian border in my train car hoping that the russian border officer wouldnt kill me ( He was pretty scary). It was a beautiful train ride, but when it was over I was coated in a layer of sand from the desert, which made my hair stiff and my body a bit grimey, and made me appreciate the next shower I could take." Read and see more at: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/surgeongeneral/trans-mongolian/1...
Photos from this trip: 1. "Baikal the beautiful." 2. "Brad" 3. "Ger." 4. "Getting aquainted with Lake Baikal by train." 5. "Gobi 1" 6. "I need one of these in my backyard too." 7. "I wish I could have spent some time here." 8. "It's cool I promise." 9. "Mike Chillin." 10. "Mongolian Bad Ass" 11. "Move em out! Move em out!" 12. "On the road again." 13. "Rural China." 14. "The changing of the train whell thingys." 15. "The Man." 16. "Ulan Batar" 17. "Ulan Batar train station." 18. "Us and the Man" 19. "Watch out!" 20. "Where are the dunes?" 21. "Wow!"
See this TripWow and more at http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow/ta-00b5-cf22-0a52?ytv4=1 With thanks to "surgeongeneral" and A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow Copyright acknowledged
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My Railway Career- Part 2. Robert Ife
The Training Continues
Training on multiple units was given by an Instructor/conductor name of Gill Cockcroft, who sadly died a few years ago. Lovely chap with an interest in sailing. Read boating magazines quite a lot. He taught us how to operate the doors systems on class 150 and 156 Sprinters and how to prepare the train for service. As usual, an inspector has to pass you out on them before you are allowed to work them by yourself.( A few years later I got to be with him again when we got classes 153 and 158).
During a demonstration run in the summer of 1985, unit 150001 stands in Platform 7 at St. Pancras After this we were sent on a commercial training course in Birmingham, at a place called Quayside Towers. Here we learned how to sell and examine tickets, both using the then current ticket issuing machine which was called SPORTIS and how to write out tickets by hand if the machine had broken down. To actually learn how to use the SPORTIS machine we were sent to rail house in Liverpool. As can be seen, no centralised learning facility existed, which seemed a bit strange at the time, and still does, to be honest. For anyone who does not know SPORTIS stands for Superior Portable On Rail Ticket Issuing System. This was an upgrade of the original PORTIS machine so that it would take credit cards. During this course, again a certain amount of practical work was involved. I recollect going on service trains to Oxford, Blackpool and York: all from a starting point of Birmingham New Street. When you take into account that we were travelling from Nottingham to New Street every day it made for some very long days. At the end of the course we had to pass written examination. After that, back to home depot so that we could start route learning. That occupied several more weeks. Towards the end of the route learning period, we would sometimes be utilised to cover service on routes that we had already “signed”. This stretched the training out even longer.
Learning The Road
The first route that I learned was Nottingham to Coventry via Leicester and Nuneaton. This involved calling at Beeston, Loughborough, Leicester, South Wigston, Narborough, Hinckley, Nuneaton, Bedworth and Coventry. You had to know speeds which direction you were travelling in, up or down, and be able to do this whatever the weather, day or night. Sounds easy, but it isn’t, believe you me. Other routes learned included Nottingham to Skegness, Nottingham to Lincoln, Nottingham to Derby and Crewe. Also Nottingham to Sheffield.
wrmorrell on YouTube
Not the right region(!) but an example of a training film for crew
These were the basic routes when I started, and I worked these for the first two or three years while I was a conductor. As my seniority increased, I learned the remaining routes, these being from Nottingham to Birmingham via Tamworth, Nuneaton, and Litchfield. Also to Norwich and Liverpool Lime Street. Final route was Lincoln to Peterborough via Sleaford. Altogether I was a conductor until 1997, when the opportunity arose to try for a driving course. During those seven years, British Rail had ceased to exist, and I was now working for Central trains. I had had various interesting things happen while I was a conductor, a few of which I will recall here. The first train that I ever worked as a conductor was a bank holiday extra to Skegness in August 1990. This consisted of a pair of class 20 diesels and ten coaches. Worked it from Derby to Skegness and back to Nottingham, total of about 13 hours. Pre Hidden report days, when no one bothered too much about excessive hours.
Ploughing through the ballast!
I recollect one morning working the first train of the day between Peterborough and Spalding. I was working with a driver called Alan Crew. No problems from Nottingham to Peterborough. We set off for Spalding, blissfully unaware that we were about to run into about a ton of fresh ballast that had been dropped between St. James Deeping and Littleworth signal boxes. One thing I will tell you, ploughing ballast at 60 mph with a 153 is not an experience I would care to repeat. Stone was flying everywhere, the underside of the train had stone on every available flat surface, and every fault light the train possessed was lit. Stone was flying into the fields; if anyone had been standing there they would have been killed. How the train stayed on the rails I have never yet worked out. I ran to the front to see if Alan was ok. He looked a bit pale; not exactly surprising. We managed to limp into Spalding, where the train was failed, having to limp back to Peterborough as best we could so that the fitters could tell us what we already knew: “it’s broken”! How we ever got back to Nottingham leaking water all over the place, stopping at signal boxes to refill the radiator on about three occasions is a bit of a mystery. Our fitter at Nottingham took one look and declared it to be unfit to run by itself. No surprise there we thought.
An East Midlands Trains Class 153 at Lincoln
I understand that the engineering supervisor who had signed the line fit to use was dismissed for this incident, which must have cost tens of thousands of pounds in delays and repairs. The good old days....
Ticketing Incident
or..don't try that one on me!
A ticketing incident that comes to mind was on a late night service to Coventry. On this occasion the train had stopped at Leicester. Only a few passengers had boarded, but one of them managed to draw attention to himself immediately by stubbing his cigarette out on the outside of the coach. I was not impressed with this and was looking for him at once. Half caste Asian chap. Should be easy to have a word I thought. No way could I find him, even though it was only a 153 single car unit. I checked the toilet – empty. So I think right: full ticket check. I found him then, talking to another Asian guy who had been on board since Nottingham. I challenged the pair of them for tickets. The original guy comes up with a return half to Coventry which I have already clipped. No problem. So I ask the other chap to produce a ticket. He gets up and walks to another seat so he is sitting by himself. Again, I ask him for his ticket. He says “well it’s like this”, and I think here it comes, the “original” excuse. He says “I’ve had my wallet stolen” I say “really. And where was this?” “On a train from Leeds” “So you’ve traveled from Leeds?” “Yes” “Where are you traveling to?” “Oxford.” “So you’re traveling from Leeds to Oxford and you’ve had your wallet stolen?” “Yes.” “Have you reported this to anyone?” “Yes; the transport police at Leicester” “Good. In that case one of two things will have happened. One: they will have told the chargeman at Leicester to tell me that you were boarding my train and to let you pass, but he was at your end of the train when you got on, and you spoke to him. Or two: the transport police would have issued you with an authority to travel. Can I see it, please?” Stunned silence at this. I say, “Next station, out!” So off he gets at South Wigston. As he’s standing on the platform he asks, “Is there a phone box round here, I’ll have to ring for a taxi” I just look at him and say “Not the faintest idea.” HE says “How am I going to get to Paddington now?” Reply, “two minutes ago you were going to Oxford! So we have apparently got money for cigarettes, money for phone calls and money for taxi’s, but not money for train fares. Good night, sir.” And I shut the doors, went off and left him standing there, knowing that we were the last train of the day to call at that station. Oh dear, how sad...
I told this story to a Leicester transport police officer a couple of weeks later. He thought it was hysterical. Said this character had tried this trick a couple of times before, but no one else had managed to get one over on him. He wished that everyone would do the same and throw them off at the most inconvenient places just to teach them that fare dodging does not pay.
More Operating Incidents
Of course, I had a few other operating incidents whilst I was a conductor. On one occasion the train, a class 153, failed outside Trent Power Box at about 05:30. No power, not able to move: we needed assistance from the rear. Driver Pete Richings arranged for the assistance, so it’s my job to go back and protect the rear of the train with detonators and a red flag/hand lamp. Help arrived in due course, in the shape of a class 158 with driver Alan Crew at the controls. I climb aboard and tell him where the train is and that detonator protection is in place 300 yards (Meters) to the rear. This is right outside the row of houses next to Trent box on the upside. Alan asks me: “are you going to pick up the dets?” I say “no” He says: “it’s 6 o’clock in the morning!” “So?” “They make a hell of a noise!” “What time did you get up this morning, Al?” “03:45” “Same here... Time these idle buggers were out of bed. Run ‘em over.” They went with a lovely Bang! Bang! Bang! Must have woken up half of Long Eaton area. Even then after coupling up we still had no power from the front cab, so Alan had to drive the train from the rear unit, pushing us all the way to Derby to clear the line. (Anyone know what speed you have to go at in those circumstances????) Tell you later, if you don’t know.
Fog! Fog! Fog!
One strange experience was returning from Coventry late one night with Driver Bromley. Weather thick as a bag and freezing cold, can’t see 100 yards. Martin has me up front helping him to look for signals in the fog. Sometime after midnight we are on the down fast approaching Sileby crossovers. We get brought to a stand on the down fast line. The down slow line is two tracks away to our right. We heard a train go past us in the fog and cross over onto the fast line in front of us. It’s not more than 30 feet to the slow line from where we were standing, but the fog was that thick by then that although we heard the sound of the other train, we never actually saw it go past us... More to come!! (C)Robert Ife 2011
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Pennsylvania RailRoad "Opening a New Frontier" 1955 - American Trains
Courtesy: Poath Archives
Here is a promotional film from 50 plus years ago, showing the efforts put forward by the railroads to grow their business.....
Pennsylvania RailRoad promotional film from 1955. Highlights the early intermodal road / rail 'piggback' services being introduced at the time.
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U.S. throughout the first two-thirds of the twentieth century and was at one time the largest publicly traded corporation in the world. At its peak, it controlled about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of rail line; in the 1920s it carried about three times the traffic (measured by ton-miles of freight) as other railroads of comparable length, such as Union Pacific or Santa Fe. The only rival was New York Central, which carried around three-quarters of PRR's ton-miles
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Copper Day - 100 years in the making
This month Cordova is preparing to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Copper Day, April 8, 1911, which marked the arrival of the first trainload of copper ore into Cordova from the Kennecott mine. Copper Day also marked the completion of one epic tale, the founding of Cordova and building of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway, and the beginning another - the story of Cordova's copper days.Between 1906-1911 an estimated 6,000 miners passed through the emerging townsite of Cordova during the construction of the railway, simply overwhelming the Eyak people, population 200, whose villages at Alaganik and Eyak were destroyed in the process.
Ambitious exploration, discovery and technology were the hallmark of the day and by the time Cordova was incorporated in 1909, it had a newspaper, 10 stores, two hotels, two lumber yards, three churches, 10 saloons and a school. The Red Dragon, which still stands today, was the second building constructed in the new town as a reading room and social house. By 1910, Cordova's population numbered just over 1,100 residents and the town was poised to become the gateway to the richest copper mine in Alaska's history.
When completed in 1911, the Copper River and Northwestern Railway ran 196 miles from Kennecott to Cordova. Perhaps one of the most lasting features of the line is the Miles Glacier Bridge, better known today as the Million Dollar Bridge, a multiple-span Pennsylvania-truss bridge that spans the Copper River between Child's and Miles glaciers. The bridge earned its nickname because of its staggering $1.4 million cost.
From 1911 to 1938, nearly $200 million worth of copper was mined and processed at the Kennecott Mine and transported via the railway to the port of Cordova. From there the ore was loaded onto steamships and shipped to smelters in Tacoma, Wash. Kennecott copper was used to build railroads, electrify cities and supply munitions during World War I, thereby connecting the history of Cordova to the history of the world.
Copper Day
A mere 10 days following the completion of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway, the first load of copper ore, valued at $250,000, rolled into Cordova on 32 railroad cars marking the beginning of Cordova's copper days.
In anticipation of the big event, five steamships came into town, bringing tourists and guests from Valdez, Seward and far off places. The town commenced a massive celebration. Banners were hung, speeches were given, bands played and children sang. It is not hard to imagine that moment of silence as a single copper spike was driven into the last railroad tie - the sound of one last railroad hammer echoing out into the wilderness. In the blink of an eye steamship whistles blew and cheers rang out across the town.
Railway builder Michael J. Heney, who was so bold as to envision the Copper River Railway as it was originally named, never saw that final spike driven. Heney, surveyed the route, bought land and named the town of Cordova - gambling that if he could get the railway started, the Guggenheims and J.P. Morgan who owned the ore deposits and had other mining interests in the area would buy him out and they did.
Heney was hired as the contractor to complete the job. However in August of 1909 on his way back from a trip to Seattle, Heney's boat hit a rock and sank. Heney reportedly led the rescue, but caught a cold as a result which developed into pulmonary tuberculosis. He died a year later and was buried in Seattle.
2011 celebration
The Cordova Chamber of Commerce and Cordova Historical Museum have planned several events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Copper Day, kicking off with two museum programs on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the library meeting room. The first program is "What in the World is Copper Day" and the second program "Out the Road - 100 years ago Aboard the Copper River and Northwest Rail Way," a photographic glimpse of what it may have been like out on the railroad 100 years ago.
The Copper Day festivities culminate on Friday with a community king salmon barbecue at the CHS Commons from 5-7 p.m..
In the meantime, if you are looking to read more about the history of the Kennecott Copper Mine, Icebound Empire by Dr. Elizabeth Tower is a page-turner. Tower was named Alaska Historian of the Year in 1996 by the Alaska State Historical Society for this story of the founders of the Kennecott Copper Mine and Copper River and Northwestern Railway.
Editor's note: Sources for this story include "A History of Prince William Sound" by Jim and Nancy Lethcoe, and "Copper Day Centennial" by Cathy Sherman, Cordova Historical Society.
Jennifer Gibbins can be reached at jgibbins@alaskanewspapers.com, or by phone at 907-424-7181.
------------------- Now, here's something a little different...a cogwheel railway in Switzerland
Pilatus bahn - cogwheel railway Switzerland
(dreamshot on YouTube)
From Alpnachstad to Pilatus Kulm, the world's steepest cogwheel railway Pilatus Bahn winds up through lush meadows with the typical Swiss cows and fascinating rock faces.
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Montserrat Cremallera funicular railway= simon389 on YouTube
Cremallera de Montserrat funicular railway between Estacio de Monistrol Vila and Estacio de Montserrat
The Montserrat Rack Railway or Cremallera de Montserrat is a mountain railway line north of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain, from Monistrol de Montserrat to the mountain-top monastery of Montserrat- a distance of 5 km.
The first kilometre of the line is normal adhesion..the remaining 4 kms of the line is operated as a rack railway using the Abt system, overcoming a height difference of 550 m (1,804 ft) with a maximum gradient of 15.6%. The line is electrified with an overhead supply at 1500 V DC.
The line had originally opened in 1892, and lasted till 1957, by which time road traffic and the cable car led to the railway experiencing poor financial results.
However, the godsend (!!) for the railway was the fact that increasing visitor numbers could not be handled by the competition, and so the railway
was reborn, as it were, in 2003.
In August 2003, the railway- equipped with five low-floor electric motor coaches of type Stadler GTW- carried 63,692 passengers.
This film shows the severity of the gradient on the rack part of the railway, and the stunning scenery which passengers can feast their eyes on.
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One day in Severn preview - video125co
www.video125.co.uk the UK's favourite railway film producer took a 'live' outside broadcast unit to Shrewsbury to record a day in the life of the largest surviving mechanical signal box - Severn Bridge Junction. With trains coming in from three main routes, it takes two signalmen to man the box. Presenting the programme is Arfon Haines Davies. He and Area Movements Inspector Bernard Hitch comment on the activities as they happen. Oh, the date, by the way, was 30th June 1990 - a busy summer saturday in which we see classic BR trains come and go. First generation DMUs, sprinters, class 47 hauled InterCitys, class 37 hauled Regional trains, freight, parcels units and even a steam excursion. So much variety and now so much of an archive. How much does this all cost? A tenner, that's all. Ten quid including VAT, postage (within the UK) and packaging. There is even a money back guarantee, but we bet that you will watch this more than once.Go to:www.video125.co.uk
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Christian Wolmar- Newsletter
Dear subscriber
With the news focus on the Libya, Japan and even America, the railways have been largely out of the news recently, despite a few events that might, in quieter times, have caught the attention of the press. David Higgins, the new chief executive at Network Rail, for example, is clearly making rapid and radical changes, which are bound to have a long term impact. The franchise process, too, is now in full swing with bids being prepared to two utterly contrasting operations – the short franchise on Anglia and the West Coast, Virgin’s province.
As I have stressed many times before, none of the proposed changes to the franchise system get round the fundamental problem of why we have this system and whether it delivers an optimal railway. Not even the operators believe that, and they are now lobbying for change. However, we will not really know which way the wind is blowing until the McNulty report is published, which is now expected to be May 6th but these things can often change. As I point out in Rail 665, it
is clear however that the changes at Network Rail are very much in line with McNulty’s thinking, as he and Higgins know each other well of old.
So apart from a piece in the Mail on Sunday which will enrage HS2 supporters yet again – here – there are only the two Rail columns and my TSSA feature. In Rail I covered the way that the franchise bidding system works, after talking at length to a couple of serial bidders – here – and on the crazy decision to build electric trains that are carrying around diesel engines which will remain unused for most of the time - here . That could only happen in Britain.
The TSSA article looks at how train operators seem to deliberately make life difficult for passengers and how many seem to regard all of them as fraudsters on the make.
I have also written a pamphlet – available here – on the potential for the co-operative model in the rail industry. It suggests a number of radical ideas, in line with Big Society thinking, but it would need support from within the government to bring about.
On the wider transport front, I have blogged on a couple of issues, notably the demise of Flying Matters the aviation lobbying organisation and Transport for London’s budget.
You will find that the website has been completely revamped, with a new feel and a better lay-out. Do tell me what you think about it. Its easier to find your way round, though there are fewer words per page, which may annoy some visitors. There has been a slight dip in the number of comments, but that may be because I have not been blogging much. Note, you do not have to register to make comments.
Indeed I confess I have been tweeting more than blogging. This is partly laziness, but partly, too the wonderful immediacy of tweeting, and the fact that one can use it to refer to articles elsewhere on the web. Do follow me at @christianwolmar – its very interactive, too, with lots of quick and sometimes very funny responses. I am coming up to having 1,500 followers and hopefully this will build into an interesting interactive debate.
Do, too, please keep on clicking on the ads on the website – it does help pay for its maintenance and the revamp has set me back a few bob.
Thanks for reading,
Christian Wolmar
-----------------------------THE POWERHAUL STORY
In the last year or so, Britains railways have been graced with a new freight locomotive class...
Here is Freightliner group's YouTube video of this locomtive..GE refer to it as "Bulldog" and/or "Predator", although the expression "Ugly betty" has been used by some...!!
Story of the build and creation of the first PowerHaul locomotives for Freightliner by GE Transportation.
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Till next time.......Peter S. Lewis (Shedmaster)
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