Marcus' Model Railway Journey

Hornby R106 S.R Sheep Wagon 51915​

5 December 2024

New train named ‘Gavin and Stacey’ for Barry Island​

TfW Gavin and Stacey


Transport for Wales has named one of its new trains ‘Gavin and Stacey’ as they ‘step into Christmas’ and join celebrations for the final episode of the famous BBC series.

The new Stadler Class 231 trains have been recently added to the Vale of Glamorgan line and are part TfW’s £800 million investment into brand-new trains and they’ve already seen an increase in passengers.

Local children from Barry Island Primary School (pictured above) took part in the Christmas event, welcoming the newly-named train to Barry Island Station.

Over the summer period, 57,000 more people were using the service compared to the previous year, which is ‘proper tidy’.

Marie Daly, Chief Customer and Culture Officer said: “Our £800 million investment into new trains is really starting to have a positive impact across the whole of our network and we’re excited to name one of our new trains here in Barry Island today.

“We’re all looking forward to the final ever episode of the famous BBC series and we wanted to celebrate with the local community, we’re proud to welcome the ‘Gavin and Stacey’ train to our network.”

Councillor Lis Burnett, Leader of the Vale of Glamorgan Council, added: “Gavin and Stacey has brought tens of thousands of visitors to Barry Island over the last 17 years. Recent investment into public transport both by Transport for Wales and the Vale of Glamorgan Council is making it even easier for fans to come and enjoy the resort and all it has to offer.

"The new trains are a great example of this. As for the Gavin and Stacey train itself, there’s only one word to describe it: lush!”

5 December 2024

First Group acquires South Wales – London train service


Inside the trains of the proposed Carmarthen to London Paddington service


Grand Union has announced that its Carmarthen to London Paddington service has been acquired by First Group PLC.

It is expected that First will place an order for new rolling stock in due course and expects to begin the service in December 2027.

First Group will also operate the new service between Stirling and London Euston, which has track access agreements in place from May 2025 for five years.

First is no stranger to the open access market, operating Lumo services and Hull Trains.

“We are confident that the strength and experience of FirstGroup with its experienced and focused management and delivery team, alongside the award-winning provision of its current open access operations, will provide an excellent service for passengers.”

Ian Yeowart, Managing Director of Grand Union

5 December 2024

Welsh railway says goodbye to Austrian guest steam locomotive


Zillertal on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway


After five years of service on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway (W&LLR), Zillertalbahn No.2 Zillertal has returned to its home base in Austria.

Zillertal was the only engine of its type ever to operate in Britain, and during its time at Llanfair Caereinion operated regular passenger trains and was also popular during special events.

Zillertal ready to return to Austria


The Zillertalbahn opened in 1900, and No. 2 Zillertal was one of two U Class steam locomotives built specially for the line’s opening.

When it arrived at the Welshpool & Llanfair, it became the oldest engine ever to operate on the railway, as it pre-dated the railway’s own locomotives, The Earl and The Countess, by two years.

ZiIllertal arrived at the Welshpool & Llanfair in time for the 2019 August Steam Gala, since when it has been a regular performer on passenger trains along the 8-mile line through Powys countryside.

In 1968, the Zillertalbahn donated four distinctive balcony carriages to the Welshpool & Llanfair, and they have been a unique aspect of the line’s experience for passengers ever since, and was the start of a long close relationship between the Welshpool & Llanfair and the Zillertalbahn.

Zillertal on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway

The Zillertalbahn is a 760 mm gauge line running 32 kilometres (20 miles) from Jenbach to Mayrhofen along the valley of the river Ziller (Zillertal) in the Austrian Tyrol, Austria.

Most passenger train services are operated with modern diesel locomotives and railcars, but it also runs a seasonal steam passenger service with heritage rolling stock.

As well as having locomotives on loan from other railways, the Welshpool & Llanfair also loans locomotives to other lines, and earlier this year its smallest engine, Dougal, went to the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway on a four-year loan.

The Earl on the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway


“It has been a privilege to be able to operate Zillertal over the past five years, which combined with our former Austrian four-wheeler carriages has been popular with both visitors and staff. Zillertal has also given us much-needed motive power during a period while our own steam engines The Earl and Sir Drefaldwyn underwent major overhauls. I would like to thank all at the Zillertalbahn and their transport partners at the Pressnitztalbahn who have made this possible and look forward to the next stage in our partnership.”

James Brett, Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway General Manager

Transport for Wales has named one of its new trains ‘Gavin and Stacey’.
Stadler Class 231005 Flirt at Barry.

6th December, 2024

First signs £500m deal with Hitachi for new Open Access trains​

Lumo operates Hitachi Class 803s between London and Edinburgh via Darlington, Newcastle and Morpeth


First Group has signed a deal with Angel Trains and Hitachi to lease 14 brand new Class 80X electric, battery electric or bi-mode trains at a cost of £500m

Manufactured in County Durham, the new trains will be used on the London – Carmarthen services and increase the number of trains available for Lumo and Hull Trains.

The agreement also includes an optional 13 more trains if the open-access applications are granted by the ORR.

It is expected that the new London – Rochdale services will feature these new trains as part of the Lumo expansion, the expansion of the London – Carmarthen service to run a service to Paignton and a new Hull Trains service to Sheffield from London.

“The introduction of our new service between London and Carmarthen, and the extra capacity on Lumo and Hull Trains, will significantly increase our open access portfolio over the next few years, with further expansion possible should our recent applications be successful. The new trains, to be manufactured for us in County Durham by Hitachi, will support UK manufacturing and offer customers more choice as they consider affordable, environmentally friendly modes of travel in the future, and we are pleased to be taking them forward.
FirstGroup Chief Executive Officer Graham Sutherland

Click to expand...

6th December, 2024

Storm Darragh: Welsh steam railway suspends trains



The Talyllyn Railway has announced it is suspending train operations tomorrow, 7th December.

The Tinsel and Turkey service was planned to run but has been cancelled due to the red weather warning in place.

Ticket holders have been contacted, and the railway says that Abergynolwyn Café will be closed, but the Kings Café and Shop will be open, subject to no complications from the storm.

The railway says it is planned to run trains on Sunday.

6th December, 2024

Preservation group starts crowdfunder to purchase redundant wagons


Ministry of Defence VDA van


The National Wagon Preservation Group (NWPG) has started a fundraising campaign to purchase a former Ministry of Defence (MOD) VDA van (PDA) and three HEA wagons for preservation.

The three HEA wagons are currently at Warrington Arpley, and DB Cargo UK has recently issued a tender for their sale.

The National Wagon Preservation Group has previously expressed an interest to their current owners in the three very important wagons, with a request that they be put to one side so that they group could acquire them for preservation.

Coalfish Wagon


At the same time, the group had the opportunity to acquire a van that could be used for desperately needed storage of spares and railwayana at Lydney on the Dean Forest Railway.

Along with the three HEA wagons put out to tender by DB Cargo UK, the group has managed to acquire ten VEA vans that have been cleared from the Ministry of Defence site at Marchwood in Southampton.

To raise funds for the purchase of the former Ministry of Defence VDA van and three HEA wagons the National Wagon Preservation Group has set up a crowdfunder page.

Sealion wagon at the Churnet Valley Railway


The group aims to preserve and exhibit wagons built since the formation of British Railways in 1948, especially those built within the last 60 years.

Wagons are often overlooked in preservation in favour of locomotives and coaches, as these contribute income for their owners.

As wagons have a shorter life span than locomotives and passenger stock, when they become redundant, they are often scrapped in a short period of time, resulting in entire types of wagons disappearing for good.

Earlier this year, the group acquired a pioneer Coalfish wagon. Other projects in which the group is involved include restoring a VCA and VDA van and an OAA and OBA “Bass” tank wagon, six 6 MGR coal hoppers, and 11 TTA and one TEA bogie tank wagon.

A SHORT HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS [Part 6]

BRITISH RAILWAYS and Beyond

-THE AFTERMATH OF THE WAR-


Nationalisation

The Transport Act, 1947, handed over many forms of transport, including buses, shipping, canals, and road haulage, to the newly created British Transport Commission (BTC).

British Transport Commission corporate seal by Cecil Thomas, 1948​

An image of the corporate seal of the nationalised transport undertaking that was the British Transport Commission - a vast conglomerate that included railways, London Transport, buses, canals, harbours and shipping.

The 'starved" lion straddling the wheel was to be used by British Railways.

It was designed by Cecil Thomas FRBS, a sculptor who had also been commissioned to fashion other such seals.

The BTC was also responsible for operating Britain’s railways and, from January 1st 1948, the railway was one entity known simply as “British Railways”.

There was a new branding for the railways to make them look better, but this did not arrive straight away.

At first many of the engines stayed in their previous company colours or, when serviced, were repainted again in the colours of the old companies rather than the drab wartime black livery.

They would come out from the workshops with the words “British Railways” replacing any previous insignia.


45531 in BR experimental 'light green') shortly after BR was formed

BR Black livery

BR Brunswick Green livery

BR Lined Black livery

BR A4 Experimental Blue 1948-51​

BR Garter Blue
Having been rebuilt with a conventional boiler and A4 style streamlining in 1937, the W1 ‘Hush-Hush’ continued to serve with LNER and later British Railways.
Under BR the locomotive was renumbered 60700 and used to operate regular services out of Kings Cross to Leeds and Cambridge, remaining with BR until scrapping in 1959.

There was a new emblem designed showing a lion astride a railway wheel.

The 'unicycling lion' was introduced in September 1949

After some consideration, mid-blue with white/black lining was decided upon for the top passenger locomotives, with black with white/grey/red lining for the mixed traffic types.

Lowly freight locos would be continue in plain unlined black.

Bachmann OO Gauge 32-085 BR Black Class 56xx No.6639​

Hornby BR Lined Black (Early) 2-6-0 Class K1 '62034' Steam Locomotive​

BR Class A4 Class 4-6-2 60025 'Falcon' in BR mid-blue with white/black lining​

Carriages were painted in contrasting crimson and cream (known as “blood and custard”).

Locomotive Liveries: A couple of years after first being used it was realised that the passenger blue livery faded too quickly.

It was changed for a variation on the GWR livery of green, with black and orange lining.


Bachmann 31-531 A2 60536 Trimbush BR Lined Green early emblem

The “Cycling Lion” logo was replaced in 1956 with another new emblem, that of a lion holding a wheel and standing over a crown.

Commonly known as the 'Ferret and Dartboard'.

The stations too were given a makeover, with new lozenge shaped name signs in different regional colours using the fashionable “Gill Sans” typeface.

BR lined black - mixed traffic livery [freight or passenger]

BR unlined black - freight livery

BR Brunswick Green - passenger services livery

Trials and Modernisation

It was realised that many of the locos and rolling stock inherited by BR would have to be replaced.

Early in BR’s existence, trials were set up to see how well some locomotives worked in different areas.

These were used to guide the design of a new series of steam engines known as the BR Standard Classes, which would contain all the best features from the pre nationalisation designs, as well as introducing the latest innovations to make the lives of the loco crews much easier.

However, many of these designs were to have very short lives.

By 1955, a Modernisation Plan was unveiled that was to put an end to the use of steam traction on the railways altogether.

The last of the Standards, the 9F heavy freight loco, went into production in 1955, with the final one, “Evening Star”, emerging from the works in 1960.

Some of these engines, which had a projected life of 40 years, were cut up for scrap less than10 years after coming into service.

New steel carriages, the Mk 1s, were introduced to replace ageing wooden bodied stock from 1951 onwards.

Freight stock was similarly updated overtime, with thousands of steel bodied wagons replacing the wooden examples inherited by BR.

The plan envisaged a network in which the majority of locomotives were diesel, with the mainlines electrified.

Huge marshalling yards were built to use the new freight stock, but the traffic never arrived, having moved to the roads, which, with the brand-new motorways, were becoming more attractive to businesses.

The first generation of diesels was largely a disaster, with many failing or at best unreliable.

The shared facilities with steam engines did not help as the diesels’ air intakes sucked in huge amounts of sooty air!

Some of the newer diesels, however, were a great success, with the “Deltics” (later class 55) taking over duties on the East Coast Main Line and reducing the journey to around 5 ½ hours, and the small Class 08 shunters being used in yards throughout the country.

By the end of the 1950s it was apparent that the Modernisation Plan had not reversed the railways’ fortunes, so it was decided that something would have to be done.

By 1963 the British Transport Commission had gone.

The new British Railways Board was headed by Dr Richard Beeching and his report – The Reshaping of British Railways – was to have huge consequences for the future of rail in this country.

BR Standard Classes

Tender details

BR Standard Class 9F 92220 Evening Star​

Mk1 Second Corridor (SK) coach - the all over crimson lake livery

When Mk1s were introduced, they burst out of the workshops sporting the much loved Crimson and Cream ("blood and custard") for corridor coaches and plain Crimson for non-corridor stock.

This however, was relatively short-lived because in 1956 it was decided to make a return to regional colours.

Most regions opted for all-over maroon to be applied to their carriages, the Western Region implemented a Chocolate and Cream livery but only on their named expresses and the Southern Region chose their traditional Green.

The British Rail Class 55 is a class of diesel locomotive built between 1961 and 1962 by English Electric.

They were designed for the high-speed express passenger services on the East Coast Main Line between London King's Cross and Edinburgh.

They gained the name "Deltic" from the prototype locomotive, DP1 Deltic, which in turn was named for its Napier Deltic power units.

The British Rail Class 08's pioneer locomotive, number 13000, was built in 1952 although it did not enter service until 1953.

Production continued until 1962 with 996 locomotives produced, making it the most numerous of any British shunting locomotive class, and indeed, the most numerous of any British locomotive class overall.