Marcus' Model Railway Journey

The BRB was created on 1 January 1963 under the Transport Act 1962 by Harold Macmillan's Conservative government to inherit the railway responsibilities of the British Transport Commission, which was dissolved at the same time.

Until 1997, it was responsible for most railway services in Great Britain, trading under the brand name British Railways and, from 1965, British Rail. It did not operate railways in Northern Ireland, where railways were the responsibility of the Government of Northern Ireland.


Coat of arms of British Railways Board

Notes: Granted on 17 May 1956 to the British Transport Commission.
Transferred to the British Railways Board on 20 February 1963.

Crest: On a wreath Argent and Vert, a demi lion Gules holding between the paws a railway wheel Argent.
Escutcheon Vert, on a fess double-cottised Argent between in chief three railway wheels of the last and in base a portcullis also Argent two barrulets wary Azure.

Supporters: On either side a lion guardant Gules charged on the shoulder with a railway wheel Argent.

Motto: 'Velociter Et Securiter' [ 'Quickly and securely' ]

The 'Beeching Report' is one of the most notorious government reports of the 20th century.

The failure of the modernisation plan to stem BR's losses led the author, Dr Beeching, to propose wholesale route closures in an attempt to concentrate resources on the core routes.

Many closures went ahead; some sensible, others far less so.

The report often adopted an overly-simplistic analysis of the economics of the routes, failing to recognise how the branches contributed traffic to the core network.

The Beeching closures failed in their attempt to eliminate BR's losses, and led to the belated recognition that the railways serve a social role which should be financially acknowledged.


Richard Beeching

Beeching's' analysis showed that the least-used 1,762 stations had annual passenger receipts of less than £2,500 each (£56,500 in 2020) and that the least-used 50 per cent of stations contributed only two per cent of passenger revenue and that one third of route miles carried just one per cent of passengers.

He recommended that mostly rural and industrial lines—should be closed entirely, and that some of the remaining lines should be kept open only for freight.

A total of 2,363 stations closed, although 435 already under threat of closure prior to the Beeching Axe.

Not all the recommended closures were implemented. Reprieved lines include:

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• Lines through the Scottish Highlands, such as the Far North Line and >the West Highland Line were kept open, in part because of pressure from the powerful Highland lobby.[1]
• The Central Wales Line was said to have been kept open because it passed through so many marginal constituencies that no one dared to close it.[1][2]
• The Tamar Valley Line in Devon and Cornwall was kept open because the local roads were poor.
• Other routes planned for closure that survived include the Settle-Carlisle Line, Ipswich–Lowestoft, Manchester–Sheffield via Edale (but the Woodhead Line and Bakewell route closed), Ayr–Stranraer, Glasgow–Kilmarnock, Glasgow–Edinburgh via Shotts, Barrow–Whitehaven, Middlesbrough–Whitby, York–Harrogate, Leeds/Bradford–Ilkley, Nottingham–Lincoln, Boston–Skegness, Birkenhead–Wrexham, Liverpool–Southport (and other Merseyside commuter routes), Bury-Manchester, Leicester–Peterborough, Hastings–Ashford and Ryde–Shanklin.

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The Beeching Report

Beeching recommended that large swathes of the network should be cut, simply because they did not pay for themselves.

The report stated that 33% of the network was carrying just 1% of the traffic.

These figures were arrived at through a 1 week traffic census carried out in 1961 and many still question the accuracy of the figures used.

The result of implementing Beeching’s findings was that, between 1963 and 1974, just over 4000 miles of track was closed.

Many areas, such as the Lake District and the Scottish Borders, were left completely without railways, with the Waverley line from Edinburgh through Hawick to Carlisle being one of the last major lines to shut in 1969.

On a personal note........


How the Beeching cuts affected Wales

Or

The permanent damage Lord Beeching did to Wales and its rail network​

Dr Richard Beeching, who ruined the Welsh railway network

Travelling round Wales has never been the same again since the Beeching cuts. Just look how much easier it could be...​

In 1963, Dr Richard Beeching took an axe to the British rail system - and made getting around Wales by public transport significantly more difficult.

Gone within two years would be key lines linking east with west, and south with north.

Once Beeching's cuts were done, just three main lines traversing Wales remained - one stretching along the northern coast, another linking Aberystwyth with Shrewsbury via the towns of Mid Wales, and another stretching from Pembrokeshire to Newport, and on to London.

In addition, the Cambrian Coast line remained to link the towns of Pwllheli, Harlech and Barmouth with the main Mid Wales route, while the Heart of Wales line, cutting down from Shrewsbury through to Swansea, was spared the axe simply because of the number of marginal constituencies it crossed.

Closing it, it was said, would be too politically damaging.

And so Wales was left with a rail system that forced passengers to travel hugely circuitous routes to get between major towns and cities.



The result?

A nation where north and south felt increasingly disconnected, as the rail lines which allowed for these crucial connections disappeared, disincentivising trade and collaboration between towns and cities.

The retention of routes that flowed west-east, along with the poverty of north-south road links, made it easier for those in the north to look to Liverpool and Manchester, pushed those in mid Wales towards Shropshire and the Midlands, and made London a focal point for those along what is now the M4 corridor.

You can travel by train from Edinburgh to London in the time it takes you to get from Llandudno to Cardiff.

Getting to either of those places from Aberystwyth involves going first to Shrewsbury.

To those familiar with these journeys, this fact won't initially seem shocking, such is its familiarity.

But find me another country that would require you to cross its eastern border to move between a major town in the west and its capital in the south.

We can moan all we like about the abysmal quality of the rolling stock on many of our existing lines, and the reliability of the services running on them (and we should, they're appalling).

But the real scandal of Wales' railway network is that it largely doesn't exist.

For that, we can blame the whims of a former chemical company boss who, in his own words had "no experience of railways", and successive Governments who either failed to recognise the damage, or were too cowardly to admit their errors.

Half a century later, Wales still bears the scars to a quite ludicrous extent, as these three journeys symbolise.

1. Pwllheli to Bangor​

There can be few places in the UK that take half the time to travel between by bike than they do by mainline train service.

But Pwllheli and Bangor are two of those locations.

They were once linked by the Carnarvonshire Railway, a branch of which traversed the neck of the Llyn Peninsula, passing through Penygroes, Nantlle and Bryncir on its way from Caernarfon to Afon Wen, where it connected with the existing Cambrian Coast line to take you onto Pwllheli.

The alternative Llanberis branch was scrapped in the 1930s, while Lord Beeching brought an end to the Caernarfon-Afon Wen line in December 1964.

If you fancy testing the bike v train challenge between these two points, you'll probably find yourself riding along Lôn Eifion, a national cycle route which follows the route along much of the old track bed.

Google estimates the journey at a leisurely three hours, which is half the time it takes on the main line train alternative, which stops no fewer than 43 times on a journey that traverses Machynlleth, Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Wrexham, Chester, Rhyl and Llandudno before getting to its final destination.

However, there is a way to do most of this journey by train - on the narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway, which chugs its way alongside Lôn Eifion as it meanders from Porthmadog to Caernarfon (via Pwllheli) over the course of around an hour.

2. Aberystwyth to Carmarthen​

Carmarthen is around 45 miles almost exactly due south of Aberystwyth.

And yet travelling from the latter to the former by train currently involves spending the first two hours travelling in a generally north-east direction towards, and then across, the English border.

After arriving at Shrewsbury, there's time for a quick visit to the waiting room before embarking on a marathon cross-country slog through the likes of Hereford, Cwmbran, Cardiff and Swansea.

By the time you arrive, it'll be six hours since you set off (give or take the odd delay), you'll have passed through nine Welsh local authorities and two English counties.

If you'd done the journey by car (1hr 20min) or bike (five hours, says Google), you'd have passed through two.

And you'd have aligned yourself very closely to the crow flying the most direct 45-mile route between the two.

You'd have also aligned yourself fairly closely - for the second half of your journey, at any rate - with the train line that linked these two famous Welsh towns until it was closed to passengers in February 1965.

That headed initially south east towards Tregaron, and then Lampeter, before moving back to the west through Pencader, Llanpumsaint and down to Carmarthen, where it connected with the route through to Swansea, Cardiff and beyond.

These days, its legacy can be found in another cycle path - the Ystwyth Trail - as well as bits of railway paraphernalia ranging from some preserved platforms in Llanilar, stations that are by turns ruined (Trawscoed) and converted into the local rugby club (Llanybydder), and a large goods shed in Lampeter.

3. Barmouth to Llangollen​

If Michael Portillo had been making television programmes about Britain's most scenic railway journeys in the early 1960s, he would almost certainly found himself taking one of this pastel blazers on board a carriage travelling from Barmouth to Llangollen.

Trains on this route left Barmouth hugging the very edge of the stunning Mawddach estuary, before heading from Dolgellau through the southern fringes of Snowdonia, passing Llyn Tegid in Bala, before passing underneath the Berwyn Mountains through Corwen and arriving finally into Llangollen.

The post-Beeching alternative, while no less scenic, shuns the direct route of the line closed by Beeching in favour of the "three sides of a square approach" taking in a jaunt along the coast of Cardigan Bay, an eastward traverse of the country through Machynlleth, Newtown and Welshpool to Shrewsbury, before heading north to Ruabon.

You'll have to make your own way to Llangollen from there, since the eisteddfod town's station is now only used for the Llangollen Railway.

It's a three hour journey, but only half that by road.

The end came in January 1965, with the track being removed four years later.

These days, the only way you can pass along its route is on the Bala Lake Railway or Llangollen Railway, which use sections of its track bed, by bike along the Mawddach Trail from Barmouth to Dolgellau, or on a section of road close to Dolgellau which takes advantage of the earthworks to build the rail line back in the 1860s.

OK, rant over!

Rail Blues

With the impending elimination of steam, BR decided there should be a new image for the company, now known as “British Rail”.

Blue was chosen as the new livery, with blue and grey carriages and standardisation being the watchword.

A white double arrow logo (nicknamed the “arrow of indecision”) was applied to all locomotives and carriages, and stations were given new corporate image signs to replace the old ones.

By 1968 the last steam locomotive had run on the mainline and for BR the future lay in diesel and electric traction.

Even here, the nonstandard locomotives were phased out by the late ‘70s, with some of the Western Region's diesel hydraulics being the last to be scrapped.

By now, many of the problems with the diesels had been solved through the use of dedicated diesel depots and the withdrawal of the troublesome first generation engines.

The late ‘60s and ‘70s saw advances in the routes electrified by BR, with West Coast Main Line electrification being completed by 1974.

The new locos effortlessly sped up the gradients that had proved such a trial to the crews of the steam engines and helped to slash the journey times from around 6 ½ hours in the 1930s to around 5 hours by the mid-1970s.

BR Class 45 on passenger train​

British Rail (BR) coaches and locomotives were painted in a dark, greyish blue colour called Rail Blue, or Monastral Blue, that was introduced in 1965.

British Rail [BR] white double arrow logo (nicknamed the “arrow of indecision”)

The 15 Guinea Special - The final outing of British Railways mainline steam​

70013, Britannia Class, "Oliver Cromwell" ran from Manchester Victoria to Carlisle

44781 and 44871, Black fives ran from Carlisle back to Manchester Victoria

45110, Black five, ran from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Victoria

BR Blue Diesel Hydraulics, Class 35 Hymek's, Class 42 Warship's and Class 52 Western's.​

Class 81 no. E3023 01/02/1975 on the WCML with 1P62 1200 London Euston-Carlisle​

Class 86/2 no. 86251 The Birmingham Post is seen at London Euston on Saturday 15/08/1981

Class 87/1 no. 87101 STEPHENSON​

The High Speed Train

The new diesel High Speed Train, known as the HST or Inter-City 125, was introduced in 1976.

By 1978, HSTs had begun to take over from the Deltics on the East Coast Main Line.

Their sleek modern design and stylish public image helped to increase passenger numbers, as well as decreasing the journey time by around 1 hour.

There were still problems, and 1982 marked the point at which the lowest ever number of passengers were recorded as using the railways.

It was becoming increasingly apparent that much of the network was still based on Victorian practice, and investment was still not keeping pace with the need to renew the infrastructure.

In the 1980s the Advanced Passenger Train(APT), a tilting train for use on the West Coast Main Line, was shelved because of negative publicity and a lack of confidence from central government in the project’s viability.

The East Coast Main Line was electrified by 1985 and this enabled the HSTs to be moved to other duties, with ECML trains formed of even newer and still faster stock.

By the mid-1980s passenger numbers had begun to pick up again, reaching a 20 year high in 1988.

Since this time the figures have continued to increase.


Shortly after the introduction of InterCity 125 HST's to the East Coast route, set no. 254011 passes through Doncaster on the down fast line on 22 July 1978.

APT 370007 + 006 working the 0700 GLASGOW CENTRAL - LONDON EUSTON, passenger trials, pass Chelmscote on the 26th October 1984.

Privatisation

With the re-election of a Conservative government in 1992 it became inevitable that the railways would change again, and between 1994 and 1997 the railways were privatised.

This meant that the single company of British Rail was split, with the infrastructure and track being controlled by a private company, Railtrack plc, and passenger operations being given to a set of 25 different private sector operators who were awarded franchises for each area they controlled.

Other concerns, such as freight, were similarly split up and sold off.

The railway system of today is more or less the same, though several different operators have come and gone.

In 2002, Railtrack was bought over by Network Rail after the disastrous consequences of the Hatfield train crash, where a broken rail led to an express bound for Leeds careering off the rails.

The inquiry into the accident found Railtrack guilty of not properly maintaining the track which caused the train to crash.

This listing shows the sale of former British Rail (BR) businesses.

Please note that the main passenger franchises are not listed as the list is huge.

They also change rapidly.

Main privatisation​

Passenger operators in Great Britain​

There are many companies operating trains in the United Kingdom, including the operators of franchised passenger services, officially referred to as train operating companies (TOCs), as distinct from freight operating companies.

​

Defunct operating companies since privatisation​

Operating companies have ceased to exist for various reasons, including withdrawal of the franchise, the term of the franchise has expired, bankruptcy or merger.

Current passenger operators in Great Britain as of June 2023

9 December 2024

Various Welsh railway lines remain closed after Storm Darragh


Transport for Wales Class 197 train


Transport for Wales is urging passengers to check before travelling, as a number of lines remain suspended after Storm Darragh.

No Transport for Wales service is operating on the Bidston – Wrexham Central line. It was expected to reopen at 8 am, but there is no confirmation that this has happened yet.

No Avanti West Coast or Transport for Wales services are running between Holyhead and Chester – there is also no service to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

For Shrewsbury and Cambrian Line passengers, trains are suspended between Shrewsbury and Birmingham International / Swansea (via Heart of Wales) / Machynlleth (suspended between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth and Pwllheli)

Ticket acceptance is in place with West Midlands Railway and there is a limited bus service running however, there is no bus service for the Cambrian and Cambrian Coast Line.

No Transport for Wales services will run between Pembroke Dock / Milford Haven / Fishguard Harbour.

Finally, the line between Maesteg and Bridgend is expected to be closed until 2 pm and no service will run.

9 December 2024

New Class 99 locomotives to use vegetable oil

GB Railfreight's new Class 99


GB Railfreight has today announced that its new Stadler-built Class 99 locomotives will run off electricity or renewable fuels such as HVO, or Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil).

The locomotives are set to enter service in late 2025.

They are the first heavy-haul freight locomotives capable of transporting significant volumes of freight on both electrified and non-electrified lines.

GBRf says that the new locomotives will reduce emissions by at least 58%.

“With the Class 99s running exclusively on HVO on non-electrified lines, we can now provide our customers with a fully decarbonised solution for freight transport. This breakthrough is pivotal to our decarbonisation strategy and will help reduce the emissions associated with delivering goods to homes and businesses across the country. This marks the next step on our journey to lead the rail freight sector towards a greener future.”

John Smith, Chief Executive Officer at GB Railfreight

British Rail Class 17​

The British Rail Class 17 (also known as the Clayton Type 1) was a class of 117 Bo-Bo diesel-electric locomotives built 1962–1965 by Clayton Equipment Company and their sub-contractor Beyer, Peacock & Co., on behalf of British Railways (BR).
During the 1950s and 1960s BR procured a wide range of Type 1 diesel locomotives, many of them under the Pilot Scheme.

However, several officials felt that the single-cabbed arrangement used by the majority of Type 1s presented drivers with visibility difficulties in the 'less convenient' direction.

BR therefore approached several manufacturers to seek a new locomotive that had a centre cab and low bonnets to maximise visibility.

Clayton were selected to produce their proposed locomotive as the Class 17.

Its low engine covers required the use of a pair of Paxman 6ZHXL six-cylinder horizontal engines, which had been intended for powering railcars; it was a somewhat unorthodox arrangement for the era.

Production of the Class 17 was undertaken between 1962 and 1965, with the locomotives being assigned to the north of Britain and the Scottish Region.

Early on it was determined that the locomotive was not suited to heavy freight trains, and they quickly acquired a reputation for unreliability largely due to the engines, which continued to deliver poor performance even after extensive modifications.

The Class 17 proved to be one of the least successful of the Type 1s, such that by 1967, long lines of unserviceable locomotives could be found stored in less accessible sidings at various locations across the Central Belt of Scotland (e.g. Ardrossan and Millerhill).

Withdrawals took place from July 1968 to December 1971, meaning some members of the class had a working life of less than 5 years.

One was sold to an industrial user, which has now been preserved.

BR Green, Clayton Type 1, c1969

British Rail Class 17 in corporate blue c1969

10 December 2024

My Birthday Bash - Cardiff

Took the bus into Cardiff with Neo and Cleo.

The bus was a Cardiff Bus/Bws Caerdydd ADL Enviro200 No. 253 Reg. CE63 NZH

The return bus was a Cardiff Bus/Bws Caerdydd ADL Enviro200 No. 263 Reg. CN64 FWL

So we had breakfast and a couple of drinks in the 'Great Western'.

It was really busy today so we went upstairs to have our breakfast and drinks.

Then we went on a walk of window shopping.

Came away empty handed.

So we had a look in 'The Old Arcade' but that was really busy too.

Next stop 'The Head of Steam', where I had a really nice pint.

Sadly we cannot remember what it was called.

A very fruity beer..