The Railway Dog

Tag: UK Railways

  • Cirencester Adventure

    A view of Grosvenor Road Carriage Sidings and the approach lines to London Victoria as seen from Lift 109 aloft Battersea Power Station – 04/02/2023

    Wednesday February 1st to Tuesday February 7th 2023

    A very quiet period on our patch these last seven days with no test trains or unusual visitors to report or complain about not reaching Weymouth. I would have at least expected a run of the Snow & Ice Treatment Train to Dorchester with the frosts we have been experiencing. Maybe next week we’ll have something to update you on, dear reader!

    However, the Swanage Railway was able to provide some local interest when, on Friday, test runs using the restored mainline certified Class 117 Diesel Multiple Unit ran between Norden and the River Frome, within sight of Wareham, which does not normally see regular use. Hopefully the long planned rail service between Wareham and Swanage using the Class 117 will finally launch later this year. 

    Class 117 Diesel Multiple Unit consisting of power cars No.’s 51346, 51388, and trailer car 59486 working 1R91 River Frome to Corfe Castle approaching Furzebrook – 03/02/2023

    On Saturday while Yoshi was being well looked after, I joined Yoshi’s mama and @da_buckley967 on a train to London Waterloo. Through services have been partially restored following the recent landslip at Hook and our train which originated from Weymouth arrived at its destination only a couple of minutes late.

    South Western Railway trains at London Waterloo on Saturday morning – 04/02/2023

    The purpose of our trip to London was for an expedition to Battersea Power Station to sample the delights of Lift 109 which ascends 109 metres to the top of the north-west chimney providing 360 degree views across London.

    The Lift 109 experience starts in the Power Station’s Art Deco Turbine Hall A where, a collection of original information and media displays outline the history of the building while a lighting installation whirls and glows above as visitors interact with a giant multiplayer touchscreen to collectively ‘generate energy’ – 04/02/2023
    Looking up inside the chimney from Lift 109 – 04/02/2023
    Looking down upon Battersea Power Station from Lift 109 after it emerges from the chimney stack – 04/02/2023
    A view looking east along the River Thames – 04/02/2023

    One of the main attractions for me, with the purpose of this blog in mind, was the opportunity to look down over Grosvenor Bridge which carries eight railway tracks for the use of trains coming from, or approaching London Victoria.

    Grosvenor Bridge as viewed from Lift 109 – 04/02/2023

    The bridge, engineered by Sir John Fowler (1817-1898) was originally constructed between 1859 and 1860. Fowler was also engineer for the world’s first underground railway, London’s Metropolitan Railway which celebrated its 160th anniversary last month (and was discussed here: Birthday Week – The Railway Dog) as well as chief engineer on the Forth Bridge, which as everyone knows, is the best railway bridge in the world. Returning our attention to Grosvenor Bridge, or Victoria Railway Bridge as it was once known, as originally built it carried two tracks and was the first railway bridge across the Thames in London. Between 1865 and 1866 the bridge was widened to allow an additional four tracks by Sir Charles Fox working for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. This was still not enough for the LB&SCR which added another track in 1907 again increasing the width of the bridge. The Southern Region of British Rail carried out extensive work between 1963 and 1967 when they renewed the structure to a design by Freeman Fox & Partners leaving only the core of the original bridge piers in place, which were enlarged by concrete, reducing the span to 164 feet, but the arches and deck were entirely replaced. Each of the four river spans now comprises ten steel box-section arches. Supported between each pair of arches is a steel trough span, carrying ballast and track. The bridge could accommodate ten tracks, although currently carries nine. The land spans were replaced by welded steel girders. The design of the bridge allowed its reconstruction to be advanced progressively, resulting to minimal disruption to railway services.

    Southern Railway services on the approaches to London Victoria – 04/02/2023

    Lift 109 provides stunning views across London, and is well recommended should you have the opportunity to visit. I would have liked a little longer time to observe, take photographs across the City and to soak the vistas in. We conducted a debrief afterwards in Control Room B which is

    Control panels form a backdrop to the Control Room B bar – 04/02/2023
    Battersea Power Station’s Control Room B where you can buy the smallest bottle of Diet Coke for the princely sum of £4.50 – 04/02/2023

    After a trip along the Thames to Greenwich by Uber Boat from Thames Clippers we returned to Battersea to view the third light festival to be held at the Power Station which runs from January 19th to March 5th 2023.

    ‘Jupiter Clipper’ an Uber Boat from Thames Clippers approaches Battersea Power Station pier – 04/02/2023
    The view of Battersea Power Station from the pier – 04/02/2023

    There are 8 pieces of illuminated artwork curated in partnership with Light Art Collection on display. Three of my favourites were the following:

    “End Over End”, The Light Festival Battersea Power Station – 04/02/2023
    “Badstop, The Light Festival Battersea Power Station – 04/02/2023
    “Moonburn”, The Light Festival Battersea Power Station – 04/02/2023

    You can read about our previous visit to Battersea Power Station here

    On Sunday, Yoshi re-joined his mum and I as we headed off to meet up with lovely friends in Cirencester, Capital of the Cotswolds, and as we discovered, a beautiful market town.  

    St John Baptist towers over Cirencester and is one of the largest parish churches in England. During the 1880’s George Gilbert Scott lead a restoration team seeking to strengthen the building. Scott was the architect responsible for the Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras Railway Station in London and grandfather of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott known for being the architect responsible for the exterior of Battersea Power Station as well as the iconic K2 and K6 red telephone boxes – 05/02/2023
    Yoshi with “Pink Lady Dancing with Big Brown Dog” (Bronze 2020) on loan from the artist, Sophie Ryder, who is also a passionate dog breeder. Ryder has devoted herself throughout her career to the representation of part-human, part-animal beings as allegories of human characteristics, emotions and desires. One such hybrid is “Lady Hare”, a figure with a woman’s body and a hare’s head which Ryder developed at an early date into a central motif within her work. The hare can be found throughout art history as a symbol of fertility and lust, of resurrection, power and wisdom. Sophie Ryder inscribes these meanings into her female figures, which she frequently portrays in company with the mythical Minotaur as a male vehicle of expression, or with dogs as man’s trusty companion (Yeah, I pinched that bit from elsewhere) – 05/02/2023

    On our walk around Cirencester, punctuated by stops for cups of tea and the smallest halloumi filled brioche roll in the known universe (always upgrade to sourdough bread if you have the option), we happened upon the remnants of the 1841 Brunel designed Town Railway Station, one of three stations which used to grace the town (the others being Cirencester Watermoor and Chesterton Lane Halt). Cirencester lost its passenger rail service in 1964 with goods traffic surviving for another year. The town was connected to the mainline by means of a five mile, single track branch line from Kemble. In contrast to Grosvenor Bridge in central London, the Cirencester branch crossed the River Thames near its source and formed the highest rail crossing point on the river. 

    The 1841 Brunel Cirencester Town Railway Station buildings survived the closure of the branch line which terminated in the Cotswold Market Town – 05/02/2023

    The old station building now finds itself located in the middle of a car park, with a Waitrose supermarket occupying the site of the former goods yard. The building is currently owned by Cotswold District Council with its future under review, options being considered include its conversion into a cultural centre or being put up for sale. 

    Now within Old Station Car Park, the remains of Cirencester Town railway station – 05/02/2023

    The Cirencester Community Railway project has ambitions to restore the rail link to Kemble, although building work post closure, such as the ring road dating from the 1970’s, means that some of the former track bed has since been built upon and any new line will have to follow a different route on the final run into Cirencester. The project was accepted into the Department for Transport’s “Restoring Your Railway Ideas Fund” in December 2020 and was offered £50,000 to develop a business case for the proposed Very light Railway Scheme utilising a single self-powered electric carriage with a battery powered propulsion system.

    The rather wonderful frontage of Kemble Railway Station – 05/02/2023

    On our way home we stopped all too briefly at Grade II listed Kemble railway station which was opened by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1882 and is situated on the railway line between Swindon and Gloucester. The truncated branch line to Cirencester can still be seen as a short length of track ending in a buffer stop alongside a curved platform which also survives as part of the Kemble station complex.

    The buffer stop which marks the end of the line for the former Cirencester branch. Now used for the occasional stabling of track machines, will the line to Cirencester return in the future? – 05/02/2023
    The truncated remains of the Cirencester branch is to the right of the picture with the main running lines to the left – 05/02/2023

    There was also another line which branched off at Kemble which in this case served Tetbury between 1889 and 1964. Despite being the test beds for a new railbus service employing four wheeled vehicles built by AC Cars Ltd, the branch lines to Cirencester and Tetbury were the first casualties of the Beeching closures in the Wessex region. The railbuses later transferred to Yeovil to work between Yeovil Junction, Yeovil Town and Yeovil Pen Mill, and Bodmin before they were withdrawn from service in 1968. Successive closures of branch lines during the 1960’s and 1970’s were often marked by protests and Cirencester was no exception when a lady who had hosted a drinks party on one of the last railbus services attempted to set fire to an effigy of the Transport Minister, Ernest Marples, replete with a 3-foot axe. She was restrained by police in front of a 200 strong crowd of locals. 

    A view from the platforms at Kemble looking North – 05/02/2023

    Kemble railway station is virtually complete as built and is in a good state of preservation. The toilets, we discovered, are currently out of use. Original track at Kemble and the branches would have been of Brunel’s broad gauge with this being changed to standard gauge in 1892. The stone station buildings are built in a Tudor style featuring arched doorways. A covered footbridge links the up and down platforms and a rectangular cast iron water tank, itself Grade II listed, stands on the down platform complete with pumping machinery below. Today, all services are operated by Great Western Railway with typically one train in either direction each hour linking London and Cheltenham using Class 800 bi-mode IET’s, and Class 158 and Class 166 DMU’s.

    GWR Class 158 DMU No. 158745 passes the water tank on departure from Kemble working 2G09 1530 Swindon to Cheltenham Spa – 05/02/2023

    As luck would have it, our route home to Dorset also conveniently passed through Westbury, so with fading light, but an impressive sunset, I spent twenty minutes or so busying myself by increasing my daily step count wandering up and down the station platforms taking in the locomotive shaped delights on offer. Our North Dorset Correspondent later informed me that I had missed a Colas Class 56 which had worked into Westbury that afternoon, but I’m not one to bear a grudge.

    DB Cargo Class 66 No. 66075 stands adjacent to Westbury railway station – 05/02/2023
    Freightliner Duo: Class 66 No. 66618 ‘Railways Illustrated Annual Photographic Awards Alan Barnes’ and Class 59 No. 59002 ‘Alan J day’ sporting Aggregates Industries livery at Westbury – 05/02/2023
    Class 59 No. 59002 ‘Alan J day’ in Aggregates Industries livery at Westbury – 05/02/2023
    DB Cargo Class 66 No. 66172 ‘Paul Melleney’ prepares to leave Westbury working 6W05 1721 Westbury Down T.C. to Barry – 05/02/2023

    Also this past week, we took a quick look at the demolition work being carried out at Dorchester South where the canopy and postal office is being removed. It was dark at the time of our visit, but it was clear that much progress had been made (contrast and compare with the images posted last week )

    Work to remove the postal office and canopy at Dorchester South – 03/02/2023
    Freightliner Class 66 No. 66503 ‘The Railway Magazine’ stands adjacent the parcels office during engineering work being carried out at Dorchester South – 12/12/2020
    Nameplate detail of Class 66 No. 66503 ‘The Railway Magazine’ – 12/12/2020
    Engineering work relaying track at Dorchester South provides a view of the canopy being removed in 2023 – 24/10/2020

    That brings us to the end of another weeks blog entry. Thank you so much, as always for your comments and corrections. We hope you’ll join us again next time!

  • Pokesdown

    Yoshi vista Pokesdown railway station – 28/01/2023

    Wednesday January 25th to Tuesday January 31st 2023

    Dorset railway station Pokesdown (or to quote current station signage; “Pokesdown for Boscombe”) has been in the news recently and on Wednesday January 11th 2023 was subject to an Adjournment debate at the House of Commons as Tobias Ellwood,  Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, raised the question of when customer lifts would be installed at the location. Describing the station as “pretty grim” Mr. Ellwood, who has been campaigning for improvements to the station since 2016, pressed Minister of State, Department of Transport, Huw Merriman for an update on promised improvements. At the weekend, Yoshi and I decided to go along and take a look at the station ourselves. 

    The ground level exterior entrance to Pokesdown railway station – 28/01/2023

    Pokesdown railway station serves the Pokesdown, Boscombe and Southbourne areas of Bournemouth and is on the South West Main Line, situated 106 miles 24 chains (171.1 km)  from London Waterloo (Railways in the UK historically are measured in miles and chains, there being 80 chains to one mile). The station is served by South Western Railway (SWR), who operate semi-fast services from London Waterloo to Weymouth and stopping services from London to Poole. The station was originally opened on 1st July 1886 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) at an estimated cost of £2,000. It was originally named Boscombe, but was changed to Pokesdown (Boscombe) on 1st October 1891 as it is situated noticeably closer to Pokesdown than Boscombe. On 1st May 1897, when (the now closed) Boscombe station was opened, the station was renamed to just Pokesdown. In 1930, the station was again renamed, becoming Pokesdown for Eastern Bournemouth, but was once more changed to Pokesdown following the formation of British Railways in 1948. At one time there were two centre roads allowing non-stopping services to pass through the station without being encumbered by stopping trains at the platforms. These up and down fast lines were removed in the 1970’s.

    The booking hall at Pokesdown – 28/01/2023

    The station entrance at Pokesdown is at ground level with the platforms 20 meters below, access can only be currently gained by two 42-step flights of stairs, one to catch trains in the Weymouth direction and the other for stations to London.  The goods lifts at Pokesdown are 90 years old and have not functioned for over 35 years. In 2021, the BBC reported that at least two passengers had suffered broken bones after falling on the steep steps. One, Jacky Dempsey, broke both arms.  There is no alternative access for passengers with restricted mobility and wheelchair users are advised to use the main Bournemouth station instead. 

    The up platform steps – 28/01/2023
    The bridge across the platforms – 28/01/2023

    Installation of lifts for passenger use was an obligation in SWR’s 2017 franchise agreement and although the franchise has since been replaced by a new National Rail Contract in the wake of the pandemic, SWR has reconfirmed its £1.6m contribution, subject to third-party funding to meet any shortfall.  In January 2022, Bournemouth Christchurch Poole Council (BCP) pledged £2.6m from its Future Fund, with Network Rail (NR) providing the balance of the overall project cost of £5.7m which in addition to new lifts include refurbishment works on the bridge across the railway line to connect both lifts and other much needed modernisation of the Station facilities. The steelwork on the bridge is of around the same age as the redundant goods lifts and requires assessment prior to the construction of new lifts.

    The main road in the area is the A35 which crosses the main line east of Pokesdown station on this bridge. As originally built there was a single island platform – this was removed and two platform faces created allowing space for four running lines through the station. SWR Class 444 EMU No. 444036 leading No. 444017 with the 1W61 0950 London Waterloo to Weymouth and Poole stopping service approaches. One of the goods lift shafts can be seen behind the station bridge – 28/01/2023

    SWR and NR are hoping to be in a position to put the job out to tender later this year which will give all parties a final construction cost for the lift project. In the meantime work to upgrade the platform canopies is expected to be completed by mid-2023. Local Premiership football club, AFC Bournemouth, whose ground is only a stone’s throw from the station, has offered to help to give the station some local personality by donating large football montages to brighten the platform spaces. Other opinions on this addition may vary! I would much prefer the mural by Krishna Malla, aka Tech Moon a Bournemouth based artist specialising in photorealism, which currently adorns the down platform walls remain in situ. The mural, entitled “Hope”, was created at the request of Network Rail and SWR in 2020 to create a positive image and help uplift an area which has been beset with hard times over the past few years for depressing circumstances surrounding mental health. Doves were chosen as the subject matter because “The dove represents peace of the deepest kind”.

    “Hope” dove detail by Krishna Malla, aka Tech Moon – 28/01/2023
    “Hope” plaque – 28/01/2023
    Hands detail from “Hope” by Krishna Malla, aka Tech Moon – 28/01/2023
    The final section of the “Hope” is designed to move from the view on the train. The shadows offer a metaphor that every shadow has a light on the other side – 28/01/2023

    Regular stopping services are operated using SWR Class 444 or Class 450 electric multiple units with a weekday and Saturday service of two trains an hour. Sunday’s see one stopping train an hour.  CrossCountry Voyagers are regular visitors as they pass non-stop through the station. 

    Class 450 No. 450066 working 2B21 1056 Southampton Central to Bournemouth stops at Pokesdown – 28/01/2023
    Class 444 No. 444017 at the rear of the 1W61 0950 London Waterloo to Weymouth and Poole stopping service – 28/01/2023
    Looking west towards Bournemouth from the footbridge, XC Voyager Class 221 No. 221127 passes Pokesdown on 1M46 1145 Bournemouth to Manchester Piccadilly. The space once occupied by two through tracks can clearly be identified – 28/01/2023

    So, is the station “pretty grim”, as opined by Tobias Ellwood? I liked the mural, but I think I’d describe Pokesdown station as unloved and in urgent need of TLC. We look forward to making a return visit to Pokesdown in the future to see the results of the £5.7m upgrades.

    Dorchester South is also seeing some ‘Railway Improvement Work’ as Network Rail undertake the demolition of the station canopy and removal of the former postal office at the end of platform 1. The major part of the work is planned to take place over the weekend of 4th / 5th February 2023 with follow up work expected to be completed by Friday 10th February 2023. 

    With the Brewery Square development rising up above it the Dorchester South postal office and canopy awaits demolition – 28/01/2023
    Another view of the postal office / canopy at Dorchester South SWR Class 444 No. 444016 waits in the down platform working 1W21 1020 London Waterloo to Weymouth – 28/01/2023
    SWR Class 444 No. 444016 departs with the 1W21 1020 London Waterloo to Weymouth – 28/01/2023
    The dilapidated condition of the Dorchester South parcels office / canopy can clearly be seen in this view – 28/01/2023
    Time travelling back to the 1980’s, the parcels ramp at Dorchester South was a favourite spot for rail enthusiasts and train spotters on a summer Saturday afternoon.
    Class 31 No.’s 31152 and 31154 make a rare visit to Dorchester South. The original station building still stands in the right of the image although the addition of an up platform meant trains no longer had to reverse into the original platform – October 1983
    Class 33 No. 33106 working a “Channel Islands Boat Train” through Dorchester South. On arrival at Weymouth, the train famously traversed the streets before arriving at the Quay station. The Dorchester South parcels area and canopy is seen on the left – 28/08/1982
    London Midland Scottish Stanier Class 5MT 4-6-0 No. 44932, the sole survivor of this type of locomotive constructed in 1945 at Horwich Works, brings Railway Touring Company “The Dorset Coast Express” 1Z96 0845 London Victoria to Weymouth railtour past the parcels office and station canopy into Dorchester South – 01/09/2010
    Direct Rail Services (DRS) Class 66 No. 66415 arrives at Dorchester South with a train of empty wagons destined for Wool sidings where they would be loaded with sand. The locomotive would run around the train at Dorchester before returning to Wool for reversal into the sidings situated on the Up side of the station – 10/04/2012
    Our final modern day glimpse of the parcels office and station canopy as SWR Class 444 No. 4440135 awaits departure from Dorchester South working 1W20 1303 Weymouth to London Waterloo – 28/01/2023

    Our regular reader may remember a couple of weeks ago when one of the monthly test trains scheduled to visit Weymouth via Bournemouth and Poole did not materialise because of the landslip at Hook. A cause of much disappointment as the train was being hauled by Class 37 locomotives instead of the usual Class 73 electro-diesels. We had a sense of déjà vu this week when a Class 37 hauled test train to Weymouth via Yeovil also terminated early without visiting the Dorset seaside as 1Z22 0752 Derby RTC to Bristol Kingsland Road with No.’s 37610 and 37612 went off route at Wootton Bassett Junction and instead of heading south carried on a westerly trajectory and arrived at its final destination 481 minutes early because of lack of train crew to take over for the afternoon / evening shift.

    Thursday 26th January saw SWR Class 458 EMU No. 458503 working 5B39 1001 Wimbledon Park Depot Sidings to Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D. To my knowledge, I have not previously seen a Class 458 in Dorset, so armed with a long lens for the camera, Yoshi and I stopped off at Bournemouth Traincare depot on our way to Pokesdown and from the safety of the car park took the following photos. 

    SWR Class 458 No. 458503 at Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D. – 28/01/2023
    Class 701 No. 701043 at Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D. – 28/01/2023
    A line up of SWR EMU’s at Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D. including No.’s 444005, 701041, 701042 and 444003 – 28/01/2023

    Two other Class 458’s could be seen stabled on the depot amidst the Class 444’s, Class 701’s and Class 455 EMU’s. 

    SWR Class 458 No.’s 458530 and 458519 stand adjacent the train wash with an unidentified Class 455 behind, Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D. – 28/01/2023

    Our final port of call on Saturday was a brief visit to the Swanage Railway and Corfe Castle station. As track work has been ongoing at Swanage this week, resident Class 33 diesel locomotives No. D6515 ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ and No. 33111 have taken it in turns to be stabled adjacent to the signal box in Corfe. On our visit it was the turn of BR Blue liveried No. 33111 which made an interesting composition with a brake van and carriage.

    Class 33 No. 33111 rests at Corfe Castle railway station – 28/01/2023

    From The Archive

    The only 8mm video footage I recorded at Pokesdown station is of SR Merchant Navy Class 4-6-2 No. 35028 ‘Clan Line’ working the return LSW Railtours “The Strong Counrtyman” on 11th June 1995. My intention was to clip this shot and include it with this weeks blog section on Pokesdown. However, I enjoyed the complete 38 minute sequence and I thought you might be interested in seeing the whole thing as well. Starting at Eastleigh with views which could not be replicated today because of new building developments (Lidl, I’m looking at you) and including Class 47’s, a Class 58, a Class 07, Class 442 Wessex Electrics and Slam Door EMU’s the video also includes shots of ‘Clan Line’ at Bournemouth Traincare Depot before they erected an annoyingly huge fence. The appearance of No. 35028 at the Bournemouth depot was the first visit of a ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacific locomotive to the approaches of the former Bournemouth West station, on which the depot now resides, in almost 30 years. Has there been one since I wonder?

    Video of SR Merchant Navy Class 4-6-2 No. 35028 ‘Clan Line’ working LSW Railtours “The Strong Countryman’ – 11/06/1995

    This was LSW Railtours, run by Paul Blowfield formerly of the British Rail Special Trains Unit, first ever steam hauled tour. Looking back at the pages of the August 1995 edition of “The Railway Magazine” we discovered most of the seats on the tour had been sold in advance, with well over 300 passengers travelling on the train. It appeared to be a difficult time for rail tour operators with a whole page in the magazine devoted to readers letters discussing the topic dramatically entitled “Main Line Steam In Crisis”. From the small section of letters included from amongst the many apparently received on the subject by the editor it is apparent that tour organisers were generally failing to market and promote trains aggressively to a wide audience. In addition, poor time-keeping and the lack of photo opportunities for these onboard coupled with the uncertainty as to if the tour would run or not did little for the future confidence of main line steam. Mr Blowfield admitted that it was difficult to promote trains in a climate when more and more tour operators were competing for the same market, often with several trains running on the same date.

    Many thanks for your corrections, comments, contributions and observations – they are all most welcome. This weeks blog was brought to you courtesy of caramel latte and Twirl bars.

    If you, or someone you know, have been affected by mental health here are a few links below that may help. Two specific to Dorset and an NHS index of further support: 

    http://www.dorsetmentalhealthforum.org.uk

    Home

    https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/mental-health-services/

  • Cold Cats

    Wednesday January 18th to Tuesday January 24th 2023

    “It was very cold. To keep themselves warm they sang Pooh’s song right through six times, Piglet doing the tidily-poms and Pooh doing the rest of it, and both of them thumping on the top of the gate with pieces of stick at the proper places.” ~ A.A.Milne

    It has been much colder here this last week, as you might expect in January, and Yoshi has enjoyed sniffing the hardened frosty ground as we venture out on our walks. On Wednesday January 18th, ice was preventing trains picking up electricity from the third rail between Poole and Weymouth. Train services were cancelled or delayed for up to 60 minutes. In an attempt to rectify the situation, the Totton Yard based Snow & Ice Treatment Train (SITT) made an additional afternoon day time run presenting a rare opportunity this year to see the SITT in daylight hours. We missed the ensemble heading to Weymouth, but we were able to get to Hamworthy railway station in time to see GBRf Class 66 No.’s 66722 ‘Sir Edward Watkin’ and 66745 as they hurried on their way back to Totton working as 3Y88 1245 Totton Yard to Totton Yard.

    GBRf Class 66 No.’s 66722 ‘Sir Edward Watkin’ and 66745 power through Hamworthy with 3Y88 1245 Totton Yard to Totton Yard Snow & Ice Treatment Train – 18/01/2023

    Earlier the same day, we were treated to the 5th Direct Rai Services (DRS) train to Winfrith for the collection of low level nuclear waste as 6Z62 0100 Crewe Coal Sidings (DRS) to Wool. Time constraints and with my car still out of use, I hurried to Hamworthy station to see the early running working, which because of the ongoing situation with the landslip at Hook ( see last weeks blog, and below, for more information), was re-routed via Reading. Running very close behind a South Western Railway (SWR) Weymouth bound service, the Class 68 hauled DRS train was signal checked at Hamworthy and the driver brought it to a stop in the station. This gave ample time for photographic opportunities as well as for the driver to briefly get out of the lead locomotive and distribute badges to grateful onlookers. I certainly wasn’t going to refuse this kind gesture.

    DRS Class 68 No.’s 68018 ‘Vigilant’ and 68016 ‘Fearless’ working 6Z62 0100 Crewe Coal Sidings (DRS) to Wool at Hamworthy – 18/01/2023
    DRS Class 68 No.’s 68018 ‘Vigilant’ and 68016 ‘Fearless’ working 6Z62 0100 Crewe Coal Sidings (DRS) to Wool at Hamworthy – 18/01/2023
    DRS Class 68 No.’s 68018 ‘Vigilant’ and 68016 ‘Fearless’ working 6Z62 0100 Crewe Coal Sidings (DRS) to Wool rest at Hamworthy during a signal check – 18/01/2023
    DRS Class 68 No. 68018 ‘Vigilant’ at Hamworthy – 18/01/2023
    Class 68 No. 68016 ‘Fearless’ nameplate detail – 24/03/2022
    DRS Class 68 No.’s 68016 ‘Fearless’ and 68018 ‘Vigilant’ departing Hamworthy working 6Z62 0100 Crewe Coal Sidings (DRS) to Wool – 18/01/2023

    We also popped out to see the return working (6Z95 1603 Winfrith Sdgs to Crewe Coal Sidings (DRS)) in fading light, which this time had no issues with red signals as it passed through Hamworthy.

    In fading daylight, hence the motion blur, DRS Class 68 No.’s 68016 ‘Fearless’ and 68018 ‘Vigilant’ storm through Hamworthy working 6Z95 1603 Winfrith Sdgs to Crewe Coal Sidings (DRS) – 18/01/2023

    For more information, photos and video regarding these Winfrith workings, check out these previous blog entries:

    Holiday Time!
    Winfrith Cats 3
    Winfrith Cats 2
    Winfrith Waste

    For the final special working of the day, the SITT returned under cover of darkness working as 3Y89 2200 Totton Yard to Totton Yard with the same pair of locomotives as earlier in the day. Two days later, on Friday 20th January, the SITT ran in the same path, again with No.’s 66722 ‘Sir Edward Watkin’ and 66745. Yoshi and I elected to remain in the warm at home!

    Wednesday 18th January 2023 – a busy day on the rails in our neck of the woods. Additional videography of the Class 68’s at Wool kindly provided by “North Dorset Correspondent”; Scott Lewis

    On Sunday, Yoshi and I took the train to Weymouth and Dorchester. Yoshi enjoyed all the attention he received and was a very good boy travelling on the train.

    Hook Update

    Over the weekend Network Rail engineers working to repair the railway line at Hook, Hampshire, temporarily remodelled the two undamaged tracks to enable a better train service between Basingstoke and Woking and allowing, once again, through services to run from Weymouth to London Waterloo.

    Up Trains cross to the Up Slow at Basingstoke East and run to Farnborough where normal working resumes and they can use either Up Fast or Up Slow towards London.

    Down Trains can use either Down Slow or Down Fast as far as Winchfield, where all trains use the Down Fast. Down Trains then use the temporary slewed tracks which take trains across to the Up Fast formation either side of the slip prior to returning to the Down Fast before Hook Station. Trains then continue to Basingstoke where they can use either line.

    Engineers plan to construct a 60 metre retaining wall made up of @100 12 metre long sheet piles which are driven into the ground in order to stabilise the embankment and protect the railway from future landslips at the site. The steepness of the embankment slope will also be reduced at the same time to minimise the risk of material falling away.

    From The Archive

    In other news involving a locomotive named ‘Fearless’ (don’t you just love a tenuous link?), if you fancy owning a Class 50 diesel locomotive, it was recently announced by Boden Rail Engineering that No. 50050 ‘Fearless’ is being sold to help fund the growth of the depot at Nottingham Eastcroft. The locomotive is to be sold for mainline use only, but Boden Rail say that it is dual braked and has been a very reliable runner.

    No. D400 was delivered to British Rail in October 1967, the first of fifty Class 50 locomotives. It was renumbered No. 50050 in February 1974, named after the warship ‘Fearless’ in August 1978. It was refurbished in 1983 at Doncaster, withdrawn in March 1994 and taken into preservation.

    Just prior to being bought by engineer Neil Boden in January 2015, No. 50050 was stored at the Yeovil Railway Centre, adjacent to Yeovil Junction railway station. The loco was on display during the Yeovil Railway Centre’s 20th Anniversary open weekend of 31st May and 1st June 2014

    Class 50 No. 50050 (D400) was owned by the D400 Fund in 2014 when this photo was taken and the Yeovil Railway Centre was her home for a number of years while its overhaul was ongoing before being sold to Boden Engineering Ltd. in February 2015 and returned to mainline running – 01/06/2014
    Visitors to the Yeovil Railway Centre’s 20th Anniversary weekend were able to visit the cab of Class 50 No. 50050 – 01/06/2014
    Devon & Cornwall Railways Limited (DCR) Class 56 No. 56303 working a shuttle along the Clifton Maybank branch. Originally closed in June 1937, volunteers undertook a significant task in relaying trackwork so that the Yeovil Railway Centre could run trains a short distance from Yeovil Junction – 01/06/2014
    Class 56 No. 56303 on land from DCR heads up the incline on the Clifton Maybank branch – 01/06/2014
    DCR Class 56 No. 56303 passing Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 ‘Lord Fisher’ at Yeovil Railway Centre – 01/06/2014
    Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 ‘Lord Fisher’ adjacent to Yeovil Junction working the “Clifton Maybank Rambler” shuttles – 01/06/2014
    Fowler diesel ‘Cockney Rebel’ top and tailed shuttles with Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 ‘Lord Fisher’ – 01/06/2014
    R W Darch & Sons Sentinal Steam Lorry owned by Jerry Darch and Aberdeen Coal & Shipping Company Sentinal Steam Lorry ‘Tiger’ belonging to Bob Garnett were loaned for the event – 01/06/2014
    Steam Dreams operated “The Cathedrals Express” from London Victoria to Yeovil Junction via Winchester, Southampton and Salisbury. Originally intended to be hauled by SR West Country 4-6-2 No. 34046 ‘Braunton’ the train was actually in charge of LMS Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 No. 44932 with Hastings Gauge Slim Class 33 No. 33207 ‘Jim Martin’ providing support at the rear – 01/06/2014
    LMS Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 No. 44932 approaches Yeovil Junction as Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 ‘Lord Fisher’ on a Clifton Maybank shuttle – 01/06/2014
    LMS Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 No. 44932 being coaled at Yeovil Junction – 01/06/2014
    LMS Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 No. 44932 being turned on the Yeovil Railway Centre 70ft turntable, built by Cowans and Sheldon of Glasgow in 1947. The turntable had been left in situ following the end of steam on the Waterloo – Exeter route and was the genesis of the South West Main Line Steam Company, the group behind the Yeovil Railway Centre – 01/06/2014
    Having just been turned on the turntable LMS Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 No. 44932 passes Class 33 No. 33207 ‘Jim Martin’ which had been shunting stock ready for the return working – 01/06/2014
    LMS Stanier Black 5 No. 44932 works the return “Cathedrals Express” past Bradford Abbas – 01/06/2014
    South West Trains Class 444 EMU No. 444018 meets Class 50 No’s 50007 ‘Hercules’ and 50050 ‘Fearless’ working 1Z50 0448 Derby – Swanage crossing Holes Bay, Poole – 11/06/2016
    Bearing her original number D400 on one cab end, Class 50 No. 50050 ‘Fearless’ stands head to head with classmate No. 50007 ‘Hercules’ at Swanage – 11/06/2016
    Nameplate detail of Class 50 No. 50050 ‘Fearless’
    Class 50 No.’s 50050 ‘Fearless’ and 50007 ‘Hercules’ passing the out of use sidings at Furzebrook working the return Pathfinders Tours “The Purbeck & Boom Explorer” 1Z52 1605 Swanage – Derby excursion – 11/06/2016

    For more Class 50 action, check out our previous post on the locomotive class:

    A 50/50 Week

    That’s it for another week, as always thank you for visiting dear reader! All things being equal, we’ll be back next week for more cockapoo / railway fun. Take care and may your dog go with you.

    Post Script

    A final look at DRS Class 68 No. 68018 ‘Vigilant’ at the head of 6Z62 0100 Crewe Coal Sidings (DRS) to Wool pausing at Hamworthy during a signal check with the Direct Rail Services badge embedded in the image (not to scale!) – 18/01/2023

  • Birthday Week

    For fans of photographs of trains taken through a shrubbery, here is Southampton Maritime Freightliner depot with pink liveried Class 66 No. 66587 ‘As One, We Can’ – 15/01/2023

    Wednesday January 11th to Tuesday January 17th 2023

    There has been a huge impact on rail services to and from London, Bournemouth and Weymouth as over the weekend, heavy rain washed away a clay embankment northeast of the Hampshire railway station of Hook situated between Basingstoke and London Waterloo. Passengers were advised against all but essential travel over the coming days on services which would usually pass through the area on the South West Main Line. The great majority of trains will not be able to run and repairs may take weeks before services are restored. As a result no trains will be stopping at Hook, Winchfield or Fleet.

    The landslip at Hook from the air – screen grab from BBC South Today – 16/01/2023

    Network Rail will need to build an access road to enable heavy machinery designed for piling to be brought in and repairs carried out around the clock. The embankment, originally built 190 years ago, is made of a mixture of London Clay and other local soils. Although there have been landslips at this location previously, they are becoming an increasing problem across the network because of drier summers and wetter winters with more intense rainfall which is a particular issue for clay embankments.

    Network Rail image of the Hook landslip – 16/01/2023

    The slip, which left one track hanging in mid-air, happened when the soil gave way along a 44-metre section of 10m high embankment, sliding out from underneath the tracks meaning only two tracks of the four-track railway are passable by trains. Both of the intact tracks are designed to be used by London bound trains only. This was the worst of 13 different flooding related incidents during the recent rainfall, which also included major flooding at Sway increasing the disruption on the already revised timetable between London Waterloo and Weymouth. South Western Railway (SWR) will run a service from Weymouth which will terminate at Basingstoke and a very limited shuttle will operate between Basingstoke and Woking, from where services continue thereafter.

    South Western Railway (SWR) service announcement published on 17/01/2023

    Wednesday 11th January, before the latest period of rain, Swanage based Class 33 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ hauled Network South East liveried Class 50 No. 50026 ‘Indomitable’ from the Purbeck Heritage Line to Eastleigh Arlington working as 0Z50 0942 Swanage to Eastleigh Arlington (ZG). After dropping off the Class 50, the Crompton headed back to Swanage light engine the afternoon of the same day.

    Class 33 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ hauling Class 50 No. 50026 ‘Indomitable’ working 0Z50 0942 Swanage to Eastleigh Arlington (ZG) through Hamworthy – 11/01/2023
    Class 33 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ travels solo as 0Z33 1430 Eastleigh Arlington to Swanage – 11/01/2023
    Video of Class 33 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ hauling Class 50 No. 50026 ‘Indomitable’ on a day out from Swanage – 11/01/2023

    On Sunday, Yoshi stayed with his mum while I headed towards Eastleigh to visit an old friend and a chance to put the world to rights. I obviously took the opportunity to get some railway time in on my way and my journey took me via Totton Yard, Freightliner Southampton MCT – which was quite full of locomotives with examples of Class 66’s, Class 70’s, Class 47 No. 47830 – and of course Eastleigh itself!

    A view of MPV’s and SITT sitting on Totton Yard – 15/01/2023
    Southampton Maritime Container Terminal depot with, amongst others, Class 47 No. 47830 ‘Beeching’s Legacy’ and Class 66 No. 66587 ‘As One, We Can’ hiding behind a container train – 15/01/2023
    Nameplate detail of Class 66 No. 66587 ‘As One, We Can’ – 15/01/2023
    With impeccable timing, late running Freightliner Class 66 No. 66592 ‘Johnson Stevens Agency’ works 6Y85 1000 Andover to Eastleigh East Yard past Redbridge, Southampton – 15/01/2023
    Class 50 No. 50021 ‘Rodney’ (also known as Dave) on Eastleigh Works. Hopefully this locomotive and sister No. 50026 will head to Swanage for the 2023 Diesel Gala in May – 15/01/2023
    A view across Eastleigh East Yard – 15/01/2023
    Colas Class 66 No. 66849 ‘Wylam Dilly’ at Eastleigh East Yard – 15/01/2023
    Unbranded GBRf Class 66 No. 66303 at Eastleigh East Yard – 15/01/2023
    Network Rail Video Inspection Unit VIU-3 Class 153 No. 153385 at Eastleigh – 15/01/2023
    DB Class 66 No. 66142 ‘Maritime Intermodal Three’, Colas Class 66 No. 66847 ‘Terry Baker’, Class 153 No. 153385 at Eastleigh – 15/01/2023
    Maritime Blue liveried DB Cargo Class 66 No. 66142 ‘Maritime Intermodal Three’ at Eastleigh – 15/01/2023

    Monday 16th January was panning out to feature a busy evening with the Snow & Ice Treatment Train (SITT) based at Totton Yard and the regular 1Q51 test train visiting the Bournemouth to Weymouth line. Much anticipation here when Colas English Electric Class 37’s No.’s 37116 and 37610 were allocated to the test train, normally in the hands of a pair of top and tailed Class 73 electro diesel locomotives, at Derby. However it soon became clear that the landslip at Hook meant the train would be forced off-route at Virginia Water, eventually terminating at Reading Triangle Sidings, instead of running to Weymouth via the South West Main Line and back to Eastleigh East Yard from where the consist normally operates over the rest of the week before returning to Derby. The train eventually continued to Eastleigh the following day, but at the time of writing, has not covered the section of line from Totton to Weymouth.

    Early Monday evening, the SITT was showing as cancelled on RealTimeTrains(RTT), although upon checking the following morning it was clear that the service did in fact run, at least as far as Dorchester South.

    GBRf Class 66 No.’s 66722 ‘Sir Edward Watkin’ and 66745 worked as far as Dorchester South on Monday 16th January. The pair are seen here at rest in Totton Yard – 15/01/2023

    From The Archive

    January 2023 marks the 160th Anniversary of the launch of the World’s first underground railway; The Metropolitan Line, in 1863. Ten years ago on 13th January 2013, scenes not witnessed on the central London sub-surface sections of underground since July 1954 marked the start of LU150, a year long celebration, as an 1898 built steam locomotive puffed in and out of the tunnels, surprising unsuspecting passengers and delighting railway enthusiasts. I was one of those who enjoyed the spectacle as the short video below shows:

    Video of Anniversary shuttles with 0-4-4-Steam Locomotive Met No 1 and Metropolitan Electric loco No.12 ‘Sarah Siddons’ with brake of vintage coaches

    The following is adapted from The London Transport Museum’s ‘History of the Tube’;

    Back in 1863 the underground railway was intended to reduce street congestion, which by the 1850’s had reached a crisis point. Upon opening, The Metropolitan Railway was an immediate success, although its construction had taken almost two years and caused huge disruption as the sub-surface lines were built by digging a long trench, laying track and covering it over again (known as the cut and cover technique) leaving a tunnel system which were at first operated by steam trains. The 5.6km line connected the mainline stations at Paddington, Euston and King’s Cross to Farringdon, at the edge of the City. Success meant that extensions to both ends of the line soon followed.

    In 1868, The Met was joined by an associated railway company; the Metropolitan District Railway with the intention that the two would cooperate to form an ‘Inner Circle’, linking all London’s mainline termini. However, disagreements over money led to a falling out and both companies instead chose to prioritise their individual extensions. The Circle was only completed after government intervention in 1884.

    Despite their differences, the Met cooperated with the District Railway in plans for electrification in 1900. However, their ideas were rejected when a powerful American businessman, Charles Tyson Yerkes, took over the District and a group of struggling Tube schemes in 1901. Under Yerkes, the Circle and District were electrified along American lines by 1905, powered by a new generating station at Chelsea. The Met built its own power station at Neasden using the same system but electrified more slowly. 

    In 1908, the separate companies started to work together to promote the system as a coherent network under the UndergrounD brand. Gradually most of the companies merged and the network expanded, as the population of London soared. The resultant station architecture of the 1930’s is highly regarded. 

    The Met had been exploiting the land along its lines since the 1880’s but entered a new phase when their first housing estate was built at Pinner in 1900. The name ‘Metro-land’ was coined in 1915 to publicise the area, and in 1919 a subsidiary company was set up to concentrate on housing. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s, thousands of homes were built. Gradually Metro-land was electrified, with services to Harrow in 1908 and Rickmansworth in 1924. A new electric line from Wembley Park to Stanmore opened in 1932, but further north steam locomotives continued as before.

    While the rest of London’s underground railways all succumbed to the domination of the railway group Yerkes founded, the Metropolitan alone remained independent. The Metropolitan Railway had regarded themselves not as a commuter railway, but as an ambitious player in the mainline railway world, extending out from Baker Street in the 1870s and 1880s into open country. By 1899, at the height of their powers, they had reached Verney Junction and Brill in Buckinghamshire, more than 80km from Baker Street.

    The Met was forced to give up their independence when all of London’s public transport – buses, trams and trolleybuses, as well as the Underground railways – came under the centralised control of London Transport (LT) in 1933 and decisions about services could be fully coordinated for the first time. The Met’s mainline ambitions were over, with LT closing the rural Brill branch in 1935 and the withdrawal of services north of Aylesbury a year later. The Stanmore branch transferred to the Bakerloo in 1939. 

    A massive plan; The New Works Programme, designed to upgrade and expand services was prepared in 1935, but the work was interrupted by the Second World War. Some of these were revived in the difficult post-war economic climate, but others were not.  

    Modernisation in the early 1960s saw extensive track and signal work and new A stock trains. These worked the line until replacement with S stock trains between 2010 and 2012 under the new Transport for London (TfL) organisation. This was part of wider modernisation project across all the Underground’s sub-surface lines, replacing infrastructure and signalling and introducing automatic operation. 

    A new Tube line had been suggested in 1943, but delays meant that the new Victoria line did not serve its first passengers until 1968. The Tube reached Heathrow Airport in 1977. Another new line, the Jubilee, was added in 1979. It terminated in central London and was later extended eastwards in 1999.

    Today, The Metropolitan Railway lives on as the Metropolitan Line, it has 67km of track and 34 stations, running from Amersham and Chesham in the north-west to Aldgate in east London, as well as a branch to Uxbridge.

    Yoshi

    Despite his urge to drink water from the upstairs toilet, Yoshi celebrated his 4th birthday on Thursday 12th January. He enjoyed a special doggo cupcake and played with a toy wine bottle for all of ten minutes before tearing it to shreds in an attempt to extract the squeaker.

    Yoshi celebrates his birthday with cake!

    On that happy note, it brings us towards the end of another blog. Many thanks for visiting, reading, your comments and corrections. For anyone wondering about my car, which broke down last week, things don’t look too good for it. In fact the garage I took it to for repair declined to undertake any further work other than an initial inspection, charging me for the privilege of confirming what the AA had previously already told me. I may get a second opinion, or just cut my losses. I can’t say it’s not been a fun car to drive, but all good things……

    Post Script

    Seeing Network Rail Class 153 No. 153385 at Eastleigh on Sunday prompted me to have a brief look at this class of diesel multiple unit (DMU).

    In the mid 1980’s, looking to replace older DMU’s, British Rail ordered 35 two-coach Class 155 units from Leyland Bus at Workington. In 1990 the decision was made to split each of the 35 Class 155’s into single car vehicles for use on rural railway lines, the work being carried out by Hunslet-Barclay at their plant in Kilmarnock during 1991/92. A new drivers cab was retrofitted into the spaces previously used for luggage racks at the inside end (B-end) of each carriage where they had been coupled together in the Class 155 formation. The new cab is noticeably smaller than the original A-end one, as the position of the exterior doors were not amended during conversion.

    Locally, GWR/Wessex Trains utilised Class 153’s on services between Bristol Temple Meads and Weymouth having inherited 13 units from Wales & West.

    Transport for Wales currently run a fleet of 26 Class 153’s having modified them to comply with Reduced Mobility Technical Specification Interoperability (PRM-TSI) legislation which came into effect on January 1st 2020. Scotrail have five units which have been modified to provide racks for luggage and bicycles for use on the West Highland Line services between Glasgow and Oban, running them in conjunction with existing Class 156 DMU’s.

    In May 2021, Network rail (NR) acquired three Class 153’s to convert into Video Inspection Units (VIU) for infrastructure monitoring services and have been fitted with cameras, recording devices and a generator placed in the saloon to provide power to the tech. One of these is the aforementioned No. 153385:

    Still in passenger revenue earning service, East Midlands Railway (EMR) Class 153 No. 153385 is seen at Barnetby working a service to Grimsby Town – 15/04/2014
    Now belonging to Network Rail; Class 153 No. 153385, also known as VIU-3, retains its East Midlands Railway (EMR) livery but with black Network Rail branding and is seen stabled in the Locomotive Holding sidings at Eastleigh – 17/02/2022

  • Winter Warmer

    Thursday 4th January to Tuesday 10th January 2023

    Southern Railway Battle Of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ arrives at Corfe castle in the rain working 2N03 1115 Norden to Swanage – 07/01/2023

    With no trains running in Dorset until Sunday 8th January, it was down to the Swanage Railway to provide railway based entertainment, which they did admirably with their Winter Warm Up event over the weekend of 7th / 8th January 2023. The timetable involved four locomotives running passenger services between Swanage and Norden as well as each loco taking turns on a demonstration freight train which, to be honest, was the main attraction for me. The outlook for the weather forecast was poor, so it was decided Yoshi would remain home with his mama and join me later in the day.

    We started off by seeing Class 50 No. 50026 ‘Indomitable’ passing SR Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ at Harmans Cross with the first workings of the day.

    Class 50 No. 50026 ‘Indomitable’ in Network South East livery departs Harmans Cross working 2N01 1030 Norden to Swanage – 07/01/2023

    The rain held off until we arrived at Corfe Castle. Waiting for the late running first freight of the weekend in the charge of SR U Class No. 31806 the heavens opened. It was at this point where I think my Canon DSLR camera must have suffered from water ingress. I should have switched the camera off and removed the battery and lens, but I foolishly carried on using it throughout the day until the point it gave up the ghost and would not switch on at all.

    Southern Railway U Class 2-6-0 No. 31806 working the first demonstration freight 6N04 1102 Herston Halt to Norden on the Saturday Winter Warm Up event – 07/01/2023
    Here I am getting soaked watching SR Battle Of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ departing Corfe Castle working 2N03 1115 Norden to Swanage – 07/01/2023 (Photograph courtesy of @da_buckley967)
    Class 33 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ approaches Harmans Cross with the 2N12 1245 Swanage to Norden service – 07/01/2023
    SR Battle Of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 stands at Harmans Cross carrying a “Locomotive Club of Great Britain” (LCGB) headboard 2N09 1245 Norden to Swanage – 07/01/2023
    Class 50 No. 50026 ‘Indomitable’ takes a turn on the freight working 6N11 1302 Norden to Swanage seen here passing Harmans Cross – 07/01/2023
    U Class 2-6-0 No. 31806 nears Harmans Cross 2N14 1330 Swanage to Norden – 07/01/2023
    The final image taken with my Canon D1200 DSLR camera before it shut down for the last time; Class 33 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ prepares to depart Swanage with the 6N22 1527 Swanage to Norden demonstration freight running as part of the Winter Warm Up – 07/01/2023
    Video from Saturday 7th January 2023 Swanage Winter Warm Up

    In 2016 the Winter Warm Up was on 27th December and I recall a frosty start to the day, as can be seen in the set of photographs below:

    U Class 2-6-0 No. 31806 approaches a frosty Harmans Cross with an early morning service from Swanage – 27/12/2016
    U Class 2-6-0 No. 31806 arrives at Harmans Cross in cloud of steam with the first steam hauled service of the day from Swanage – 27/12/2016
    Class 33 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ departing Harmans Cross – 27/12/2016
    A Diesel Multiple Unit set catches the sun at Harmans Cross sidings – 27/12/2016
    Class 33 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ nears journeys end at Norden – 27/12/2016
    London & South Western Railway (LSWR) 0-4-4T M7 Class No. 30053 being serviced at Swanage shed. No. 30053 is owned by the Drummond Locomotives Limited, and has been running regularly on the Swanage Railway since 1992. No. 30053’s boiler certificate expired in early 2017 but an extension to the certificate was obtained as the boiler had been re-tubed in 2011. The locomotive was in service until the end of October 2017 when the boiler certificate finally ran out.
    In December 2017 the boiler was lifted off the frames to enable the overhaul of the locomotive to start. The boiler was returned to the frames in September 2022 and it is planned that the locomotive will be back in service during 2023. She’s a particular favourite of mine and I look forward to seeing her running again – 27/12/2016
    London & South Western Railway (LSWR) 0-4-4T M7 Class No. 30053 taking shape once again at Swanage Railway’s Herston Works – 01/11/2022
    Three Class 33’s at Swanage, from left to right, No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’, No. 33111 and behind SR Battle Of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’, No. 33201 – 27/12/2016
    Class 33 No. 33111 heads out of Swanage with a train destined for Norden – 27/12/2016
    Class 33 No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ passes the observation area opposite Swanage depot while taking a turn on the freight wagons – 27/12/2016
    Class 33 No. 33111 recreating a bygone era with a loose coupled freight – 27/12/2016
    U Class 2-6-0 No. 31806 approaching Corfe Castle – 27/12/2016
    With Corfe Castle in the background, another image of Class 33 No. 33111 working the demonstration freight train – 27/12/2016
    U Class 2-6-0 No. 31806 takes her turn on the Winter Warm Up freight consist – 27/12/2016
    London & South Western Railway (LSWR) 0-4-4T M7 Class No. 30053 nears Corfe Castle working a demonstration freight – 27/12/2016

    London & South Western Railway (LSWR) 0-4-4T M7 Class No. 30053 stands at Harmans Cross while working a demonstration freight – 27/12/2016
    Class 33 No. 33111 double heads with sister locomotive No. D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ on the final working to Swanage on 27/12/2016
    The front end differences can be clearly seen in this image of Class 33 No.’s 33111 and D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ – 27/12/2016
    Class 33 No.’s 33111 and D6515 (33012) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ are observed by the train crew of a Swanage bound train on their departure to Norden – 27/12/2016

    Tuesday 10th January 2023 and I decided an outing to Eastleigh was in order to test out a replacement camera body and hopefully put it through its paces. It was set to be a busy day in the Hampshire railway town with Class 33 No. D6515 ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ scheduled to haul Class 50 No. 50026 ‘Indomitable’ from Swanage to Eastleigh Arlington Works where the Hoover is to undergo a period of winter maintenance, Freightliner Class 47 No. 47830 ‘Beeching’s Legacy’ passing on a trip to Banbury and the release of the latest Class 69 conversion from the Works and its onward journey to Tonbridge. However it transpired that the Class 50 move from Swanage was revised to run the next day, Wednesday 11th January (photos next week my lucky reader!), the Class 47 was replaced by FL Class 66 No. 66596. The Class 69, however was in a reasonably good position for a photograph on the Works following a special naming ceremony earlier in the day.

    GBRf Class 69 No. 69007 ‘Richard Trevithick’ at Eastleigh Works. The locomotive was converted from Class 56 No. 56037 which also carried the same name. Earlier in the day at a private ceremony for the benefit of ex Cardiff Canton employees the loco carried her former number and a double BR arrow emblem underneath the nameplate on one side. Before being released into traffic the 69007 number and GB Railfreight decals were affixed – 10/01/2023

    The Class 69 was scheduled to depart the Works at 1424, but by 1515 she still had to make her way out onto the mainline. At this point, conscious that Yoshi needed a bit of a comfort break, I decided not to wait any longer and instead decided to work our way towards home, stopping briefly to drop off a packet for a couple of Yoshi’s feline friends who are in the area.

    Package duly delivered we drove back through Eastleigh to see No. 69007 had moved up to Works gates and set to head into Eastleigh railway station to reverse before carrying onto Tonbridge. I made my own reversal and headed back into the station where I was just in time to get a photograph of the locomotive standing at platform 3 and video of her departure.

    GBRf Class 69 No. 69007 ‘Richard Trevithick’ reverses at Eastleigh railway station working the delayed 0Z07 1424 Eastleigh Works GBRf to Tonbridge West Yard GBRf – 10/01/2023
    Nameplate detail of Class 69 No. 69007, Eastleigh – 10/01/2023
    Class 56 No. 56037 and an unidentified member of the class working the heavy Port Talbot to LLanwern iron ore train through Cardiff Central. Class 56’s were employed in pairs on this working having replaced the perhaps even more impressive triple headed Class 37’s! At this point in time No. 56037 was yet to be named – 25/05/1981
    Now named ‘Richard Trevithick’, Class 56 No. 56037 is on display at Old Oak Common Open Day – 20/09/1981
    Nameplate detail of Class 56 No. 56037, Old Oak Common – 20/09/1981

    On our way home from Eastleigh as we neared Junction 1 of the M27 my car suddenly lost power and we cautiously limped off the motorway to the relative safety of The White Hart pub at Cadnam where we awaited assistance from the AA and our eventual recovery home. The car is booked in with the garage for Friday. If things happen in three’s, I am nervously awaiting incident number three!!

    My car being checked over by the AA. Unfortunately, it was not a problem that could be fixed at the roadside and we required a lorry to take us home – 10/01/2023
    Yoshi enjoys the delights of The White Hart, Cadnam as we await the arrival of the tow truck – 10/01/2023
    Video of Class 69 No. 69007’s first outing at Eastleigh – 10/01/2023

    Meanwhile, on the Hamworthy Branch, which has yet to see a train run along its length following the recent upgrade work, more remedial effort will be required following the damage to fencing and road crossing lights, as seen in the images below:

    An update to the long running South Western Railway (SWR) Class 701 Electric Multiple Units (EMU) saga has been reported with SWR formally accepting 24 finished units and repeating their commitment to introduce the fleet into service “as early in 2023 as possible”. A concurrent statement from the Department for Transport indicated that work to finalise a service-standard software package for the trains was still underway and that driver training had not yet commenced.

    A number of SWR Class 701 units standing in Eastleigh depot – 10/01/2023
    Class 701 No.’s 701031 and 701025 stabled in Eastleigh Works – 10/01/2023

    Thank you for joining us again this time. All being well, we’ll be back next week as long as I can avoid breaking anything else! This weeks blog was brought to you accompanied by the sounds of Stephen Sanchez, Ludovico Einaudi and Everything But The Girl.

    Endpiece:

    SR Battle Of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ at rest on Swanage shed following the first day of the Swanage Railway Winter Warm Up – 07/01/2023

  • New Year 2023

    Thursday 22nd December to Tuesday 3rd January 2023

    Empty trains parked up on Christmas Day at Weymouth railway station – 25/12/2022

    The UK rail network wound down for the Christmas break early on 24th December in 2022 because of industrial action. Several South Western Railway (SWR) Class 444 Electric Multiple Units and a Great Western Railway (GWR) Class 165 diesel multiple unit spent Christmas parked up at Weymouth railway station awaiting the restart on the 27th December 2022.

    SWR Class 444 EMU No. 444038 in Weymouth – 25/12/2022

    Following the Christmas close down of the railways, the first train to run on the Bournemouth to Weymouth route was the seasonal Snow & Ice Treatment Train (SITT) which set off from Eastleigh mid-morning to ensure rails were free of ice before passenger services started after mid-day.

    GBRf Class 66 locomotives No.’s 66753 ‘EMD Roberts Road’ and 66745 top and tail 3Y88 1000 Eastleigh East Yard to Totton Yard SITT through Hamworthy on the outward run to Weymouth – 27/12/2022
    GBRf Class 66 locomotives No.’s 66745 and 66753 ‘EMD Roberts Road’ top and tail 3Y88 1000 Eastleigh East Yard to Totton Yard SITT across the Holes Bay causeway on the return run from Weymouth. No. 66722 replaced No. 66753 two days later, although this combination has yet to venture West to Bournemouth or Weymouth as SITT runs have been working East from Totton Yard – 27/12/2022
    GBRf Class 66 locomotives No.’s 66753 ‘EMD Roberts Road’ and 66745 top and tail 3Y88 1000 Eastleigh East Yard to Totton Yard SITT – 27/12/2022. Additional video courtesy of @dabuckley967

    1st January 2023 marks 100 years since the formation of the ‘Big Four’, the term coined by “The Railway Magazine” for the grouping of 120 individual railway companies into just four: Great Western Railway (GWR), Southern Railway (SR), London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). The grouping was outlined in the 1921 Railways Act which strived to stem losses and regulate what were seen as inefficient, diverse and, in some cases, overlapping operations which had been struggling following the Great War. The act eliminated competition, as each group now had a regional monopoly. It also established standard fares and charges for particular services. 75 years ago on 1st January 1948, as a result of the Transport Act of 1947, the Big Four companies were nationalised to form British Railways.

    LSWR T9 Class No. 30120, seen here with SR U Class No. 31806, is a surviving locomotive from the pre-Big Four grouping period having been built in 1899 and has been stored at Swanage following the expiry of her boiler certificate in August 2020 – 12/02/2022

    New Years Day 2023 saw Yoshi’s Mum and I heading to London to take in the conveniently extended “Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature” exhibition at the V&A and Matthew Bourne’s “Sleeping Beauty” at Sadler’s Wells. We had intended to take the train, but South Western Railways timetabling around the RMT industrial action meant we would not be able to get everything done and home on the day with our last train leaving London Waterloo at 1830. So instead, we took to the roads and parked up at Kew Gardens and travelled into Town using the London Underground District Line from there.

    I like Kew, it has a lovely village feel and Kew Gardens railway station is a fine Grade II listed example of mid-Victorian architecture and one of the last remaining 19th Century stations on the North London Line having been opened in 1869 by the London & South Western Railway (L&SWR) who were, prior to the formation of ‘The Big Four’, custodians of the Bournemouth to Dorchester line. Current services calling at Kew Gardens are operated by London Underground (LU) and National Rail London Overground utilising LU S7 stock and British Rail Class 378’s respectively. The Class 378 EMU’s replaced the Class 313’s operated by Silverlink and were introduced in 2008. Kew Gardens is also the only station on the London Underground network I know of which has a pub attached to it. The pub once had a door which gave access to platform one, but this is no longer in use. The pub is currently called ‘The Tap on the Line’ but was formerly known as ‘The Railway’.

    The footbridge over the tracks at the southern end of the station buildings is Grade II listed in its own right and is a rare surviving example of a reinforced concrete structure built by French engineer Francois Hennebique (1842-1921). The bridge, restored in 2004, has high sides which protected users from the smoke emitted from steam locomotives passing below when originally installed.

    Kew Gardens railway station exterior on the “Up” side – 01/01/2023
    Kew Gardens railway station – 30/07/2016
    Kew Gardens railway station, platform side – 01/01/2023
    Class 378 Capitalstar Electric Multiple Unit No. 378208 operated by London Overground arrives at Kew Gardens with 2N05 1010 Richmond NII to Stratford while London Underground S7 Stock Fleet No.21403 with driving coach No. 21404 at the rear of 2O51 Upminster LT to Upminster LT via Richmond awaits departure – 01/01/2023
    London Underground S7 Stock Fleet No. 21377 with driving coach No. 21378 leading arrives at Kew Gardens working 2O16 Upminster LT to Upminster LT via Richmond. The footbridge can be seen in the background – 01/01/2023

    I very much enjoyed the V&A’s exhibition celebrating the life and work of Beatrix Potter. One railway themed item was this illustrated letter Beatrix sent to Marjorie Moore, the daughter of her last governess, detailing an eventful train journey when a farmer’s collie exited the carriage by jumping through a window:

    Letter from Beatrix Potter to Marjorie Moore written on 23rd August 1898
    Beatrix had many animals during her lifetime. Kep, who is shown here was immortalised as Jemima Puddle-Duck’s hero when he rescued her from a ‘sandy whiskered gentleman’

    Following our visit to the V&A (and a fabulous lunch – mustn’t forget the lunch!) we headed off to Islington via Old St. Pancras Churchyard so we could see ‘The Hardy Tree’ which had recently succumbed to a fungal infection and had fallen. During the 1860’s the Midland Railway line was being built over part of the original St. Pancras Churchyard. Arthur Blomfield, a Covent Garden based architect, was commissioned by the Bishop of London to supervise the proper exhumation of human remains and the dismantling of tombs. He passed this unenviable task onto his protégé Thomas Hardy in 1865. Hardy (1840-1928) is best known as a Dorset author and poet with his novels set in rural ‘Wessex’, however before turning to writing full time he studied architecture in London from 1862-67.

    Hardy would have spent many hours in Old St. Pancras Churchyard during the construction of the railway, overseeing the careful removal of bodies and tombs from the land on which the tracks were being laid. Legend has it that Hardy stacked displaced headstones in a circle around an ash tree with the stones becoming embedded in the tree over time.

    A few years before Hardy’s involvement, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) makes reference to Old St. Pancras Churchyard in “A Tale of Two Cities” (1859), as the churchyard in which Roger Cly was buried and where Jerry Cruncher was known to ‘fish’ – a 19th Century term for tomb robbery and body snatching!

    The sad sight of the fallen Hardy Tree, St. Pancras Old Churchyard – 01/01/2023

    Thanks for reading and Happy New Year! This blog entry was brought to you by Halls Soothers. Until next time, we’ll leave you with this; Thomas Hardy, inspired by a visit to Upwey, wrote a poem “At the Railway Station, Upway”, about waiting for a train at a country station: 

    “There is not much that I can do,
    For I’ve no money that’s quite my own!”
    Spoke up the pitying child –
    A little boy with a violin
    At the station before the train came in, –
    “But I can play my fiddle to you,
    And a nice one ’tis, and good in tone!”

    The man in the handcuffs smiled;
    The constable looked, and he smiled, too,
    As the fiddle began to twang;
    And the man in the handcuffs suddenly sang
    Uproariously:
    “This life so free
    Is the thing for me!”
    And the constable smiled, and said no word,
    As if unconscious of what he heard;
    And so they went on till the train came in –
    The convict, and boy with the violin.

    Colas Rail Class 37 No. 37099 working a test train through Upwey – 27/04/2017

  • Seaton

    Wednesday 14th December to Wednesday 21st December 2022

    Seaton Tramway’s Polar Express – 15/12/2022

    This week Yoshi’s mum and I took a trip on the Seaton Tramway’s Polar Express. We enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies and received the first gift of Christmas from the big man himself. Unfortunately, doggos were not allowed on the festive trams, but Yoshi had fun at his cousins’ for a few hours, as did we in the company of the conductor, chefs and elves on our journey to the North Pole.

    In 2018 a new £3m station building was opened suitable for operation all-year round, and which acts as a venue for a range of tramway and community based events including The Polar Express – 15/12/2022

    Established in 1970, the Seaton Tramway is a 2ft 9in narrow gauge electric tramway located in Devon and runs for approximately 3 miles along the Axe Estuary and the River Coly between Seaton on the coast and Colyton and operates over part of the trackbed of the former Seaton branch line railway which closed in March 1966. The tramway was established by Claude Lane, founder of Modern Electric Tramways Ltd, which had previously operated in Eastbourne between 1954 and 1969. 

    Fourteen trams, all based on classic British designs and varying in size from half-scale to two thirds-scale, run on the tramway, which sees over 100,000 visitors per year. Most of the trams were built from scratch by Claude Lane or his successor Allan Gardner, however three were rebuilt from full-size tramcars which originally ran in London, Bournemouth and Exeter.

    TRAM 19 – 1906 – EX-EXETER TRAMWAY CAR
    Built in 1906. An Exeter Corporation Tramways 3ft 6in gauge open topper, 1906 – 1931. Rebuilt at Seaton, 1994-1998. The only Exeter tram in preservation. Enclosed tram for wet weather – 15/12/2022
    Tram 19 at Colyton – 15/12/2022
    TRAM 15 – 1988
    Built in 1988 at Seaton. Previously Car 17 and based on the Manx Electric Railway “toast-rack” cars. Rebuilt at Seaton in 2016 and transformed into an all-weather, enclosed single-deck tramcar – 15/12/2022
    TRAM 14 – 1904 – EX-METROPOLITAN TRAMWAY CAR
    Built in 1904, the oldest tram in the fleet. A metropolitan Tramways “type A” originally numbered car 94 (Standard Gauge), rebuilt at Eastbourne and Seaton between 1962 and 1984. Enclosed tram for wet weather – 15/12/2022
    TRAM 16 –1921 – EX-BOURNEMOUTH TRAMWAY CAR
    Formerly Bournemouth car No. 106, built as a 3ft 6in gauge open-top double-decker in 1921 and withdrawn on the closure of the Bournemouth system in 1936. The body was subsequently discovered in use on a Dorset farm, acquired by the Bournemouth Transport Preservation Group and then donated to Seaton Tramway in 1974 where the body was narrowed, and then rebuilt in its current form. Launched in to service in 1992 – 15/12/2022

    Video of the Seaton Tramway from 1996:

    The recent cold spell saw the Snow & Ice Treatment Train make its second run this winter along the Bournemouth to Weymouth line with a daylight outing on 15th December.

    GBRf Class 66 no.’s 66753 ‘EMD Roberts Road’ and 66745 top and tailing 3Y88 0908 Totton Yard to Totton Yard via Weymouth though Hamworthy – 15/12/2022
    3Y88 0908 Totton Yard to Totton Yard via Weymouth – additional video by kind permission of @dabuckley967 – 15/12/2022

    For The Record

    The final two scheduled test trains of 2022 failed to materialise with Monday evenings 1Q51 1115 Derby RTC to Eastleigh East Yard being cancelled at source due to ‘a problem with the train’ and Wednesday 21st December’s visit of the New Measurement Train operated by Colas Class 43 HST power car No.’s 43272 and 43257 via the West running as 1Q18 0754 Derby RTC to Bristol Kingsland Road was turned around at Yeovil Pen Mill because of late running.

    That brings us to the end of another blog entry, and indeed, our final Railway Dog of 2022. All things being equal, we’ll be back in January 2023 – thank you for reading and all your comments, corrections and contributions over the last 12 months. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

  • Who Nothe?

    30th November to 6th December 2022

    Yoshi at the top of the Fusee Steps at The Nothe, Weymouth – 04/12/2022
    Fusee Steps, The Nothe Weymouth – 04/12/2022
    Broad gauge rail attached to Fusee Steps, The Nothe Weymouth – 04/12/2022

    On Sunday we had a wander around the Nothe in Weymouth where we had a close look at these rails fixed to walls either side of Fusee Steps and wondered what their origin was. Historic England dates the steps and inclined tramway as circa 1860 and describes them as “Three flights of steps with low flanking walls of rendered brick, on which are placed wrought-iron plate rails, forming an inclined tramway for trolleys with double-flange wheels. It was constructed for hauling trolleys transporting ammunition, spares and stores from the quay to Nothe Fort.” We asked the Nothe Fort for any information about the rails, and although there is some dispute about the age and purpose of the them it is believed the tracks themselves are Great Western Railway broad gauge rail, of which large amounts became redundant in the late 19th Century when the GWR converted to standard gauge and much of the track was recycled for use in engineering projects. Many thanks to Geoff Culver from the Nothe Fort Curatorial Team for responding to our questions.

    Yoshi previously visited the Nothe Fort for a silent disco around Luke Jerram’s “Museum of the Moon” – 13/07/2019

    Wednesday 24th November 2022 and it was time for the appearance of the regular 1Z22 0644 Derby Railway Technical Centre to Bristol Kingsland Road via Weymouth test train. This month the train was once again in the charge of two Class 37 locomotives, and we chose to see the train at Maiden Newton as it worked its way down to Weymouth running around eleven minutes late at this point.

    Class 37 No. 37612 approaching Maiden Newton leading 1Z22 0644 Derby Railway Technical Centre to Bristol Kingsland Road – 30/11/2022
    Class 37 No. 37610 having departed Maiden Newton at the rear of 1Z22 0644 Derby Railway Technical Centre to Bristol Kingsland Road – 30/11/2022
    30/11/2022 1Z22 0644 Derby Railway Technical Centre to Bristol Kingsland Road via Weymouth – many thanks for additional video from G E Barrett and @da_buckley967

    We saw both of these locomotives, which are on hire from the Harry Needle Railroad Company at Barrow road earlier in the year:

    Class 37 No. 37612 on static display at Barrow Hill 150+2 – 28/08/2022
    Class 37 No. 37610 Barrow Hill – 28/08/2022
    The same pair of locomotives worked the equivalent test train in December 2020 which originated at that time from Tyseley LMD – 02/12/2020
    Class 37 No. 37610 at Weymouth having worked the 0820 Tyseley TMD to Bristol High Level Siding – 22/05/2019
    Class 37 No. 37521 assisted 37610 on this run of the 0820 Tyseley TMD to Bristol High Level Siding test train, seen here at Weymouth – 22/05/2019

    With Christmas fast approaching, it’s the time of year when many UK heritage railways run steam and lights trains, and the Swanage Railway is no exception. Thursday 1st December 2022 saw festive light adorned Southern Railway (SR) U Class 2-6-0 No. 31806 and SR Bulleid West Country Pacific 4-6-2 No. 34028 ‘Eddystone’ top and tailing a trial run for staff and volunteers. The previous evening saw the train operated empty with resident Class 33 diesel locomotives as the final Christamassy tweaks were made to the service.

    SR U Class 2-6-0 No. 31806 prepares to depart Swanage with a special outing pre-season opener for the 2022 Steam and Lights train for staff and volunteers – 01/12/2022
    Video of the pre-season steam hauled lights train – 01/12/2022

    The Railway Touring Company ran a steam hauled excursion from London Victoria to Yeovil, stopping to drop off passengers at Sherborne for a Christmas carol service held at Sherborne Abbey on Tuesday 6th April 2022. The rail tour, top and tailed by London Midland & Scottish (LMS) Stanier Black Five 4-6-0 No. 44871 and West Coast Railway Company Class 47 No. 47813, continued on to Yeovil Junction for servicing before heading back to Sherborne to pick up passengers for the return to London.

    Ian Riley’s LMS Stanier Black Five 4-6-0 No. 44871 approaches Sherborne working 1Z82 0830 London Victoria to Yeovil JN DN Main Platform – 06/12/2022
    WCRC Class 47 No. 47813 pauses at Sherborne at the rear of “The Sherborne Christmas Carol” 1Z82 0830 London Victoria to Yeovil JN DN Main Platform – 06/12/2022
    “The Sherborne Christmas Carol” rail tour at Sherborne – 06/12/2022 with additional video kindly provided by Caroline Smith
    While we were in Sherborne, we visited the Castle Garden Centre where Yoshi enjoyed watching the trains on the festive themed model railway – 06/12/2022

    While waiting for the Class 37 test train at Maiden Newton last Wednesday, I remembered that previously the equivalent test train in recent years was often top and tailed by Colas Class 67 locomotives. During this period, the test train was often turned around at Dorchester and missed out the section to Weymouth, very frustrating for those of us waiting at the seaside terminus. The two Colas Class 67 locomotives which were repeatedly turned out for the Tyseley TMD to Bristol High Level Siding via Weymouth test train were No.’s 67023 ‘Stella’ and 67027 ‘Charlotte’. Formerly part of the DB Cargo fleet, in January 2017 these two Class 67’s were sold to Colas Rail and they were repainted into Colas orange and black at Toton Traction Maintenance Depot for use on Network Rail (NR) infrastructure monitoring trains. They received their nameplates in June 2017. In December 2018, the pair were included in a sale of 67 France and UK based locomotives to Beacon Rail Leasing. They were subsequently leased back to Colas Rail. More recently they have been acquired by GBRf for use on operations including charter, passenger and stock moves including hauling the Highland section of the Caledonian Sleeper.

    The Bo-Bo Class 67 diesel-electric locomotives were built for DB Cargo forerunner English Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS) between 1999 and 2000 by Alstom at Meinfesa in Valencia, Spain with the engine, generator and traction motors provided by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. The locomotives are able to supply Electric Train Supply for passenger train heating and air-conditioning. They were at first primarily utilised for mail trains, but with diminishing traffic, the contract finally ceased in March 2004.

    High speed running tests were undertaken with No. 67002 at Alstom’s facility at La Sagra, Toledo, Spain and running on the standard gauge Madrid-Toledo high-speed rail line where a top speed of 143 miles per hour was realised. 

    Colas Class 67 No. 67023 ‘Stella’, Weymouth working 0820 Tyseley TMD to Bristol High Level Siding – 22/04/2020
    Colas Class 67 No. 67023 ‘Stella’ arrives at Weymouth heading 0820 Tyseley TMD to Bristol High Level Siding – 19/06/2019
    Nameplate detail for Colas Class 67 No. 67023 ‘Stella’, Weymouth – 19/06/2019
    Nameplate detail for Colas Class 67 No. 67027 ‘Charlotte’, Weymouth – 19/06/2019
    Colas Class 67 No. 67023 ‘Stella’ at the buffer stops at Weymouth having arrived with 0820 Tyseley TMD to Bristol High Level Siding – 15/07/2020
    Colas Class 67 No. 67027 ‘Charlotte’ ready to depart Weymouth with 0820 Tyseley TMD to Bristol High Level Siding – 15/07/2020
    A dirty Colas Class 67 No. 67027 ‘Charlotte’ at Weymouth working 0820 Tyseley TMD to Bristol High Level Siding – 19/06/2019
    Various visits to Weymouth by Colas Freight Class 67 locomotives all mashed up

    Another blog entry draws to a close. Thank you for reading and for your comments, corrections and contributions. We’ll leave you with this thought; “Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them, filling an emptiness we don’t even know we have.” – Thom Jones (1945-2016)

    Yoshi and I meet for the first time – 16/03/2019

  • A Peak Week

    23rd November to 29th November 2022

    Yoshi in Loughborough with a Ladybird Book seat featuring images from the “How It Works….” series – 24/11/2022

    We were lucky enough to enjoy a few days away last week, and as part of our travels, I was able to take in some railway locations. Before that however, Wednesday evening was one of those occasions when an unusual working along the Bournemouth to Weymouth line passed me by and it wasn’t until Thursday morning that I realised I’d missed out on seeing the Colas Ultrasonic Test Unit hauled by vintage Class 37 diesel electric locomotive No. 37421. I consoled myself with the knowledge it would have been raining as it passed through my local station on the outward run, and I was tucked up in bed by the time it returned. However, on our way to Derbyshire on Thursday morning, we popped into Eastleigh to find No. 37421 perfectly parked for a quick photo opportunity adjacent to Eastleigh railway station.

    Colas Class 37 No. 37421 parked up having worked 3Q02 Eastleigh East Yard to Eastleigh East Yard via Weymouth and Fratton at Eastleigh – 24/11/2022
    GBRf Class 66 No. 66797 with a Network Rail National Delivery Service (NDS) track machine at Eastleigh – 24/11/2022
    GBRf Class 73 Electro-Diesel No.’s 73965 ‘Des O’Brien’ and 73961 ‘Alison’ being readied to work 1Q52 1045 Eastleigh East Yard to Tonbridge West Yard at Eastleigh – 24/11/2022

    After our Eastleigh pitstop, we drove on to Loughborough, where I was hopeful at seeing some stored Class 60 diesel locomotives at Brush Traction Works. The plant, known locally as the Falcon Works, was established in 1865 to build steam locomotives. American owned Wabtec took charge in 2011 and in April 2021 they announced reduced volumes had made the site “unsustainable” and proposed its closure which would see the end to over 150 years of locomotive building.

    The last time I had attempted to see locomotives at Brush, Loughborough I recall traipsing across water meadows to get a close view through a fence of Channel Tunnel Class 92’s. This time, having studied Google Maps, I drove around the outskirts of the site along access roads which I wasn’t entirely sure were open to the public. I wasn’t stopped by security, even when they drove past me as I snapped away.

    Class 92 No. 92006, Loughborough – 24/11/2022
    GBRf Class 47 No. 47727 ‘Edinburgh Castle’ at Loughborough. The Class 47 diesel-electric locomotive was one of Brush’s most successful with 512 examples having been built as part of the British Rail Modernisation Plan. This particular example was built at BR Crewe Works as part of Order Lot 400 and entered traffic as D1629 at Toton depot on the 17th October 1964 – 24/11/2022
    Class 60 No. 60013 at Brush Loughborough – 24/11/2022

    Below are a series of images of nine stored Class 60 locomotives at Brush Works, Loughborough: the locos are No.’s 60057, 60008, 60061, 60070, 60038, 60009, 60090 and 60064. They are owned by Devon Cornwall Rail (DCR) and hopefully some will be returned to main line use.

    Brush, Loughborough – 24/11/2022
    Brush, Loughborough – 24/11/2022
    Brush, Loughborough – 24/11/2022
    Brush, Loughborough – 24/11/2022
    Brush, Loughborough – 24/11/2022
    Brush, Loughborough – 24/11/2022
    Brush, Loughborough – 24/11/2022
    Brush, Loughborough – 24/11/2022

    And here is video of my previous visit in 1995, when Class 92’s, Class 20’s and a Class 47 were amongst the classes of locomotive present:

    I very much look forward to learning what is going to happen to the Class 60 locomotives at Loughborough and hope that at least some of them will turn a wheel in revenue earning service in the near future.

    From Loughborough, we drove onto Derby where we stopped for refreshment at The Alexandra Pub on Siddals Road. The pub is well known for it’s railway memorabilia and I enjoyed a Diet Coke and a packet of dried roasted peanuts while I took in the signs and locomotive nameplates which adorned the walls.

    The Alexandra Hotel has a strong railway theme and Manager Ralf Edge has collected a range of memorabilia that decorates the walls – 24/11/2022
    Railway memorabilia at The Alexandra Hotel, Derby – 24/11/2022
    ‘Derby Evening Telegraph’ name plate at The Alexandra Hotel, Derby – 24/11/2022
    The Alexandra Hotel, Derby has the cab of Class 37 No. 37411 in its garden – 24/11/2022

    After a nights rest, we set off on Friday morning for a leisurely drive through the Peak District National Park taking in Peak Forest.

    The former Peak Forest Railway Station – 25/11/2022

    Peak Forest railway station was opened in 1867 by the Midland Railway on its extension of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway from Rowsley, part of the main Midland Line from Manchester to London. It was also the northern junction for the line from Buxton. A section of the line is retained for freight trains. The station closed in 1967 and the platforms were demolished shortly afterwards, although a section has been reinstated for railway staff and the station buildings which can be seen from the road bridge passing over the tracks survive as offices for the nearby quarry terminal.

    DB Class 66 No.’s 66085 and 66143 at Peak Forest – 25/11/2022
    I was very happy to see Class 20 No.’s 20007 and 20205 parked up at Peak Forest – 25/11/2022
    MPV No. DR98982 works 3S50 0554 Wigan Locomotive Inspection Point to Crewe at Peak Forest – 25/11/2022
    Freightliner Class 66 No. 66620 working 6D17 1148 Tunstead sidings to Radlett Redland Roadstone passes Peak Forest signal box – 25/11/2022
    Class 60 No. 60059 ‘Swindon Dalesman’ at Peak Forest – 25/11/2022

    From Peak Forest, we headed into Buxton for lunch in “The Railway @. Buxton” a pub which got its name as it was popular with railway workers after they had finished their shifts. It stands in front of the impressive Buxton Viaduct which carries the freight line from Peak Forest. As we parked up, we saw Class 60 No. 60059 ‘Swindon Dalesman’ pass over working 6E18 1141 Peak Forest RMC Sidings to Attercliffe Sindings EWS

    Class 60 No. 60059 ‘Swindon Dalesman’ working 6E18 1141 Peak Forest RMC Sidings to Attercliffe Sindings EWS at Buxton – 25/11/2022

    There were once two railway stations in Buxton; the aforementioned Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway from Rowsley favoured by the Midland Railway (MR) and The Stockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway supported by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) extended its line to Buxton. The stations were built side by side and given identical frontages designed by Joseph Paxton (best known for designing Crystal Palace and for cultivating the Cavendish banana), and built by John Smith each being built from local stone and having a wrought iron glazed train shed, fronted with half-circle fan widows and the names of the operating companies carved into the supporting stonework. Joseph Paxton was a director of both companies and he attended grand lunches at the opening of both stations which occurred on the same day; 1st June 1863. Can’t say I blame him!

    A view along the platform at Buxton showing the half circle fan window and Class 156 No. 156452 – 25/11/2022

    Buxton’s Midland Station fell victim to the Beeching Axe and closed on 6th March 1967 and was demolished in November 1970. There have been numerous attempts since to relay the track as a heritage line, but these have met without success to date. The LNWR station survives and handles all of Buxton’s passenger traffic today. The glazed roof has been removed, but the fanlight window was restored in 2009 and is Grade II listed.

    The LNWR station building at Buxton – 25/11/2022
    An O gauge model of the demolished Midland Station at Buxton constructed by Barry Bryant, Keith Holland and Charlie Schultz which took four years to build using photographs and scale drawings – 25/11/2022
    Buxton railway station with Northern Rail Class 156 No. 156452 and Class 150 No. 150121 – 25/11/2022
    Class 156 No. 156460 contemplates the view towards Manchester with signal box and surviving semaphore signalling – 25/11/2022
    Mural of Buxton at the railway station – 25/11/2022
    Joe the Guard statue at Buxton railway station. He was named after broadcaster and comedian Alexei Sayle in honour of his father, Joseph Henry Sayle, who was a lifelong guard. Joe was made from metal salvaged from Buxton Traction Maintenance Depot (TMD) before it was demolished in March 2016 – 25/11/2022

    Saturday we had planned to head to Nottingham to meet friends. There was a strike by ASLEF union members which prevented any East Midlands Railway (EMR) trains running through the city. However, a quick look at the rail tour schedule revealed that The Railway Touring Company organised “York Yule-Tide Express” was scheduled to pass very close to Nottingham at around 1030 that morning. So feeling quite pleased that a mainline steam train would be in our sights, we headed off to Toton which is halfway between Derby and Nottingham. After taking some photographs from the A52 looking across to Toton depot, we drove a short distance to Sandiacre and the Iron Giant Walkway which crosses the five track railway line which I though would make a great location to see LMS Coronation Pacific No. 6233 ‘Duchess of Sutherland’ head to York.

    Toton viewed from the A52 rail over bridge – 26/11/2022
    A collection of Class 60 and Class 66 locomotives at Toton. Spot the Class 67! – 26/11/2022
    A view across to Toton depot with Class 60 No. 60079 in the foreground – 26/11/2022
    Class 60 No. 60012 slowly rotting away at Toton – 26/11/2022
    Some of the stored DB Class 60 locomotives at Toton with No. 60048 closest to the camera – 26/11/2022
    Yoshi settles down on the Iron Giant Walkway at Sandiacre waiting for the Duchess – 26/11/2022
    Pigeon bothering LMS Coronation Pacific No. 6233 ‘Duchess of Sutherland’ working 1Z10 0635 Ealing Broadway to York “York Yule-Tide Express” passing Sandiacre – 26/11/2022
    West Coast Railways Class 37 No. 37668 at the rear of 1Z10 0635 Ealing Broadway to York “York Yule-Tide Express” passes Sandiacre – 26/11/2022
    Video of LMS Coronation Pacific No. 6233 ‘Duchess of Sutherland’ working 1Z10 0635 Ealing Broadway to York passes the Iron Giant Walkway at Sandiacre (additional video footage courtesy of Caroline Smith – 26/11/2022

    While we were waiting for The Duchess we learned Nottingham Castle had fallen into liquidation and was closed to the public. We were not discouraged by this set back and headed off to the Park and Ride at Clifton South, Nottingham. It was only when we tried to buy tickets for the Nottingham Tram that we discovered that dogs were ‘not allowed’ onboard. The helpful Nottingham Express Transit (NET) representative at at Clifton South suggested asking tram drivers if they minded Yoshi being carried onboard and luckily none of the drivers of the trams we travelled on that day objected. Quite frankly, I was amazed that dogs were not allowed on the trams. A quick look at other tram networks in the UK revealed that NET are not alone in their no dog policy. Surely if local authorities want to get people out of their cars and onto public transport this absurd rule needs to be changed. I spoke to NET who told me dogs are not carried on the Nottingham trams for “health and safety reasons and for passenger and animal safety”. I was however informed that dogs would be allowed if they were carried in a suitable “pet carrier or bag.”

    Nottingham Express Transit Tram No.233 at Clifton South Park and Ride – 26/11/2022
    NET Tram No. 202 awaits departure from Old Market Square bound for Phoenix Park – 26/11/2022
    Nottingham City Centre trams No. 234 and No. 219 ‘Alan Sillitoe’ – 26/11/2022

    Once in Nottingham, Yoshi and I decided to explore. First stop was Nottingham railway station which is the only surviving city centre station which survives from the four that once served the population of the city of Nottingham. The station was first built by the Midland Railway (MR) in 1848 and later rebuilt in 1904 to design by company architect Charles Trubshaw with external detail by local architect Albert Lambert. It is now owned by Network Rail (NR) and managed by (EMR). The tram network runs above the station on the path of the former Great Central Railway (GCR) viaduct and includes an interchange tram stop. The station was renovated in 2017 but a fire started by a 33 year old female drug addict in January 2018 badly damaged the building.

    Nottingham Railway Station exterior – 26/11/2022

    The station entrance is itself on a road bridge above the platform level and is of heavy railway baroque style with the frontage consisting of a grand passageway, where road traffic once had access, flanked by a giant arch at each end and five arches along the front. A large domed clock tower dominates the building while the interior ticket hall displays a Renaissance quality

    The ticket hall, Nottingham Railway Station – 26/11/2022
    Yoshi meets East Midland Railway mascot “Miles” at Nottingham Railway Station – 26/11/2022
    Stationary trains including Class 158 diesel multiple units No.’s 158858 and 158777 in evidence at Nottingham Railway Station during a one day strike by ASLEF members – 26/11/2022
    Yoshi waits at Nottingham Station Tram Stop while NEC tram No. 213 awaits to depart on a service to Hucknall – 26/11/2022

    The other city centre railway stations were the GCR’s Nottingham Victoria, which was raised to the ground and replaced by a shopping centre with only the clock tower surviving, and two on London Road opened by the Great Northern Railway (GNR). Of the Nottingham London Road station’s; the High Level station was demolished in 2006 and although severely damaged by fire in 1996, the Low Level station building has been restored and converted to a health and fitness club.

    The clock tower survived the demolition of Nottingham Victoria railway station – 26/11/2022
    Plaque commemorating Nottingham Victoria with the Victoria Shopping Centre, Nottingham – 26/11/2022

    That’s it for another week – thank you for joining us. We’ll leave you with the following thought; “In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag” – W.H. Auden

  • We’re One Year Old!

    17th November to 22nd November 2022

    Yoshi with SR Unrebuilt Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ at Corfe Castle railway station on the Swanage Railway – 17/11/2022

    We first posted in Yoshi’s blog on 22nd November 2021 so I, for one, am very pleased we have completed a year of entries. Thank you for joining us if this is your first time or your 58th time. We really do appreciate everyone who has taken time out to read our words, look at our pictures or watch our video clips. Thank you for your comments, updates, suggestions and corrections over the past year.

    This last week began with a Thursday lunchtime trip to Corfe Castle on the Swanage Railway to see SR Unrebuilt Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ which was out on test running light engine. The locomotive has only recently been returned to traffic and later in the day she also hauled two carriages in a loaded test run from Swanage.

    SR Unrebuilt Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ departs Corfe Castle during a running in test run – 17/11/2022
    SR Unrebuilt Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ at Corfe Castle during a running in test run – 17/11/2022
    Nameplate and crest detail of SR Unrebuilt Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ – 17/11/2022
    Yoshi takes a closer look at SR Unrebuilt Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 No. 34070 ‘Manston’ while at Corfe Castle – 17/11/2022

    In the evening we went along to the Dorset Museum’s “Museum after Hours” event in Dorchester. It was the first time I had visited the museum since its £16.4m refurbishment and May 2021 re-opening. The new museum galleries are spacious, the displays well thought out with a child friendly leaning. The railways of Dorset are covered by one display panel and a Brio style model track circle as part of the Trade and Industry section within the “People’s Dorset” gallery on the first floor.

    Dorset Museum celebrates the railways in Dorset – 17/11/2022

    I very much enjoyed seeing a number of sculptures from Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930 – 1993) who I have very fond memories of meeting at the museum many years ago while on a school visit. The “Artists’ Dorset” gallery was perhaps my favourite of what is currently on offer at the museum.

    Leonardo’s Dog (Bronze, edition of 6, 1990) – on a visit to the Loire, Dame Elisabeth Frink came across a stone dog at the entrance to Leonardo Da Vinci’s house that inspired her to create this work. Frink admired the traits of loyalty and dignity which she felt were often lacking in humans – 17/11/2022
    In August 1996 Dame Elisabeth was one of five ‘Women of Achievement’ selected for a set of British stamps 

    In 2016/17, the Dorset County Museum (as we called it then) held an excellent exhibition of railway posters and station roundels called “Speed to the West” curated by “Antiques Roadshow” expert Paul Atterbury and collector Richard Furness. I was, of course, particularly pleased that some Terrence Cuneo posters were included and I’d be very pleased if the museum did a repeat showing!

    Dorset County Museum’s “Speed to the West” curated by Antiques Roadshow expert Paul Atterbury and collector Richard Furness – 19/03/2016
    Dorset County Museum’s “Speed to the West” curated by Antiques Roadshow expert Paul Atterbury and collector Richard Furness – 19/03/2016
    Dorset County Museum’s “Speed to the West” curated by Antiques Roadshow expert Paul Atterbury and collector Richard Furness – 19/03/2016

    Friday morning was the start of a long weekend with a return trip to the Naval Dockyards at Portsmouth. Our intention this time was to see the Submarine Museum which we didn’t have time for on our previous visit in the summer, but with the special boat which is used to ferry visitors across to Gosport not running, we elected instead to postpone clambering around the submarines and instead visited the ships on show in Portsmouth.

    There are still a few remains of the once extensive Portsmouth dockyard railway system still in evidence:

    Began in 1843 within the walls of the dockyard, the railway was connected to the national network in 1846 via the “Admiralty Line” between Unicorn Gate and Portsmouth Town station (now Portsmouth & Southsea). By 1952, at its peak, there were around 27 miles of track within the docks used for transporting goods, equipment and personnel. In the 1970’s the railway declined and the link to the main line was closed in 1977 with the dockyard railway closing entirely a year later.

    HMS M.33 built in 1915 is not only the sole remaining British veteran of the bloody Dardanelles Campaign of 1915-1916, but also of the Russian Civil War which followed. The ship is one of just three British warships from World War I still in existence. Behind the ship you can see two railway wagons which remain in evidence – 18/11/2022
    According to a list of crew on board HMS M.33 in 1915, there were two ship’s dogs. Squab belonged to the captain, Preston-Thomas and Nell belonged to the crew. There was also a ship’s cat, Miss Muggins and the wheelhouse had a cat flap – 18/11/2022
    I didn’t video many trains on this Portsmouth outing – but this video clip includes DB Class 66 No. 66013 working 4021 0915 Trafford Park Euro Terminal to Southampton Western Docks Berth 109, GWR Class 166 No. 166215 working 1F26 1623 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central, GWR Class 165 No. 165129 with Class 166 No. 166203 working 1F24 1523 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central, Southern Class 377 No. 377158 working 1S24 1400 Brighton to Portsmouth Harbour and an RHTT configured MPV working 3S82 0611 Totton Yard to Totton Yard – 18/11/2022

    Saturday evening saw Yoshi’s mum and myself in West Bay for dinner at the Station Kitchen which is situated at the former West Bay railway station. Originally called Bridport Harbour, the name was changed by the Great Western Railway to make it sound a more desirable holiday destination. Passenger services between Bridport and West Bay ended in 1930 with goods traffic remaining until closure in 1962. The restaurant comprises the dog-friendly 1884 station building and two railway carriages which have been transported to the site. The first carriage, which we dined in, GWR No. 2370 named ‘Brunel’ is a toplight brake corridor coach built in 1911 and purchased for use by the Station Kitchen in 2015. The carriage has quite a history having been used as a makeshift hospital in France during World War I and a tool coach in Worcester in the 1950’s before its restoration in Oswestry.

    The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 19/11/2022
    Station building interior – The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 19/11/2022
    ‘Brunel’ – The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 19/11/2022
    ‘Brunel’ interior – The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 19/11/2022
    ‘Brunel’ interior – The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 19/11/2022

    The second coach at West Bay is BR MK1 corridor second No. 25646 built in Gloucester in 1958 and was being used as a mess coach at Toddington when it was purchased for its new life at West Bay. This carriage has been named ‘Beeching’.

    ‘Beeching’ – The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 19/11/2022
    ‘Beeching’ interior – The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 19/11/2022

    The food was amazing, with perhaps the best cheesecake I’ve tasted. The staff were friendly, professional and attentive. If Yoshi had joined us, he would not have hesitated in giving the Station Kitchen five barks out of five.

    Yoshi visited The Station Kitchen, West Bay in April – 15/04/2022
    The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 15/04/2022
    The Station Kitchen, West Bay before the addition of the carriages – 31/03/2016
    The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 31/03/2016
    The Station Kitchen, West Bay – 31/03/2016

    On our Sunday morning walk, Yoshi and I went along to Lake Road in Hamworthy to see work being carried out on the railway bridge. Rotten timbers on which the railway line is carried were replaced and the area re-ballasted involving a team from Sonic Rail Services, who specialise in bridge strengthening and Network Rail. We await news of the first train to make it down the restored Hamworthy Branch with anticipation!

    Lake Road bridge works – 20/11/2022

    Lake Road bridge works – 20/11/2022
    The crossing at Ashmore Road looking towards Poole Port was managed by Network Rail staff – 20/11/2022
    A Network Rail Mercedes-Benz lorry reverses into the compound where the original Poole station was located. This later became Hamworthy Goods. The lorry, from Eastleigh, had arrived to collect the old timbers which had been removed from Lake Road bridge – 20/11/2022
    Bridge works at Lake Road – 20/11/2022

    Finally, Monday evening once again saw the regular Class 73 hauled track inspection test train heading to Weymouth. We elected to see the train pass through Poole on its outward journey working as 1Q51 1115 Derby RTC to Eastleigh East Yard in the capable charge of GBRf No.’s 73965 ‘Des O’Brien’ and 73961 ‘Alison’.

    1Q51 1115 Derby RTC to Eastleigh East Yard – 21/11/2022

    That’s it for another week! This entry was brought to you accompanied by the sounds of rainbow frog biscuit, Zeph, Ron Grainer & Delia Derbyshire (happy 59th birthday Doctor Who!). Until next time, remember; “The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog” – Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914 or thereabouts).