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The wait goes on for Tramlink expansion

TRAMS have been one of the great success stories in UK public transport over the past two decades, with passengers liking the frequent, reliable and environmentally-friendly service they provide, and networks being expanded in all but one of the seven UK towns and cities where trams are operating.

While plans have been implemented, or are afoot, for system expansion in Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield and Blackpool, one glaring exception is Tramlink, the network centred on Croydon, which celebrated its 20^th anniversary in May 2020. Continue reading “The wait goes on for Tramlink expansion”

Return to Craven Arms

DB 67008 pushes set HD02 past signal CA27 with 1V39 from Manchester Piccadilly (10.30)

Three years after its installation and opening (January 2023) it is time to pay a return visit to the revolutionary lightweight footbridge that stands north of Craven Arms on the busy Newport-Shrewsbury Marches Line, and offers a great vantage point from which to watch trains passing the semaphores controlled by Craven Arms Crossing Signal Box.

Despite the loss of five semaphores when a cross-over for Heart of Wales-bound trains was moved from north to south of Craven Arms station, the rather hideous-looking signal box still controls seven semaphores, with an up (northbound) trio comprising home (CA2) and starter signals, (CA3), both visible from the station, and section signal CA4 north of the footbridge.

Another taste of TfW fine dining

67022 arrives at Newport with 1W59 from Cardiff Central (12.53) to Manchester Piccadilly

Almost two years on from my only previous experience (feature: April 2024) and the offer of a bargain-priced First Class single from Newport to Crewe in the January Rail Sale (£32.80 with railcard) meant a chance to sample once again the fine dining available each day on a handful of Transport for Wales (TfW) Cardiff-Manchester services and one Holyhead-Cardiff working.

As I wrote two years ago, dining on the line is a pleasure that takes me back to my early working career in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when I had some memorable meals aboard the all-First Class Manchester Pullman and was also the only enthusiast aboard the last ever restaurant service in a 4-REP unit from London Waterloo to Bournemouth (2 October 1981)

Rare diversionary action on the Settle-Carlisle Line

805001/007 approach Garsdale on 14 January with 1Z85 from Carlisle (09.23) to Preston

Diverting West Coast Main Line trains over the scenic Settle-Carlisle Line was once standard practice when the WCML was blocked between Preston and Carlisle, but the famously scenic route had not been used for this purpose for more than ten years, until it regained this role during the first two weeks of 2026.

What made it possible now was the arrival into service of Avanti West Coast’s new bi-mode Class 805 Evero units, primarily designed to operate services between London Euston and Holyhead, but ideally suited to operating the Preston-Carlisle shuttles that were run from 1st to 14th January 2026.

Winslow still waits for its first train

More than a year after Phase Two of the long-awaited East-West Rail (EWR) Project to link Oxford and Cambridge was completed, residents in the small Buckinghamshire market town of Winslow still wait for the day when the promised half-hourly trains between Oxford and Milton Keynes begin calling at their shiny new station.

Winslow originally lost its passenger service on New Year’s Day 1968, with delayed closure to passengers of the Varsity Line, and its new and re-sited station is the only genuinely new stop along the section of EWR route from Bicester Village to Bletchley, apart from new high level platforms at Bletchley, alongside the existing WCML station.

Images of 2025

East Anglia became the first region in England without any semaphore signals when the quartet at Manea were replaced in November, including M23 on a bracket and down section signal M3, as seen here on 12 May 2025 as 755410 departs with 2E76 from Ipswich (11.56) to Peterborough

Change is a constant feature of our railway network and 2025 was no exception, when there were more notable losses of mechanical signalling, in East Anglia and in South Wales, and when 49 years of HST-powered passenger services across England came to an end with retirement of the shortened GWR Castle sets, with their final workings in Cornwall and Devon on 13 December.

Closer to home was completion of a much-delayed re signalling of the Portsmouth Direct Line and with it loss of three surviving signal boxes, at Farncombe, Haslemere and Petersfield, with the one at Farncombe immediately demolished, Petersfield remaining with Network Rail, but Haslemere set to become a working museum sometime in 2026.

Farewell to the GWR Castle HSTs

43093/198 (GW09) accelerate away from St. Erth with 2C20 from Exeter SD. (11.28) to Penzance

They were only created as a temporary fix to cover for a shortage of rolling stock and have out-lived their expected withdrawal date by at least two years, but now time is finally up for the popular GWR Castle 2+4 HSTs, which will make their last journeys between Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance on Saturday, 13 December 2025.

Keen to pay my respects, I took a rather lengthy trip to Cornwall on their final weekday of working (Friday, 12 December) with the aim of capturing a trio of these iconic units as they passed the equally iconic semaphore signals at St. Erth, before taking a last ever ride aboard 43004/186 (GW08) from there back to Plymouth.

A look inside Anglesey’s historic signal boxes

805012 approaches signal TC1 on 26 November 2025 with 1D82 from Crewe (09.47) to Holyhead

Visiting signal boxes is a rare treat that gives you a real insight into how Victorian technology is still safely controlling many parts of our national rail network, so it was a rather special day (25 November 2025) when I was kindly invited by Network Rail to visit the Isle of Anglesey’s five historic signal and gate boxes.

Over the course of the final 21 miles of the North Wales Main Line, from Llanfairpwll to Holyhead, this quintet of boxes includes three Grade II-Listed structures at Llanfairpwll, Ty Croes and Valley, along with a LNWR box dating from 1882 at remote Gaerwen and a large LMS box at Holyhead, which is youngest of all, and only dates from 1937.

A full set of semaphores at Uttoxeter

DB 66654 passes signal UR39 on 20 November 2025 with 6K72 from Arpley Sidings to Toton

Almost five years after my previous visit (April 2021) I am tempted to make a return visit to Uttoxeter, mid-point of North Staffordshire route between Derby and Stoke-on-Trent, to capture trains passing its fine set of semaphores and in the hope of capturing some non-passenger action.

Uttoxeter is probably best known as home of the Midlands Grand National, but earned a place in railway history for being home to England’s very last mechanical signal box, a BR (London Midland Region) Type 15 design, which opened in January 1981 and is equipped with a re-conditioned 40-lever frame, now controlling a total of ten semaphore signals.

Return to Inverkeilor

43132/137 approach Inverkeilor with 1A35 from Glasgow Queen Street (08.40) to Aberdeen

Four years after my only previous visit, and an autumn break in the Scottish capital gives me the perfect excuse (on 11 November 2025) to take a bargain-priced (£14.30) 90-minute trip aboard one of the wonderful ScotRail Inter7City HSTs to Arbroath, then a short bus ride north to the village of Inverkeilor, to capture the railway scene at this photogenic location.

Inverkeilor has been without a railway station since September 1930, but is one of ten locations along the East Coast Main Line in Scotland to retain mechanical signalling, with its 1881 North British Railway signal box controlling four semaphore arms, all of which can be seen from an over-bridge in Station Road.

End of an era on the Portsmouth Direct Line

To mark his final shift and imminent closure of the box on 24 October 2025 Haslemere signaller Ashley was encouraging all passing drivers to sound their horns as they approached the station!

At 00.34 in the early hours of Saturday, 25 October 2025, SWR Class 444 units 444009/040, which formed train 2P77 from London Waterloo (departing at 23.22 on Friday night) earned a place in railway history when it became the last passenger train ever to be signalled by Haslemere Signal Box. After 130 years of faithful service the signal box bells fell silent and its working life was over.

Under Network Rail’s (NR) heavily-delayed re-signalling plans, the box at Haslemere has closed, along with those at Farncombe and Petersfield, with control of the Portsmouth Direct Line being taken over by the NR Railway Operating Centre (ROC) at Basingstoke and the route scheduled to re-open, after a nine-closure, on Monday, 3 November 2025.