November 2021 – RailwayWorld.net

Final 2021 steam workings from Wolsztyn

Scheduled steam passenger services from Wolsztyn depot in Poland came to an end for the 2021 season on Saturday, 27 November, when Ol49-69 worked the final two round trips from Wolsztyn to Poznań.

The 2-6-2 loco has been the sole working engine at Wolsztyn since the boiler ticket of Mikado 2-8-2 Pt47-65 expired a couple of months ago, while a third loco (Ol49-59) remains under long term overhaul and is unlikely to return to Wolsztyn for many months.

Weekday trains return to Okehampton

THREE YEARS after I wrote a feature lamenting the continued absence of weekday trains to Okehampton (blog: 12 August 2018) it was a great pleasure to be able to travel on the first weekday service to and from the important Dartmoor town in over 49 years.

While I had only expected to see a handful of hardy souls aboard the 06.29 departure from Exeter St. David’s on that inaugural weekday journey (Monday, 22 November 2021), what came as a shock was the lack of custom for the 07.20 departure from Okehampton, pictured above, the commuter service that reaches Exeter Central at 08.05.

New trains and semaphores on the Borderlands Line

Along with the semaphores at Gobowen which I featured last month (2 October 2021) one other outpost of mechanical signalling in this area is at Penyffordd, a remote station along the 27-mile long Borderlands Line linking Wrexham with Bidston on the Wirral.

Penyffordd is a quiet and pleasant spot that is seven miles north of Wrexham, where a relatively modern (BR London Midland Region, 1972) signal box controls a handful of semaphores from its 25-lever frame, as well as releasing a ground frame controlling access to a nearby cement works.

Island Line re-opens at last

SEVEN months late and one entire summer season lost, but passenger trains finally returned to the Isle of Wight on Monday, 1 November 2021, with the launch into service of a third generation of ex-London Underground trains to ply the 8½ miles between Ryde Pier Head and Shanklin since its electrification in 1966.

After all the delays the re-launch service is just half of what it is supposed to be, with an hourly service for the next six weeks until the long-awaited two trains an hour is finally introduced with the next timetable change on Sunday, 12 December. Even the one an hour service was badly disrupted on re-opening day.