December 2023 – RailwayWorld.net

Images of 2023

43008/007 approach Corfe Castle on 26 September with 1Z25 from Swanage to Bournemouth

This is my fifth annual look back at a year on our railway, as seen through the lens of my trusty Canon camera, and it has been a year characterised by loss of two 1970s icons in the form of Class 313 units from Coastway duties and HSTs making their final exit from CrossCountry (XC) services and being scaled back in their GWR operations.

Once again I have picked 23 images which represent the year 2023 and reflect our ever changing railway scene, be it these losses of historic rolling stock, the arrival of new trains, such as the Class 197 units in Wales, as well as places that will be losing their mechanical signalling over the coming year.

Wales’ most westerly semaphores

Colas Rail 56113/051 pass Ty Croes’ down distant signal TC1 with RHTT 3S71 to Holyhead

There have been a few changes to the railway scene on island of Anglesey since my last visit two and a half years ago (May 2021), but happily the final ten miles to Holyhead from remote Ty Croes remains an interesting outpost of mechanical signalling, with no imminent plans for any re-signalling.

While the TfW fleet of Alstom Class 175 units have been displaced by the CAF Class 197 units that will eventually cover the whole of Wales, and regular loco-hauled interest is now confined to a once-daily Holyhead-Cardiff return, control of the route remains with the trio of signal and gate boxes at Holyhead, Valley and Ty Croes.

Cornish semaphore swansong

After many delays, the end is now fast approaching for the fine collection of lower quadrant semaphore signals at Par, Lostwithiel and Truro, with 27 February 2024 signalled as the date when this trio of boxes will finally close.

In the six years since I began writing this blog I have witnessed the end of mechanical signalling in places as far afield as Blackpool North, Humberside, Norfolk’s Wherry Lihes and the North Wales Coast, so now it is time for a final farewell visit (21/22 November 2023) to the Royal Duchy.

Last semaphores before Paddington

800032 departs Moreton-in-Marsh with 1P30 from Worcester Shrub Hill to London Paddington

MORETON-IN-MARSH is a charming Cotswold town that is particularly popular with visitors from the Far East and boasts a remarkably unspoiled railway station and a signal box which can claim to work the closest semaphore signals a train will pass on any journey to or from London Paddington.

Standing at milepost 91¾ Moreton-in-Marsh is a good deal closer to Paddington than either Liskeard (243½ miles) or Pembrey & Burry Port (208 miles) and is a remarkable survivor from the 2011 Cotswold Line re-doubling project, when double track was reinstated from Evesham to Charlbury.