Category: Britain

Re-signalling of the South Wales Main Line between Swansea and Carmarthen is running late, so after my latest feature on the surviving semaphores at Pembrey & Burry Port, it is a great pleasure to be invited by Network Rail to take a look at all four of the signal boxes that will be closed when the Port Talbot West 2 (PTW2) project is completed.

This is a remarkably varied quartet, with the most traditional being Pembrey and Ferryside, which both retain lever frames and semaphores, one at Kidwelly that is a curious hybrid, where a 1950s top has been built on an 1885 GW base, and finally the most modern of all being a BR (WR) structure from 1956 at Carmarthen Junction.

Continue reading “Four South Wales signal boxes on borrowed time”

One year on from my last visit and the lure of seasonally cheap hotel accommodation tempts me to chance my luck with the weather and spend a couple of days in North Wales, to witness the ever-changing railway scene and some of its surviving semaphore signals.

Basing myself at the Holyhead Travelodge (27-29 November 2024) my aim was to photograph some of the new Avanti (AWC) Class 805 Evero bi-mode units that are now replacing Class 221 Super Voyagers on Euston-Holyhead services, along with the seasonal Class 56-worked RHTT and an HST-powered NR test train.

Continue reading “New and old in North Wales”

More than three years after my last visit (June 2021), the irregular appearance of a Class 43-powered Network Rail test train makes the perfect excuse to pay an overdue return on Thursday, 21 November 2024 to delightful Heckington, first station east of Sleaford on the Poacher Line to Boston and Skegness.

Having been lucky enough to see another NR test train, the Class 37-powered Ultrasonic Testing Unit (UTU) at Skegness in October, my main aim this time was to photograph a different type of test working passing both the down distant signal, which is only pulled off for trains not calling at Heckington, and the up distant signal some way east of the station.

Continue reading “Working semaphore distant signals at Heckington”

Trains testing and treating the track brought some rare loco movements to Skegness on Monday, 28 October 2024, with two special workings on behalf of Network Rail visiting the remarkable station, at the coastal end of the Poacher Line, in the space of less than an hour.

Shortly before midday came the distinctive sound of “tractor” 37610, which is operated by Colas Rail and is in British Rail blue livery, hauling Network Rail’s Ultrasonic Testing Unit (UTU), with DBSO 9714 at the rear. This had travelled from Derby on its monthly visit to the Poacher Line.

Continue reading “Rare loco action at bracing Skegness”

Further delay to what is known as the Port Talbot West 2 (PTW2) re-signalling project in West Wales means that the semaphore signals at Ferryside and at Pembrey & Burry Port will live on until at least the end of 2025, well beyond the last estimated date for completion of the re-signalling.

An update provided to railwayworld.net by Network Rail on 15 October 2024 confirms this latest delay, which it puts down to the geographic size of the project and difficulties in gaining access to the railway.

Continue reading “Another year for the South Wales semaphores”

Plan a rail trip from Swansea to Shrewsbury and you will be presented with rather differing fares and journey times, depending on whether you pick the main route to Cardiff and the Marches Line via Hereford, or the slow and very scenic Heart of Wales Line via Llanelli, Llandovery and Llandrindod Wells.

Pick the main route and you will pay significantly more for a faster journey on one of the new Class 197 units, but opting for the Heart of Wales Line will give you a much cheaper fare, and the chance to spend around four hours trundling through some of the Principality’s most beautiful scenery in an aged Class 150 or single car Class 153 unit.

Continue reading “Getting to the Heart of Wales”

Loss of examples at Parbold and Chapel Lane Crossing on the West Lancashire Line in February 2024 means that there are now just ten combined home and working distant signals left on our national rail network, three of which control barely a mile of track in an obscure corner of West Cumbria.

These are signals controlled by the signal box at Silecroft, and by the nearby gate boxes at Limestone Hall and Kirksanton, on the Cumbrian Coast Line to the west of Millom, where these remarkable survivors protect two level crossings on the A5093.

Continue reading “Railway wonders of West Cumbria”

More than a decade after my last visit (in 2013) it is time to pay a return to the quaint and historic Isle of Man and spend a few days travelling on the four charming narrow gauge rail systems that make this Crown Dependency at the centre of the Irish Sea such a wonderful place to visit.

Armed with a three-day “Go Explore” ticket (£42.00) my aim (10-12 September 2024) was to travel on and photograph all four of these little railways – the 15½-mile steam railway from Douglas to Port Erin in the south, the 17-mile long Manx Electric Railway from Douglas to Ramsey in the north, the Snaefell Mountain Railway and the unique Douglas Bay Horse Tramway.

Continue reading “Steaming back in time on the Isle of Man”

Railway re-openings have been all but canned by the new Labour Government, so the two scheduled for 2024 look like being the last additions to our national rail network for some considerable time.

While the Ashington Line from Newcastle has been delayed until December, when only a limited number of its new stations will be ready for service, there were no delays to the £116m Levenmouth Rail Link north of the border, which opened as planned on 2 June 2024.