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HSTs along the Sea Wall

The sight and sound of High Speed Trains (HSTs) has been an enduring feature of the railway scene in South Devon since their full introduction on services between London Paddington and Penzance in May 1980, and their introduction on cross-country services two years later.

But after more than 40 years’ service things will look very different by the end of 2023, with GWR committed to retiring the last of its 2+4 Castle sets by December, leaving just the handful of XC 2+7 sets passing this iconic location on their journeys between Plymouth and Edinburgh Waverley.

Eleventh hour reprieve for world’s oldest pier railway

It was less than 48 hours before what had been billed as its last ever sailing when things began to look a little brighter for the historic Hythe Ferry, which links the waterside village with Southampton, and the 100-year old narrow gauge railway that takes passengers along the 700-yard Hythe Pier to the ferry.

Mounting losses and withdrawal of council financial support had led operator Blue Funnel Ferries to announce that the ferry would close on New Year’s Eve 2022, when the final sailing would have left Southampton’s Town Quay at 17.30. But on the evening of Thursday, 29^th December came a glimmer of hope that the link could be saved.

Images of 2022

As the blight of COVID-19 gives way to the blight of disruption caused by prolonged industrial action, it is time for some seasonal cheer to lift the gloom, and a look back at some of my railway travel and photographic highlights from around the UK, with a selection of 22 photos from trips on the British railway network during 2022.

My focus has remained on capturing our last outposts of mechanical signalling, so on 19 January I paid a return visit to the wonderful York-Harrogate line, where fine semaphore signalling remains, despite some piecemeal replacement by colour lights since my previous visit. Seen below is 170458 approaching Wilstrop distant signal W5 with 2C36 from Leeds (13.29) to York.

All change in the Royal Duchy

In less than a year’s time the railway scene at Par will look very different from what it is today, with re-signalling set to have swept away its fine array of lower quadrant semaphores and the absurdly short-lived existence of GWR’s Castle Class 2+4 HST sets ending prematurely by December 2023.

Taking advantage of another fine winter’s day (Friday, 9 December 2022), it seemed like a good moment to pay a return visit to this attractive Cornish junction and capture more views of its doomed signals and the the 40+ year old HSTs that will all have disappeared in 12 months’ time.

Seaford branch Class 313 swansong

Time is almost up for the remaining 18 Class 313 units, currently our oldest mainline EMUs in passenger service, with a reduction in their use on Southern’s Coastway services on the cards in the 11 December 2022 timetable change and the whole fleet due to be withdrawn by May 2023.

Having not visited the area for almost three years, a forecast of some welcome winter sunshine on 1 December 2022 seemed like the perfect excuse to take a trip on the fascinating nine-mile long Seaford branch, to experience and capture some Class 313 action before it finally disappears.

Another look at Arbroath

Among the numerous outposts of mechanical signalling along the East Coast Main Line north of Edinburgh, the finest signal box/cabin must surely be the unique 1911-vintage North British Railway box at Arbroath, a listed building which stands some distance north of the railway station and controls a total of seven semaphores, as well as a number of shunting disc signals.

Paying a first return to the town (8 November 2022) since my last visit in June 2021, I was keen to check out a couple of photo-spots to the south of the station and particularly an over-bridge that is close to down outer home signal AH48 and from where there is a panoramic view of the coast looking south and the location, until its closure two years ago, of Scotland’s oldest miniature railway.

Farewell Ferryside

Less than a year remains before Ferryside Signal Box and its handful of lower quadrant semaphore signals are consigned to history, as a major West Wales resignalling project known as Port Talbot West Re-signalling Phase 2 (PTW2) nears completion.

But all is not lost for the wonderful Grade II-listed Great Western Railway box at picturesque Ferryside, and a preservation group is gaining financial and political support, as I discovered when meeting the man leading efforts to secure its future while paying a return visit on 3 November 2022.

A trip on the scenic Hudson Line

Spending a few days in New York during a period of glorious autumn sunshine meant the perfect excuse to escape the Big Apple for a few hours and take a trip on 20 October 2022 up the remarkably scenic 73½-mile long Metro-North Hudson Line.

It features in a book I was given called Amazing Train Journeys (Lonely Planet, October 2018) and after the two-hour trip from NYC to the final Metro-North stop at Poughkeepsie (pronounced Poo-kipsy) it is easy to see the Hudson Line earned its place in a book featuring 60 of the world’s most scenic rail routes.

Boston’s historic Green Line

Paying a first ever visit to the delightful US city of Boston meant a chance to sample its newest and its oldest section of underground tramway, as well as the sole remaining section of true street running in the city on one of the branches of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Green Line.

While three of the four western branches of the Green Line feature street level running on reserved tracks in the centre of the road, the only real street running section, where trams run amongst other road traffic, appears to be the final mile of Route E, ending at its turning circle terminus at Heath Street.

Shock closure of Czech JHMD narrow gauge system

U37.002 approaches Blažejov on 15 July 2022 with the 10.39 Jindřichův Hradec-Nová Bystřice

Debts of around £6 million (CSK 160m) have led to shock closure from Sunday (2 October 2022) of the privately-operated 79km (50-mile) narrow gauge system based on the town of Jindřichův Hradec in the south of Czechia, despite its huge popularity as a tourist attraction.

Less than three months after I had spent a glorious few days in the area known as Czech Canada for its lakes and forests, services are being halted on the two 760mm (2’ 6”) gauge lines that lead 33km (21 miles) from Jindřichův Hradec to Nová Bystřice, close to the Austrian border, and 46kms (29-miles) on a northern route to a town called Obrataň.