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There are a few places on our national network where the combination of varied passing traffic and spectacular scenery, along with mechanical signalling interest, are the perfect excuse to pay a return visit, particularly on a fine summer’s day.

One such place for me is Edale on the busy Hope Valley Line between Manchester and Sheffield, where in rather better weather (30 July 2024) than on my previous visit (July 2023) there was the chance to photograph a variety of freight and passenger traffic passing the handful of semaphores controlled by Edale Signal Box.

Continue reading “Ever enchanting Edale”

When Lord Peter Hendy chose to spend a Saturday morning (8 June 2024) addressing a gathering of mainly ageing rail campaigners at a WI Hall in the Cotswolds, it is a fair bet that he had worked out just what an influential a campaign group he was speaking to.

The ebullient Network Rail Chairman was guest speaker at the AGM in Moreton-in-Marsh of what must be Britain’s most enduring, and one of the most successful rail campaign groups in railway history, the 46-year old Cotswold Line Promotion Group (CLPG).

Continue reading “Network Rail Chairman visits Moreton-in-Marsh”

There has been a a temporary reprieve for the semaphore signalling at Pembrey & Burry Port and at Ferryside until sometime next year, meaning the chance for a summer-time return (2-3 July 2024) to these two photogenic locations, in the hope of finally capturing some freight action.

After a detour on the way to Craven Arms, courtesy of some half-price TfW advance purchase tickets, my plan was a late afternoon stop at Pembrey & Burry Port, in order to see the westbound train of oil tanks to Robeston Sidings, an overnight stay in Carmarthen, then an early morning call at Ferryside to see the eastbound tanks.

Continue reading “Freight and semaphores in West Wales and the Marches”

One year on from a day witnessing two Mazey Day excursions to Penzance as they passed the doomed semaphores at Par, my plan this time for a return to the Royal Duchy on Saturday, 29 June 2024 was to see this year’s brace of special trains as they passed the semaphore signals at Liskeard.

Star turn of the two special workings this year was a pair of Class 50s (50007/049) on the Pathfinder Railtours service (1Z69) from Dorridge and stations in the West Midlands, followed shortly afterwards by Statesman Rail working 1Z69 from Wolverhampton, powered by a pair of LSL-owned Class 47s (47712/810).

Continue reading “Mazey Day action and inaction at Liskeard”

Loss of semaphore signalling on the soon-to-be-reopened Northumberland Line and at Billingham/Norton-on-Tees has left previous few outposts of mechanical signalling in North-East England, with the last few being along the Tyne Valley line, at Winning on the line to North Blyth, Shildon and at Nunthorpe on the Esk Valley Line.

One other location that I had long wished to visit and photograph is Crag Hall near Saltburn, where a rather unattractive North Eastern Railway box dating from 1878 controls a freight-only route from Saltburn West Junction to Boulby Potash Mine on the long-closed coastal railway route to Whitby.

Continue reading “Freight and semaphores on the North-East coast”

There was a fitting tribute to the D-Day 80th Anniversary on the Dartmouth Steam Railway this week, where US Army Transportation Corps (USATC) Baldwin 2-8-0 2253 “Omaha” was in service (4 June 2024) adorned with a “D-Day 80 Overlord” headboard.

Loco 2253 has a colourful history, having arrived in the UK on May 1943 and working with the LNER out of Neville Hill depot in Leeds. It was returned to the USATC after D-Day and spent many years working in Poland, before being bought for preservation in 1992. It was restored in 2019, when it was painted maroon and named “Omaha” before arriving at Paignton in February 2020.

Continue reading “D-Day 80 remembered at Goodrington Sands”

After a highly enjoyable day in the impressive Melton Station Signal Box (October 2023) it is time to pay another visit to the fascinating Leicester-Peterborough line and take a look at two more of the route’s six boxes that retain some semaphore signalling interest.

On a day of dire weather (28 May 2024) my visits this time were to the boxes at Ashwell and Ketton, giving a chance to see not only the boxes themselves, but also some heritage Class 37 action and a view of the network’s most historic semaphore signal.

Continue reading “Semaphores and Class 37s in Leicestershire”

PARLIAMENTARY TRAINS are a fascinating feature of the Northern rail network, so having previously sampled the operator’s sparse workings to Chathill, Brigg, Heysham Port, Helsby-Ellesmere Port and Stalybridge-Stockport it was time to finally complete the set with a trip on the 16½-mile route between Goole and Knottingley.

While service frequencies have generally been increased on lines across the country over the past few years, that is certainly not the case for this eastern extension of the Pontefract Line from Leeds and Wakefield beyond Knottingley, which sees far more freight workings to and from Drax Power Station than it does passenger services.

Continue reading “Parliamentary train to Hensall”

Saturday, 18 May 2024 marks exactly five years since the memorable final day of main line HST operations on the GWR network (18 May 2019), so the perfect excuse to recall the locations and services I photographed and travelled on that fateful occasion.

On a brilliantly stage-managed day where the four final departures from London Paddington were lined up alongside each other in the early evening, I had decided to shun the crowds and pay my farewells on two routes I knew well, the Cotswold Line from Oxford to Worcester and the Golden Valley route from Swindon to Cheltenham Spa. 

Continue reading “5 years on: remembering the final day of GWR main line HSTs “