Goodbye to Wherry Lines Semaphores

47818 runs around its train on 6th September 2009 while working the Summer Saturday 'drags' between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. The train would continue to London behind 90036. Dominating the scene are the mechanical signals and Yarmouth Vaux box dating from 1884. 

'One' Anglia's 170201 passes Lowestoft box and passes the platform starter
signals. The livery and stock have both since been replaced here. 25/07/2008

Over the weekend of 1st/2nd of February work to finally decommission the historic semaphore signalling on the Wherry Lines between Norwich and Great Yarmouth / Lowestoft entered its final stages. This multi-million pould project to move control from local boxes to the signalling centre at Colchester has over-run but finally and end is in sight, and with that the closure of the signalboxes which have governed this route since 1884. The decommissioned signal boxes will face a variety of fates, sadly for most this will mean demolition. Two boxes however will be saved and find new homes at local preserved railways; the box at Brundall will move to the Mid Norfolk Railway, while Reedham box will find a new home at the North Norfolk Railway. Other boxes, including the large structure at Yarmouth Vaux will be demolished.

These local lines have seen massive investment in recent years with track rewewals, re-signalling and the introduction of brand new state-of-the-art trains, the Stadtler Flirt which are currently being introduced by Greater Anglia. There is no doubt that the transformation of the Wherry lines can only be good for passengers, but for enthusiasts now that the last lever has been pulled and the last semaphore dropped the routes will never quite be the same.

37405 works the loco hauled 'short set' past the signalbox at Reedham on 17th August 2016. This box will find a new home on the North Norfolk Railway.

Locomotive Services Limited heads south

47805, resplendent in BR two-tone green hauls the special charter through Surbiton at speed on the South West Mainline.

New entrant to the charter market 'Locomotive Services Limited' ran a private charter on on 31st August 2018 from London Victoria to Alton with two of their class 47's' 47805 and 47853. The trip took invited guests to a private event on the Watercress Line.
Locomotive Services Limited made a welcome addition to the charter market during 2018 providing the first alternative to the market which has been dominated by DB Cargo (formerly DB Schenker and EWS) and West Coast Railways. The new company headed by Jeremy Hoskin owns a number of steam locomotives as well as several heritage diesels which are based at their operating centre in Crewe. Initially a limited program of trains is being run under the 'Saphos' brand while the operator becomes established.
A fourth steam operator will also soon enter the fray with Vintage Trains Limited in advance stages of putting together it's business which will be run as a co-operative 'Community Benefit Scheme'.
Each of these companies should bring much needed competition and variety to charter operations.

Barrington 47's

Opportunities to see class 47's on 'proper' freight trains in 2017 are few and far between- it is therefore no surprise that photographers have been out in force recently as GBRf have been using a pair of class 47's on spoil trains between Wembley and Barrington. The trains convey spoil from London which is deposited at the former Barrington Quarry site near Foxton where it is being used to restore the former chalk pits. Rail Operations Group have been contracted to supply traction to the train while there is reduced capacity in the GBRf fleet, however the heritage traction should only be a temporary measure. On 29th November 2017 47815 and 47848 pass Camden Road with the empty train, 6T02, heading back to Wembley. Class 56's have also appeared on recent workings to/from Barrington.

442's back to Wessex

As part of the new South Western Railway franchise plans are being put in place to return 18 of the 24 class 442 'Wessex Electric' units dating from 1988 and withdrawn by South West Trains in 2007 to the Wessex Route. The 442's are planned to be fully refurbished, including new traction equipment to 'as new' standard before they are deployed on Portsmouth 'fast' services offering a higher level of comfort than the class 444 and 450 trains currently used on this route. In preparation for the return of the 442's units are being repatriated from Ely where they have been in warm store to Eastleigh works and Bournemouth depot. One such run was captured on Tuesday 19th September 2017 with Rail Operations Group 47812 returning units 2423 and 2415 on a run from Ely to Bournemouth.

A hot day in London- 22 June 2005

Those in the south of the UK will have struggled not to notice the heat this week as the mercury has soared to well over 30°c degrees since the weekend. While travelling in these hot conditions it reminded me of a very sucessful day out photographing railways in London some 12 years ago. 22nd June 2005 was another very hot day with temperatures peaking in the low 30's (Gravesend in Kent recorded it's highest temperature of the year the following day at 32.1°c. On the railways a lot is still very recognisable from 12 years ago but there have also been a lot of changes. My day started by heading to Barnes in South West London for the very final slam-door scrap move from SWT. GBRf's 66710 was hauling 4-VEP 3520 from Wimbledon running as 6Z41 the 11:05 to MOD Shoeburyness. The final service train for the SWT slam door fleet having run during May.

66710 haules 3520 towards Barnes. This was the last slam door to leave SWT aside from 'Celebrity' VEP 3417 and the two 3 CIG's which were kept specially for the Lymington branch.

59203 hauls an empty 'Jumbo' train from Acton to the Mendips

Next stop was Ealing Broadway where a variety of traction was on offer on freight services, plus of course the regular passage of Paxman Valenta powered HST's. Brand new were the Heathrow Connec class 360's which entered service just ten days earlier on 12th June between Paddington and Heathrow Airport supplementing the class 332's on 'express' services.

67029 sports it's then fairly freshly applied silver livery.

Freight was plentiful with the majority being in the hands of class 59's of various liveries. Aside from the flow of 59's class 60's were common with 60015, 60026 and 60061 being sighted within a few hours between Ealing Broadway and Acton Main Line. Other freight was handled by class 66's from Freighliner and EWS with a solitary wagon being hauled by a rather over-powered 67016. There were a couple of special workings which we had particularly come to see; 67029 in it's new silver livery and another slam door move with Freighliner's 47841 hauling South Central 4-CIG's 1867/8/9 as 5Z45 Stewarts Lane - Caerwent in South Wales.

Another of the almost endless slam door scrap trains- 47841 hauls CIG's 1867, 1868 and 1869 through Ealing Broadway.

220018 on a Brighton service at Clapham Junction.

Moving on from the Great Western it was time to end the evening the way that most of my trips ended around this time- with a few rides on what still remained of the 'slammers' on Southern and South Eastern. Workings were beginning to become more scarce but it was still not difficult to achieve an all slam door move first from Victoria to East Croydon and back before taking the 17:49 Victoria to Broadstairs (which was booked for the last 12-CEP at the time) to Bromley South for another slammer back into Victoria. A final 'blast from the past' on the way home is a Virgin Voyager at Clapham Junciton on one of the now withdrawn workings to Brighton. Thus ended a hot and sticky day sweltering in the sun- I'd do it again for those trains though! 

The joys of fresh air and slam doors during their last summer.

In the bleak Mid-Norfolk

Friday 30th December 2016 should have been a great day out on a railtour with friends heading up to the Mid Norfolk Railway with a class 442 and some 31's with the Rail Operations Group. Sadly for reasons which have still not entirely been explained the tour was cancelled for because of a 'gauging' issue. With the day booked off work and a ticket to the Mid-Norfolk event a plan was hashed together to visit and support the railway regardless. The MNR itself had lost three of it's visiting locos through the cancellation of the tour and the remaining traction taking part in the diesel day was 45133, 47367, 47596 and 66776. The two 47's are based on the line while the class 47 'Peak' was making it's last runs before moving home to the Midland Railway Butterley after an extended stay. 66776 was provided by the ever friendly GBRf at short notice.














The weather was forcast to be gloomy and cold and as we set off from Kings Cross on a class 365 (far less exciting than a loco hauled 'Wessex'!) we were surprised when full sun conditions developed as we neared Hitchin. These were to be short lived and by the time we had arrived at Wymondham the cloud that would envelop us for the remainder of the day had arrived.
Several runs were had on the railway with all four locomotives, the opportunity was also available to travel on the northern extension of the railway beyond Dereham to Hoe, a route which is currently only available for use on a limited number of days each year. Despite the cancellation of the railtour trains on the line were well patronised and with heating provided throughout and the addition of the Mk3 Buffet serving freshly cooked breakfasts it was a pleasant day ambling through the Norfolk countryside- even if the gloom meant there wasn't too much to see!
At the end of the day it was time to head back to London for some much needed pub grub in the Parcel Yard pub at Kings Cross. A few more friends joined and thus ended the railway year.

Summer Saturdays in Anglia- 10 years ago.

47818 hauls the afternoon empties from Great Yarmouth to Crown Point depot. Most of the passenger runs ran via Reedham but the final train was booked to run via Acle. The location is Whitlingham Junction where the lines to Sherringham and Cromer branch from the Wherry lines towards Yarmouth and Lowestoft. 24/08/2006

47818 prepares to run around it's train at at Great Yarmouth. This would have
been the 10:00 departure from London Liverpool St. The loco was a regular
performer on the trains and was painted specially into 'One' colours. 24/08/2006

Last weeks post covered the current loco hauled operations on the Wherry lines out of Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft- currently featuring top and tailed diesel locomotives on a short rake of coaches, but I also mentioned the long association of class 47's with these lines. While looking back through my photo archive I discovered that exactly 10 years ago I had found myself in Anglia for my annual trip to Great Yarmouth to sample the 47 hauled summer trains.
The trips comprised of two workings in each direction (plus associated empty moves) where a class 47 hauled the Norwich-Yarmouth portion of through intercity services to and from London Liverpool Street on summer Saturdays. The trains would run as normal to Norwich where the class 47 would back onto the train and then run non-stop to Great Yarmouth. On arrival at the seaside town the locomotive would run round before hauling the set back to Norwich from where it would form the next London departure with it's electric loco. As can be seen from the pictures the class 90, or 86 in previous years, also came along to the seaside for the ride.

One of the very last survivors on Anglia, 9701 is seen at Ipswich.
It would go on to be used by Network Rail.  24/08/2006

In 2016 locomotives for the train were provided by Cotswold Rail, and the current franchise holder was National Express, branding the operation 'One'. By this time almost all Mk2's had been phased out in favor of Mk3 stock with just a handful of Mk2 DBSO's remaining in traffic.
The final year of class 47 hauled intercity trains to Great Yarmouth was 2014.

47's still going strong with GBRailfreight work

The hire of class 47's by GBRailfreight has given the class a further lease of life hauling heavy freight trains in the north east. With approximately 100 years service gathered between them recently overhauled and re-painted 47812 and 47847 cross the River Aire north of Ferrybridge with 4D31 from Drax to Doncaster on 17th April 2015. Several additional class 47's are planned to go on hire from Riviera trains to GBRailfreight to provide relief traction for the class 66's which form the mainstay of their fleet. The 47's tend to work trip workings and freight services which do not stray too far from their base at Doncaster- typical destinations include Drax, Goole and Hull.