NEWS ROUND-UP
RAILWAY SUPPORT SERVICES
RSS No. 08703, on hire until end
2022 to GB Railfreight, has been named Jermaine, after a young HS2 supporter, the surprise naming (for Jermaine) taking place on September 14. The shunter is based at HS2’s Willesden logistics hub (see Headline News, page 12).
The recently purchased Clayton CD40s (see October issue) are already being put to work. At the end of September No. 4618-4 was at
Network Rail’s Melton Rail Innovation & Development Centre, with
No. 4618-3 to follow as part of the GBRf five-year contract to operate the facility. These machines will release the ‘08’s currently present (Nos. 08580 and 08922) for other duties, including a long planned one at Garston. No. 4618-5 has gone to London Underground, while No. 46187 is at Boulby mine for demonstration duties. Nos. 4618-1 and 4618-2 are still at the Wishaw workshops for attention and No. 4618-6 remains at Chasewater for now.
ARRIVA TRAINCARE
THE long, slow, lingering death of No. 08442 is drawing to a close. A long-time Eastleigh resident, it has been dumped out of use by the TMD for some time now, and has been gradually stripped of all useful parts. The end cannot be far off as it has now been moved inside at Arlington Fleet Services where stripping continues. Built at Derby in 1958, it was delivered to Bathgate shed in Scotland and withdrawn 46 years later from Old Oak Common in 2004. Since then, it has been owned by LNWR and Arriva Traincare, but has been out of use since at least 2017 waiting for the final chop.
PRESERVATION
KEIGHLEY and Worth Valley Railway-based Ruston 0-4-0 James (431763/1959) worked its first passenger trains during the railway’s diesel gala, when it ‘top and tailed’ the Keighley-Ingrow shuttle on September 10 with Hunslet 0-4-0 No. 32 Huskisson (2699/1944). Originally used by Stewarts &
Lloyds at the company’s Bilston Steelworks, James has a much more sedate life now, shunting stock as required around Ingrow yard for the Bahamas Locomotive Society and the Vintage Carriage Trust.