FROM THE RAILWAY MAGAZINE ARCHIVES
YEARS AGO
JULY 1921 Lake District proposal
A SCHEME for a light railway between Ambleside and Keswick has been submitted for the approval of the Westmorland County Council. It is proposed to run the railway between the head of Windermere Lake and the Keswick Station on the Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway by way of Grasmere and Thirlmere. The length of the line will be 16 miles, and the estimated cost of construction is £150,000. Five lakes would be seen en route, plus some of the finest scenery in the Lake District. Petrol-electric engines would be employed, and there would be no smoke and little noise.
YEARS AGO
JULY 1971 York site confirmed for museum
LORD Eccles, Paymaster-General and Minister responsible for the Arts, announced on May 11 that the Museum of British Transport in Clapham, London, would be closed in about 12 months time, and the railway exhibits transferred to York where the National Railway Museum will be established.
The Government is to consult with the Greater London Council and the Science Museum about arrangements for storing in London the road transport collection from Clapham until it can be properly shown to the public.
Lord Eccles said that the alternative plan for a national transport museum at Crystal Palace revealed several snags – one of which, diversion of the BR line through the old station, could not have been carried out for about four years. In addition, this scheme would have cost about £1 million against the £500,000 for York.
Kestrel sold to Russia
HAWKER Siddeley Group has sold the 4000hp prototype diesel-electric locomotive No. HS4000 Kestrel to the USSR Railways. It has been modified to the Russian gauge of 5ft and will be displayed at the USSR International Exhibition of Railway Rolling Stock in Moscow from July 1-20, after which it is to enter service with USSR Railways.
YEARS AGO
JULY 2001 TGV runs 663 miles in 3½ hrs
IN a journey described by our chief correspondent Peter Semmens as “the most remarkable I have ever made, let alone timed”, a specially-adapted TGV set has travelled the 663.1 miles from Calais to Marseilles in 3hr 29min 55sec for an average of 189mph.
Set No. 531 touched 229mph and reached Marseilles via the brand-new TGV-Méditerranée line more than 20 minutes faster than SNCF had envisaged.
The world record-breaking train was carrying mainly engineers and a handful of invited railway journalists.
66-mile runaway train
A TRAIN in the USA loaded with hazardous chemicals ran for no fewer than 66 miles on May 16 before a railway worker managed to leap from another moving loco and bring it to a halt.
The driver of a CSX Railroad loco had climbed down in Stanley, Ohio, to change a point. Although he claims to have applied two of the three braking systems, the 47-wagon train started rolling.
Pursued by emergency vehicles and helicopters, it reached up to 46mph through sharp curves as signallers battled to keep the line clear. It even smashed through a deliberate derailing apparatus and kept going.
The runaway was finally stopped at Kenton after a pair of chasing Iocos hooked on to the rear, reducing speed to 10mph and enabling another driver to leap aboard.
End for Northern Spirit as two TOCs get new names
THE names Northern Spirit and Merseyrail Electrics are no more. In future, the two train operators will be known as Arriva Trains Northern and Arriva Trains Merseyside.
At present, the names relate solely to the operating company but Arriva, which bought the franchises from MTL in February 2000, is already in discussions about rebranding its trains too.