FROM THE RAILWAY MAGAZINE ARCHIVES
100 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 1921 ‘Conductor-Guard’ Trains
THE Great Eastern Railway is developing the principle of ‘conductor-guard’ working on branch trains, already in use on certain light railways, as a means of operating less remunerative branches more economically.
The conductor-guard has a complete set of single and return tickets to meet standard requirements and, in order to cover instances where through tickets are ordinarily issued at a fare less than the sum of the branch fare and the continuation on the main line, provision is made whereby only the difference between the branch fare originally paid and the through fare is charged when rebooking.
Special rolling-stock may eventually be introduced, but for the time being the experiment is being carefully watched.
50 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 1971 Three lines for Merseyrail
LOCAL services radiating from Liverpool are being given the brand name of ‘Merseyrail’ as the Merseyside network of the London Midland Region is divided into three district segments, centred on Lime Street, Exchange and Central
Low Level. Each group has been given a line name. Services from Lime Street are being called ‘City Line’; Exchange ‘Northern Line’; and those from Central LL ‘Wirral Line’.
Double-decker EMU for scrap
SOUTHERN Region eight-car doubledeck EMU train 4-DD sets Nos. 4901/2 (previously Nos. 4001/2) made its last public service run on the 18.04 Charing Cross to Dartford via Bexleyheath on October 1, after which it was withdrawn for scrapping. Since their introduction in 1949, the pair had run 700,000 miles and was due for major overhaul.
Steam to continue in Germany
GERMAN Federal Railway says it intends to keep some steam locomotives in service for the next 10 years, and is seeking manufacturers outside Germany that would be prepared to produce steam locomotive replacement parts, principally heavy forgings. Capacity in Germany for such work is monopolised by the automobile industry, so outside manufacturers are being sought.
20 YEARS AGO
NOVEMBER 2001 Call for new safety bodies
A BIG change in the way railway safety is handled is the message in the second and final report by Lord Cullen into the Ladbroke Grove train crash on
October 5, 1999 that killed 31 people.
The report, which contains 74 recommendations, said that although there is no evidence to suggest that Privatisation has led to unacceptable levels of safety, it has hampered the learning of lessons from previous accidents and led to a loss of skills and experience.
It recommends the creation of two independent bodies: a Civil Aviation Authority-style Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) – mirroring those in the UK airline and marine industries – and a body to provide leadership across the industry on safety matters. Lord Cullen is also proposing that drivers and signallers should be licensed under tough new safety measures.
Central Rivers opens
AS part of the supply and maintenance contract between Virgin Trains and Bombardier Transportation for the 352 ‘Voyager’ and ‘Super Voyager’ vehicles now on delivery, a £30m purposebuilt maintenance depot, known as Central Rivers, was officially opened on September 18.
Located at Barton-underNeedwood, near Burton-upon-Trent, the 18-road complex comprises nine covered roads, outside sidings, cleaning and fuelling area and has a staff of 250. It is the largest new maintenance depot built in the UK since North Pole for the Eurostar fleet in the early 1990s.