TheGreatBritishRailScene

Over the weekend of Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th August 2015, the West Somerset Railway's Late Summer Weekend took place. The lineup of home fleet locomotives included Class 47 No. 47840 / D1661, Class 33 No. 33057 / D6575, the Class 115 Diesel Multiple Unit and GWR steam locomotives 3850, 6960, 4160 and 7828. It was a fantastic event and the weather was excellent. Here are a selection of photos from the event. The first photograph on the right shows Class 47 D1661 preparing to depart with the first train of the day to Minehead. The loco did two round trips to Minehead from Bishops Lydeard. Shortly before this photo was taken the locomotive arrived light engine from Williton depot.

SOURCE-  https://twitter.com/WizzerTweet/status/648037370001027072 Here's this week's news; The Construction bidding process for the HS2 Phase 1 has begun. 66 757 was named "West Somerset Railway" this weekend, as seen in this picture to the right. As part of the National Railway Museum 40 years celebration, a special livery and naming of the power car 43 238 was held during the week by VTEC, photos can be found here  https://twitter.com/Virgin_TrainsEC/status/646649575781085184 The transformed Birmingham New Street has fully reopened from it's estimated £750m refurbishment which includes a new station concourse, atrium and Grand Central shopping Complex.

©Liam Jenkins - Class 450 Desiro at Petersfield Hello all, Liam here, with a Route Focus post on the Portsmouth Direct Line. The Portsmouth Direct Line is a Direct route between Portsmouth Harbour and Woking/London Waterloo. Originating at Portsmouth Harbour, a transport hub for ferry links to France and the Isle Of Wight, travelling half a mile up the line, the first station is Portsmouth and Southsea, a station for Portsmouth City Centre and Hoverbus links to the Hovercraft to the Isle of Wight. After a short stretch, the line then meets a South West Trains TrainCare depot at Fratton. The line then stretches a mile or two north where the line separates into the Botley Line, which goes off to Eastleigh & Southampton Central stations.

Hello, Lewis here. This post is part 1 of my trip down to the West Country, Somerset specifically in photographs. The first photgraph shows something slighlty different, XC Class 43, 43307 is seen heading a Northbound service .at Brent Knoll cutting through the Somerset Levels. This shot was taken through a small hole in the bridge. The next photograph is something similar to the previous shot, taken from the same bridge but this time through a different hole on the opposite side of the bridge. a Cross Country Voyager is seen forming a Southbound service.

Andy here, filling in for Harry. Unbranding now unveiled, here's one of the  green power cars under the grey skies of London. Today's post is on Great Western Railway specifically, after the rebrand has begun, with many photos sent in specially for this post! Tom Bennett has allowed us to use his photos of 43 187 and 43 188 at London Paddington this morning after not working to Cardiff Central as suggested yesterday, instead the Power Cars worked 1C31 11:33 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids. © Tom Bennett. The interior of the HST has also turned green and been updated to reflect the rebrand as GWR from FGW, which is reflected in the images to the right; The first image portrays the Standard Class seating that has been adopted. It includes the green around the leather head rests.

A very good Sunday to all the East Anglia Rail Scene readers out there! Andy here, covering! Strictly Copyrighted to Dan Warman. Here's this week's news; Today marked the start of the re-branding of First Great Western to Great Western Railway (GWR.) Many of you would have gathered I imagine by when using social media that the all green HST made it's way from Laira TMD to London this afternoon/evening for what is very likely to be the press release tomorrow morning.

Hello, Lewis here. This post is all about my trip on The Cathedrals Express from Southend to Stratofrd-upon-Avon. On Saturday 22nd August I traveled on The Cathedrals Express, operated by Steam Dreams from Southend Victoria to Stratford-upon-Avon. I started the day by going down to Hockley station to see the empty coaching stock pass through from Southall to Southend Victoria. The ECS was headed by West Coast Railway Company 47760 and on the rear was 47746. The majority of trips now operated by Steam Dreams are diesel hauled to/from WCRC's base of Southall. On the outward trip 47746 was leading and that took the train as far as Hanwell Bridge Loop where both diesel locomotives detached from the train and steam locomotive 61306 Mayflower attahced for the trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. The first stop after Hockley was Wickford followed by Shenfield and Stratford. Not many trains travel through both Stratford London and Stratford-upon-Avon in one trip surely? The route from Str...

Evening all! Liam here for a TOC Focus post on First Great Western. As the name suggests, First Great Western is owned by FirstGroup plc, who also own First Hull Trains and First Transpennine Express. First Great Western operate High Speed services between London and Penzance, Plymouth, Exeter, Weston Super Mare, Bristol, South Wales & Oxford. The Train Operating Company (TOC) also operates services between London and Worcester, Gloucester, Malvern, Oxford, Reading, Didcot Parkway, Swindon, Greenford, Newbury and Westbury. Other services operated include the Henley Branch, the Windsor Branch and the Basingstoke to Reading branch, as well as services between Penzance, Plymouth and Exeter and Bristol.

Hello all, Liam here! Bringing you another Station Focus post! This post is particularly special because it is indeed my local station! ©Liam Jenkins - Aldershot station, seen from Platform 2/3 Without further ado, Aldershot is located on the border of Hampshire & Surrey. It's nearest large city is Guildford, Surrey. The station, sharing similar aesthetics to Haslemere station, is owned by South West Trains, the company also runs services through the station. There are 3 platforms, platform 1 for Up services to London Waterloo via Woking or Ascot, platform 2 for Up services to Guildford and Ascot and Down services to Farnham and Alton, platform 3 for Up services to Guildford and Ascot and Down services to Farnham and Alton.

Here's this weeks news from around the UK; 66 743 at Eastleigh - © Andy. ANDY: GB Railfreight has boosted it's capacity at Felixstowe by 23% after the company ran their first train in the 7th slot on September 2nd. The train runs five days a week from Felixstowe - Birch Cppice (near Birmingham.)  Staying with GBRF, the company has also ran it's first train from the new North London Terminal in Cricklewood. The contract is currently 3 years and 1 train per day (Mon-Fri) will run. Southeastern Class 395 unit 395 015 will run from London Victoria through to Kent and Eastbourne in a Commemorative livery on 7th November, ahead of Remembrance Sunday, with all money raised going to the Royal British Legion. The DfT would like the next South Western Franchisee to develop ideas for the Island Line on the Isle of Wight to become a separate but sustainable business during the next franchise. Freight traffic in the UK is on the rise, with Britain filling 80 more tra...

Hello all, Liam here! Bringing a Route Focus post on the Ascot to Guildford Line. ©Andy Crawley The line starts at Ascot station, located on the Reading Mainline between Reading and London Waterloo. This station features 3 platforms, platform 1 for services to Waterloo, platform 2 for services to Reading (And selected services to Aldershot & Farnham) and platform 3 for services to Aldershot and Guildford. The line turns a tight bend and continues down to Bagshot, Camberley and Frimley. After Frimley, the two track line joins into a single line until joining the Alton line at Ash Vale. Below is a photograph of a debranded Southern Class 456 unit working an Ascot service at Camberley.

Hi Lucas here. Today's post is about my trip from Colwyn bay in my summer holiday. I travelled from Colwyn bay on the 30th July back to my home town. Chester railway station is in Newtown, in the city of Chester, England. It is currently operated by Arriva Trains Wales, with Merseyrail, Northern Rail and Virgin Trains services also operating from the station. My Journey: I travelled from Colwyn bay to Chester on a 175 this was the service to Cardiff Central.

A very good welcome to all East Anglia Rail Scene viewers; once again it's Friday and can only mean one thing - the weekend! Lined up for you today is a special on the Northern/DRS venture operated services on the Cumbrian Coast Line. 57 301 takes to the Cumbrian Coast - © Mark. A brief recap of how Cumbrian Coast Services made a return; back at the beginning of the year, January 2015, it was announced that Loco hauled MK2 coaching stock would make a return to the North West as part of maintaining the same service level and increased capacity on key routes. The timetables were put in place as of the May 2015 timetable change which also saw testing take place.

Copyrighted to Omar (C). 2014 Blog Archive. ABOUT:  Liverpool Street Station in London was opened in 1874 (a replacement for BishopsGate Station) and is the main terminus for services in East Anglia. Downstairs, the Underground Station connects the Circle and District line. In 1895, the station was extended to accommodate more services. FACT - Liverpool Street is one of the stations included on the 'Monopoly' BoardGame. Into the present day, Liverpool Street is owned and operated by Network Rail (whom own another 18 stations within the UK). Over 58 million passengers passed through in 2013/4, making LST one of the largest and busiest UK Stations.

Hello all, Liam here, with a Fleet Focus post on the Class 456 EMUs. The Class 456 Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) were constructed by BREL York between 1990 and 1991. 24 x 2 car units were built to replace the Class 416 2EPB units. The units operated stopping suburban services on the South London Network. When delivered to Network South East (NSE), the units were painted in the default NSE white, red and blue livery. In total, there are still 24 units currently running with South West Trains, numbered 456001 - 456024. South West Trains took over all 24 units from Southern in 2013, and slowly refurbished them to the Red Metro livery, as seen in the picture below. ©Liam Jenkins - Class 456s currently operate with South West Trains (SWT)

Hi Lucas back with another TOC Focus today. ABOUT: East Midlands trains is owned by the Stagecoach group. This company operates services around the East Midlands of England. East Midlands trains serve 87 stations, some of those they own. East Midlands trains run services from Liverpool lime Street, Crewe, Leicester, London St Pancras International, Norwich, York, and lots more. As well as local trains serving the East Midlands and East England regions, East Midlands Trains also operates fast and frequent trains connecting London to cities such as Liverpool, Nottingham, Corby, Derby, York, Leeds and Sheffield in the north.