TheGreatBritishRailScene

Harry here, covering the last Weekly Review before Christmas! And my last post this week! CHILTERN :  Following on from a fire at London Marylebone station at approximately 20:30 on Friday 11th December, it's confirmed that the fire damaged the air-conditioning unit and part of the carriage itself. Thankfully no one was harmed.  82302  was the set for the record and 12094 (Banbury set) was involved. Station Manager Paul Hobbs said: “The fire affected one of the train’s carriages but crews worked quickly to put it out. Around 500 people were evacuated from the station.”

Today, I bring you updates from Northern England. NORTHERN RAIL:   Firstly, DBSOs 9705/07/10 have been converted for use on the Cumbrian Coast, in Northern Rail colours. These units were previously operating at One Rail before becoming privately owned. Whilst 98 new trains are added to the fleet, 323s transfer to London Midland and Pacers are withdrawn. As announced by Andy last week, Arriva have been awarded the tender to run the Northern Rail franchise from 1st April 2016. As part of the franchise, an Automated Delay Repay compensation system will be introduced for both Season Tickets and Online Advance Tickets. Oyster-style smart tickets are also on the cards!  Not only this, but over £400 million will be invested by Arriva into a new fleet of 98 trains. As a result, Pacers will be withdrawn by 2019. Furthermore, there will be an additional 2,000 services a week (400 of these are on Sundays). 

Ian Sharman (C) Since our last dedicated updates post in July, there's been many changes. Further to Orson's recent post , it's now confirmed that the final serviceable Class 47, 47790 , has been withdrawn. It went from Norwich to Crewe yesterday (hauled by 57310 ) and then straight into storage. 47790 will be joining 47805/810/813/ 818/828/ 841/853 which are already stored. As you can see by our Fleet-List , there are still a number of Class 57s out in operation. A number of them have recently finished duties on the RHTT (Rail-Head Treatment Trains).

Harry here, covering the Heritage Focus series whilst Jacob is away..... Last weekend, Orson (from our team) took a trip to Peterborough to capture the Duchess of Sutherland,  46233.  Built in 1938 in Crewe, it is most definitely still going strong, despite clocking over 1 million miles! It was the 3rd type of its class and at first was allocated to Camden, London for use on London Midland and Scottish railway (between London Euston and Liverpool or Glasgow). It was withdrawn by BR in 1964, and is now under preservation.

Good evening all, Liam here bringing you everything you need to know regarding the refurbishments of stock currently under the Great Western Railway franchise. First off with the basics, Great Western Railway (commonly abbreviated to Great Western Railway) is a train operating company owned by FirstGroup currently serving many lines in the South and West of England, including the Brunel's iconic Great Western Mainline, the Cotswald Line, and many others. The company rebranded from First Great Western into the more classic Great Western Railway on 20th September 2015. ©FirstGroup PLC - New GWR logo

The UKs first Class 399 Tram-Train is now on trial in Sheffield , to enter full passenger service by 2016 on the SuperTram network! A tram-train is slightly different to a normal tram, as it's able to also operate on the general National Rail Network too. This means that, once complete, customers will be able to make a single journey between tram stops and national rail stations. Convenient! The first stage of the project was the production of this trial-train, 399201 . It arrived approximately 2 weeks ago, from Valencia, Spain. We reported its arrival here.  In total, seven Class 399s (399201-207) will be constructed by Vossloh.  

Class 47: Direct Rail Services (DRS) are having some major fleet changes happening in the next couple of months. The last serviceable Class 47 remaining ( 47790 ) is making a move to be stored in Scotland sometime in the next seven days. This 47 was working the short set from Norwich to Great Yarmouth & Lowestoft for a short while this year before being replaced by the Class 37s, but for now it remains on tour outings with the Northern Belle and stock moves. It's currently at Norwich and is planned to be stored in either Crewe or Carlisle, but this information is unknown at this point. 47790 will be joining others of it's class in storage, 47805/818/828 , which shall also be joining 47810/813/841/853 which were already in storage.

(C) tibshelf As Editor for the East Anglia patch, my role is to bring you plenty of updates to keep you informed. Direct Rail Services' 37422 took Loco  90012 and mark 3 coaches 10146 and  11096 (Abellio Greater Anglia) to Willesdon on Monday 7th for maintenance. 10403 and 12049 returned the other way today (Tues 8th Dec), and these coaches are now in the AGA livery following repaint. As previously reported , this project will mean that 7 catering coaches 10200/10203/10214/10216/ 10223/10228/10247 will have First Class seating removed in favour of Standard seating, and a refurbished catering area installed . It will then look like sister  10403, which was recently at Doncaster to have a refurbishment, as these carriages have a similar layout to how it will look and are known for their mini buffet .  A reminder that all of the latest fleet updates are in our dedicated Fleet Lists . 10229 will go off lease.

Class 375: Class 375 before repainting As most of us know from previous posts, Southeastern is undergoing an extensive refurbishment program on their Class 375, 465 and 466 electric multiple units. When the fleet is refurbished it will bring a sleek all blue look to the new Southeastern. Included in the refurbishment program the class 375s are a repaint, internally and externally, new carpet, window replacement and a complete carriage over haul. The Class 375s that have been overhauled so far are 301-309, 605/616/617 and 620. All of the "dash" 3, 6 and 7 units are planned to be overhaul. The decision has not been made yet if the company are going to overhaul the "dash" 8 and 9 units.

No Week Review this week, as Andy's off. However, I'll provide a summary of the main news stories, mainly regarding the Annual Timetable changes.  Firstly to Abellio GreaterAnglia. It is alleged that new LED screens have been installed at Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and a number of other stations too (these works were planned, we reported them earlier this year)  Also, to cater for the increased amount of travellers, Abellio Greater Anglia are increasing Stansted Express trains to 8-car formations on Saturday 5th, 12th and 19th December. Timetable changes at Arriva Wales from Sunday 13th are stated here .  C2C are making a few changes to their timetables from the 13th December. Also, as of today, 2 trains an hour are going to Westfield Stratford City and Liverpool Street, to benefit Christmas shoppers .

To get into the Xmas spirit, Virgin Trains have unveiled East Coast  82209 & 91128  and Virgin West Coast revealed Pendolino 390013 in their Winter-style livery, as designed by Madeleine Deakin (aged 11) and Amber Maxfield (age 9) whom won a competition earlier this season.  The units were unveiled at London Kings Cross this morning and will remain in the livery until January. Claus 91, as it's been named, operates on the East Coast mainline between Kings Cross and Scotland via Penguinborough, whilst the Penguilino can be found on Virgin Trains West Coast services between London Euston and The North (North Pole) via Ho Ho Crewe.