TheGreatBritishRailScene

Harry here, covering Matthew who's away. As stated, in order to raise funds for EACH (East Anglia Children's Hospice), Abellio Greater Anglia ran a special Class 37 Short Hauled MK2 Charter Service today (Saturday 30th April). Normally, the short set usually only operates weekdays - with 2 MK2s not 4 so this is very special. Tickets sold out for the event, with all 4 carriages (200 seats) booked! Operated:  10:15 Norwich to Ely (11:20),  11:55 Ely to Norwich (12:55), 1 3:33 Norwich to Liverpool Street (15:33),  and  16:27 Liverpool Street London to Norwich (18:22). Before the event, it even reportedly operated 07:36 Norwich-Great Yarmouth and 08:17 Great Yarmouth - Norwich (services on the usual short set weekday diagram, but never usually formed of four MK2s, only two!

Currently, trains from London's south east are separated from trains from London's south west, but a proposed Southern Cross-rail would allow for example, trains from Windsor, Guildford, Dorking and Surbiton to pass rapidly though Waterloo to Bromley, Dartford and Sevenoaks. The project proposal will avoid the jam caused by trains having to enter a terminus station and reversing out. As well as this, people in the South West region would have direct access to South East services and vice versa.  The quick and simple alteration to London Waterloo will double its capacity.

NOW, WE'VE GENERAL UPDATES FROM A VARIETY OF TOCS. LOTS TO STATE, SO LETS CRACK ON.... Firstly, the ex-Class 170s from ScotRail. These are now undergoing an overhaul at Southern, as reported. A reminder of the Charity Charter on Saturday 30th April. You may remember us posting about it in February? See this link for all the details  of this tour, which will consist of 4 trips using Class 37s and 4 MK2 coaches from DRS. The tour is fully booked, and will hopefully be a great success. Those of you who didn't get a ticket is still able to get some good photographs along the line!

The Swanage Railway, running from Swanage to Norden is currently going under extensive work to formally re-extend the line to Wareham, (and effectively the mainline). Whilst the track has been used several times to transport trains to the Heritage line, along with specials, no services go from Wareham to the branch or vice versa. To get to the Swanage Railway from Wareham at the moment, bus or taxi are the current modes of transport on offer. (Apart from on the trial running days that are being used to test the line and services). A £1.47 million grant from the Coastal Communities Fund has paid to upgrade track and bridges and two 1960s heritage diesel trains to mainline running standards so that the service extension can take place.

Today, we pay tribute and say farewell to one of the most iconic voices across the UK Railway Network.... Phil Sayer, a voiceover artist from Bolton who was born in 1953 and previously worked for the BBC as a news reader, as well as doing commercial work, has sadly passed away following his battle with Cancer.   BRITAIN'S MOST APOLOGETIC COUPLE

Aydan here now, for my input on recent events. Further to  Harry's post for the Mid-Norfolk Railway Diesel Gala,  between 1st April and 3rd April, I now bring you some of my own photos too. Here is  66426 , suprisingly at the gala.  This wasn't planned, but it stepped in when  56006  suffered fault at Leicester. For some videos of the event, we recommend you to go and visit  Steve's Bus And Train blog . A full review of the day there too.

The Mid Norfolk Railway's Annual Spring Diesel Gala took place on Friday 1st, Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd April. A variety of locomotives visited the event, but the main spectacle was of course 41101 and three MK3 carriages, recently overhauled by the owners  from The 125 Group . The MK3s come in the form of ex-VirginWestCoast Buffet 10206, SO 12092 and First Class 11074 - as we announced previously. 

26 miles of new tunnels built. A total of 594 carriages needed to make up 66 nine-car units. Of course, lots  of Nando's  across the route. 12 trains per hour (each direction) on the Shenfield to Central London route from 2018, extending to Reading and Heathrow by 2019. This post will highlight the features of the Aventra Class 345 units, built by Bombardier at Derby, which will operate the length and breadth of the CrossRail TFL route, the Queen Elizabeth route as it's named.

PART 1 IS HERE IF YOU'VE MISSED IT, FOR GENERAL NEWS. Fleet News.   The New Livery As stated by  Matthew , the FTPE fleet of nine 2-car 170s are all to be subleased to Chiltern Rail, all departing within the next year, for their benefit. Five of these 170/3 units have already transferred, meaning that FTPE were naturally under capacity. Thus, the same amount (six at present) of  156 Sprinters are sub-leased  from Arriva Northern to bring up numbers, used for the hourly service on the Manchester Airport to Blackpool North corridor  - as announced in January 2015.

Old FTPE livery on a Class 185 at York. This livery is  soon to be extinct (more explained in Part 2!) Since Keolis left the Transpennine franchise, leaving just FirstGroup, we haven't had any updates. So here we go with a TOC focus. First and foremost, a summary of the operator. In total, FTE operate 71 units over their network serving: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester (Piccadilly and Airport) Middlesbrough, Newcastle Central, Scarborough and Sheffield.

At Plymouth, 150219 on the 13:39 Penzance to Exeter collided at low speed into the rear of the stationary 15:42 Plymouth to Paddington, formed of a HST with  43160  damaged. This incident occured on Platform 6 at approximately 15:35. There are currently 18 injuries, including one of the drivers, and these casualties are being assessed by the Paramedics at the scene. An air ambulance arrived just after 16:45, along with Ambulances, to take 8 of the injured to Derringford Hospital.  BTP added: 'Our officers are currently at the station, alongside colleagues from South Western Ambulance Service, Devon and Cornwall Police and Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service.