News - End of Year round-up
31 December 2005 - thanks to Stephen Sheehan, Peter Hall, Mike Pannell, Mick Cottam, John Hall, Dave Denton, Steve Best, Charles Best, Brian Loughlin for this article
A round up of all the significant happenings between October and the end of the year.Sales and movements
977859 moved to Derby RTC from York during October. Details are not quite clear yet but it seems it is being refurbished (still present at the end of December) as a route learner unit. It is still owned by Network Rail but will apparently be operated by Serco. Unusually it has apparently received a repaint in the old Railtrack green and blue scheme! More news on this in the new year!
083651 moved from Eastleigh Works to St. Leonards on 19th October.
977169 moved to the Battlefield Line during October from Old Oak Common.
083264 and 083650 have disappeared from their long term home near Ashford station although it is not clear yet where they have gone.
Tanker 042193 was found at Long Marston (formerly at Toton but not seen since 2003) while another tank 024957 was found at Throckmorton Airfield - formerly at Derby Etches Park and also not noted for some months.
Conflat match wagon 041281 is now at Derby works - formerly at Doncaster - it is possible more have moved there too although these wagons are sometimes notoriously difficult to identify!
061094 was found to have moved from Chasewater to Heritage Engineering, Old No. 20 Shop, Swindon Works.
Van 041861 was reported to be now at Derwent Valley Railway - formerly at Thornaby. Meanwhile 977941 remains in the Bull Ring sidings at Thornaby! The fate of this unit is still unclear!
Snowblower support vans 975464 and 975486 moved from Kilmarnock to Thrall York at the end of November. The reason for this move is not certain, possibly some maintenance. It is thought the snowblower 968501 has remained at Kilmarnock.
70266 (082232) and 99011 have moved from the Mid Hants Railway to the Swanage Railway.
70324 has moved from Northampton & Lamport to the Kent & East Sussex Railway.
977725 has been moved from its long term home in Bedminster near Bristol to Green Brooks Commercial, Clutton, Somerset. No more details are available at present about this location. It is presumed this vehicle is no longer on its way to the Avon Valley Railway.
Mark 1 3064 (formerly 975607 Test Car 7) has moved from Stewarts Lane to the East Somerset Railway.
024223, 024880 and 025009 have appeared at Moveright International, Wishaw from Wolverton works. Their future destinations are currently unknown.
Saloon 80972 left Tyseley on 13th December and is currently stored at Allely's yard in Warwickshire. Its final destination is not yet known.
977934 still seems to be for sale - photos and details here
Also still for sale are the following:
977437 at Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway - photo and details here
Rare tank wagon 024752 at Wishaw - photo and details here
Disposals
Surprisingly 042244 was found to have been scrapped earlier in the year at the North Norfolk Railway.
Flat wagons 083561/2/3 were scrapped at Eastleigh East Yard during November by Raxstar having previously been offered for sale through EWS.
The Eastleigh works clear out continued with 977296,977696 & 977764 cut up in October with EMU test unit vehicles 61948,61949,70653 & 70660 cut in November. All work was done by Robert Nicholas Steel. IU disposals at this location are still a bit unclear so any info is welcome. 083425 is apprently in need of a good home so if anyone can help please see the recent message on departmentals here
40228 & 40231 were broken up on site at Housleys Scrapyard, Sheffield.
Other news
73212 & 73213 were released during November wearing new coats of NR yellow. Meanwhile 43196 was the latest NMT power car to be outshopped in yellow.
The BTU from Old Oak Common spent Christmas 2005 outbased at Eastleigh. It is not known the reason why but the crane was used on Christmas day to remove a transformer from the Basingstoke area. It may have been relocated temporarily because of the line closure at Woking over the festive period.
New section of the website!
Grounded van bodies that are on or near railway land but don't officially carry Internal User numbers have now been added to the website for reference. A search for the location will now bring up vans that are grounded and essentially in internal use but not allocated an official IU number. Examples include two at Norwich Crown Point, one at Luton station, one at Northampton yard and one at Blyth Cambois depot. I hope this is a useful addition - if anyone has any more details of grounded vans that are not IUs please let me know so they can be added. Again it should be stressed that we are not talking about vans in farmers fields here! Just vans on or near railway land that could be mistaken for internal users.
A very happy new year from the departmentals.com team - please keep the news and photos coming in!!
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