Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

Street Station to Norwich and through East Anglia. After she was withdrawn ‘ Britannia’ was saved for preservation on the Severn Valley Railway, and was chosen out of a possible three steam engines that could have been rostered for this excursion, the others being a Southern Railway Bullied ‘light’ Pacific and #46100 ‘ Royal Scot ’. The standard flat rate ticket for this trip was £109, whereas for the First Class dining experience the price was £239 per head. It was somewhat ironic that in the same week the East Lancs Line had witnessed the new generation of trains being tested, and a locomotive almost seventy years old was passing through. September More reliveried units had emerged into service with Arriva Rail North they were - Class 150:114, 150:118 & 150:133 all ex-Northern and 150:131 ex-First Group blue. They were accompanied by Class 158:868, 158:869 & 158:908 all ex-ScotRail. It was reported that ‘Pacer’ 142:005 was the first of the class to be withdrawn from service on August 12 th . It was followed shortly afterwards by 142:046. In its 32 year operational life it was stated that #005 had run over 3 million miles in revenue earning service, and at the time of writing just 7 out of the 79-strong fleet had been withdrawn. Unit 142:001, the first of the class, is expected to go to the National Railway Collection for continued display. On the second weekend West Coast Railways were operating another of their specials over the East Lancs Line, topped and tailed by a couple of Class 47 diesels. The second week saw the VTG tanks haulage reverting back to a pair of Colas Rail’s Class 56s, numbers 078 piloting 096, replacing the usual Class 70:816 which had been in charge during the first week. More ex-Northern Class 158 unit had received Arriva Rail North’s livery, numbers 902 and 908 were the latest. It hadn’t been good news for the franchise holders who operated trains along the East Lancs Line, with both turning in worse performances over the summer of 2019 than in 2018. Punctuality and cancellations were up on the previous year for both Arriva Rail North and Trans Pennine Express. The reasons offered were spells of unusually hot weather and unseasonal rainfall causing flooding, and this before the leaves began to fall in autumn. What happened on Sunday, September 2 nd would not have helped, when damage to the road bridge on Altham Lane in Huncoat required remedial work whilst the road was closed to all traffic. It was announced that Graham Jones, MP for Accrington and Haslingden, had been appointed to the Chair of a new Parliamentary pressure group, called Transport Across The North. This body was lobbying for a budget of some £39 billions in order to fund rail-based projects in our region. These would no doubt include the reinstatement of the Colne to Skipton length of line, as well as improved passenger and freight connections across the Pennines. October On Thursday the 3 rd , after a period of operation by double-headed Class 56 engines, it was back to Class 70 haulage, with #809 in charge of the bitumen tanks. In the pursuit of achieving standardisation of their fleet of DMUs, Arriva Rail North had continued to re-livery them, the latest conversions from First blue to the new scheme were 150:106 and 150:127. The company had now refurbished two out of every three of the units it intended to keep in service up until 2020. This upgrading included the installation of internal customer information, Wi-Fi and USB ports, as well as better seating and LED lighting. Of the units which it was likely would appear at some time on the East Lancs Line, and were currently being refurbished were 150s 106/114/139/148 and 158s 870/871. The list of units still to go through this process is - 150:104/105/107/109/111/113/115/117/118/122/131/135. 150:201/209/210/218/224/225/226/268/269. 156:421/425/426/428/429/447/449/455/459/460/461/464/465/485/496. 158:815/817/842/843/844/850/851/853/855/859/860/861/872. 158:901/903/906/907/ 910. A total of 54, which with less than three months before the end of the year and the proposed withdrawal of all the Class 142 units, seemed a tall order, as it also included a list of other electric units still to go through the works. There were several locations at which this refurbishment was being carried out and these were at Crewe, Wolverton, Kilmarnock, Doncaster and Loughborough at a cost of in the region of £80 millions. The new seating would match that which is inside the new Class 195 units and these will also have real-time information screens and CCTV coverage.

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