• RAIL REGULATOR GRANTS BARS A EUROPE WIDE FREIGHT AND PASSENGER LICENCE : Weardale Railways majority shareholder, British American Rail Services also owns, as a UK subsidiary, Devon and Cornwall Railways.(DCR). On the 26^th August the Office of Rail Regulation published notice of its intent to grant DCR European passenger and freight operating licences.  This kicks off a 28 day period for public comment;  barring any major objections, and given that Devon and Cornwall has certain insurance coverage and industry agreements in place at the end of that period, the company will then be licenced to operate trains throughout the United Kingdom. Ed Ellis, Company President, pointed out “Once licenced, DCR will still need to apply to operate trains over a specific route, but this is a major step forward in being able to provide freight and passenger services over the national U.K. rail network. This is the culmination of many months of effort by BARS/DCR staff and in the case of Weardale brings the possibility of extending our existing passenger services onto the Network much closer. It also has implications for developing the freight services along the line.”

DCR Loco 31452 in the suburban platforms at Kings Cross.
Thanks to Wayne  Radford for this photo. See his other photographs
at: http://wayne-radford.fotopic.net/p61682361.htm

31452 at East Leake on the Great Central Railway.
Thanks to AndrewThomas for this photo. See this and his
other photos at : http://andrewthomas.fotopic.net/

• WOLSINGHAM SHOW : SPECIAL EXTRA SERVICES TO SHOWGROUND : September 4^th and 5^th will see a greatly augmented service on the Weardale Railway to serve a special temporary platform at the Wolsingham showground. This has involved  some intricate timetable planning as it is intended to use both 141 diesel multiple units operating independently with the additional complication of fitting in a Charter from Dundee and Edinburgh on the Saturday. On Saturday (4^th) there will be eight services to and from Bishop Auckland during the day, four terminating at the Wolsingham Showground  while four will continue on to and from Stanhope. On the Sunday there will be seven services to and from Bishop Auckland with three running on to and from Stanhope. Our normal community rail fares will apply (£5.30 return from Bishop Auckland) For these purposes the showground will be treated as though it were Wolsingham.  Anyone travelling to or from the showground to Wolsingham itself will be charged 50p. Please be ready to point out to intending passengers that the temporary platform has only a step access and is unsuitable for disabled passengers. For more information on the show, see : http://www.wolsinghamshow.com/index.htm

• CHARTER TRAIN FROM SCOTLAND WILL ALSO CARRY  LOCAL PASSENGERS : On Saturday 4^th September a Charter train operated by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society will run from Dundee and stations through Edinburgh and Berwick to York and will then double back to visit Weardale .It will utilise the SRPS maroon carriages and be diesel hauled throughout. First Class dining facilities are also being provided. A limited number of tickets will be available from York to Weardale at £25 (or £35 First Class). In addition arrangements have been made for the train to call at the Weardale Railway platform at Bishop Auckland to convey passengers  to Wolsingham showground and Stanhope. Passengers travelling to the showground will need to pay the normal community rail fare of £5.50 return, those travelling to Stanhope will be required to pay the Heritage supplement. The train is provisionally scheduled to leave Bishop Auckland at 13.35 and arrive at the showground at 14.05  and Stanhope at 14.30. It is due to leave Stanhope at 16.00 and the showground at 16.40 arriving at Bishop Auckland at 17.10. Please note these times are provisional as we have yet to receive the final timings from Network Rail – so please check this website before travel - Timetables 

• WEARDALE RAILWAYS TO PROVIDE SERVICES TO STANHOPE SHOWGROUND : Stanhope show takes place on the weekend following the Wolsingham show, on September11, 12^th.Again a temporary platform will be used and the service of trains to and from Bishop Auckland will be augmented. For details please see the Timetables page as shown above. For information on the Show, see : http://www.stanhopeshow.com/whats_on.htm

• IT IS AUGUST : MUST BE TIME FOR SANTA : Well it is on the Weardale Railway. Tickets are now on sale – see the website for details, prices and times – and this year you can also book directly online. There are other innovations planned for this year. The ‘Pullman’ coach Nina will be deployed  and a supplement charged for First Class travel with service at your seat. As last year, groups of passengers will be able to pre reserve a  Standard Class compartment – at a small extra charge . There will be two train services on each of 12 operating days, plus a single morning service on December 24^th. One service each day will have a connecting service to and from Bishop Auckland. It is planned to operate a Christmas Market in the car park at Stanhope. The Café, Gift shop and Model Railway will also be open. One other option, still being explored , is to use the Junior Club coach, classroom end, as Santa’s Grotto – this would be placed in the bay at the east end of the up platform, thus all the main activities could be undertaken without crossing the footbridge. To obtain the full information on how to book please visit Santa's Page.

• DEPOT NEWS : While work proceeds on the applications and licences for the coal loading facility, opportunity has been taken to rationalise the layout of other parts of the Depot area. This will include moving the existing storage containers and staff accommodation to the North West of the site away from the loading area and upgrading the staff facilities in a new amenity block.

• DARTMOOR RAILWAY UTILISING FORMER YUGOSLAVIAN STEAM : Our sister company in Devon, the Dartmoor Railway, which in the summer normally operates a five days/week diesel ‘thumper’ service from Okehampton station has brought in a  Yugoslav built ‘USA’ tank engine to run a steam service for two weeks from August 21^st. This type of loco is no stranger to the line as they worked at Meldon Quarry until March 1967. The locomotive will return to the Mid-Hants Railway in early September. See photos below :-

‘USA’ class 62 tank 300075 at Okehampton Station during
its two week stay at the Dartmoor Railway this August. 

·         THE COAL LOADING TERMINAL : FIRST STEPS : Donald Heath reports  :- Having received planning permission for the construction and operation of a coal loading terminal at the Wolsingham Depot, the Company now has to “make it happen” in accordance with the conditions contained within the consent. To do this, a project “kick off” meeting was held at Bishop Auckland on August 5^th. Attended by most of the Weardale staff who will be involved in the work necessary to not only get the first train off to its destination but, also, to keep the operation going on a daily basis, the project team made a very good start in identifying the myriad of tasks that will have to be done and, equally importantly, allocating them to individuals to do them within set time scales. In headline terms the activities can be grouped as follows: 

1.                    Work to get the Wolsingham depot site adapted to include a coal loading terminal;
2.                   Track and other railway works necessary at Wolsingham for coal trains to use the facilty.
3.                   Railway works at Bishop Auckland to accommodate coal trains running on and off  the national network whilst facilitating the continued operation of our  Community Rail service;
4.                   The alterations which will be needed to our existing operational arrangements so as cater for the additional trains
5.                  A review of the existing infrastructure to ascertain what strengthening will be necessary to cope with the very big increase in annual tonnage that it will have to carry; and,
6.                  Completion of all the further studies required by the County Council.

 It will also be necessary to have detailed discussions with Network Rail and the Freight Operating Company which will run the coal trains to their destination(s) on the timings of these trains on and off the national network as well as the modus operandi which will be somewhat different to that associated with the occasional excursion train that has so far used the connecting line between the two companies.

The tasks described above were allocated to individuals to get on with. David Million has been appointed the project manager to coordinate all of the work streams described above and he started work on August 23^rd. 
The first project progress meeting was held on August 18^th., and further progress meetings will be held at fortnightly intervals. Initially, these are focusing on confirming the specifications for the works to be done with programming and contractual arrangements being developed close behind.

Further reports will follow as and when there is significant progress to report.

• No 40 : RESTORATION WORK CONTINUES : The work on two of the axle box bearings will be completed in the next three days. However on inspection of the two remaining as yet un-restored bearings our expert was of the opinion that to replace them on the newly re-machined axles would be unwise – it was felt safer to have the bearings re-machined from castings made by melting down the old bearings. This will involve further delay and although every effort will be made to have this work finished before the War on the Line event, this can no longer be guaranteed. 

No 40 in the Wolsingham Depot raised on the jacks while undergoing work on the axles and bearings.	No 40 with one of the two re-machined axles.                 ( Both photos : Norman Swindle )

• BISHOP AUCKLAND STATION-CONNECTING THE PLATFORMS : The present temporary arrangement  of a separate platform linked by a roundabout footpath may be replaced in the near future. Network Rail (NR) have agreed in principle to move to a better design. This may happen in two stages, First a direct path on railway land between the two platforms. This obviously means working on  NR land and will need detailed design approval and the use of a NR approved contractor. We hope to use RMS for this work as it is already approved for Network operations.  Discussions are also ongoing with Durham County Council Transport department on planned longer term improvements at Bishop Auckland – more on this later.

Drainage works underway on the land between the two platforms  – this is where the planned linking path could be placed.	The Griddle Car as you have never seen it before. It will emerge in  the BR ‘blood and custard’ livery. ( Both Photos : Norman Swindle)

• FATALITY ON THE BISHOP LINE : A British Transport Police investigation is underway after a fatality on the Bishop Auckland – Darlington line on April 11^th. A man was knocked down by the 9.25am train from Bishop Auckland near the Dabble Duck Industrial Estate, half-a-mile outside Shildon, Northern Rail operated a replacement bus service along the route between Bishop Auckland and Darlington until emergency services had completed their work.

No Newsletter is complete without a Photo from John Lewins. This time he has found a new viewpoint of the River Wear Bridge immediately 
to the east of the Depot connection, here with the Class 73 pulling the Heritage stock on the day of the Morris Minor Rally, August 15^th.

• JUNIOR CLUB NEWS : The newly established Bishop Auckland branch members had their first outing – by train of course – to London. They travelled First Class, courtesy of East Coast Railways and were led by Dave Million and Mike Wilkinson and visited the London Transport Museum, Hamleys, Buckingham Palace and the new international terminal at St Pancras station. We hope to see more of these youngsters helping out on our busy Show service days. Meanwhile work is continuing on the Junior Clubs restoration of Coach 5226. All windows have been reinstalled and work on the interior of both the ‘classroom’ and the Model railway room is now complete. The juniors today added the finishing touches to both areas by fixing the large train picture boards that were donated by East Coast Main Line.  The picture boards are both approximately 14 ft long and depict a National Express East Coast train and a GNER train. There remains some further electrical work and also some exterior bodywork repairs to be completed before repainting.

New recruits : the members of the Bishop Auckland Branch of the WRJc on their trip to London  beside a well-known landmark and in the London Transport museum. (Both Photos ; Dave Million)

• No 40 APPEAL : Further publicity : Trevor Hewitt one of the co-organisers of the Appeal to raise money for the No 40 re-certification work  took the opportunity  of a visit of a Northern Echo reporter to the Depot to update her on the project. The article and a photo appears below. Trevor also carried out an interview on Radio Tees a few days later.

The Weardale Railway Trust, in County Durham, needs at least £90,000 to get its 1954 No40 locomotive in working order. The engines’ boiler certificate is due for renewal in 2012 and the railways’ 90-plus volunteers need the cash for its maintenance. The railway, which now offers a passenger service connecting Wolsingham to Bishop Auckland, is putting up £55,000 and is appealing for help to raise the remaining £40,000 needed for the work. 
People can donate money or buy gifts, which include photographs of the No40, footplate rides and copies of railway history books. Trevor Hewitt, treasurer of Weardale Railway Trust, said: “This is a piece of history and a way of keeping industrial and rail history alive. “A lot of railways will have the same aims, but if we didn’t put the effort in then these things would die out. We bought this engine from a railway in Essex, so it has come back home to operate in its homeland in the North-East.”

        To help the fund, visit weardale-railway.org.uk or call 01388-526203.        

        Courtesy : Northern Echo : 12^th August

"A MUSEUM provided the platform yesterday to help promote a new set of stamps celebrating Great British Railways. Locomotion: The National Railway Museum, in Shildon, County Durham, helped the Royal Mail launch the stamps, which go on sale today. The stamps include a 1929 photo of the London North-East Region’s Class A1 loco Royal Lancer. Duncan Edwards, an explainer at the museum, holds an enlargement of one of the stamps which go on sale today." 

        Courtesy : Northern Echo : 19^th August

Trevor Hewitt at the footplate of No 40. 

• NAME THE COACH COMPETION EXTENDED : Dasvid Million reports : Due to the delaying finalising 5226 the “Name the Coach” competition has been extended until 30th September 2010. For an entry fee of £2 (with profits going towards project 5226), the winning entry will receive a goody pack including Weardale Railway Tie, set of 4 GNER branded wine glasses (heavy version), 4 rare GNER branded tumblers, National Express ice bucket, National Express mug and an East Coast trains mouse mat. Entries with cheque, payable to “WRJC” should be sent to:- 
  Project 5226 Competition, Weardale Railway Junior Club, Stanhope Station, Station Road, Stanhope, Co. Durham. DL13 2YS

Edited by Gerry Mudd   Comments, suggestions, contributions, corrections all welcomed.
                                      gcmudd@ntlworld.com  or 01932 889 811  or 07773 800 554