Bristol to Swansea Electrification.

Promised for the upgrading of the GWR.

Most people know of Wales, but they think its part of western-England. Very insulting and this may be applied to the overdue delay in the promised electrification of the Great Western Railway line from Bristol Parkway to Swansea.

Cardiff is the capital and plans are a foot to get this far and no further, in fact the railways of Britain have always been slow on modernisation. Electric trains have been around since 1890 and still by 1960 steam was the main pulling power.

It was the London underground and Southern that employed fourth and third rail conduction, from 1900. The 1950's saw the introduction of early electric locomotion between London-Birmingham and Manchester. By this time one could get an electric train from Fenchurch Street in London to Clacton in Essex, but Paddington was the only station not to have any overhead-electric trains.

Since the privatisation of the Rail Network, the first dual-electric trains served the GWR. The Class 73 have been employed from time to time on various duties, wearing the BR blue and Swallow liveries, but that has been about it. 

Hopefully pressure by big business and the Welsh assembly government will see the development to Swansea, the real capital of Cymru/Wales?

Railcars and Railbuses.

British demand For.

One cannot speak for other nations, but it would seem that the 'Railcar is something unique to the British railway system. The first cars with twin cabs were built for the Great Western and saw service between Bristol and Swindon from the late 1940' to the early 50's, despite their popular appeal nothing more was done to improve them.

The 1950's saw the re-introduction of these one coach units operating on small lines, some where termed rail buses rather than cars and they were an essential link prior to Beaching. The Class 101 got the idea off with two to three car Diesel Multiple Units (DMU's), but the 117/121 were demanded for sharper bends in Cornwall. 

Past smaller steam locomotives and limited stock could work these lines, but the newer carriages and locos were to long. By the 1970's plans where in progress for the Pacer Class 150 and 153 units, which is some cases were nothing more than a Leyland bus on a carriage chassis.

Northern-Ireland railways had developed a spread of single and multiple rail cars from the 1930's, many of these originated on the various narrow gauge lines that were still in operation in the province of Ulster. Some were sold to the Isle of Man, but very little was shared I believe with the mainland. NIR did by some unusual vehicles from the Southern Railway one-offs built at Norwood Junction?

Coaching Stock. Part-One.

British Rail. Mark.1. Stock.

There is a lot more to trains than that of locomotives it is the coaching stock that is the passenger bit, that we travel to enjoy or commute to work. Prior to privatisation the four big railway companies in the United Kingdom, LMS, LNER, GWR and Southern Railways had each designed their own carriages.

But in 1951 the BR Mark one was introduced, being built at Doncaster up to 1963 and it has remain in use to this day being the most successful ever built. Mark 1 coaches remain in service as part of the Royal train as well as Departmental duties and are part of nearly every preservation railway. 

The Mark 1 was also supplied to Northern-Ireland railways and exported to the Republic of Ireland from the early 1960's.