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Railway Activity in Our Area - Passenger

A voyager passes Bradwell heading north
  
A voyager passes Bradwell heading north. Bob Ballard  
This is dominated by Network Rail`s 4 track West Coast Main Line which after passing through the Chilterns via Tring Cutting heads across the Aylesbury Vale past Cheddington and Ledburn Junction to Leighton Buzzard, then after passing through Linslade Tunnel with it`s unique 3 bore formation resulting in the centre hole having tracks in reverse order, i.e. from West side Up Fast then Down Slow, the line then twists and turns through the North Bucks countryside to next reach Bletchley. Here there is a junction with the branch to the east which until the late 60`s went through to Cambridge and was cut short to just serve the intermediate stations to Bedford. The Flyover at Bletchley now sees use and a run round loop which is provided at the west side at Newton Longville to allow freight or other trains to reverse before either going north via Denbigh Hall South Junction or East to the Bedford Branch which it joins just outside Fenny Stratford. The trackbed of the mothballed Oxford line to Claydon L&NE Jc has recently been cleared of the undergrowth that has built up since the line was last used in 1992 so that precise estimates can be worked out for it`s reopening in connection with the long awaited East – West project.

Proceeding northwards from Bletchley the WCML passes through the city of Milton Keynes which has at its heart Central Station, which now boasts a new layout which includes several bi-directional lines. The Station was built on what was the site of the former Loughton Goods Yard and is located at the middle of a long straight stretch of line. This is then interrupted by the Wolverton deviation built in the 1870`s when the line was widened to 4 tracks and diverted to avoid the rail entrances to the ever growing Works. A new station was built on this section of line which also acted as the Junction for the now closed Branch to Newport Pagnell, now a “Redway” cycling and walking route.

After passing over the River Great Ouse Viaduct the line heads for Castlethorpe past the site of the former water troughs which can be identified by the remains of the tower on the Down side, used to soften the water supplies for this facility. Shortly after the remains of the closed Castlethorpe Station can be seen which were for once located near the centre of the village!!

SERVICES

  
Class 377 approaching the end of it's northbound journey to Milton Keynes Central working 10.10 ex East Croydon on 9th.March.
  Class 377 approaching the end of it's northbound journey to Milton Keynes Central working 10.10 ex East Croydon on 9th.March.. Bob Ballard
PASSENGER - Intercity services are provided by Virgin Trains which to the South originate and terminate at London Euston. Destinations to the North include Birmingham New Street/Wolverhampton, Manchester, Liverpool, Holyhead, Preston/Carlisle and Glasgow Central. There are also overnight sleeper services run by First Scotrail to Glasgow and Edinburgh with portions going on to Aberdeen, Inverness and Fort William.

London Midland provides the local services which run between Euston and Northampton and on to both Birmingham New Street and Crewe via the Trent Valley plus from Bletchley to Bedford Midland.

Southern run an hourly service from Milton Keynes to East Croydon via Kensington Olympia.

MAIL - GBRf run two regular daily Royal Mail trains using their Class 325 emu`s between the Princess Royal Distribution Centre at Stonebridge Park to Sheildmuir in Scotland calling at Warrington en route, but extra trains are run on occasion especially around the Christmas period. Various re-instated Class 86 & 87 locos are sometimes used to haul these units and are being used as standby locos for these services whilst GBRf hold the contract, but as this is reverting to DBS (formerly EWS) in 2010 the locos used will no doubt be from their fleet.

FREQUENCIES - Virgin introduced their high frequency service in 2009 with during off peak 3 trains per hour to the West Midlands and to Manchester with hourly frequencies to Liverpool and destinations in the North West or through to Glasgow Central. For North Wales there are 6 daily services to Bangor and/or Holyhead with Chester seeing an hourly service from Euston. London Midland operates 3 trains per hour to Northampton with one going through to Birmingham New Street with another providing the unit which continues north to form the hourly Crewe service via the Trent Valley. Another semi fast service from Euston terminates at Milton Keynes. The Bletchley - Bedford Branch service continues it`s hourly pattern for most of the day.

MOTIVE POWER – as well as the Class 390 Pendolinos which are used on the majority of Virgin West Coast`s trains, the sole Class 90 refurbished Mark 3 DVT set continues to being used once a week on a Friday night to work the additional 18.46 Euston to Preston service, but from December 2009-February 2010 it will be used on 3 round trips to Birmingham New St to enable a Pendolino set to be released for repair. Super Voyager Class 221 units now work all the Chester and North Wales services. The Virgin Class 57/3 Thunderbird rescue locos are still to be seen and are based at Euston and Rugby. The Class 350/1 and /2 Desiro fleet is based at Siemens Northampton Depot along with the remaining Class 321/4`s, but Bletchley TMD which was due to close has been retained to assist in the overall maintenance of these fleets. The Bedford Branch uses a mix of both Class 150 and 153 units provided by Tyseley. The Southern service from Milton Keynes – East Croydon uses their dual fitted Class 377/2 units.

37612 and 37608 pass Bletchley on 4L46 11.18 Ditton to Purfleet.
37612 and 37608 pass Bletchley on 4L46 11.18 Ditton to Purfleet.
Class 185127 on delivery by EWS on 6X16 14.31Q Wembley Yard - Longsight Siemens DMUD at Denbigh Hall.
Class 185127 on delivery by EWS on 6X16 14.31Q Wembley Yard - Longsight Siemens DMUD at Denbigh Hall.

29/11/09