26th Annual Railcar Convention
Great Central Railway, 9th-11th September 2022.
Report by Chris Moxon, additional photographs by Michael Hughes.
Introduction
In complete contrast to the previous two years which had been fraught with cancellations, delays and last minute arrangements, this year signalled that we were back in business with a full event executed without a hitch! This year, the Great Central Railway was the location with resident group Renaissance Railcars (Ren Rail) our hosts. The group last hosted exactly a decade earlier, back in 2012, and it was clear that the fleet had changed significantly since then, more of which later.
The convention was made into more of an event by packaging it up into a publicly advertised Railcar Weekend, which in turn was combined with the railway's Beer Festival. This is a quirk of the Great Central, where the railcar sets for some years now have featured heavily in the Beer Festival event, with their quick turnarounds proving useful shuttling part way down the line during the evenings that the bars are in full operation. It was not lost on some members that a weekend of railcar action could be combined with two evenings sampling what else was on offer!
Friday
Unlike most conventions, where the Friday Driver Experience day would be undertaken with the railway shut to the public, the Great Central's unique five mile double track section enabled the experiences to be run as extras slotted in between a full public service. This made for the added bonus of each of the experiences passing up to three other trains in the opposite direction during the ten mile round trip from Loughborough to Rothley. Two steam locomotives, a Class 45 and visiting Derby Lightweight "Iris" made up the other four trains in service on public duties during the day.
The experiences were as always most enjoyable, with eight participants from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in the north to the Dean Forest Railway in the south taking the controls of "the blue set", Class 101/117 hybrid M50203/W59506/M50266. The set drove well, performing solidly on an easy route. What the Great Central lacks in gradients and curves however, it more than makes up for with impressive mainline infrastructure. On no other railway could a Class 101 gently sweep round the bend at Swithland, distant off, crossing a Derby Lightweight with a combined speed of 50mph.
Delegates were split over the day, with many "getting stuck" on the blue set, with repeated round trips socialising with the other participants. Others explored further, and enjoyed the other passenger services running the full length of the line, with steam, diesel and Iris haulage all available...and yes Iris was "hauling", as for one round trip a CCT was coupled to the rear for good measure!
All to soon the evening approached, however rather than the usual routine of members splitting up to find food locally, with the Beer Festival on food was available on site. So the meeting continued with beer and further miles on the services running into the night. For the evening, the blue set was stabled and the "green set", Class 101/111 E51427/E59575/E50321 ran in multiple with Iris.
Saturday
Similar to the East Lancs event the previous year, Saturday would leave nobody bored as the full intensive timetable was put into action. This saw the same three hauled sets in action (two steam and one Class 45), this time supplemented by three separate railcar sets, the two Class 101 sets along with Iris. Whilst things had been fairly stable on the Friday, the Saturday saw lots of complicated timetabling features that showed off the Great Central at its best. These included tail load traffic behind Iris, part-line trips where sets turned around and headed in the opposite direction at intermediate stations, "looped trains" where a set would enter the loops at Swithland and stay there for half an hour allowing others to both overtake on the main and also flash past in the opposite direction. Iris was also running in multiple with the 101/111 on some trips creating an all green 4-car formation.
Perhaps the strangest feature however was a parallel run between Rothley and Swithland, where Iris ran in the same direction as the blue 101 simultaneously on the double track. Iris was well filled, as due to the signalling arrangements the "wrong road" blue set was having to run empty. This was certainly a first for any convention, and was great fun!
Shortly after the parallel run, it was dime to head south to Leicester North for the meeting.
Formal Meeting
Held in room 101(!) at the railway's "Greenacres" hire/function rooms, just outside the station at Leicester North. There were 29 delegates present, an increase of five from the previous year, with official business starting at 15:35.
The meeting started with the Chairman Paul Moxon's welcome and summary, where apologies were also read. Ren Rail were thanked for hosting us again and more new Second Generation groups welcomed.
Chris Moxon's traditional round-up of the year followed, where the usual news was read out painting a picture of our railcars nationally. Additions dominated the early part of the report with the expected mass of second generation units (over 100) pushing the overall number of preserved vehicles over 400. There had been no disposals this year. Various movements, some to new homes and others for loans or contract work, followed before a summary of overhauls started and completed. A summary slide at the end led to interesting conclusions about the arrival of the second generation fleets combined with the effects of Covid-19, which are only now being able to be measured. The pandemic has caused almost half of the second generation additions to not enter service, which combined with a large loss in first generation vehicles has led to only a small rise in the number of operational vehicles despite the very large increase in total number of vehicles. Equally, a drop in first generation restoration has cancelled out much of the effect of the new second generation groups restoring their vehicles, again leading to only a modest rise. It was concluded that recovery had still not been made but that the movement was now stable again, so next year should see a much more settled picture.
The next speaker was Bruce Pollard of Ren Rail. Ten years ago the group's head, Tom Ingall, had given a history of the GCR and its railcars, so Bruce opted for a summary of the changes and the latest news, for both Ren Rail and the wider railway. Tom had shifted his involvement away from Ren Rail and into the famous reunification project, so Bruce had been leading the group for much of the past decade. It was explained the initial struggles of Ren Rail's purchase of the original four 101 powercars, later five, which now formed the powercars of the green and blue sets. The green 2-car set had been restored quickly, but momentum dropped and it would be much later before more vehicles joined the expanding fleet. Unique Class 111 buffet E59575, which sadly had not quite been finished in time for our last visit in 2012, had later made the green set up to 3-cars. The next challenge had been marrying "spare" (fifth) powercar 50266 with a second brake from the original Sandite vehicles to form a second, blue, set. This had been launched at the 50th anniversary of the closure of the Great Central event. The latest addition had been the 117 centre car (into the blue set) which had been created from an odd deal which had led to 117 vehicles arriving onto the railway separately from Ren Rail's activities. For the time being, the centre car (the only vehicle in usable condition) continues to be used making for a neat operational fleet of two 3-car sets. Talk then shifted to the recent acquisitions and the future. The railway's recently opened Mountsorrell branch line, was crying out for a single car unit to run on there, so a deal was made allowing Class 122 bubble car 55009 to move from the Mid Norfolk into Ren Rail custody. It was hoped to launch the vehicle at this event but delays sadly meant it was still in Rothley works (more of which later). The final acquisition was known as the "garden ornament", an extra 101 driving trailer, heavily stripped, which had previously been in another member's garden! Faced with scrapping, this had been brought in as a fun project to be turned into a saloon, named Lady Caroline, which could be used for group functions and also hired out for groups and parties. This vehicle is currently under restoration at Loughborough. It was mentioned how important buffet sales were to the railway and to Ren Rail, which in turn led to an update on the unique Class 120 buffet, which was in the same condition as ten years ago (stored) but had a much brighter future, having changed owners and gained a planned funding package. Expect to see updates in the future on this most special of vehicles! A final note on Ren Rail was a few hopes and dreams, with two 3-car sets bolstered by a bubble and party-trailer with perhaps some undercover accommodation one day. The talk was finished off with some more talk on the Great Central itself, including some recent changes at the top, catering challenges and of course, the exciting prospect of the reunification project to connect them with the Nottingham Heritage Railway to the north.
The next speaker was Evan Green-Hughes who gave us a TRA/HRA/ORR update. At the HRA end, asset management was in vogue with few topics being raised the affect DMU's. Competence management of loco crews was topical and ORR inspection advise would be available from the TRA covering this area. The HRA's Heritage Rail Safety Standards Board was struggling to gain traction with some staff changes. TRA's services had been offered but disappointingly interest was low. There had been anomalies concerning the use of Red Diesel in DMU's particularly for heaters and on trailer cars or where there were shared fuel tanks for different functions. Clarification had been sought and the result was to use Red Diesel for all tanks on DMU's. Moving onto the ORR, their organisation is changing with many new inspectors recently brought in who have a different style to those before. These new inspectors have been introduced to TRA and are reportedly approving of TRA's activities and track record. The HRA could not be relied upon to promote TRA properly and integrate us with ORR's interests so TRA have increased ties with ORR directly instead, to avoid complications. The consensus at present is there are no issues with railcars at the moment. The TRA maintenance system and paperwork is still ORR approved but a word of warning, diluted and modified versions should not be used. Other TRA activities in the regulating arena had included thinking about the management of risk loading/unloading of rail vehicles, although in many cases it was recognised that this function would be taken from the railcar groups and managed by the host heritage railways. TRA had been assisting lots of other railways, particularly bedding in the new second generation vehicles.
The next speaker was Jim Poor who continued the theme of competency, for both driving and maintenance/restoration. There had been cases of claims of expert help being entertained with chaos following! A discussion followed about competency management, including that "current" experience has to mean experience within the last 3 years. Ex BR help no longer counts until reassessed! MP12 in particular is well out of date now, and not always appropriate for heritage. Prospective volunteers coming in as experienced do need checking, even when moving from one heritage line to another. It was asked whether HRA had got anywhere with a scheme mooted ten years ago concerning the transferring of qualifications from one heritage line to another. They hadn't. The discussion moved on to insurance, with a few figures for vehicles quoted and a consensus that most are insured under the railway's overall insurance. There had been problems with premiums rising meaning vehicles now have to be insured for much less than they are "worth" in terms of the cost required to replace them in the event of total loss (isn't the modern world great...).
The final speaker was Mark Miller of DMU Group West Midlands, who gave an update on the sorry tale of the vehicle's fall from operational use and their continued storage over the last few years as resource had not been available to complete the necessary mechanical works (namely bogie overhauls) to return the vehicles to service. A discussion followed involving mechanical inspections, various firms who could undertake bogie overhauls under contract and the frightening costs of this work. The only "cheap" way to overhaul a bogie is to do it completely in house, and even then a lot of time, (to some extent) facilities, skill and an understanding host railway would all be required.
The final topic was the future conventions. It was confirmed that the next convention is to be held at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in 2023, with the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway offering to host the 2024 event. The meeting was then closed at 17:35, with enough time to catch a connecting train back to Loughborough for the Fish & Chip special.
Fish & Chip Special
The traditional Fish & Chip special followed with an 18:20 departure formed of all three operating sets (7-cars) which paused on Swithland Reservoir for the chips to be eaten, which was a nod to the GCR's steam dining trains which do the same! The middle (green) set was reserved for TRA members and a further good social was had. The remaidner of the evening mirrored Friday with the multiple formation continuing to run up and down in support of the two beer tents at Quorn and Loughborough.
Sunday
As is often the case, the Sunday was much quieter with most members having gone home leaving behind a smaller group of hardcore weekenders and a few who were unable to make the Saturday. Much of the operating timetable was available to enjoy again though there were slightly less features (such as the parallel run).
The highlight for the day were two behind the scenes tours, one at Rothley and one at Loughborough. The Rothley tour was of the Carriage & Wagon works there where restoration progress on bubble car 55009 was viewed in detail. The vehicle was on jacks so an unusual opportunity to see the underneath was taken. Of course whilst there a good nosy round the yard and coaches were also undertaken with Bruce providing a commentary throughout and available to answer questions.
A trip back to Loughborough via a layover in the loop at Swithland followed, then a trip down the sidings at Loughborough to view restoration progress on "Lady Caroline" which is a fascinating blend of old and new! It will be a fun vehicle when completed.
Future Events
The end of the weekend came all too soon and the stragglers headed home. A great show was put on by Ren Rail and the GCR and one wonders if combining the convention with other events may be a future pattern we see more of, as railways have to get more savvy with their costs and more careful when they operate.
Join us next year at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, or even the year after at Butterley!