X-Nico

11 unusual facts about British Rail


Andy Leaning

Born in Howden, East Riding of Yorkshire, Leaning had trials with York City in 1979 at the age of 16 and he went on to play for York Railway Institute and Rowntree Mackintosh in the Northern Counties East Football League as an amateur while working for British Rail.

Cheltenham Spa Express

The Great Western Railway's successor, British Rail, continued to use the "Cheltenham Spa Express" brand until the 1960s, when it fell out of use.

Clown Virus

The Goodies sell the remainder of the mixture to British Rail (who intend to serve the mixture as soup), and to service stations (which intend to use the mixture as petrol).

Disabled Persons Railcard

British Rail (BR) introduced the Disabled Persons Railcard in 1981 to mark the International Year of Disabled Persons.

Don Cockell

By 1975 he was working as a craftsman blacksmith in the permanent way machine shops at the British Rail Lillie Bridge Depot in London.

Duke Vin

After travelling to England in 1954 as a stowaway on a boat from Kingston, he found work as an engine cleaner for British Rail, becoming an electrician two years later.

Fares Fair

The 1981 manifesto commitment was to subsidise fares on all London Buses, London Underground and British Rail services in Greater London.

Michael McPartland

At the age of 15, McPartland left school and worked for five years as a salesman before joining the British Army in 1960, serving for eleven years after which he worked for British Rail.

North Clyde Line

Following nationalisation in 1948, all of the lines came under the ownership of British Railways.

The Cruising Association

Perhaps the most useful action from the C.A. was to persuade British Rail to revive the Yachtsman's Rail Ticket.

Vauxhall Viva

The HA Van was eventually supplanted by the Chevanne, but because of fleet orders, particularly from British Telecom, British Rail and the Post Office, the HA van remained in production, ultimately using the later HC Viva's engine and gearbox, incredibly until 1983.


Adderley Park railway station

When Sectorisation was introduced, the station was served by Regional Railways on behalf of the West Midlands PTE, for whom British Rail had been running the trains since the PTE's inception.

Attercliffe Road railway station

When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Regional Railways in co-operation with the South Yorkshire PTE until the privatisation of British Rail.

Bank Foot Metro station

For the first few years of the Metro, it shared the line with occasional British Rail freight trains running to the ICI depot at Callerton, where explosives were transferred from rail to road for onward transport to quarries in Northumberland; this traffic ceased in 1989.

Bordesley railway station

The station still carries the painted lettering "BR(W) Bordesley Cattle Station", and "Bordesley Cattle Station GWR" from the time when, as part of the Great Western Railway and later British Rail's (Western) region, it was used to bring cattle from the countryside to the Bull Ring markets.

Brake Post Office Stowage Van

British Rail built nine of these vehicles between 1959 and 1968, to two similar designs, both based on the Mark 1 coach design.

British Rail Class 201

The British Rail Class 201 (or 6S) six-car diesel-electric multiple units (DEMUs) were built in 1957-1958 at Eastleigh and Ashford.

British Rail Class 202

The British Rail Class 202 (or 6L) diesel-electric multiple units were built from 1957-58 at Eastleigh and Ashford Works.

British Rail Class 74

Twenty-four examples of British Rail Class 71 (pre-TOPS type HA) were built in 1958 at the British Rail works in Doncaster and in 1964 ten were deemed surplus to requirements, withdrawn from service and placed in storage.

British Rail Class 97/6

The British Rail Class 97/6 0-6-0 diesel shunting locomotives were purpose-built for departmental duties by Ruston & Hornsby at Lincoln in 1953 (97650) or 1959 (97651-654).

Channel Air Bridge

Combined rail-air-rail services were provided between London and Brussels in conjunction with British Rail and Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Belges/Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen (SNCB/NMBS), the respective contemporary national railway companies of the UK and Belgium.

Cinven

Cinven’s funding base originally came solely from three UK pension funds (British Coal, the Railway Industry and Barclays Bank) who remain as important investors.

Derwent Valley Light Railway

In 1964, British Railways closed the Selby to Driffield Line, meaning that the junction at Cliffe Common became redundant.

Ivor Owen Thomas

He then returned to work at the NUR headquarters until 1958, and worked for British Rail at London Waterloo station from 1960 to 1965.

Peat extraction on the Somerset Levels

In 1949 a British Railways passenger train from Highbridge collided with an Eclipse narrow gauge diesel locomotive crossing on the level and left the track, ending up in the Glastonbury Canal.

Post Office Sorting Van

British Rail built ninety-six of these vehicles between 1959 and 1977, to several similar designs, all based on the Mark 1 coach design.

Television Centre, Southampton

This linked the British Rail sidings at Northam to Driver's Wharf where scrap metal was loaded into ships.

Trafford Bar Metrolink station

It closed as a British Rail station on 24 December 1991, and the "Old Trafford" name was transferred to the former Warwick Road Station, to avoid confusion for passengers travelling to Old Trafford Football Ground and Old Trafford Cricket Ground.

Vacuum brake

In the UK the pre-nationalisation railway companies standardised around systems operating on a vacuum of 21 inches of mercury (533.4 Torr), with the exception of the Great Western Railway, which used 25 inches of mercury (635 Torr).

Welford, Berkshire

The village was formerly served by Welford Park railway station on the Lambourn Valley Railway, but British Railways closed this line to passenger traffic in 1960 and to freight traffic to and from RAF Welford in the 1970s.

Winsford and Over railway station

The station was the terminus of the Winsford and Over branch operated by the Cheshire Lines Committee and later British Railways.