£2m for HNRC HARRY Needle Railway Company has secured £2m funding to support ambitious growth plans to increase its capacity and develop greener locomotives, creating 50 jobs over the next five years. The investment was provided by Frontier Development Capital and will go towards adding an engineering shed, a paint shop, and additional sidings across its sites at Worksop and Barrow Hill. An R&D program will look at modifying existing locomotives to become more eco-friendly.
‘99’ fleet for GBRf BEACON, Stadler and GB Railfreight have signed an agreement to finance, build and operate 30 Class 99 bimode locomotives. The Co-Co locos will be powered by 25kV AC overhead or on board 2150hp low emission diesel engine. They are expected to enter service in 2025.
ROG Class 93 TESTING of the first Rail Operations Group Class 93 trimode (25kV AC, 1200hp diesel, 540hp battery) locomotive is underway in Valencia, Spain. Stadler is building an initial batch of 10, but there is an option for 20 more. The first loco No. 93001 is expected to arrive in the UK at Portbury Docks on April 11, then move to the Rail Innovation and Development Centre at Old Dalby to start testing.
Fatal Greek crash A HEAD-ON collision between a passenger train and a freight train between Tempi and Evangelismos in Greece’s Thessaly region killed 57 people on February 28, said to be the worst in the country’s railway history. The 19.22 Athens to Thessaloniki passenger service collided head-on with a Thessaloniki to Larissa intermodal at 23.21 on the same southbound track about 17 miles (27km) north of Larissa – the closing speed was estimated to be over 100mph. Manual signalling was in place and human error was blamed. Four people had been charged with various offences as this issue went to press: the stationmaster at Larissa, his supervisor, and two other stationmasters who reportedly left work early.