Tag Archives: York

A Few Trains in York

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Work took me to York for the day. York is one of the parts of the UK rail network that was absolutely instrumental in the development of the nation’s railways, and it is still a major intersection. Trains between London and Scotland come through but it also has services across the Pennines to the west and to many local destinations.

After my meetings had finished, I headed back to catch my train to London. I was a little early for it so walked around the station to see what else was there. The Hitachi trains are now a big part of service with the LNER Azumas, the Lumo services and some Transpennine Express services. Then there are other types to be seen too. A lot has changed since I was last working in the industry in the UK, so it was interesting for me to see what is now in use and what is still around!

Metalwork Used to be More Complex

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One of the cool features of older large stations in the UK is that their original owners were into making statements with the architecture. Consequently, you end up with some gran roof structures – not least to allow a number of tracks to be covered to keep the travelling public dry – it does rain in the UK occasionally. In the Victoria era, they would make sure every detail was taken care of. The cast iron pillars on which everything was built would not just be functional. They would let you know who built it. I loved the ironwork detail on this part of the station in York. The North Eastern Railway may have been superseded by many other companies, but they are still remembered here.

Avro York

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The Avro Lancaster is a very famous bomber from the Second World War but its transportation derivative is a lot less well known.  Outside the aviation community, it is probably totally unknown.  It is the Avro York (War of the Roses comments are welcome) and it takes the flying surfaces and power plants of the Lancaster and mates them to a larger fuselage for transporting people.  It was an important type in the latter stages of the war and immediately afterwards.  This example is in the main hangar at the IWM Duxford.