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Harsco Rail Stoneblower

Stoneblowers are specialised machines used by Network Rail to maintain ballast under track. Sensors on the Stoneblower measure the alignment of the ballast under the track down to 0.5mm, and then if needed the track is lifted and small stones are blown into any spaces found [1] using compressed air. This is claimed by Network Rail to be more durable than using a tamper as it doesn't disturb the existing trackbed and can extend the life of track [2].

Information
Number built: 14
Builder: Pandrol Jackson / Harsco Rail

Network Rail maintains a fleet of stoneblowers built by Pandrol Jackson who were later bought by Harsco Rail. Eleven work on straight track with three Multipurpose Stoneblowers for switches and crossings. The latter three were developed by Harsco Rail and Network Rail, who are considering replacing their older machines with more of these advanced multipurpose machines.
Two views of DR80201 passing through Warwick

On the front of DR80201 is a crane used for loading stone

[1] Royston Morris, Railway Maintenance Vehicles & Equipment (Amberley Publishing, 2017) p. 15
[2] Network Rail. Track treatment fleet <https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/looking-after-the-railway/fleet-machines-vehicles/track-treatment/>

Leicester Corporation Tramways

Leicester Corporation Tramways took over tram operations (which had been running in horse drawn form since 1874) in the city in 1901. The system was electrified, being one of the last of Britain's major cities to adopt electric tramways [1], and greatly expanded. It opened for electric operation in 1904 and included the rather busy Clock Tower Junction where six tram lines converged, the junction requiring over one hundred tons of track and rather complicated overhead lines. To launch the new service fifty nine new double decker electric trams were bought in early 1904 from the Dick Kerr Electric Railway & Carriage Company of Preston, forty more coming later the same year of which Number 76 (see below) was one of.

Twenty more trams arrived in 1913/14 for a new initiative in "Pay as you enter" boarding [2] (see photo below) with colour coded pre-paid tickets. The final trams arrived in 1920. Not long afterwards the Corporation began operating motor buses and in the early 1930s started to replace trams with buses. However the tram service managed to survive until after the Second World War with the last tram running in 1949.

Information for original trams
Number built: 99
Built: 1904-05
Builder: Electric Railway & Tramway Carriage Company of Preston
Motor: 2 Dick Kerr electric motors (550v DC OHLE)
Power: 50 hp (37 kW)

One of the survivors of the Leicester Corporation fleet is Number 76 . It was originally built as an open topped tram though a cover was added as with the rest of the fleet just before the First World War, inclement weather cutting into revenue. The tram continued to have open platforms and balconies but these were covered as well in 1929.

Number 76 survived in service until 1947. The body was sold to become a cricket pavilion in Yorkshire though in 1960 it was preserved at the Crich Tramway Museum and restored to it's 1920s condition though not with the original truck. One of the original batch of trams, Number 31, also still survives and is currently being preserved after decades serving as an outbuilding on a farm.
Survivor #76 at Crich

Abbey Road Tram Shed, public domain image [1]

Building of Clock Tower Junction, public domain image [1]

The Mayor and local politicians celebrate the start of Pay As You Enter, public domain image [2]

Another view of #76

[1] "The Leicester Corporation Electric Tramways",  Street Railway Journal (Vol XXIII No. 23, June 1904) p. 830
[2] "Prepayment zone system inaugurated in Leicester", Electric Railway Journal (Vol XLI No. 16 April 1913) p. 720