Heritage Railway Issue 259

IF only through Shakespeare and his contemporaries like Johnson and Marlowe, Britain led the world in drama and the performing arts. Today, our country also offers one of the greatest stages of all, in the form of the heritage railway sector. At every twist and turn, our heritage lines re-enact the glorious and triumphs of the past, with an army of reenactors taking on historic roles like driver and firemen to station porters and ticket collectors, and playing them as if they were A-listers in their own right. Drama and railways have long been bedfellows: it has been said that the origin of the railway concept could be found in ancient Greece, legendary for its early drama, when parallel grooves were cut in stage floors to allow wheeled props and…

CROWLE Peatlands Railway in Lincolnshire gave its first rides in mid-September as part of the nationwide Heritage Open Days. Cab rides in the 3ft-gauge line’s sole operating locomotive, Schöma 0-4-0 diesel hydraulic No. 5220 The Thomas Buck, were offered to prospective members of the operating society during the public open weekends of September 14-15 and 21-22. The Schöma, one of three in the ownership of the society, was paired with matching ‘slave’ unit No. 5221. While no carriages are yet available, the diesel gave cab rides along the 110 yards of track which had been laid by the society from its shed based at the Old Peatworks off Dole Road, Crowle, earlier this year. To ride in the cab, passengers had to first sign up as new members. The society’s…

AN INVESTIGATION into an incident in which two trains were heading towards each other on the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway has been launched. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) is looking into what it has described as a serious operating irregularity at Romney Sands on August 28. A statement from the RAIB said: “At around 10.35am, a train from Dungeness to Hythe left Romney Sands station and entered the single line section to New Romney. “A train from Hythe to Dungeness was in the same section, travelling in the opposite direction. The two trains came to a stand about 316 metres apart. “We have undertaken a preliminary examination into the circumstances surrounding this incident. “Having assessed the evidence which has been gathered to date, we have decided to publish…

AT LEAST 10 locomotives will be in steam at the Leighton Buzzard Railway’s October 5-6 centenary gala. A weekend of bumper celebrations will recall November 1919 when the first trains run on what was then called the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway. There will be eight passenger departures from Page’s Park each day, plus four return freight journeys. Guests will include a pair of Hudswell, Clarke Ganges class 0-6-0WTs – Nos. 1238 from Apedale Valley Light Railway and GP39 from Statfold Barn Railway – the same type as the first steam locomotives to run at Leighton Buzzard, and it will be the first time two have run together there since 1921. There will be free footplate rides at Page’s Park station, at intervals; the line’s RB10 digger will be demonstrating how…

A PROBLEM-plagued £420,000 American diesel bought by Isle of Man Railways in late 2013 and consigned to the depot for the past four years because of persistent breakdowns has re-entered passenger service. Green-liveried No. 21, built by Motive Power & Equipment Solutions Inc of Greenville, South Carolina, works number MP550-B1, was bought to pull commuter, dining and maintenance trains, as well as acting as a shunter and recovery locomotive. However, in 2015 it needed to be rescued by a steam locomotive after it broke down while pulling a Valentine’s Massacre Murder Mystery special. Rectifying the faults has cost £246,800, with the locomotive now set for an official naming ceremony later this year.…

IT MAY bear no resemblance whatsoever to a Reliant Robin and certainly not a three wheeler – yet‘Del Boy’from Only Fools and Horses was nonetheless delighted to welcome Stephenson’s Rocket to the National Railway Museum. Actor Sir David Jason was filming a documentary at the museum on September 11. He watched as Rocket was carefully unpacked after being transported 70 miles by road from its former temporary home at the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry and craned into the museum to start a 10-year loan period at York. Because of its preservation ‘in exile’, Rocket has been dubbed the ‘Elgin Marbles of the North’after being housed in London’s Science Museum since 1862. It made its York debut with the opening of a new exhibition – Brass, Steel and Fire…