Heritage Railway Issue 232

CONTROVERSY flared earlier this year when the National Railway Museum announced that it wasgiving the LSWR Adams T3 4-4-0No. 563 to the Swanage Railway. Tomany, including myself, giving away partof the National Collection was equivalent to handing over an NHS hospital lock, stock andbarrel to the private sector. However, on reading the small print,Iquickly found that the agreement clearly states that the locomotive must, first of all, beoffered back to the National Collection if the recipient ever decides that itdoes not want it anymore. In otherwords, theT3 still enjoys National Collection protection, if only at arm’s length. As partof its exhibits review under statutory Science Museumprocedures, the NRM said that itwas planning to‘gift’another locomotivefromthe collection. In August, as reported on Headline News page 6, itwas revealed that themystery locomotive in…

FOLLOWING much speculation, the National Railway Museum has announced that GWR 2-8-0 No. 2818 is the third main line steam locomotive to be gifted to another organisation from the National Collection. The locomotive is to be given to Swindon Borough Council, operator of STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway in Swindon, which occupies part of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s workshops, where no. 2818 was outshopped in December 1905. Currently based at the NRM’s outreach station at Shildon, No. 2818 is expected to arrive in Swindon later this year, once the legal transfer is complete. There are no plans to return the locomotive to working condition. The disposal completes a review of the National Collection by the York museum, which also saw the transfer of LSWR T3 4-4-0 No. 563…

BRITAIN’S most popular heritage line, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, has been awarded £4.6 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The award was announced days after the line was left reeling by a vandal attack on its showpiece LNER teak train (see separate story, News, page 24). The grant covers a range of individual projects. However, the Stage 1 pass has been awarded on the proviso that the railway finds an equivalent amount in matched funding. Although the NYMR has much detailed work ahead while preparing a range of supporting documentation, nonetheless the money has been awarded and allocated pending the meeting of various criteria Work is expected to begin in around a year’s time, assuming that Stage 2 approval is granted and the entire project is expected to take…

ALL of the tickets for this year’s Steam on the Met trips over London Underground sold out within seven days of being advertised on line in early August Organiser London Transport Museum received a “phenomenal” response to the September 9-10 event. Four locomotives will be used on each of the trips, with all 256 seats on each now gone. Metropolitan Railway E class 0-4-4T No. 1 and Denis Howell’s WR 0-6-0PT No. 9466 will double-head each of the trips. Tucked behind both locomotives will be a Class 20 diesel, another of which will run on the rear. They will be the Class 20 Locomotive Society’s Nos. 20142 and 20227, both of which carry London Transport livery. The diesels are needed to act as air brake translators for the museum’s 4TC…

AN EARLY return to action of Maunsell U class 2-6-0 No. 31806 – which is being prepared for main line test runs – has helped get the Swanage Railway’s summer steam timetable back on track. High season services were left in the hands of diesel traction for several days after two steam locomotives collided during a low-speed shunting operation. Bulleid Pacific No. 34070 Manston and BR Standard 4MT 2-6-4T No. 80104 (renumbered 80146 for 2017 and the 50th anniversary of the end of Southern Region steam) collided in an area not open to the public between the Swanage signalbox and engine shed just after 9am on Monday, July 24. Nobody was injured. The two-train passenger service between Norden, Corfe Castle, Harman’s Cross and Swanage was afterwards fulfilled by the line’s…

THE Churnet Valley Railway has been given the green light to extend into Leek. In August, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council’s ruling cabinet authorised the submission of a planning application to reinstate the line from Leekbrook Junction to Cornhill. Cabinet members also gave the green light to the negotiation of an agreement to lease the council-owned trackbed to the Churnet Valley Railway Trust to facilitate the construction, operation and management of the line, subject to final planning permission being granted. Furthermore, the district council has awarded £22,000 from the Moorlands Partnership Board towards preparation of a full planning application, £5000 towards the reinstatement of Leekbrook station and £4000 towards the cost of repairs to Cheddleton station. Both of the latter two schemes are each estimated at around £25,000. The new station…