Sommaire pour Issue 228 de Heritage Railway

FORGET all the bluster about to the general election and Brexit: what is making Britain truly great again is the heritage railway sector! In the past month, attention has again focused on the East Coast Main Line, where a succession of steam, diesel and electric speed records were set, the latest being 101mph recorded by A1 Pacific Tornado on a 90mph overnight proving run. It was the first time in 50 years that a steam locomotive reached the magic ton in the UK, and what is even more remarkable, it was a first by an engine that was not built by or for a major railway company, but by a group of enthusiasts who for many years were persistently told it was impossible. I have long maintained that Tornado is…

WITH the Settle & Carlisle line fully reopened on March 31, the first steam train to be operated by one of the regular tour promoters was the Railway Touring Company’s‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ on April 22. The train was to follow the established format with Class 86 electric No. 86259 Les Ross heading the train from Euston to Carnforth, where steam would come on and run north over Shap to Carlisle, then south over the S&C before handing over to the Class 86 at Farington Junction. For the second time in recent weeks, the Class 86 was failed on shed at Willesden with Class 47 No. 47746 at the wrong end of the stock at Euston and unable to run round. Fortunately, this time, it was possible to despatch Class 87…

ECSTATIC Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway officials were celebrating after their £1.25 million share issue to fund the northern extension to the tourist honeypot of Broadway reached its goal – with four weeks left before the April 30 deadline. Its target was reached a year after the line’s president, Pete Waterman, launched the share offer at Broadway station, which is now on schedule to open in March 2018 after a 58-year gap. Chris Bristow, the railway’s voluntary finance director, said:“What a wonderful achievement. Our volunteers have worked flat out to make this a success and the public has responded magnificently!” Neil and Vicky Davidson from Stratton, near Swindon, made the share purchase that took the Offer past its target. Neil, a European contract manager, says he was absolutely delighted to learn that…

The Great Central Railway’s Model Event – backed by Heritage Railway – runs from June 16-18, and is one of the biggest in the UK. Now you could win a pair of tickets. USING three of the line’s stations, and with the main exhibition hall at Quorn & Woodhouse, the event is a great day out for any rail and model enthusiast. Organised in conjunction with The Soar Valley Model Railway Club, the event is backed by HR’s sister titles The Railway Magazine, Rail Express and Railway Magazine guide to Modelling, plus Dapol, Hornby Hobbies, and Friends of the Great Central Railway. To see a full list of the 80 layouts, visit www.gcrailway.co.uk The £20 entry fee allows for entry into all venues and unlimited travel on the country’s only…

AN historic house with its own private Ffestiniog Railway station is on the market for £795,000. The Grade II listed 16th-century six-bedroom Welsh manor house Plas y Dduallt, which stands on the south-facing slopes of Moelwyn Bach, has a private footpath to Campbell’s Platform, a halt which is exclusive to the owners. The halt was established in 1965 to serve Plas Dduallt, where Oliver Cromwell is said to have stayed during his campaign against the Royalists. Colonel Andrew Campbell bought the house in 1962 and undertook a complete restoration. During the 1960s the colonel kept his own locomotive on a siding by the halt. He ran his own train to and from Tan-y-Bwlch under running powers granted by the Ffestiniog Railway. The platform includes the signalbox built by Colonel Campbell.…

EASTER week saw the various railways and tramways on the Isle of Man staging a Rush Hour on the Railways event with intensive timetables on all lines. The Isle of Man Steam Railway ran a two-train service on several days with additional dining trains requiring three locomotives to be in steam. The Manx Electric Railway and Snaefell Mountain Railways both ran timetables with passengers queueing for sometimes fully-booked trams. On the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway, operations were in full swing following the tramway’s welcome reprieve and double-deck tramcar No. 52 made a rare appearance over the Easter weekend, headed by two horses.…

On April 7, the Talyllyn Railway welcomed Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy for a special train trip along the line – and included in the itinerary was a stop at Hendy Halt! Sir Peter’s train consisted of one of the line’s first locomotives Dolgoch hauling a train composed of all the railway’s original carriages, all of which are 150 years, or more, old. It travelled from Tywyn Wharf station to the eastern terminus at Nant Gwernol. Sir Peter even travelled on the footplate for parts of the journey with driver Dave Scotson, the line’s operating and infrastructure manager, and fireman Lottie Atkinson. Acting as guard was long-time Talyllyn volunteer Tony Randall, who has known Sir Peter for many years. Hendy Halt was where the trains originally stopped to pick…

FORMER Swanage Railway-based Standard 4MT 2-6-4T No. 80078 moved under its own power on April 8 for the first time in seven years following its purchase from Southern Locomotives Ltd by former BR trainee civil engineer Stewart Robinson. The 2-6-4T was a stalwart of the London Tilbury & Southend Line in its BR days, and its purchase by Stewart in 2012 and subsequent transfer to his Essex rail infrastructure company for restoration thus returned the loco to its spiritual home county. Stewart initially thought it would require only such work as tube and stays replacement and overhaul of the wheelsets and bunker but – as ever in the world of steam locomotive restoration – events unfolded in a different way. Instead, a much more extensive overhaul was required, including new…

A UNIQUE LSWR 4-4-0 has returned to its home territory – after the National Railway Museum gifted it to the Swanage Railway. The ownership of Adams T3 No. 563 has been transferred to the Purbeck Line, after it was decided that Victorian and Edwardian 4-4-0s are otherwise well represented in Britain’s National Collection. Never having steamed in the heritage era, the T3 starred in acclaimed stage productions of Edith A Nesbit’s classic The Railway Children on both sides of the Atlantic. Arriving on a road transporter at the Swanage Railway’s road-rail interchange at Norden on Wednesday, April 12, the T3, covered by a protective tarpaulin was hauled to Corfe Castle station by a BR Class 08 diesel shunter. Built at Nine Elms in February 1893 for hauling express trains, and…

I felt deeply honoured to have been invited to join a small group of guests aboard the train that was to prove to the world whether A1 Peppercorn Pacific No. 60163 Tornado is capable at regular running at 90mph. And it was with great trepidation that I drove to Doncaster station on the late evening of April 11 to jump aboard. Over the years I have written about the legendary steam record exploits of City of Truro, Flying Scotsman and Mallard so many times that I can recite the stories in fine detail. And yet, here was I about to savour such a moment first hand. Of course, I had no doubt that Tornado could do 90mph, for it did so – twice – on its main line tests back…

May FRI 5: ‘Great Britain X’ (day seven) Grange-over-Sands, Wrexham, Hereford, Bristol. Steam hauled throughout. Loco: No. 45690 Leander. RTC SAT 6: ‘Great Britain X’ (day eight) Bristol, Plymouth. Steam hauled throughout. Locos: Nos. 46100 Royal Scot and 34046 Braunton. RTC SAT 6: ‘Talisman’ King’s Cross, Darlington and return. Steam hauled: Doncaster, Darlington, King’s Cross. Loco: No. 60163 Tornado. UKRT SAT 6: ‘Hull & Leeds Executive’ Willington, Hull, Lincoln, King’s Cross, Leeds, Willington. Deltic hauled: Hull, King’s Cross, Leeds. Loco: No. 55009 Alycidon. PATH SUN 7: ‘Great Britain X’ (day nine) Penzance, Bristol, Paddington. Steam hauled throughout. Locos: Nos. 46100 Royal Scot and 34046 Braunton. RTC WED 10: ‘Pendle Dalesman’ Kidderminster, Carlisle and return. Steam hauled: Hellifield, Carlisle and return. Loco: No. 45690 Leander, 45699 Galatea, 48151 or 46115 Scots…

It is always welcome to witness the return to steam of a locomotive design whose school was previously unrepresented on the domestic operational preservation scene. This is no less the case when the individual locomotive concerned spent a long period away from our shores and was thought by many commentators to be never likely to return, let alone be seen by the domestic enthusiast in working condition once more. The 2ft gauge 0-6-0ST Liassic recently made its public debut in restored form at the spring Statfold Barn enthusiasts’ day. The story of the basic specification to which Liassic belongs goes back to the year 1897. In that year, Peckett & Sons of Bristol supplied a long-wheelbase 0-6-0ST (No. 678) to the Stockton cement works situated close to the LNWR’s Marton…

facilities and village cafes. Arrive on holiday by train or just park your car from day one and visit the moors by train for a wonderful holiday in the middle of Heartbeat country. The fresh water River Esk meanders through the village, where you can cross by its famous stepping stones on route to view another of the village’s attractions, its trees, including giant Redwoods. Egton Bridge also boasts St Hedda’s church, the cathedral of the moors and is famous for its black grouse and quoits. With Whitby just nine miles away, at the end of the line, you can be assured of a holiday to remember. Station House located in Egton Bridge in the heart of the North York Moors has been lovingly restored to provide a beautiful holiday…

WHILE the main gala season winds down slightly in late spring, various railways continue to celebrate anniversaries of opening or reopening with the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway commemorating 90 years of continuous operation since its opening and the Nene Valley Railway celebrating 40 years since its reopening. The Bluebell Railway’s branch line weekend will see no less than five SECR engines running together for the first time and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway is due to stage its traditional Cotswold Festival of Steam over the late spring bank holiday weekend. Heritage Railway will be covering all these and other events over the coming month. SPECIAL EVENTS May 4-7: Swanage Railway: Diesel Gala 6: Bala Lake Railway: Maid Marian 50 Years 13, 14: Apedale Valley Railway: Stanhope Centenary Gala 13, 14:…

FLYING Scotsman – the locomotive which has the uncanny ability of writing world transport history without a second thought – has done it again. As helicopters circled overhead, global headlines and newsreel footage were generated on a steady production run after dawn on Sunday, April 23, when No. 60103 stood to the left of three of its East Coast Main Line successors – but still managed to take the centre stage podium. A unique world-first event saw Network Rail’s works delivery department at Doncaster take possession of all four ECML tracks from Tollerton into York, so two of the trains could run in the “wrong” direction alongside the other two. The aim was to promote the forthcoming latest state-of-the-art trains on the ECML – the Class 800 Virgin Azuma. Billed…

AT 3.42am on Wednesday, April 12, a new pinnacle of railway heritage was reached – when £3 million new-build Peppercorn A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado reached 101mph during a 90mph proving run. With a select group of invited guests on board the nine-coach train, the locomotive was undertaking tests between Doncaster and Newcastle in view of raising its permitted maximum speed to give more flexibility to future charter planning. Tornado is currently limited to 75mph but builder and owner the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust wants to lift the maximum speed to 90mph to increase flexibility in scheduling its tours on the network. The tests were organised in partnership with DB Cargo Rail and Network Rail and took place with rail industry engineers and certification bodies monitoring the trial. During testing…

ON Friday, April 21, after a prolonged restoration, Bodmin & Wenford Railway-based Bagnall Austerity 0-6-0ST No. 2766 was lit up at Bodmin General station. The following day it was successfully steamed, and then moved up and down the yard under its own power for the first time since 1976. It now awaits boiler certification, scheduled for early May, and lining out. If all goes well, and after running in, it will enter service on the BWR this summer. Built at Stafford in 1944 for the War Department it was dispatched to Calais on February 2, 1945 as WD No. 75178, but was too late to contribute in General Montgomery’s push towards the Rhine. After two years in storage it was returned to Britain and sold to the newly-formed National Coal…

THE Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway welcomed the Princess Royal to its headquarters at the Skegness Water Leisure Park in Ingoldmells on Tuesday, April 25. Princess Anne arrived by helicopter at 2.20pm to view the 2ft gauge railway’s progress. At the line’s recently extended Walls Lane station, she met the volunteers who are restoring the locomotives, wagons and carriages to running order. She was shown a Class D bogie wagon built in Lincoln by Clayton and Shuttleworth for the War Department, in 1917, which has been transformed with the help of a £43,000 grant from The People’s Millions National Lottery Fund and is now able to carry people with disabilities. After visiting the 2ft gauge railway, the princess was afforded a private tour of new developments and facilities in the park…

THE Postal Museum has confirmed that its eagerly-awaited and innovative subterranean Mail Rail visitor attraction in central London is to open in July, with tickets expected to be on sale from this month. The ride will take visitors 70ft beneath the streets on a reopened stretch of the former Post Office Underground Railway that carried millions of letters and parcels each day between Paddington in west London and Liverpool Street and Whitechapel Road in the east. It will be the first time members of the public have been allowed to ride on the railway, which was the world’s first driverless electric line. Passengers will board newly-built battery-powered trains at the railway’s former maintenance and repair depot at the Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant site in Clerkenwell, near King’s Cross station, and…

AMONG the huge crowds that greeted Royal Scot during its recent visit to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway was a railway enthusiast whose interest ran far deeper than simply admiration for one of the country’s most iconic locomotives. For 89-year-old Keith Ware it was also an occasion that provoked pride and brought back memories of a railway career that in its nascent years included being involved with the design of the 4-6-0’s distinctive smoke deflectors. Keith, who lives in Pickering at the southern end of the NYMR and also owns the former signalman’s house at Levisham, the first station on the line out of Pickering, joined the LMS as a trainee engineer at St Rollox works, Glasgow, in 1946, and after Nationalisation in 1948 was sent by the new British…

THE Southwold Railway Trust has bought a one-acre site to develop a steam centre in the Suffolk town. The former gasworks site in Blyth Road lies near the original terminus of the legendary 3ft gauge line, and alongside the old formation. Last year, the trust obtained planning permission for a visitor centre, railway and nature reserve on the site, which is to be redeveloped under the Steam Works banner. The project includes a 1550 sq ft visitor centre building with cafe, shop, toilets, museum and a stock and restoration shed, along with 22 chains of track of two gauges, including a run parallel and close to the site of the original line as it approached Southwold station. It includes a 7¼ inch gauge miniature railway running around the site which…

STEAM returned with a vengeance to the sunny south to mark the 50th anniversary of its passing on the region’s main line – as the Swanage Railway held its most successful gala ever. The March 31-April 2 Strictly Bulleid event not only starred the largest number of working Bulleid Pacific locomotives since the summer of 1967, but a record-breaking 5700 passengers were carried – a figure greater than the population of Wareham and four times the population of Corfe Castle. For the event, steam trains also operated on the Swanage Railway’s four-mile newly completed extension from Norden station westwards to the River Frome – half a mile short of the main London to Weymouth line and within sight of Wareham, the railway’s intended destination for public trains this year. General…

TRAINS may one day run again from the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway through Cheltenham to the main line. At present, the heritage railway occupies the route of the former GWR line from Stratford-upon-Avon to Cheltenham between Broadway and Cheltenham Racecourse, but has ambition not only to push further northwards to Honeybourne and a main line connection but also further south into Cheltenham. The railway owns the trackbed as far as the Prince of Wales Stadium in Pittville. However, three minor blockages between the stadium and the main line at Lansdown – at St George’s Road, the town’s Waitrose store and near the stadium itself – have appeared to preclude a future southern main line link. New plan Yet it now appears that all is not lost. In a response to local…

TREADING in the footsteps of royalty, TV historian Dan Snow opened the new quarter-mile extension to Hampshire’s Exbury Gardens Railway on April 11. The 12¼in gauge line, opened in 2001 as an added attraction alongside the award-winning gardens, has welcomed many famous guests including the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall and Princess Anne. The railway was the inspiration of enthusiast Leopold de Rothschild who loved trains as a small child and had always wanted to build one for the visitors to the gardens. The station was modelled on the same design as Aviemore and features a turntable, engine shed and sidings. Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith designed the station and engine shed and Trevor Stirland (who runs Exmoor Steam Railway) acted as a consultant for the project…

IT is becoming an increasingly familiar scenario – steam is determined to hold the upper hand, but heritage diesels are gaining in confidence and eager to usurp the old-timers. So it was at Pershore High School on April 1, when GW Railwayana let an LMS Princess Royal fight it out with a Class 52 diesel in the headline nameplate category. And it was the diesel which emerged triumphant, with Western Vanguard pulling out all the stops and selling for £13,550, against £11,200 for Duchess of Kent. The former was from diesel-hydraulic D1069, built at Crewe in October 1963 and withdrawn from Plymouth Laira in October 1975. It was sold with its matching cabside numberplate, and set a record for the class. The Princess Royal plate came from 1935-built No. 46212,…

IN WHAT may turn out to be a surprise ‘cop’for Southern enthusiasts, the Railway Touring Company has announced A4 4-6-2 No. 60009 Union of South Africa will head its‘Swanage Belle’ on June 8. As previously reported, the‘Belle’ was originally down for B1 4-6-0 No. 61306 Mayflower haulage but with its overhaul now forecast to be completed‘late summer’, alternative motive power would be required. Elsewhere, RTC’s‘Coast to Coast Express’is booked to depart Liverpool for Scarborough two days later, on June 10. Departing Lime Street at 6.35am, the ‘Express’calls at Liverpool South Parkway, Manchester Piccadilly and York en route to the coast. Passengers have the option of alighting at York or continuing to Scarborough. Steam haulage throughout will be in the hands of either 4-6-0 No.45690 Leander or No. 45699 Galatea. On…

In this 50th anniversary year of the end of steam on the Southern I am covering a few recent runs on the Bournemouth line and also looking back to 1967 to set the recent 100mph exploit of Tornado into the context of similar events 50 years ago. With nine coaches for 315 tons gross this was a reasonable load for No. 60163 to test speeds up to 100mph in order to establish if 90mph can be feasible for public charters. It seems that the maximum speed was about 101mph with some GPS readings giving 101.6mph, but the sophisticated recording equipment in the support coach showing 100.6 mph. This was after a temporary speed restriction to just under 50mph at Thirsk and required full regulator and 35% to 45% cut off…

appearance of a sleeping car. Does anyone know its story? We intend to have dinner to ask why they have acquired it but haven’t yet managed it. ➜ We’ve been told that the vehicle was privately owned and previously based at the Bluebell Railway, which declined to buy it – editor Write to us: Heritage Railway, Mortons Media Ltd, PO Box 43, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ. AN interesting carriage has recently appeared in the car park of an Indian restaurant at Polhill near Sevenoaks in Kent. There is a plate on the underframe showing‘LNWR Wolverton 1908.’It carries BR-type electric charging points. On each bogie are chalked‘PE/DO01/11,’which make it appear that it may have run within the last 10 years. The window arrangement has the…

SOUTH EAST Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre Narrow gauge, ¼ mile. Arundel, West Sussex. Tel: 01798 831370. Running: Wed - Sun + May 29, 30. Bluebell Railway Standard gauge, 11 miles, footplate experience, wine and dine. Sheffield Park, East Sussex TN22 2QL. Tel: 01825 720800. Engines: 263, 178, 323, 592, 65, 1054, 847, 30541, 73082. Running: Daily. East Kent Railway Standard gauge, two miles, Shepherdswell, Dover. Tel: 01304 832042. Running: Suns + B/H. Eastleigh Lakeside Railway Narrow gauge, 1¼ miles, footplate experience. Running: W/Es + sch hols. Hastings Miniature Railway Narrow gauge, 600 yards, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings, East Sussex. Running: W/Es + sch hols. Hayling Seaside Railway Narrow gauge, one mile. Hayling Island, Hants. Running: W/Es, Weds + sch hols. Isle of Wight Steam Railway Standard gauge, five miles. Havenstreet,…

THE vehicle that recorded both Flying Scotsman’s official 100mph run on November 30, 1934, and Mallard’s 126mph unbroken world record run on July 3, 1938, is to appear as an exclusive proprietary model in OO gauge. Leading model railway retailer Rails of Sheffield is working with Rapido Trains Inc to produce an outstandingly detailed OO gauge model of the LNER’s record-breaking dynamometer car No. 23591. The iconic 1906-built North Eastern Railway test car, is part of the National Collection and stands behind Mallard in the Great Hall of the National Railway Museum in York. It will be the first of a series of products to be released under the‘Rails Exclusive’ brand of high-quality, collectable ready-to-run models. Two versions will be offered initially, depicting No. 23591 in July 1938 LNER teak…

IN what would be a heritage sector “first”, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway is bidding to run the North Norfolk Railway’s dining services to Cromer and maybe beyond. A spokesman for the Office of Rail & Road said that the NYMR is applying an extension to its Track Access agreement, which has allowed it to run over the Esk Valley line to Whitby and Battersby for several years. The requested change would allow it to also run as a Train Operating Company over Norfolk’s Bittern Line. After years in the planning stage, last summer the Poppy Line began running dining trains over the adjoining Bittern Line between Sheringham and Cromer, behind main line registered BR Standard 4MT No. 76084, with West Coast Railways as the train operator. Now officials are…

THE heritage railway community is being invited to do for the Llangollen Railway what it has just done for the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway – and give it a new town centre destination. On April 7, I joined a party of invited guests including Clywd South Labour MP Susan Elan Jones for a ride on a DMU special from Llangollen to view for ourselves the work being done on building a new permanent terminus and run-round loop at Corwen. Her visit coincided with the launch of‘The Big Push’, a major fundraising initiative with the aim of having the new Corwen Central on line by 2018. The overall cost of the project is estimated at around £750,000 (two thirds of that for materials), and officials remain hopeful that part of that sum…

THE Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway and Heritage Railway have joined forces to offer readers the chance to take a historic hour-long eight -mile round trip between Chinnor and Princes Risborough aboard the now-unique 1907-built Great Western Railway steam railmotor No. 93 and trailer car No. 92. These services will offer the first chance to ride on the complete steam auto-train (or Steam Multiple Unit) away from Didcot Railway Centre for a several years. The set will also become the first vintage train to operate on the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway in its 23 years of running services. Great Western Society owned, Didcot-based No. 93 and No. 92 will be operating (subject to Network Rail gauging) between June 29 and July 16 with the first date commemorating the 60th…

THE second Great North Steam Fair took place at Beamish Museum from April 6-9, with a line-up of over 100 vehicles and locomotives in action and on display. A highlight of this year’s event was a visit by 15in gauge 2-8-2 River Mite from the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. Built by Clarksons of York in 1966, River Mite was hauled across the Pennines to Cumbria by 1920-built Fowler road engine Providence and the same engine was used to recreate the event on its 50th anniversary. New-build locomotives Samson and Steam Elephant were in operation at the Pockerley waggonway and Aberdeen gasworks Barclay 0-4-0ST Bon Accord worked short trips from Rowley Station. Kerr Stuart built 0-4-0T Diana and 0-4-0ST Roger worked on the narrow gauge railway and 0-4-0 Puffing Billy made…

ONE more small piece of Welsh railway history returned to life at the Bala Lake Railway on Saturday, April 22, with the launch into traffic of George B, one of the many narrow gauge locomotives which formerly worked at the Dinorwic Slate Quarries at Llanberis. Like other locomotives built for the great North Wales slate quarries at Dinorwic and Penrhyn, George B is one of the so-called Quarry Hunslets. It is one of the class of 11 engines built for the Dinorwic quarries over the years which came to be known as the Alice class, designed to be able to work on the rough track work of the spectacular galleries on which the quarries were worked, some being as much as 22ft above sea level, and 1900ft above the quarry…

The fashions of the 1940s will link up with rail travel and music from the era – plus a very special guest – as the Kent & East Sussex Railway goes back in time on May 20-21. The occasion is the railway’s annual Fabulous 40s’gala, an event where nostalgia will rule, memories will flood back for visitors of a certain age, and children will experience what may be their first ever image of life in Britain during a decade that started in despair and ended in hope. Weather permitting, there will be a Spitfire display, bringing to the skies of Kent that familiar sound of a Rolls-Royce Merlin V12 engine, while on terra firma the railway’s Tenterden station will feature stalls selling authentic 1940s’clothes, the group My Favourite Things singing…

LONDONDERRY’S mothballed Foyle Valley Railway Museum is to reopen over the summer – enthusiasts wishing to visit it before it officially reopens will be welcome as long as they make a prior booking. That’s the news from Destined, the disability charity which has taken over the museum building as its headquarters with the agreement of owner, Derry and Strabane District Council. Destined and council museums staff are currently training people with disabilities to act as museum guides and there is a strong commitment to make the museum very much part of the Maiden City’s tourism offering. Destined manager Dermot O’Hara said:“We currently welcome enthusiasts to view the County Donegal and Lough Swilly Railways rolling stock and artefacts and ask if they can contact us first to make a date and…

A PREVIOUSLY untold Welsh Highland Railway story of nearly 100 years ago involving two awkward tradesmen, unused land at a remote station, and an intervention by light railway king Colonel Holman F Stephens, has been unearthed by WHR Heritage Group archivist Dick Lystor. The 1ft 11½in gauge railway opened between Portmadoc and Dinas in June 1923, and six months later Robert Roberts, a coal merchant living in the hamlet of Nantmor near the southern end of the line, expressed a wish to build a coal yard at his local station. Six days before Christmas Roberts held a meeting with permanent way inspector G Lewis Griffith to discuss his plan, and within two days Griffith produced a report for WHR superintendent John May detailing Roberts’requirements, which included a request that the…

A SET of four restored suburban coaches is now running on the North Norfolk Railway following the completion of a joint £250,000 project between the Poppy Line and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The set was officially launched at Sheringham station at 11.30am on Saturday, April 15. followed by the coaches being hauled for the first time with passengers to Holt. The suburban project was the brainchild of the line’s former chairman, the late Clive Morris. Begun in 2014, it was completed early this year. Clive died part way through the project, and the launch also saw a commemoration in his honour with the formal opening of the Clive Morris Room at Weybourne, inaugurated by his wife Betty. NNR managing director Hugh Harkett said: “Clive would indeed have been proud of…

THE Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway has received a £22,800 grant towards a project to create an African train. During its heritage era, the railway has regularly looked beyond our shores for locomotives and rolling stock, because it is built to the comparatively rare gauge of 2ft 6in. One source of rolling stock was Sierra Leone, and now the line is celebrating its links with that country. Hunslet 2-6-2T No. 85, built in 1954 for service in Sierra Leone and bought from a scrap dealer by the WLLR in 1975, has been out of use since 2010 when its boiler ticket ran out. For the past five years it has been displayed at the Locomotion Museum in Shildon, where it has been used to promote links with the Sierra Leone…

VARIETY will be the spice of life at Stoneleigh on June 3, when nameplates from all the Big Four will fight for attention in Great Central’s summer auction, comprising five from the GWR, three apiece from the SR and LMS, and one from the LNER. Top of the tree will surely be 257 Squadron with its badge from SR Battle of Britain No. 34072, built at Brighton in April 1948, four months after Nationalisation. It is now preserved on the Swanage Railway, and the plate has been in the vendor’s ownership since the Pacific was withdrawn from Eastleigh (71A) in October 1964. The GWR quintet is Cefntilla Court (Saint class No. 2936), Evenley Hall (No. 4923), Wardour Castle (No. 5066), Marble Hall (No. 5907), and Hinton Manor, from preserved No.…

AS HAS been usual practice, Scottish Railway Preservation Society officials have taken advantage of RTC’s‘Great Britain’railtours to‘borrow’a steam locomotive enabling them to promote and run what amounts to its annual ‘Forth Circle’trips. This year, two such trips have been flagged up to take place Sunday, May 7. Utilising the availability of A4 4-6-2 No. 60009 Union of South Africa which will have worked‘GB X’from York to Edinburgh, two special excursions are booked to cross the Forth Bridge and travel along the north shore of the Firth of Forth though Aberdour, Burntisland, and Kinghorn to Kirkcaldy. Both morning and afternoon trains travel on through Dunfermline and along the coast to passing Culross, Kincardine and Alloa to Stirling. Following a short photographic stop, the‘Circle’continues on through Falkirk to complete the Forth Circle.…

The seven-day Easter gala visit of LNER A3 Pacific No. 60103 Flying Scotsman to the Bluebell Railway gave the Sussex line a much-needed spring boost, following heavy expenditure of over £500,000 on three track replacement projects during last winter. Laying over at Southall for servicing after travelling from Keighley, the locomotive and its support coach steamed into East Grinstead via the national rail link early on April 12, its path having been cleared from gauging issues at Dormans by Network Rail contractors in March. Bluebell Railway Preservation Society vice-president, Roy Watts said: “For me it all began at 1.30am, having been the nominated person to open the boundary gates and see Scotsman onto Bluebell Railway metals. “The whole process was undertaken and achieved – bar a small slip of the…

BEN Collier’s photograph of‘Black Five’ No. 45212 in issue 227, on its first main line run, brought back memories of its last BR main line run and of the 1P58. The 1P58 was the 20.50 Saturdays only Preston to Blackpool South and was the last officially booked steam passenger working on BR. On the evening of Saturday, August 3, 1968 in fading light I photographed No. 45212 just outside Preston station working the final 1P58. This should have been the final steam passenger working. However, a decision was made to allow the normally diesel hauled 21.25 Preston to Liverpool Exchange to be steam hauled on that Saturday evening. After photographing No. 45212 I rushed back to Preston station to join the large numbers of enthusiasts who had gathered to see…

ONE of the interesting things about BR operations and trainspotting in particular was the ability of BR to do strange things; that’s what made watching trains and locomotives so interesting! In your piece“Southern flavour boosts Severn Valley gala success”in issue 227, you advised that No. 41312“spent its entire 15-year life working life on BR in the Sunny South”. My box Brownie image of No. 41312 at Crewe Works on May 5, 1963 says otherwise. It seems strange that a locomotive allocated to Brighton should be sent so far to receive an overhaul. I would put money on Crewe (North) sending it on local turns to Northwich and Manchester (Mayfield) while it was running in! Yes, I did go down to the SVR for a ride behind it. Thanks for great…