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CHRISTMAS has deservedly come early for the 1903 NER Electric Autocar Trust, and not before time. Yet again, I cannot praise highly enough the efforts of those who rediscovered one of the world’s most historically important passenger vehicles and against a sea of ‘insurmountable’ difficulties, rebuilt it to running order – and with an appropriate trailer too. Now it has just been awarded the preservation sector’s highest honour – the Heritage Railway Association’s Peter Manisty Award for Excellence. No surprises there, because this pioneer Edwardian vehicle – the forerunner of all of the world’s internal-combustion passenger railcars and DMU sets – cannot be defined by any word other than ‘excellence.’ Minus a chassis and running gear, No. 3170 spent nearly three quarters of a century on a North Yorkshire farm,…
A 15-year project to restore the forgotten North Eastern Railway railcar that is the ancestor of modern internal combustion passenger trains worldwide has scooped the top honour in the Heritage Railway Association 2019 Awards. The NER 1903 Electric Autocar Trust has been awarded the coveted Peter Manisty Award for Excellence, the association’s most prestigious award. It is awarded by the board of the HRA on an occasional basis for an exceptional and outstanding contribution to railway preservation. The restoration of electric autocar No. 3170, as featured in issue 248, was viewed by many as an impossible engineering project, as all that remained of the vehicle was a grounded body at a farm in Yorkshire. However, it was the determination of expert vintage coach restorer Stephen Middleton, who bought the body…
HRA ANNUAL AWARD FOR LARGE GROUPS (Awarded to an HRA member organisation, from the larger categories of membership, for excellence in developing their business.) ■ The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway for Broadway station. ■ The Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway for business continuity in the face of adversity. ■ The Friends of Black Prince at the North Norfolk Railway. ■ The Bodmin and Wenford Railway for partnership work with the wider rail industry. HRA ANNUAL AWARD FOR SMALL GROUPS (Awarded to an HRA member organisation, from the smaller categories of membership, for excellence in developing their business.) ■ Leek Brook station at the Churnet Valley Railway. ■ The reinstatement of Truthall Halt at the Helston Railway. ■ First World War Armistice commemoration at Steeple Grange Light Railway. THE JOHN COILEY LOCOMOTIVE…
VINTAGE Trains Limited’s first major exercise as a Train Operating Company – the debut of the steam-hauled ‘The Polar Express’on the UK main line – appears to have been a stunning success in terms of the amounts of tickets sold. As we reported in our last issue, the Tyseley-based operator is running the trips based on the Warner Brothers’ hit Christmas movie of the same name, from Birmingham Moor Street station to Tyseley and back. As in the film, families with young children dressed in nightclothes gather in a reception room at Moor Street, where the story of The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg is unfolded through video, before the train conductor appears and invites them aboard, leading them to the platform. On board, dancing chefs and waiters arrive…
THE first Vintage Trains Limited driver to qualify under the new Train Operating Company status, Ray Churchill, has been presented with his European Train Driving Licence. This new requirement came into force on October 31 and prescribes that all drivers must hold this licence to drive on the national network. It is designed to enable sharing of information and skills between companies regardless of how long an individual has been driving trains. VTL is an accredited examination centre for driver licensing, with former West Coast Railways driver Ray Churchill’s licence being its first issue. On November 16, Class 50 No. 50007 Hercules ran from its base at Kidderminster on the Severn Valley Railway to Tyseley on an out-and-back trip to Stratford-upon-Avon using the North Warwickshire line,…
LEGENDARY original Welsh Highland Railway flagship Russell has returned to the upper reaches of the route, 81 years on. The Hunslet 2-6-2T, which dates from 1906 and which is the only surviving locomotive from the original line, successfully completed a gauging and inspection run on November 25 from the Gelert’s Farm, Porthmadog base of its owner the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, over part of the WHR ‘main line’ which it had not visited since 1937. On that occasion, it ran north for the last time to Dinas shed to be locked away when the line closed. The run was made possible owing to the close working relationship between the WHHR and the separate Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways in preparation for Russell to appear at a special event on June…
