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SEVEN years ago, big-hearted Heritage Railway readers were there at the start of the new LMS Patriot project, when you contributed £60,000 for the casting of the six driving wheels. Now here’s your chance to be in there while The Unknown Warrior heads towards the home straight, by helping finish the tender. Remember The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s ‘A1 for the price of a pint’campaign which asked supporters to donate on a regular basis? Now look at the end result, and how mission impossible was achieved in the form of Tornado. The sight of Tornado on the national network and on heritage lines such as the Severn Valley is truly magnificent, and its construction plugged a glaring gap in our heritage steam fleet. However, the new Patriot will do so…
HERITAGE Railway readers are being invited to help get new-build LMS Patriot 4-6-0 No. 5551 The Unknown Warrior on course for completion in 2018 – by sponsoring the tender with regular donations. Supporters are being asked to contribute £10 a month by standing order. The appeal follows the blueprint of the phenomenally successful‘An A1 for the price of a pint’fundraising scheme launched by The A1SteamLocomotive Trust in the early Nineties, which provided the backbone to the financing of Tornado.You will find an LMS-Patriot Project appeal leaflet included in this issue. Generous readers The Patriot project was launched in 2008, and in late 2009, Heritage Railway launched an appeal to pay for the casting of the six driving wheels. Generous readers responded by contributing £60,000 which covered the cost. We subsequently…
A BIDDING war broke out when Dawlish Warren’s camping coach holiday park was sold by auction on November 3. The landmark site in Beach Road, which was set up by the GWR in 1935, and now known as the Brunel Camping Coach Park, was closed at this end of this year’s summer season. The 0.83-acre site, which lies close to a Blue Flag beach, currently has eight coaches converted into chalet-style holiday accommodation, all named after UK cities. At the sale in St Mellion in Cornwall conducted by regional land and property auctioneers, Clive Emson, it was listed with a freehold guide price of £125,000 to £175,000. However, rival bidding pushed the final sale price up to £261,000. Auctioneer Scott Gray said:“There was tremendous interest in this iconic former holiday…
NEW LMS Patriot No. 5551 The Unknown Warrior is to appear in LMS crimson lake livery. That was the overwhelming choice of project members expected tobe announced at the LMS-Patriot Company annual general meeting at Crewe Heritage Centre on November 12. The LMS-Patriot company board took the decision a few years ago to allow members to vote for the first livery that the new locomotive will carry. However, as has been the case withThe A1 Steam LocomotiveTrust’s No. 60163 Tornado, No. 5551 will carry each of the liveries worn by class member during its first decade in steam.The other liveries are LMS lined black, BR lined black and BR express passenger green. The 52-strong Patriot class first appeared in 1930 and the last was outshopped in 1934.The class was based…
BR Standard 4MT 2-6-0 No. 76084 is to make its full main line passenger tour debut in February with three trips for the Railway Touring Company. No. 76084 has already hauled dining trains on Network Rail’s Bittern Line in top-and-tail mode between its North Norfolk Railway base at Sheringham and Cromer, and has since passed its full tests for running over the entire national network. Operated by West Coast Railways, its first trip will be from Manchester to Buxton on February 4. The outward journey will be via Blackburn and Copy Pit Junction and the return via Chinley. On February 18, No. 76084 will haul an excursion from York to Whitby. February 21 will see a trip from Preston to Buxton and back. The final confirmation of the schedules was…
WEST Coast Railways has embarked on a winter expansion of its trademark ‘Jacobite’services over the West highland Extension by arranging an extra series of trains over the Christmas period. Twice-daily steam-hauled shuttles will run from Fort William to Glenfinnan and return from December 20-22, and there will be full-length‘Jacobite’services to Mallaig from December 27-29, using ‘Black Fives’, Nos. 44871 and 45407. For the full story about these and all other Christmas specials over the national network: see Main Line News, page 60-61. We want your news and views Write to us at Heritage Railway, Mortons Media Ltd, PO Box 43, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ or email editor@heritagerailway.co.uk.…
