Tabla de contenidos para Issue 232 en Heritage Railway

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…

EXCLUSIVE THE unmarked grave of an express steam train driver who lost his life saving his passengers from a potential major catastrophe may receive a headstone recording his heroism, following research by Heritage Railway. Wallace ‘Wally’ Oakes died from burns a week after being enveloped in flames and smoke on the footplate of Britannia No. 70051 Firth of Forth on June 5, 1965. He and his fireman Gwilym Roberts had taken over the 10.42am Euston-Carlisle express at Crewe, but within minutes the fire blew back from the smokebox while the Pacific was passing through Winsford station, seven miles north of Crewe, at 55mph. Roberts managed to climb out of the cab and hang on to the side of the locomotive, but 33-year-old Wally remained at the controls and brought the…

THE annual summer gala at Threlkeld this year marked the 50th anniversary of the end of steam working at Dinorwic Quarry near Llanberis in North Wales, the second largest slate quarry in the world and in Wales, only Penrhyn being larger. Elidir Fawr contains a vast bed of slate rock that was quarried on its northern side at Penrhyn and its southern side at Dinorwic. The first commercial slate mining took place at Dinorwic in 1787; a number of smaller quarries eventually becoming two main ones, Garret on the west side and Braich on the east – slate from the levels being brought down inclines. An extensive network of railway lines developed in the quarry and with the quarry covering over 700 acres there were estimated to be 60 miles…

A RADICAL plan to carry West Somerset Railway passengers to a new station at Norton Fitzwarren by canal barge has been mooted. The Friends of the Grand Western Canal group wants to carry out a feasibility study into restoring a long-lost section of the waterway to link up with Britain’s longest standard-gauge heritage line. The Grand Western Canal, which linked Taunton and Tiverton, was part of a wider scheme to link the Bristol Channel and English Channel in order to cut off the hazardous passage for shipping around Land’s End. First mooted in the heyday of the canal age in 1796, the first section did not open until August 1814. The eastern section which lay in Somerset did not open until 1839, but included an inclined plane and seven revolutionary…

STUNNING live steam models of two GWR locomotives are set to star at a Dreweatts’transport sale on September 20, with a combined estimate of up to £200,000. Both in 7¼in gauge, they are No. 4708, one of only nine in a class of mixed traffic 2-8-0s, and No. 6860 Aberporth Grange. The models, made by leading modelmaker David Aitken and from a single collection, are each estimated to sell for up to £100,000, and such is their high exhibition standard they are expected to generate major interest among collectors both in the UK and internationally. Michael Matthews, Dreweatts’steam and model engineering consultant for the past 15 years and an auctioneer for 50 years, said:“The models are simply stunning, of the very highest standard, and indeed the Grange is one of…

STEAM returned to the normally diesel-operated Leadhills & Wanlockhead Railway over the weekend of July 29-30. Nick Williams and his support crew brought Andrew Barclay 0-4-0T Jack from the locomotive’s base at the Leighton Buzzard Railway to tackle the climb to Hillend summit. The summit, at Glengonnar Halt, stands at 1498ft above sea level and is the highest point reached by an adhesion railway in the UK, but the five-ton engine, which dates from 1903, showed its mettle, and ran for 35 miles over the two days, propelling the line’s normal three-coach passenger rake, up the stiff gradient with flying colours. Fine style Jack, which made the 300-mile eight-hour journey north to Leadhills on Graham Morris’s, 1972-built Atkinson, tractor and trailer unit, was unloaded, already lit up and raising steam,…

SERVICES on the Snaefell Mountain Railway have been halted on health and safety grounds. The Health & Safety at Work Inspectorate suspended services on the Isle of Man 3ft 6in gauge line on August 10, in the wake of an incident in which brakes failed on a tram six days earlier. After a tram came down from the summit on the afternoon of August 4, the brakes failed on the vehicle and it sped through Bungalow station. It was brought to a halt by the Fell system brakes. Following the incident, the normal line speed was reduced 12mph to a temporary limit of 8mph. However, health and safety officials found that tram drivers were not complying with the new lower limit. A statement from the Inspectorate read: “Following an incident…

CONSIDERED by many to be the steam hauled grand tour of the country, the Railway Touring Company gets off to a flying promotional start some seven months before Flying Scotsman heads the first leg of ‘Great Britain XI’out of King’s Cross next April, by posting the train’s itinerary this summer. Although ‘GB XI’does not turn a wheel before April 19 next year, it seems that RTC is publicising the prospect of its tour early in the hope of capturing the attention of people who make a habit of booking holidays months in advance. On Thursday, April 19, Flying Scotsman departs King’s Cross and heads down the East Coast Main Line to Hitchin then Ely, Peterborough and the former GE/GN joint line though Lincoln and on to York then to Scarborough…

On September 9, 1926, an important but sad event took place at the Boyne Engine Works of Manning Wardle &Co Ltd in Jack Lane, Leeds. Following unsuccessful attempts to keep the company afloat in the depressed environment for private locomotive manufacturers after the Armistice of 1918, its directors and staff were forced to accept the inevitable and cease production at the site. The day in question therefore saw the outshopping of the last locomotive to be produced by ManningWardle, works No. 2047, a 14in by 20in inside-cylinder 0-6-0ST supplied to Rugby Portland Cement Co Ltd of New Bilton, Warwickshire. The locomotive had been ordered on the preceding April under order number 83500. The events that gave rise to the evolution of No. 2047’s design were a little less straightforward than…

I THINK Rob English is asking the wrong question about the cost of 90mph running on steam tours. The real question is whether there will be any main line tours anyway in the future, if steam is not allowed to run at realistic speeds on the major main lines? It is the difference between a decent day out with time for passengers at the destination, or wasting most of the day in a sad procession from siding to siding. I understand the A1 Society has already answered him anyway, by saying that they will not impose a premium on their tours, once Tornado’s new limit is confirmed? What they don’t add is that they will have no need to, since Tornado will then have a monopoly and can fill its…

South Devon Railway Standard gauge, seven miles, footplate experience, wine and dine. Buckfastleigh, Devon. Tel: 01364 644370. Engines: 5542, 5526. Running: Daily. Swanage Railway Standard gauge, six miles, footplate experience, wine and dine. Swanage, Dorset. Tel: 01929 425800. Engines: 34070, 80104, 31806, 30120. Running: Daily. Swindon & Cricklade Railway Standard gauge, three miles, footplate experience. Blunsdon, Wiltshire. Tel: 01793 771615. Running: W/Es + B/H. West Somerset Railway Standard gauge, 20 miles, footplate experience, wine and dine. Minehead, Somerset TA24 5BG. Tel: 01643 704996. Engines: 60103, 44422, 53808, 53809, 6960, 7822. Running: Daily. EAST ANGLIA Bressingham Steam Museum Narrow gauge, one mile. Diss, Norfolk. Tel: 01379 686900. Engine: 662 Running: Daily. Bure Valley Railway Narrow gauge, nine miles, footplate experience. Aylsham, Norfolk. Tel: 01263 733858. Running: Daily. Colne Valley Railway Standard…

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…

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…

A DECADE on from the disastrous floods that temporarily closed the Severn Valley Railway – subject of a new display at the Engine House museum and visitor at Highley – £1 million repairs to a new landslip that has threatened to sever the line during the busiest part of the main operating season have been carried out. The new problem has occurred at a remote spot between Arley and Highley alongside the River Severn at Bridge 19, a point on the line also known as County Boundary, where trains cross from Shropshire into Worcestershire. Large cracks revealed Although some movement of the embankment was detected during 2016 with the fence marking the boundary between the railway and the field below noticeably moving towards the river, these minor twist faults were…

THE overhaul of SR Schools Class V4-4-0 No. 926 Repton at its North Yorkshire Moors Railway home was completed in lateJulywhen the locomotive was steamed for the first time, little more than three weeks after the boiler was craned into the frames. Running-in trials began in early July when the locomotive, resplendent in SR Maunsell olivegreen, made doublehead edruns with B1 4-6-0 No. 61264 andother NYMR steam locomotives. It was then stopped briefly to rectify abrake systemissue before resuming trials that culminated in itmaking its first solo runs by mid-July. Itwas scheduledtoend its running-in period and begin routine solo running from Monday, August 14. As yet it is confined to the NYMR, pendinga45mph test run on the Esk Valley Line, but once the test run has been carried out it…

ENTHUSIASTS who do not mind mixing hard graft with the joys of their hobby are being invited to join a UK-led working party that has set its sights on completing a restoration project that will return steam trains to a station in central Romania that closed two decades ago. The station at Hosman was on a 38-mile 2ft 6in gauge railway between Sibiu and Agnita that opened in 1910 and closed in 2001. In 2011, British enthusiasts formed the Sibiu to Agnita Railway UK Supporters’Group (SARUK) with the long-term aim of restoring the entire iconic line, and to date they, working closely with local preservationists, have reopened a two-mile stretch midway on the route at Cornatel. This reopening was celebrated with a steam gala in September 2015, and now a…

ENNISKILLEN Library is marking the 60th anniversary of the closure of the Fermanagh town’s railways on September 30, 1957 with a special photographic exhibition. Railways in Ulster’s Lakeland, which runs from September 11 to October 7, features the work of American photographer Anthony Burges, who visited and photographed the Great Northern Railway of Ireland and Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties lines in and around Enniskillen, immediately before they closed to all traffic following a blatantly political decision by the Stormont government to close them in the teeth of fierce local opposition. A campaign for the restoration of the Fermanagh county town’s railway has continued to the present and campaigners hope that the exhibition will help renew the pressure for a restored rail link which would carry modern passenger services as…

A FASCINATING photograph of a brand-new Class 31 diesel more than 550 miles from home, wheel-to-wheel with a still operational 73-year-old steam loco, has been unearthed by former Stratford driver Dave Brennand, whose new book on London’s East End steam was featured in the June issue of Heritage Railway. The photograph shows D5511 on Scotland’s Inverness shed (60A) in the summer of 1958, posing beside – and overshadowing – the diminutive No. 56011, an 0-4-0ST built by the Caledonian Railway at St Rollox works in Glasgow in 1885 to the design of Dugald Drummond. Dave, who during a 40-year railway career that included two decades at Stratford driving many Class 31s, has a dual fascination with the photograph – the stark contrast of the Victorian railway era illustrated by the‘Pug’compared…

THE layout of the Severn Valley Railway’s Bridgnorth station yard, familiar to visitors and relatively unchanged since public heritage era trains first started running in 1970, is set to change massively under Phase 2 of the Bridgnorth Development Plan. For the past 50 years, the exit route from the station’s overflow car park has been alongside the locomotive depot, giving visitors a brief glimpse of locomotives that are stabled there from a vantage point not normally available to the public. However, that is set to change as the exit road will need to be rerouted to allow for the installation of the former Bristol Bath Road turntable in the locomotive yard, giving the railway the opportunity to turn engines at either end of the line for the first time. Kidderminster…

BOSSES at Locomotive Services Limited are celebrating having been granted a train operating licence for the operation of excursion passenger trains on the network’s main line. This means that Locomotive Services Ltd has now secured the three main approvals needed to operate. These are the ORR safety certificate, Network Rail access agreement and an ORR train operating licence. The Office of Road & Rail (ORR) granted the operating licence on Friday, August 4. Breaking the news, spokesman Peter Greenwood told Heritage Railway: “We also recently secured a Network Rail gauging certificates for Bulleid 4-6-2 No. 34052 Lord Dowding aka Braunton and Stanier 4-6-0 No. 46100 Royal Scot, engines which will operate on the routes over which we will run our first trains being Crewe to north Wales and Crewe to…

GENERALLY regarded as the flagship of West Coast’s Carnforth motive power fleet, 4-6-0 No. 46115 Scots Guardsman has been taken out of traffic after its ticket expired earlier this month. The 4-6-0 dropped its fire, for the last time in its current session, after working West Coast’s own‘Dalesman’excursion on Tuesday, August 15. The engine had been kept fairly close to home in recent weeks, regularly hauling‘Dalesman’ trains over the Settle& Carlisle but also making appearances on Statesman Rail’s ‘Fellsman’. It also had a storming run up the branch to Blaenau Ffestiniog for the Railway Touring Company on July 25. Depending on whata close examination throws up, it is expected that the‘Scot’could be off the main line scene for some time... but, as the saying, goes‘as one door closes another opens’.…

August SAT 29: ‘Cotswold Venturer’ Paddington, Oxford, Worcester and return via Stroud. Steam hauled throughout. Loco: No. 60009 Union of South Africa. RTC SUN 27: ‘Waverley’ York, Settle, Carlisle and return. Steam hauled throughout. Loco: No. 45690 Leander. RTC SUN 27: ‘Cathedrals Express’ King’s Cross, Scarborough and return. Steam hauled: York, Scarborough and return. Loco: No. 45699 Galatea. SD SUN 27: ‘Forth Bridge and Borders’ Linlithgow, Kirkcaldy, Tweedbank and return. Steam hauled throughout. Loco: No. 44871. SRPS MON 28: ‘Easterling’ King’s Cross, Cambridge, Great Yarmouth and return. Steam hauled throughout. Loco: No. 60163 Tornado. UKRT TUES 29: ‘Fellsman’ Lancaster, Preston, Settle, Carlisle and return. Steam hauled throughout. Loco: No. 45690 Leander, 45699 Galatea, 48151 or 46115 Scots Guardsman. SMR September SUN 3: ‘Royal Duchy’ Bristol, Par and return. Steam hauled:…

We were driving through the more remote parts of County Tyrone last year, on our way toDonegal, when an amazing sight came into view among the bushes near Kilskeery, as we passed over what was clearly a railway bridge below our narrow country road. There, almost lost among the lush undergrowth of a long-closed railway, was the station building of Bundoran Junction, looking sadly neglected. I was immediately transported back to a late June day in 1957, now 60 years ago, when, as six-year-old, I stood on its platformwithmy parents and sister, waiting for the train that would take us to our holiday in Bundoran itself, a holiday resort which, with the trains that ran to it, had a firm place in our family history. We had left the old…

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…

A FIERCELY fought campaign by enthusiasts and preservationists to prevent the auction of many of the assets of one of Australia’s leading railway museums ended in failure when the sale went ahead on August 2. The controversial auction, which included two British-built steam locomotives, took place against a heated background of protests, claims that it was illegal, and an attempt by security guards to eject one of the protesters as he confronted staff. Held on site at Canberra Railway Museum, the sale was organised by accountancy firm Deloitte, which had been called in to oversee affairs after the closure of the museum last November and the collapse of the ACT division of the Australian Railway Historical Society, which ran the museum and owned a number of its assets. Within days…

IT surely ranks as one of the most unusual and idiosyncratic restored railways in the world, for it is noisy, cramped, uncomfortable, dark, and can even be a little intimidating. I wouldn’t describe it as fun, but fascinating it most certainly is. It is also the UK’s newest restored railway, and it’s right in the heart of London, awaiting its first swathe of passengers be they locals or tourists from across the globe It’s Mail Rail, a ride of nearly a mile 70ft beneath the giant Royal Mail Mount Pleasant complex in Clerkenwell near King’s Cross station. Opened in 1927 as the Post Office Underground Railway, the original 2ft gauge 6½-mile line ran from Paddington in the west of the capital to Liverpool Street and Whitechapel Road in the east,…

THE first wheel set for new-build Gresley P22-8-2No.2007 Prince of Wales is now complete. The Cartazzi wheelset has had it swheels pressed onto its axle by South Devon Railway Engineering at Buckfastleighandits tyres were due to be shrunk on to the wheels by late August. The completion of the wheelset has been hailed a significant mile stone in the £250,000 wheeling of the new locomotive by its builder The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust. At thesametime, another landmark hasbeenpassed in that thetrust has raised half of themoneyneededto build the £5 million locomotive. Pledges towards the building of theP2 have already reached£2.5 million in less thanfour years since the project’s launch in September 2013– and No.2007 is already overaquarter complete in terms of engineering effort,with more£1.3 million spent to-date. What is the…

VOLUNTEERS and friends of the Middleton Railway have been in mourning following the death on July 27 of Susan Youell , the widow of the line’s founder, Dr Fred Youell. Susan, 86, played a major part in the early running of what claims to be one of the first two standard gauge heritage lines, while also becoming secretary of the Association of Railway Preservation Societies under the leadership of Captain Peter Manisty, RN. Susan was born on January 15, 1931, the eldest child of John Harold Atherley, a chemist and Dorothy Jeffery, a baker’s daughter in Nottingham. A bright young girl, she spent a happy childhood with her family who were avid railway fanatics. Somewhat unusually for a girl at that time, Susan also had a great interest in railways…

THE end of August may be a reminder that summer is on its way out to make way for the mellow hues of autumn, but for railway enthusiasts it is the harbinger of the visual feast of the annual Railart exhibition. Run by the prestigious Guild of Railway Artists, which has within its ranks some of the country’s, and indeed the world’s, leading railway artists, Railart is a cornucopia of colourful delight that embraces everything from ancient to modern, steam to the latest traction, and from bustling city terminus to remote rural halt. Railart 2017 is being held in Kidderminster Railway Museum at the Severn Valley Railway, the 13th time it has hosted the exhibition. It opens on August 26 and runs until October 1, and admission is free. Describing…

MORE than four decades after it closed to passengers, a train has run into Slaggyford station on Cumbria’s Alston branch again. The 2ft gauge South Tynedale Railway celebrated the accomplishment of a major goal on the morning of Monday, July 24, when it opened its 1 1/4–mile northern extension from Lintley. The extension was opened by musician Kathryn Tickell OBE in her capacity as a deputy lieutenant of Northumberland, and is now being seen as a precursor to a proposed £30 million extension of the line back to Haltwhistle. Although there is still trackwork at Slaggyford to complete, including a run-round loop and sidings, she toured the station facilities including a restored wooden building at a private ceremony attended by specially-invited guests. The station building has been repainted in its…

THE Great Western Society is to send two locomotives and GWR steam railmotor No. 93 – to Old Oak Common for what will be the GWR ‘mega shed’s’ last-ever open day. As part of main line developments in west London involving Crossrail, the Great Western Main Line and, eventually, High Speed 2, the famous shed is to be demolished next year. On Saturday, September 2, the modern-day Great Western Railway will open the depot to the public for the farewell event. Titled Legends of the Great Western, the open day will celebrate 111 years of GWR history there, with a display of steam, diesel and electric locomotives. ‘Blue King’ on duty Didcot Railway Centre will be sending the society’s ‘blue King’, GWR 4-6-0 No. 6023 King Edward II, which has…

In July 1967, steam traction ended on he Southern Region and it would only e a further 13 months before the total mination of steam on BR. Although there were still steam-hauled express trains in the North West after the summer of 1967, the regular ones were mainly the ‘Belfast Boat Express’ and short Blackpool/Liverpool/Manchester portions of expresses from Euston or Glasgow. Traction was usually provided by LMS ‘Black Five’ mixed traffic 4-6-0s, with even the remaining BR Standard Britannia Pacifics seeing little express action. The last of the true ‘Big Four’ express steam engines on the London Midland Region, Stanier Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45627 Sierra Leone, had been withdrawn from Liverpool’s Bank Hall shed in September 1966, but fortunately some of the class survived at Eastern Region sheds…

STEAM Dreams’chairman Marcus Robertson has revealed that the company has been approached by the keepers of BR 7P 4-6-2 No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell with a view to Steam Dreams using the engine early next year before the‘Brit’s ticket runs out. “We are very excited at the prospect of some farewell trips that relate to the use of the 4-6-2s during BR’s time by running trains to Cardiff (the‘Red Dragon’?) Norwich ( the‘East Anglian’?) and over the Settle & Carlisle Line,”he said. As it happened, Steam Dreams’ operations director, Steve Newell, was approached by Gerry Garside of the 5305 Locomotive Association – which looks after Cromwell – and with whom the Surrey based rail tour promoter has worked with many times in the past, asking if Steam Dreams was interested in…

WITH no apparent standout candidate in their category, the 11 main line nameplates have it all to play for at Great Central’s sale at Stoneleigh on September 2. Numerically, the selection is being led by the GWR with five, followed by the LNER with two, one apiece for the SR, LMS, and Standards, and a sole representative from across the Irish Sea. The Great Western quintet comprises County of Cardigan (No. 1008), Downton Hall and its classmate Trematon Hall (Nos. 4994 and 5949), Overton Grange (No. 6879, the last of the class to be built, in May 1939), and Lydford Castle from No. 7006. Across to the LNER, there’s Galopin from A3 No. 60076 and HappyKnight (A2 No. 60533), each named aftera Classics winner, while the SR and LMS contenders…

BRIAN SHARPE’S FULL LISTING OF OPERATIONAL LINES AND MUSEUM VENUES SOUTH EAST Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre Narrow gauge, ¼ mile. Arundel, West Sussex. Tel: 01798 831370. Running: Daily except Sep Mon, Tues. 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, 847, 30541, 73082. Running: Daily. East Kent Railway Standard gauge, two miles, Shepherdswell, Dover. Tel: 01304 832042. Running: Suns + Aug 26, 28, Sep 2. 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…

As the peak summer season draws to a close, the heritage lines waste no time in starting on the autumn programme of gala events from the August bank holiday weekend onwards. Flying Scotsman immediately comes to the fore with a visit to Didcot along with A4 No. 60009 Union of South Africa, followed by a weekend on the West Somerset Railway. The traditional Isle of Wight steam show is quickly followed by the North Norfolk and Welshpool & Llanfair gala weekends, then comes Pontypool & Blaenavon, the Statfold Barn Railway which always produces some surprises, the Welsh Highland Super Power weekend, two Pacifics on the Nene Valley and the big Severn Valley autumn event towards the end of September. Heritage Railway will be covering the best of what will be…