Tabla de contenidos para Issue 260 en Heritage Railway

CHAMPAGNE corks are popping not just in the Staffordshire Moorlands but across the entire heritage railway sector, after the Churnet Valley not only laid the first section of its long-awaited extension into Leek within 48 hours, but then ran a steam-hauled passenger train over it. We are celebrating the fact that not only is another of our heritage lines joining the growing set of those with a town centre presence – and therefore a ‘somewhere to somewhere’purpose – but also the excellent support that is being given by the local district council, and which can never be praised highly enough. The opening of the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s extension into Broadway reinforced the message loud and clear that such schemes generate benefits that are a big win-win for all – not…

THE Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway has been criticised for a“serious operating irregularity”for an incident in which two trains headed towards each other. In its report on the August 28 incident at Romney Sands, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) drew “clear parallels” between it and a chain of errors, misunderstandings and non-compliance with the rules by station staff and train crew that led to two passenger trains colliding head-on at Abermule, Montgomeryshire, on January 26, 1921, resulting in the death of 17 people and serious injuries to 36 others. In its report published on October 14, the RAIB said at around 10.37am, a passenger train left Romney Sands going towards New Romney, and entered a single line section. When the train had travelled about 100m beyond the station, the…

THE Llangollen Railway’s new Corwen Central station loop is ready to be linked to the running line. As we closed for press, the track for the final connection to the station loop had been laid out. Following the spreading of 200 tonnes of ballast on the former gap site, as reported last issue, rolling and compacting work provided the base for the assembly of the points complex. The linking of the terminal loop to the main line and the adjacent siding comes after several months of detailed planning and preparation of drawings for the new formation. This follows receipt of expert advice and guidance as to the best means of installation. In late September, the first crossover rail was placed in its design location and aligned to the railheads for…

BIG engines may be prohibited from running on the West Somerset Railway because of the current Red route restriction – but that did not deter the crowds who flocked to the October 3-6 country branch line autumn steam gala. For the first time in the preservation era, the line saw four GWR panniers in action – No. 4612 from the Bodmin & Wenford Railway; former resident No. 6412 from the South Devon Railway; No. 7752 on summer loan from Tyseley; and No. 7714 from the Severn Valley Railway. ‘Flockton Flyer’ No. 6412 arrived at the WSR earlier in the week, having been in regular service at Buckfastleigh without any problems and then ran on the Thursday and Friday. Some issues precluded its further use in the gala on Saturday and…

BACK in 1953, the US blues singer Junior Parker wrote and recorded Mystery Train, and such was its impact on Elvis Presley, that two years later the legendary singer released his own version. Doubtless neither Parker’s nor Elvis’s rendering of the song will reverberate around Tunbridge Wells West station in the lead-up to Christmas, and nor will the steam train arriving to carry waiting passengers be the 16 coaches of Parker’s lyrics, but how appropriate it would be if that scenario played out. For on December 7 and 14, the Spa Valley Railway station will be the starting point for its own mystery trains that will test the little grey cells of every would-be Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes on board. The trains will complete two return trips over the…

MIRRORING the growing international public backlash against environmental damage, the East Lancashire Railway (ELR) has taken a lead in the heritage sector by replacing its standard Christmas gift plastic bags. The move to replace them with more sustainable reusable drawstring bags has been introduced in time for the line’s Santa special season. It will alone save more than 41,000 single use plastic bags. That was the number of passengers on last year’s Santa specials, and as expected the event is again proving so popular that the Bury-based line has had to open a waiting list for tickets. The new keepsake ELR branded bags will include a chocolate lolly and a bespoke activity pack, as well as juice and biscuits. ELR chairman Mike Kelly said: “We’re excited to share the new…

THE pride of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway’s motive power fleet, LSWR O2 0-4-4T No. 24 Calbourne, retired for a major overhaul at a gala weekend at the end of September. The engine was im mediately withdrawn from service for a major overhaul that, it is hoped, will be completed in time for the 50th anniversary of the opening of the railway in 2021. Built in 1891, Calbourne was one of the Adams-designed O2s that lasted until the last day of steam on the Isle of Wight railway system; December 31, 1966. The locomotive had worked on the Isle of Wight since April 26, 1925, when it was re-numbered W24 and given the name Calbourne after a village on the island. It was retained after steam services ended, along…

A 21m-long donation wall has been installed at the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) in recognition of thousands of contributions made to the line’s‘Helping Hands for Falling Sands’appeal. The appeal raised £397,000 towards restoring Falling Sands Viaduct, and it was boosted by a further £853,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The aluminium wall, installed at the Engine House, Highley, displays the names of nearly 3000 individuals, companies and community and grant-making organisations. Some donors chose to add the names of friends, family members or in memory of loved ones. The wall has seven arches, just like the viaduct itself, and is visible from passing heritage trains. Adding her daughter’s name to the wall was especially poignant for Sandra Higginson, from Kingswinford, who said: “Last year would have been my daughter…

TWO exhibition-quality 7¼in gauge live steam models hit the heights at Dreweatts’biannual Transport Sale in Newbury on September 24 with a combined realisation of £100,000, a figure inflated to £125,000 by the addition of buyer’s premium. The top seller, at £58,000, was GWR No. 6027 King Richard I, a model nearly 9ft long that was described by Michael Matthews, the auction house’s live steam and model engineering specialist, as “the best example of a King class locomotive in this gauge that we have ever sold.” It was built by a model engineer from the north-east of England and, said Michael, had all the refinements of a top exhibition example, despite it being built to run. No. 6027 entered traffic in July 1930, operating out of London’s Old Oak Common shed,…

THE South Devon Railway’s now-unique GWR pannier No. 1369 has made a comeback to revenue-earning service after more than two years. Last in traffic in May 2017, No. 1369 made its first passenger run since its return on Friday, October 4, when it double-headed with 57XX 0-6-0PT No. L92 on the 2.35pm from Buckfastleigh. On the Saturday, it worked a five-coach set on the four-train timetable, while No. L92 was suitably in charge of special 50th anniversary workings for the owners, the Worcester Locomotive Society. No. 1369 also had a light engine test run on October 3. It performed well, although there were a few minor snags to resolve – nothing serious, much as would be expected after a major overhaul. A minor vacuum leak is yet to be traced,…

FORMER BR signalman Joe Nemeth, whose interest in railways stretches back nearly 50 years, is celebrating the first anniversary of his Monmouthshire railwayana business with an expansion into additional premises. Joe, 57, founded Junction Railwayana in Caldicot, near Chepstow, last November, since when it has grown into what he believes is the largest railwayana shop in the UK and possibly even the world. “I first became interested in railways at the age of 11 while on holiday in north Wales, when I visited the Bala Lake Railway, then under construction,”he said. “I peered through the windows of the closed signalbox looking at signal levers, instruments and other items, and was smitten. “Eventually I managed to get into a signalbox and became passionate in its working and equipment, particularly the block…

THE ultimate future of LNER A4 class 4-6-2 No. 60009 Union of South Africa and its final resting place has yet again been put on hold. A decision on a revised planning application for the visitor centre, which the A4’s owner, John Cameron, wants to build to mark his retirement and that of his Pacific, has been delayed until possibly at least mid-November. As previously reported, the original application was turned down earlier this year by Fife Council. The A4 has a full programme of main line excursions lined up for the remainder of the year, having appeared in the North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s big autumn gala (feature, pages 74-79) and the East Lancashire Railway’s October 18-20 gala. The A4 is then committed to seven main line outings for the…

“THIS is the Night Mail crossing the border, bringing the cheque and the postal order,”was the opening line of the poem by WH Auden that featured in the GPO documentary film Night Mail, released in 1936. The year 2021 will be the 85th anniversary of the release of the film and, coincidentally, the 50th anniversary of the last mail exchange by a Travelling Post Office (TPO) train in Britain, at Penrith in October 1971. The TPO trains are kept alive by Railway Vehicle Preservations (RVP), based on the Great Central Railway. The group’s six-coach rake of BR Mk.1 TPO coaches sees regular use at GCR gala weekends, with mailbags dropped and picked up at the lineside apparatus south of Quorn & Woodhouse station. To commemorate the two anniversaries in 2021,…

NEW-BUILD A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado worked a series of five trips from Edinburgh to Aberdeen in the spring of this year, though all were accompanied by a diesel locomotive. In issue 253 I reported on the first of these which took place on March 14. Marketed as‘The Aberdonian’, these were successful, so a further series of four took place on August 1, 8 and 31 and September 7. All ran diesel-free and my correspondent Sandy Smeaton has kindly sent me full details of three of the trips with Tornado, run by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust and crewed by West Coast men. Table One shows the outward journey from Edinburgh on September 7, over this heavily graded and restricted route as far as Perth on its way to Aberdeen…

Wolsztyn, Wroclaw, Czestochowa, Lodz, Poznan – unfamiliar names and even more unfamiliar pronunciations. Some of these towns and cities are in Silesia, much of which was part of Germany until 1945, and others are very much part of the central heartland of Poland. Poland is unique in that some steam train services are still in operation and while the number of steam-hauled service trains has greatly diminished during the last 20 years, you can still go online and book tickets on certain services which will be headed by a steam locomotive. Wolsztyn, with the last operational ‘roundhouse’ engine shed in Europe, has become the only surviving hub for main line steam train services. Wolsztyn’s distinction arises from its unique asset, the engine shed, and having that pool of skills and…

BORN in 1939 during World War Two, I went to Yorkshire with my family to escape the East London blitz bombings. I returned with a serious Yorkshire accent. As a result, after the war, we spent many summer holidays with adopted relatives in Park Street, Skelton, Cleveland, ‘Aunt’ Jinny and Matt Dowey, an ironstone miner. I recall walks to Saltburn-by-the-Sea in particular, through the woods and via waterfalls. The town of Saltburn“was designed and built by the same personalities as the Stockton & Darlington Railway” (according to the Conservation Area Appraisal 2011). One of the main areas of interest for a teenager, besides my collection of fossils and small pieces of ‘Whitby Jet’found along the beaches as far as Staithes, was the Victorian pier, the funicular railway, and the sea…

The founding fathers of our national network understood the public well. Yes, travelling from one place to another in a tiny fraction of the time it took by stagecoach or boat was a start, but railways had to do much more. The railways formed the backbone of post-Industrial Revolution society as we know it, because they facilitated cheap, efficient and fast transport of people and goods like never before. Yet they still had to sell themselves to the public. When the money was available, many of the early railway companies invested huge amounts of money in their stations, which were the interface between the public at large and the cutting-edge steam locomotive engineering that was reshaping the world. Some of the bigger concerns built cathedrals of steam, or palaces of…

AFTER years of planning and negotiations, the first 659ft of the Churnet Valley Railway’s (CVR) eagerly-awaited £1 million extension into Leek has carried its first passengers. On Friday, October 11, USATC S160 2-8-0 No. 5197 hauled a special train carrying invited guests from Cheddleton station to Leek Brook and on to the £40,000 first section of the Leek extension – which had been laid in the 48 hours before. The track was laid by 30-strong team from the Permanent Way Institution, as part of its two-day Practical Trackwork Challenge 2019, supported by CVR volunteers. This first section was funded by £21,000 from the railway and another £19,000 granted by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council (SMDC). The last panels were laid only the day before. Welcoming guests to the big occasion, CVR…

HISTORY was made during the Swanage Railway’s October 11-13 autumn steam gala when visiting BR Standard 5MT 4-6-0 No. 73156 hauled passenger trains along the four-mile section between Norden and the River Frome, within sight of Wareham, for the first time. The railway has previously run timetabled diesel services from Swanage to Wareham – its ultimate goal – and steam charters regularly arrive via Worgret Junction. Classmates of 1956-built No. 73156 – owned by the Bolton Steam Locomotive Company and based on the Great Central Railway – were based at Bournemouth’s 71B shed. Making its debut visit to the Purbeck Line, No. 73156 ran alongside the home fleet of T9 4-4-0 No. 30120, SR U 2-6-0 No. 31806, Bulleid Pacifics No. 34072 257 Squadron and No. 34053 Sir Keith Park,…

THE Bala Lake Railway Trust has taken delivery of half the track materials it needs for its planned £2.5 million town centre push. September 26 saw four articulated lorries arrive at Bala carrying 500 yards of track for the extension. The track, valued at more than £100,000, was obtained at a “very advantageous rate” from the East Lancashire Railway which had declared it surplus to its requirements, and was funded by donations from supporters. With the 75lb/yard flatbottom rail came all the necessary fixings such as spikes base plates and fish plates. Stakeholder engagement The transport of the materials from Bury to Bala was kindly sponsored by haulier Ainscough Industrial and itself valued at £6500. Meanwhile, work on the extension project continues with further land purchases. The trust has held…

THE West Somerset Railway Association and West Somerset Steam Railway Trust’s rail renewal appeal has just passed the £75,000 mark and so 30% of the hoped-for total of £250,000 by December 31 has been raised for the next round of infrastructure works. The line’s plc will be meeting any difference, having signed off the £250k spend needed or rails, sleepers and track fittings, plus remedial repairs to bridges, monitoring embankments, formation repairs, drainage and some fencing. Chairman Jonathan Jones-Pratt’s plan is to ensure the WSR gets back to the higher 20-ton Red axle weight as soon as possible. The recent independent infrastructure review has been positive in this regard in that it means the WSR is getting very well qualified on the subject and also gaining better understanding and knowledge…

BRASS, Steel and Fire – a new exhibition to celebrate the arrival of Stephenson’s Rocket at the National Railway Museum (NRM) – has already proved a sizeable hit with the public. The exhibition, in a room alongside the York venue’s Station Hall, opened its doors on September 26, after a VIP launch to welcome Rocket the evening before. Rocket is on a 10-year loan to the NRM from the Science Museum in Kensington, after having previously been displayed at the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester. The exhibition celebrates the first century of model railway making – but not as a modern audience may know it. As exclusively highlighted in issue 259, many of the models on display preceded the railway age rather than recreated it in miniature. In…

TWO Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0STs with very different histories will be running together at Didcot Railway Centre on Wednesday, October 30, and also over the weekend of November 2-3. No. 1026 of 19 became Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons No. 31 based at the company’s Hayes depot in Middlesex. At the end of its working life in the 1960s, the locomotive was bought by the late Sir William McAlpine to run on his private railway at Fawley Hill near Henley-on-Thames. His widow, Lady Judy McAlpine, agreed that the locomotive can spend the winter at Didcot Railway Centre so that maintenance work can be carried out by volunteers who also help to run the Fawley Hill Railway. No. 555 of 1900 was supplied to the Port Talbot Railway and Docks, and ran…

RAILWAY enthusiast and Antiques Roadshow expert Paul Atterbury drew gasps of astonishment from visitors to a recording of the popular BBC1 programme when he valued a plaque commemorating the world speed record of 126mph achieved by LNER No. 4468 Mallard in July 1938. The show was recorded at Compton Verney in Warwickshire on July 2 and broadcast on BBC1 on October 6. Paul was shown the plaque, in the shape of a laurel wreath and carrying the LNER logo, by a visitor who told him it was bought by his father in 1983 on his retirement from BR. Plaques were fixed to both sides of the A4 Pacific by BR in Doncaster Works in March 1948, and as No. 60022 it carried them in regular service until withdrawal from King’s…

THE South Devon Diesel Traction Group came to the rescue of its Llangollen Railway (LR) counterpart when it found it needed a second visiting locomotive for its September 28/29 diesel event. Class 26 D5310 was away undergoing traction motor repairs at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, and so the LR Diesel Group wanted a second visitor to star alongside A1A Locomotives Ltd’s Class 31 No. 31271, which is spending two years on the line after leaving its long-time Nene Valley Railway home. So in stepped the Buckfastleigh group with the loan of its Class 25 D7535. Terry Pickthall, one of the event’s organisers, said: “With the LR not in a position to justify funding transport costs for a short visit, I set about trying to raise the funds for the road…

LAYING of the Leighton Buzzard Railway’s half-mile extension began as the line celebrated its centenary. After delays caused by a struggle to appoint an earthworks contractor, the work began in earnest prior to the October 5/6 steam gala. There was an urgent need to get the main line connected to Stonehenge Works yard, the former layout having being removed to allow earthworks to take place. Because of the approaching gala, the contractor was to complete all his work on the first 110 yards of trackbed with the exception of laying ballast. Laying in the crossover, trap points and associated plain line, plus one temporary and one permanent point lever, as well as dropping around 50 tonnes of ballast and some packing work was completed by the end of September 16.…

THE Aln Valley Railway has run its first steam train into its new Greenrigg Halt, which lies about two-thirds of the way from the line’s Lionheart headquarters to its ultimate eastern destination at Alnmouth. On Saturday, September 14, driver Ken Middlemist and fireman Kevin Holden took Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST No. 3686 of 1948 No. 60 and three coaches over Cawledge Viaduct and into Greenrigg Halt, at the request of civil engineer Pat Murphy. The footplate crew on the day formed a link with the branch’s history. Kevin is the permanent way manager and he used to ride the line when he was a child, as his father was a guard before it was closed. Ken was a fireman on the line until it closed, and the last surviving footplateman from…

MORE than 500 members and shareholders of the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway Society visited the North Norfolk Railway over the weekend of October 5-6, for their annual weekend. B12 4-6-0 No. 8572, Y14 0-6-0 No. 564 and WD 2-10-0 90775 The Royal Norfolk Regiment were in steam from the society’s stable, supported by BR Standard 9F 2-10-0 No. 92203 Black Prince and BR Standard 4MT 2-6-0 No. 76084. No. 76084 took a special M&GN 60th anniversary service over BR metals via the Sheringham’s Station Road level crossing to Cromer on Sunday – a first for the event, marking 60 years since the closure of most of the former M&GN system in 1959. Shed tours were available at Weybourne, giving members the chance to see Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST Wissington,…

The restoration of the Mid-Hants Railway’s Merchant Navy 4-6-2 No. 35005 Canadian Pacific (CP) is more that ‘just’ a locomotive overhaul. It’s bringing wider benefits to the railway and the community in the form of securing skills for the future; educating and engaging with a range of groups; recording the past; and returning to service not only the line’s flagship steam locomotive but also authentic wooden-framed Southern Railway carriages. A key part of the £2 million project’s legacy is education and helping to make people who may not have the MHR on their ‘radar’ to be aware of its existence and hopefully inspire them to not only travel on the line, but also support it either financially or in terms of practical help as a volunteer. In 2015 the MHR…

ON Thursday, December 16, 1999, a special train comprising green Mk.1 and Mk.2 carriages pulled out of London Waterloo station at 11am, behind BR green-liveried Standard Five 4-6-0 No. 73096 heading for Woking and Salisbury. It was a special train and a special occasion. It was a test run to prove that steam could hold its own, in the face of rapid third-rail acceleration and even faster line speeds. By the time that Vauxhall was reached, exhaust beats from the two-cylinder engine grew stronger and faster as the regulator was opened for a smart run through Clapham, the 4-6-0 accelerating its train on down the South Western Main Line towards Surbiton and Weybridge. Just as the 5MT was nicely warmed, a string of ‘yellows’curbed the train’s speed to the south…

ALTHOUGH No. 6201 Princess Elizabeth has little or no main line commitments during the coming months, having completed its current programme working a Railway Touring Company (RTC) ‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ on October 12, the Stanier 4-6-2 remains on stand-by as a replacement, if required. Next year, however, promises to be a busy one for the celebrated Carnforth-based maroon express passenger locomotive. Owning society’s chairman Clive Mojonnier said that he is in discussions with one of the rail industry’s major railtour promoters and in addition, an intriguing talk with a private individual interested in planning a two-day trip. Boosted by the honour of working the final two legs of RTC’s‘Great Britain 20-20’ next April, ‘Lizzie’ takes the train from Cardiff to Penzance and from there to London. With St Blazey turntable…

ANNOUNCING its 2020 tour programme, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust (A1LST) has revealed its first trip of the year will be April 4’s Cambridge to Carlisle‘The Fen and Fells Flyer’. Diesel-hauled to York, No. 60163 will work the train on via Hexham and return via the Settle and Carlisle line as far as Doncaster. On May 2,‘The Cumbrian Explorer’is due to run from Darlington to Carlisle, via the Settle and Carlisle line. The return leg is set to traverse the Cumbrian Coast route to Carnforth, where Tornado will be replaced by a diesel for the return to Darlington. A week later, ‘The Jorvik Express’ is booked to run from Liverpool to York, via Newton-Le-Willows and Manchester Victoria and then onwards through the Peak District, returning via the Calder Valley line.…

THE Lune Rivers Trust annual steam railtour is well-established in West Coast Railways’ (WCR) calendar, usually running from Carnforth towards the end of September and raising money for the trust, a charity dedicated to the conservation, protection, rehabilitation and improvement of the River Lune throughout its whole length and its associated tributaries in Cumbria, Yorkshire and North Lancashire. This year the booked motive power was recently-overhauled LMS Royal Scot 4-6-0 No. 46115 Scots Guardsman and the destination was Shrewsbury, running via Hellifield, Blackburn, Warrington and Crewe on September 28. In view of the layout of WCR’s Carnforth depot, assembling and shunting the stock into position before departure can take considerable time but, on the day in question, Scots Guardsman and its train were in the Up and Down goods loop,…

October SAT 26: ‘The Golden Arrow’ London Victoria, Canterbury & return. Steam-hauled throughout. Loco: No. 70014 (70000) Tornado (Britannia). ST November SAT 2: ‘The Illuminati’ Birmingham New Street, Blackpool North & return. Steam-hauled: Birmingham, Preston. Blackpool, Birmingham. Loco: No. 60163 Tornado. A1ST SUN 3: ‘The South Yorkshireman’ Blackburn, Sheffield & return. Steam-hauled throughout. Loco: No. 45690 Leander or No. 45699 Galatea. RTC FRI 8: ‘Belmond British Pullman’ London Victoria, Shalford & return. Steam-hauled throughout. Loco: No. 35028 Clan Line. BEL FRI 8: ‘The North Wales Coast Express’ London Euston, Holyhead & return. Steam-hauled: Crewe, Holyhead & return. Loco: 60103 Flying Scotsman. RTC SAT 9: ‘The Citadel’ Manchester Victoria, Carlisle & return. Steam-hauled: Manchester, Carlisle, Carnforth. Loco: Nos. 45212 or 44871 or 45157 The Glasgow Highlander. WCR SAT 16: ‘The Christmas…

THE eagerly-awaited Bluebell Railway Giants of Steam gala, one of the big events of the annual autumn gala calendar, this year saw BR 7MT Pacific No. 70000 Britannia and B1 4-6-0 No. 1306 Mayf lower as the star guests. Steam Dreams supremo David Buck sent Mayflower as a late replacement for LMS Princess Coronation Pacific No. 6233 Duchess of Sutherland which was unavailable. The home fleet in action included BR Standard 5MT 4-6-0 No. 73082 Camelot, which, sponsored by a Bluebell volunteer, took on the identity of scrapped sister No. 73087 Linet te . No. 73087, which was outshopped from Derby Works in 1957, was a veteran of the Somerset & Dorset main line. Every Summer from 1956 until 1961, No. 73087 was shedded at Bath Green Park and usually…

What more can you say about King’s Cross, the great cathedral of steam, the Great Northern Railway’s London gateway to Scotland? Its colossal heritage needs little introduction. Network Rail’s £550-million redevelopment plan for ‘The Cross’ did not see its magnificence go the way of neighbour Euston – which saw most of its proud heritage razed in the early Sixties in favour of a utilitarian brushed concrete replacement – but a cutting-edge scheme combined the finest of the past with the ultra-modern needs of the 21st century and beyond. In the wake of the Beeching closures of the 1960s, Britain surrendered much of its proud railway history. Following the closure of branch lines, cross-country routes and main lines that ‘doubled up’, the infrastructure that survived was often pared to the bone.…

IT has taken three years of meticulous planning, but a ground-breaking new exhibition unlocking the secrets of London Underground’s disused stations has opened. The two-floor Hidden London: The Exhibition, inside London Transport Museum, Covent Garden, features the biggest number of rare archive photos, objects, vintage posters – mostly in mint condition despite their age, secret diagrams and decorative tiles from the capital’s disused stations that have been brought together in one location. Building on the museum’s acclaimed regular series of public tours of the forgotten stations, they have been used to replicate one-time scenes from the past in one location. Visitors to the Global Gallery are taken through a ‘timewarp’ entrance as they enter Aldwych station’s recreated historic ticket office, with an original 1930s ticket booth from the station dating…

WEST Somerset Railway plc chairman Jonathan Jones-Pratt has placed his WR 0-6-0PT No. 9466 on loan to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (G/WR) for the rest of this year and the 2020 season. The Hawksworth pannier, long owned by the late Dennis Howells, is too heavy for the current Red route restriction on most of the Minehead line which will be upgraded over the winter. No. 9466 was a Worcester engine for part of its short BR life and likely worked over the ‘Honeybourne Line’ during its stay, so the loan is a homecoming. The G/WR is planning a more intensive steam service next year based on the experience of 2019, its first full season running into Broadway, with a projected 120,000 passengers over the whole year – an increase of…

THE Severn Valley Railway’s engineering services manager Neil Taylor expects the repaired boiler for GWR No. 4930 Hagley Hall to be steam-tested before the end of this year, heralding a return to traffic during 2020 after an absence of almost a quarter of a century. The railway is keen to get its own Hall 4-6-0 back into traffic after enjoying hosting former resident Modified Hall No. 6960 Raveningham Hall from the West Somerset Railway this summer. It has proved to be ideal motive power on the line’s usual eight-coach formations of BR Mk.1s, LNER Gresley teaks, LMS and GWR coaches. No. 4930 has not steamed since October 1996 and was stored at Bridgnorth before being cosmetically restored for display at the McArthur Glen designer shopping complex that was set up…

AN AGREEMENT between owner the National Railway Museum (NRM) and the Welsh Railways Trust to restore Taff Vale Railway (TVR) 0-6-2T No. 28 to running order at a cost of £160,000 has been signed. The O1 class locomotive, built by the TVR’s Cardiff Works in 1897, and renowned as a great survivor, escaping the scrapyard on several occasions, will be based at the Gwili Railway and will be overhauled on site by the railway’s in-house engineering team. The trust was formerly Gwili Vintage Carriages Group. The overhaul will be part funded by an £18,000 grant from the Association for Industrial Archaeology (AIA), which will be used to undertake the restoration of the rolling chassis, which includes original TVR components. Project manager Dr David Murray said: “This locomotive is a unique…

A DRAMATIC fire that destroyed a carriage failed to prevent one of the southern hemisphere’s leading railway museums from reopening on October 6, nearly three years after its shock closure and the hurried removal of two prized British-built locomotives, including a Beyer-Garratt 4-8-4+4-8-4. Canberra Railway Museum unexpectedly closed in November 2016 following the financial collapse of the ACT division of the Australian Railway Historical Society (ARHS ACT), which ran the museum. Just days later, while enthusiasts were still trying to come to terms with the shock news, the 1953-built Class AD60 Beyer-Garratt, No. 6029, and a second Beyer Peacock product, C30T class 4-6-0 No. 3016 of 1903, were moved 150 miles by rail to another railway museum, in Thirlmere, south-west of Sydney. Against a background of controversy, bitterness, sadness, and…

VISITING Southern Railway 4-4-0 duo Schools V 4-4-0 No. 926 Repton and LSWR T9 No. 30120 proved to be the crowd-pulling stars of the show at the Great Central Railway’s (GCR) October 3-6 autumn steam gala. Repton arrived from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway along with WR 4-6-0 No. 6990 Witherslack Hall, which returned to the GCR after its appearance in the Moors’ September 26-29 autumn gala (pages 74-79). The National Collection’s ‘Greyhound’ No. 30120 visited from the Swanage Railway. Among the highlights was the pair double-heading, while No. 926 hauled the final travelling post office trip on the Sunday afternoon. Also in steam from the home fleet were BR Standard 9F 2-10-0 No. 92214 Leicester City, BR Standard 5MT 4-6-0 No. 73156, LMS Stanier 8F 2-8-0 No. 48305, BR…

THE National Railway Museum (NRM) has defended its decision to recall prototype High Speed Train power car No. 41001 from the 125 Group due to ‘serious breaches’in the loan, which it says included‘failure to ensure the security and safety of the power car’. The Class 41 power car, one of a pair built by British Rail Engineering Ltd at Crewe in 1972, will be returning to the NRM at York in November after the Science Museum Group made the decision to terminate the loan to the group, which based the vehicle at the Great Central Railway (Nottingham). It was in May 2011 that plans were announced to return No. 41001 to service by the 125 Group, under the banner of Project Miller (named after Terry Miller, formerly chief engineer (traction…

MORE than 3500 visitors attended a 15th birthday gala at the Locomotion museum in Shildon, County Durham. During the September 21-22 event, visitors were able to ride on the National Railway Museum’s (NRM) replica of Stephenson’s Rocket. One of the other highlights of the gala was a ceremony in which GB Railfreight Class 66 diesel No. 66788 was named Locomotion 15 in the museum’s honour. The locomotive was chosen to celebrate the historical importance of freight traffic to the region and recognised the museum’s ongoing role in educating and inspiring visitors. A special surprise guest at the event was High Speed Train Class 43 power car No. 43002 Sir Kenneth Grange before going on permanent display at NRM in York. The power car worked its final front line passenger train…

A 107-year-old railway station that closed more than five decades ago is being given a new lease of life by owner Jim Pethullis, whose wife’s grandfather helped to build the line on which it was located. The station, Thorganby, was on the Derwent Valley Railway’s standard gauge York Layerthorpe to Cliffe Common line. The route opened in two stages – the southern section from Wheldrake to Cliffe Common, near Selby, which included Thorganby, on October 29, 1912, and the northern section, from Wheldrake to Layerthorpe, on the north-eastern outskirts of York, on July 21, 1913. The full opening of the privately-owned 16-mile line saw the inaugural ceremonial train hauled by NER Class X3 No. 1679, which was built by Robert Stephenson & Co in 1846 as a 4-2-0 and withdrawn…

WHEN did a railway last stage a gala weekend featuring three steam locomotives carrying the same name, and two of them identical? The Friends of Kirklees Light Railway hosted its 14th annual steam and diesel gala weekend over September 14/15, with a theme of estate railways. Alongside its original fleet, the railway operates the two Guest 2-4-2s Sian and Katie, but visiting for this event were two 0-4-0Ts, both also named Katie. The original Katie was built in 1896 by Sir Arthur Heywood for use on the Duke of Westminster’s private railway at his Eaton Hall estate in Cheshire. In 1916 Katie was sold to the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway but quickly moved to the Llewellyn Miniature Railway in Southport, before moving to the Fairbourne Railway in 1923, where it…

It’s an all-time classic – a ‘goodies and baddies’ tale with a railway element. Who can forget the sights and sounds of Wickham trolleys, Austerity 0-6-0STs, a WD 2-10-0, DEMUs and a Class 11 racing each other in a manner akin to a childhood model railway – not to mention Dora Bryan shouting through a megaphone: “I am the headmistress of St Trinian’s and I claim the reward!” The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery was a British film comedy set in the fictional St Trinian’s School, released in 1966. The railway scenes were filmed in colour on the closed, but not forgotten, Longmoor Military Railway, providing a valuable record of a network that became the subject of a failed preservation attempt. Fast forward 43 years and Jack Boskett, a well-known…

A REPORT of the £100,000 success of the two top-selling live steam models in Dreweatts’auction at Newbury on September 24 is in the news section of this issue, but the chasing pack gave a good account of themselves, not least three other models that each made it into five figures. Heading this trio was 9½in gauge LNWR 4-4-0 No. 1941 Alfred the Great (£38,000), followed at £15,000 by 7¼in gauge LSWR H15 class 4-6-0 No. 486 (BR No. 30486), and 5in gauge LMS Princess Royal class Pacific No. 6201 Princess Elizabeth (£13,500). Other realisations included £8500 for 5in gauge Chicago West Pullman & Southern Railroad 0-6-0 No. 29 Cincinnati and £7000 for an award-winning 3½in gauge GWR No. 6001 King Edward VII. Prices exclude buyer’s premium of 25% (+ VAT).…

ONE of the newer steam Train Operating Companies has announced the first details of its 2020 programme, marketed through Saphos Trains. The programme currently consists of 27 trains covering all parts of England and Wales, beginning with a ‘North Wales Coast Express’to Holyhead on February 1. This train originates from Leicester with steam haulage from Crewe. The ‘Pennine Peaks and Valleys Explorer’is steam-hauled throughout from Crewe in an itinerary that takes in the West Coast Main Line to Carnforth, then returning south via Settle Junction and Blackburn. This train will run on February 15, March 22, June 21 and December 17. Another repeat itinerary tour is the ‘White Rose’, which will run from Crewe to York via the Hope Valley, returning by the Calder Valley route on March 7, August…

PATHFINDER Tours’‘Sugar Loaf Mountaineer II’reached Carmarthen via the Central Wales line on September 7 – a year late. Originally set to run in the summer of 2018, the tour was pulled, owing to the fire risk following high temperatures and a dry spell. The trip was to have been worked by Locomotive Services’ ‘Black Five’No. 45231, sponsored by incumbent Welsh franchise operator, Arriva Trains Wales. The train was subsequently cancelled for a second time, because the 4-6-0 was unavailable. Third time lucky, the excursion ran successfully with steam from Shrewsbury to Carmarthen and back. However, with Arriva having lost its franchise in the interim, the ‘Mountaineer’finally ran with the support of Pathfinder, Riviera Trains, Locomotive Services and DB Schenker.…

The Severn Valley Railway Autumn Steam Gala, held from September 19-22, was blessed with warm sunshine for the most part, but all did not quite go according to plan. As always, the gala had an imaginative timetable, with plenty of ‘local’ trains, auto-trains and goods trains, plus overnight running, but an imaginative timetable often means that when things go wrong, they usually do so in spectacular fashion. Lineside fires, due to the extremely warm weather on Friday and Saturday, a points failure at Hampton Loade, and the failure of locomotives, all played a part in disrupting the timetable but, by and large, lost time was recovered and only a handful of trains in the intensive programme had to be axed. As always, the gala gets underway in a sedate fashion…

Make our heritage lines attractive to the general public and they will come CHRIS White makes a very unsavoury, but very important and accurate point in issue 259 concerning the future of our smaller heritage railways. Many pages have been written about their problems, lack of young volunteers and attracting visitors (revenue). To find the answer, each railway needs to take a step back and consider why anyone would want to visit their railway. Imagine a family discussing what they might do at the weekend. Dad says: “I’d like to visit XYZ preserved railway.”Mum says:“We went there once before, we drove 20 miles to walk around a filthy yard full of scrap metal and I ruined a perfectly good pair of shoes.” The children will need some persuading to spend…

SOUTH EAST Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre 2ft gauge, ¼ mile. Arundel, West Sussex. Tel: 01798 831370. Running: Wed-Sun until Nov 3. Bluebell Railway Standard gauge, 11 miles, footplate experience, wine and dine. Sheffield Park, East Sussex TN22 2QL. Tel: 01825 720800. Running: Wed-Sun until Nov 3 + Oct 28, 29. Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway 2ft gauge, ½ mile. Bredgar, Sittingbourne, Kent. Tel: 01622 884254. Running: Oct 27. East Kent Railway Standard gauge, two miles, Shepherdswell, Dover. Tel: 01304 832042. Running: Dec1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21-24. Eastleigh Lakeside Railway 10¼in & 7¼in gauge, 1¼ miles, footplate experience. Running: W/Es + sch hols. Hastings Miniature Railway 10¼in gauge, 600 yards, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings, East Sussex. Running: W/Es + sch hols. Hayling Seaside Railway 2ft gauge, one mile. Hayling Island,…

SPECIAL EVENTS October 26: Churnet Valley Railway: Super Power Saturday ■ 26: West Somerset Railway: PJ Masks Meet and Greet Day ■ 26: Eastleigh Lakeside Railway: Halloween ■ 26: Fairbourne Railway: Halloween Evening ■ 26: Seaton Tramway: Halloween Tram of Terror! ■ 26: Cambrian Heritage Railways: Halloween at Oswestry ■ 26: East Lancashire Railway: Guided Real Ale Trail 26: Ecclesbourne Valley Railway: Wirksworth Wizarding Day ■ 26: Bala Lake Railway: Halloween ■ 26: Corris Railway: Halloween Special Day ■ 26: Somerset & Dorset Railway: Real Ale Trains 26: Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway: End of Season Parade 26: Welsh Highland Heritage Railway: Halloween ■ 26, 27: Battlefield Line: Halloween Weekend ■ 26, 27: Leighton Buzzard Railway: Halloween Spooktacular ■ 26, 27: Tanfield Railway: Tanfield Ghost Train ■ 26, 27: Foxfield…