Heritage Railway Issue 255

THIS issue sees the launch of two major projects to have two of the finest of Victorian locomotive designs in steam for the 21st century. The planned opening of the High Speed 2 rail link from London to Birmingham in 2026 will bring nothing new to the second city in heritage terms – because it has seen it all before as long ago as in 1851when the LNWR Bloomer 2-2-2s reduced the travelling time between the cities to just two hours for the first time. HS2 has given fresh impetus for Tyseley Locomotive Works to complete its long-running new-build Bloomer project, with a principal aim of having it displayed next to the proposed new Curzon Street station, complete with a rake of replica LNWR coaches, as a living, steaming monument…

A GROUND-breaking scheme to re-create the first high speed train linking London and Birmingham 175 years on, is being launched by Vintage Trains. It is hoped to have the replica Victorian locomotive and its train ready before 2026, when the 21st-century High Speed 2 link between the two cities is scheduled to open. Furthermore, the aim is to have the replica displayed outside the original London & Birmingham Railway’s Curzon Street terminus when it is reopened within the next two years as a visitor centre, yards from the futuristic new HS2 station. Taking centre stage in the project will be the completion of the new-build LNWR Bloomer 2-2-2 No. 670, which was begun at Tyseley Locomotive Works in the late Eighties to mark the 150th anniversary of the West Coast…

THE driver of a car which crashed into GER Y14 0-6-0 No. 564 on a North Norfolk Railway level crossing has been fined £1180. William Mellor, 38, was driving his silver Mercedes-Benz on Sweet Briar Crossing in Sweet Briar Lane, Sheringham, on November 17 last year, on his way to Sheringham Golf Club when the collision occurred around 11.20am. The Y14 was heading at 10mph from Weybourne to Sheringham to pick up passengers for a dining train service when it was hit by the silver Mercedes-Benz. Red lights at the ungated crossing were flashing and audible alarms sounding, but the car failed to stop. The Y14 was not damaged and nobody was injured. Both the railway and the road were blocked following the collision. Mellor, from Erpingham, a member of…

VINTAGE Trains has added an LMS special saloon to its operational carriage fleet for main line tours. The Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust, based at the Midland Railway-Butterley, has loaned No. 6320 to Tyseley. The coach was built at the Derby Carriage & Wagon Works in 1927 as a 57ft first class corridor brake numbered 5033. Withdrawn in November, 1960, it was converted at Wolverton Carriage Works into an inspection saloon for the chief projects officer of the West Coast Main Line electrification scheme and renumbered DM395707. Condemned in January, 1965, an all-new wooden framed steel plated saloon body including many original parts, was built at Wolverton. The last LMS type to be built there, it was fitted to a BR Mk.1 brake second suburban coach underframe placed on Commonwealth…

THE Buckinghamshire Railway Centre has begun work to the north of Quainton Road station on a proposed new extension to be laid in conjunction with the construction of the High Speed 2 rail link. Preparatory work has taken place in anticipation of a two-mile extension parallel to the former Great Central Railway, now a freight line, which dissects the railway centre. The hoped-for extension running towards Verney Junction will, it is planned, become a reality with assistance from HS2 and East West Rail, which will both run through or over the BRC. The first track panel and a buffer stop have been laid and ground clearance has taken place in the last four months. The work follows the trackbed, part of the Aylesbury & Buckingham Railway, to a point about…

ON the weekend of July 6/7, the Yeovil Railway Centre will open its gates to the public to mark 25 years of providing servicing facilities to visiting main line engines. Typically, a railtour stopping at Salisbury and terminating at Sherborne would run on to nearby Yeovil Junction. On arrival, the engine would be turned on the centre’s 70ft turntable, watered and if required, coaled while its support crew fulfilled their own tasks like cleaning the fire, clearing the smokebox of chaff, checking oil levels and generally preparing the locomotive for its returning home run. Alternatively, an excursion destined for Weymouth would drop its engine at Yeovil, the train and passengers worked forward, and returned by a diesel. During the train’s absence, the engine would have been turned and serviced ready…