Table of contents for Issue 236 in Heritage Railway

A BRITISH Rail civil engineering manager who made a snap decision to stop lifting tracks on the closed Severn Valley route, has died at the age of 83. Phil Coutanche was a career railwayman who rose to be a senior member of the civil engineering dept of BR based at Paddington, Wolverhampton and latterly Birmingham. Before retiring, he oversaw the replacement of the bridges south of New Street station at Proofhouse Junction and the reinstatement of Birmingham Snow Hill station. However, he made a major contribution to the heritage sector when, in 1965, the first volunteers of the fledging Severn Valley Railway visited Bridgnorth station. They were horrified to see contractors on site, about to rip up the track. The revivalists made a frantic telephone call to BR, and Phil…

STEAM haulage is to make a final return to the Underground tunnels beneath central London on July 28/29. Metropolitan Railway E Class 0-4-4T No. 1 will haul three public round trips on the District Line between Ealing Broadway and High Street Kensington on each of the days, in between standard electric services. Each train will be assisted by Metropolitan Railway Bo-Bo electric No. 12 Sarah Siddons. Coaching stock will be the Bluebell Railway’s wooden-bodied Chesham set and restored Metropolitan Railway coach No. 353. To carry back-up equipment such as water supplies, a GWR Pooley van is being loaned by the Flour Mill workshops at Bream in the Forest of Dean. No. 1’s home, the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, will provide the footplate crew. Another steam locomotive may also be hired in…

THE Fairbourne Railway’s £12,000 appeal to provide its 2-6-4T Russell with a new firebox has successfully reached its target with almost 12 months to go before work is due to start, thanks to two large donations from a single anonymous individual. A very favourable quote has been received from one potential contractor but with plenty of time to make a decision others may be evaluated. Recent work on the chassis has seen the locomotive, a 15in copy of its famous Welsh Highland Railway counterpart, transformed from a maintenance-hungry machine to a star performer, with the engineering plastic Vesconite being used extensively for bearing surfaces in the axleboxes and motion. This material is half the price of the bronze previously used for the bearings in question, which wore away in a…

AFTER a summer season of very reliable running, when diesel for steam substitutions fell from 26% in 2016 to 5% in 2017 despite the line having only four steam engines available for much of the season, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway ‘s programme of winter locomotive maintenance has gone very well. Most of the scheduled mechanical work was completed before the start of Santa services, despite some high mileages run in 2017. Highest mileage BR Standard 4MT 2-6-0 No. 76079 was the highest-mileage engine in 2017, covering almost 17,000 miles. Its wheels will be removed and sent away for tyre turning in the new year but the locomotive is otherwise in good fettle. Another locomotive receiving attention is B1 4-6-0 No. 61264, which needs remedial work to its rear axleboxes…

A RECORD number of film crews have visited Snowdon Mountain Railway this year to capture its stunning views. Teams from 11 production companies have made programmes featuring the railway, the summit building and station in Llanberis. Highlights this season include comedian Joel Dommett’s feature for ITV’s This Morning and Ellis James and Miles Jupp’s recent visit as part of a BBC series featuring their favourite places to visit in Wales. A documentary crew from BBC Wales brought Welsh photographer David Hurn to Snowdon to discuss his life in photography; S4C filmed from the mountain to illustrate a story about Everest, while UKTV’s Impossible Railways made a programme about the specific challenges of running a railway to the top of Wales’ highest peak. A different kind of film crew also visited…

THE Aln Valley Railway’s former Port of London Authority Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T No. 1243 of 1917 Richboro passed its boiler test on November 24, allowing it to work the line’s Mince Pie Specials between Christmas and the new year. These will be the first public trains scheduled to travel on the railway’s extended track as far as bridge 6. On November 17, Richboro, coupled to a Shark brakevan, was used on a works train as far as the limit of completed track to deliver a bogie bolster wagon laden with rails for the next phase of tracklaying. This was the first steam-hauled freight on the original trackbed of the line for over 50 years. The track has now been extended as far as the former bridge 5 (which linked fields…

GREAT Northern Railway N2 0-6-2T No. 1744 is to relocate to the North Norfolk Railway after four decades at the Great Central Railway. Cordial discussions between its owner, the Gresley Society Trust, and the two heritage lines led to an agreement that the Poppy Line will be the most suitable operational base for the locomotive. No. 1744, currently on hire to the Epping Ongar Railway, will change its operational base to the North Norfolk Railway as from January. There, it will continue to have the benefit of regular steamings, and may be used on Bittern Line dining trains to Cromer, once TPWS and OTMR equipment is fitted. The last surviving N2, it was built by North British in 1921 and spent much of its working life at Hornsey shed. When…

THE Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway Preservation Society’s Train From Spain is to make its debut on the Lakeland line in the spring. The engine, to be named Whillan Beck, has been painted in Caledonian Railway blue livery following its overhaul at Old Hall Engineering in Bouth, South Lakeland, and delivered to the 15in-gauge line on November 20. Late last year it was trialled at Ravenglass following initial works undertaken at Old Hall. Still missing equipment such as the all-important sanding gear for handling inclement conditions and a ‘bad rail’, the Krauss 4-6-2 nevertheless coped with even the eight of 12 coaches in tow. Now it will undergo a similar process of testing before being accepted into traffic for the 2018 season. Recent works include fitting the sanders, remachining the interior…

THE newly extended Gwili Railway has launched a £150,000 national appeal to build a shed for its heritage carriages. In 2003 the heritage line obtained planning permission for a two-road carriage shed at Abergwili Junction. This shed is capable of holding the equivalent of four Mk.1 carriages on each road. As previously reported, the extension reached its target of Abergwili Junction in 2017, and so the next stage is to build the shed. A spokesman said: “This appeal is for a project which combines practicality with preservation, an ideal balance of objectives to move the railway forward. Like many heritage lines, the Gwili Railway makes use of the standard BR Mk.1 carriages. “Keeping these carriages in working condition in the open is a difficult task. A storage facility is badly…

JOOLS Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra are to return to the multiple award-winning Barrow Hill roundhouse on May 26. The orchestra will feature Gilson Lavis, guest vocalists Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall and a special guest star to be announced later. On his last visit in September 2014, the concert was a sell-out. Tickets are now on sale through www.seetickets.com priced at £39 plus a booking fee. The previous week sees the venue’s Rail Ale 2018 run from March 17-19. Real ales There will be over 350 real ales from around the country including many brewed locally in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, with live music in the marquee and on the main stage from jazz and brass through acoustic, funk and soul to rock and roll. Advance tickets…

THE Science Museum Group’s contribution to Hull UK City of Culture 2017 will be a major celebration of the work of railway painter Terence Cuneo. Painting Power: The Art of Terence Cuneo, will be held at the University of Hull’s Brynmor Jones Library from December 13 until April 15. On display will be a unique collection of Cuneo’s work from across his varied subjects, including military, railways, drawings, political figures and royalty. Arguably the world’s most famous railway painter, Cuneo was also the official artist for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, and painted the Queen’s visit to Hull in 1957.…

ALTHOUGH a £5 million racing car was the shining star, model trains made their mark at a prestigious sale held by UK auction house Bonhams in California on November 11. Going under the hammer was a collection of vintage motor cars, automotive memorabilia and railway models amassed over many years by the late Lindley Bothwell, who made his fortune growing oranges. Top of the models was a‘standard’ (2 1/8in) gauge Baltimore & Ohio Railroad 4-4-0 made by the US model-maker Voltamp which, with wagons and caboose, sold for $6000 (£4550), followed by two $4000 (£3000) models, a Lionel Trains‘standard’gauge 4-4-4 Blue Comet with 12-wheeled tender and carriages, and a 3½in gauge 4-6-2 by Buddy L with wagons, mobile crane and caboose. It wasn’t only miniature locomotives that attracted enthusiasts, for…

CURRENTLY stabled at Butterley, after being ‘stopped’ suffering with cracked flues, Stanier 4-6-2 No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland has been withdrawn from traffic for winter maintenance. As part of the engine’s fettling process, the 4-6-2’s chief mechanical engineer, Simon Scott, confirmed that the Duchess will be returned to main line duties repainted in LMS maroon, for long its trademark livery in the heritage era. Target date for the engine’s return is March 3, when the 4-6-2 is booked to move south to Southall in readiness to work a ‘Cathedrals Express' from west London to Salisbury, Sherborne and Yeovil Junction on Thursday, March 8. The train starts diesel-hauled from Horsham, calling at Holmwood, Dorking, Leatherhead, Cheam and Salisbury. This will be the first time in many years that the Duchess will…

LONG gone, but remembered, a shed bash was often a heart-thumping event, trespassing on railway property in an effort to capture elusive ‘cops’ hidden amongst rows of slumbering engines... Remember? Creeping through a hole in the perimeter fence or slipping through that seldom used side door, the entrance to the seemingly secret world of steam, oil and coal - and shed foremen. If you think that those days have gone, think again. Imagine a three-coach train slipping out of Carnforth just before nine o’clock in the morning with Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45699 Galatea at its head, destined for a tour of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Only three coaches? Obviously not your usual railtour, so what was it all about... As it happened, the coaches carried West Coast Railways’ support…

IN a surprise announcement dated November 14, Marcus Robertson, the majority shareholder of Steam Dreams Rail Co, an operation he started in 1999, has announced that he has stepped down from the position of chairman with immediate effect, while retaining his directorship. The new man in the chair is David Buck, the owner of LNER B1 4-6-0 No. 61306 Mayflower. Stating his reasons for vacating the chair, Mr Robertson said:“I got to know David extremely well while we were running with his engine in 2015 and I was aware that he had recently retired following the sale of his business. “As a result of the two of us working closely together running trains, he has naturally grasped both the operating and customer side of the business of operating with steam…

A PHOTOGRAPHER who snapped Peppercorn A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado using a drone has been given a community resolution by police. Essex Police said the unnamed 28-year-old man from Kirby Cross had breached the Air Navigation Order 2016 by flying his drone too close to one of the Liverpool Street-Walton-on-the-Naze-Colchester shuttles on August 12. He was also found to be selling his pictures of the train in a local shop, in contravention of Civil Aviation Authority rules, which stipulate that a drone operator must take a course and pass an examination to become a qualified drone operator before using it commercially. Network Rail reported the drone flight to police five days after the incident near Kirby Cross. Investigating officer PC Paul Lindup said:“This is the first drone incident Essex Police…

THE Scottish Railway Preservation Society and other railtour promoters will no doubt be keeping a close eye on the outcome of a study backed by the Scottish government examining a proposal to extend the Borders Railway. Popularly known as the ‘Waverley Route’ the line, partly reopened by Network Rail in association with ScotRail and the Scottish Assembly two years ago on September 6, 2015, currently terminates at Tweedbank, some 35 miles from Edinburgh. Due to be published early next year, the study was set out to assess the viability of extending the railway beyond Hawick and Newcastleton, rejoining the West Coast Main Line for Carlisle. Using the existing Borders Railway as an indication of traffic potential since the line was reopened to Tweedbank, ScotRail managing director Alex Haynes has reported…

When the first RPSI members moved their embryonic Irish railway heritage collection to the old Whitehead Excursion Station at Whitehead in County Antrim in 1966, they could never have envisaged that, 51 years on, the site would have developed into a working locomotive depot, an engineering centre of excellence and a first class railway museum. Yet, that’s exactly what you’ll find at the Whitehead Railway Museum, which, thanks to £3.1m in funding from a range of bodies, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, Generating Rural Opportunities Within South Antrim (GROW), the European Union and Tourism Ireland, plans to attract 15,000 visitors in its first full year of operation. Although the official opening of the museum took place on October 25, the museum had, in fact, opened its doors to the public…

Peppercorn’s Pacifics By Peter Tuffrey (hardback, Great Northern Books, 208pp, ISBN 978 1 912101 70 2) PEPPERCORN’S A1 Pacific will be to the 21st century what Flying Scotsman was to the 20th. Earlier this year, Tornado broke new heritage era ground by hitting 101mph on its 90mph certification run down the East Coast Main Line, and next year will head a 12-day marathon luxury tour, the tickets for which, as reported in our last issue, will start at a tad short of £30,000. This new album looks at the Arthur H Peppercorn Pacific legacy. Sadly, no A1 survived, hence the desire to build a new and 50th member of the class, and only one A2 is still with us in the form of No. 60532 Blue Peter. Following an introduction…

WHAT is billed as the first publicly-owned British railway company to be created in a century has been launched by Tyseley-based Vintage Trains as a major and ambitious step in the expansion of its Vintage Trains railtour arm. The public is being offered the chance to buy community shares – minimum subscription £500, maximum £100,000 – in the new company, Vintage Trains Community Benefit Society, which aims to raise £3 million from the share offer. The first 2000 members who subscribe to the share offer, will be enrolled in the Founders Club, and given the unique opportunity to travel behind double-headed double-chimney Castles in the form of WR 4-6-0 No. 7029 Clun Castle and GWR 4-6-0 No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. Such a tour will not be repeated before…

➜ SEVERN Valley Railway-based Port Talbot Railway/GWR 0-6-0ST No. 813 is to visit both the Kent and East Sussex and Bluebell railways. For nine days, No. 813 will assist the KESR’s home fleet to operate Santa specials, and on May 19-20, will be a guest for the Bluebell’s Branch Line Weekend. ➜ KEIGHLEY & Worth Valley Railway-based 1899-built Taff Vale Railway 0-6-2T No. 85 has been loaned to neighbour the Embsay & Bolton Abbey to assist its home fleet over the Christmas period, returning home at the end of the year. ➜ STEPHEN Middleton’s recently-restored Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST No. 1208 of 1916 Illingwor th, which ran on Yorkshire’s Nidd Valley Light Railway during its working life, will visit the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway for three weekends in June, including the line’s…

➜ PEPPERCORN A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado will visit the Midland Railway-Butterley in the spring, and after arriving there in mid-April, will run special services on April 21-22. ➜ WESTON-super-Mare’s 1884-built station has been awarded Grade II listed status by Historic England, joining the resort’s other buildings such as the town hall, the Grand Pier and the Royal Hotel. ➜ LMS ‘Crab’ 2-6-0 No. 13065 from the East Lancashire Railway and LNER B12 4-6-0 No. 8572 from the North Norfolk Railway will visit the Great Central Railway for its January 26-28 winter gala. ➜ SWANAGE Railway-based M7 0-4-4T No. 30053 has now been withdrawn with the boiler largely stripped down and ready for lifting. Its owners plan to send the boiler away for contract overhaul but further details of its…

FOLLOWING its visits to Science Museum in London, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford and Locomotion in Shildon, the spacecraft that transported British astronaut Tim Peake to and from the International Space Station will make its way to York and will land at the National Railway Museum on Wednesday, January 17, 2018. A landmark partnership between Samsung and the Science Museum Group to create a national tour of Tim Peake’s spacecraft means the Soyuz TMA-19M capsule, complete with equipped interior and re-entry char marks on its outer body, will be on public display along with its 25m diameter parachute for two months at the York museum. Visitors can book an event that includes an exclusive viewing of the capsule, as well as an opportunity to learn about the…

REDUNDANT track materials lifted during Network Rail’s electrification of the Great Western Main Line will be used in a new northern push by the Swindon & Cricklade Railway. The heritage line’s volunteers will be using sleepers to extend the line from its current railhead at South Meadow Lane half a mile to Fairfield Lane and then the remaining one-and-a-quarter miles to the site of Cricklade station. The extension team face having to fell several mature trees on the Midland & South Western Junction Railway trackbed. One major obstacle is the need for a new bridge at Fairfield Lane to replace the original which was blown up after the line closed in 1961. It is estimated that the extension will cost around £2 million.…

A CAMPAIGN group wants to preserve Gedling & Carlton station in Nottinghamshire which they claim inspired JRR Tolkein to write his Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Gedling Village Preservation Society wants to convert the GNR station, which closed on April 4, 1960, into a community centre preserving the heritage of the site and the district’s mining heritage. The society wants to buy the building, currently owned by a local youth group, with the aid of Heritage Lottery Fund grant aid. Society secretary Francis Rodrigues said local legend has it that Tolkien had an aunt called Jane Neave who owned a farm in Gedling, and he visited the station in 1914. Francis said: “It’s documented that he wrote a poem called The Voyage of Éarendel the Evening Star. That was…

A SECOND International Early Main Line Railways Conference is to be held at the National Railway Museum in York from June 21-24. Following the success of the first conference in 2014, the organising committee has arranged a second conference to explore further the origin and development of mainline railways between 1830-70. This second conference has attracted papers from authors studying subjects in several parts of the world, in addition to the United Kingdom. They cover subjects related to economic and political progress and business incentive and practice, as well as developments in structural, architectural and building techniques and practice and advancements in materials. It will commence on the evening of June 21, with a public lecture by Andrew Savage, executive director of the Railway Heritage Trust. Arrangements are being made…

THE overhaul of the sole-surviving Stanier mogul No. 42968 has taken a major step forward as it takes up residence on the lifting jacks at Severn Valley Railway’s Bridgnorth Works. The move allows for the mechanical aspects of the overhaul to progress apace and has already facilitated the removal of the driving wheels for tyrereprofiling. Since withdrawal from SVR traffic in January 2013, the Stanier Mogul Fund’s dedicated working parties have dismantled components and cleaned down and repainted the main frame structure. Progress has included the replacement of corroded sections of running plate, repairs to the cab floor structure, cleaning and painting of the pony truck, and renewal of lubrication pipe runs. Furthermore, the locomotive’s rear dragbox has been entirely replaced, with much of the rear frame structure also renewed,…

TYSELEY-BASED Vintage Trains has announced the appointment of Tim Evans as volunteer coordinator. This new role is funded by part of a £90,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund under its Resilient Heritage programme for Tyseley Locomotive Works Engineering the Future project. Tim will manage the recruitment and support of volunteers across Vintage Trains and will be working with the existing team to develop and implement a new volunteering strategy in the light of the ongoing development of Vintage Trains to achieve its longterm vision – ‘Express steam trains engineering a future for everyone’. Tim has been working as an events manager for the Compass Group across a number of high profile venues such as Twickenham Stadium, Chelsea FC, the Oval, the Lawn Tennis Association at Wimbledon plus Sandown and…

THE Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway has instructed contractors to build a new carriage shed after receiving a windfall by way of a bequest from a supporter. The shed will be located on the site of the former Down exchange sidings at Furnace Sidings, originally used to assemble the rakes of loaded wagons from Big Pit Colliery for collection by main line trains. The construction work will start in January, and when it is complete there will be a 300ft-long, three-road shed, able to house the equivalent of 12 Mk.1 carriages. It will provide a new operations base for the railway’s rolling stock. There will be roller shutter doors at both ends with the sidings continuing to the buffer stops at the rear. This shed will be predominantly for storage and…

IN a move that has caused “extreme disappointment”, the Royal British Legion has distanced itself from the LMS-Patriot Project, which aims to build a new example of the class as a National Memorial Engine. Eight years after the project team was led to believe that the new-build, No. 5551 The Unknown Warrior, had British Legion endorsement, Legion officials have told it otherwise. The project has now been told to stop claiming that it has British Legion endorsement and to stop using its crest on the nameplates. The “misunderstanding” made in good faith by the project stemmed from a 2009 meeting between company secretary Richard Sant, marketing and publicity director Stuart Gendall and the British Legion’s then director of corporate communications, Stuart Gendall. Took him at his word A statement posted…

THE Severn Valley Railway’s March 16-18 spring steam gala is taking on an LNER flavour with the announcement that B1 4-6-0 No. 61264 will now be joining B12 4-6-0 No. 8572 and A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado, as well as unique Haydock Foundry 0-6-0WT Bellerophon. The 1947-built No. 61264 is appearing courtesy of the Thompson B1 Locomotive Trust and its home the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, where it operates trains along the Network Rail-owned sections between Grosmont and Whitby and to Battersby Junction, as well as the 18-mile heritage line to Pickering. Joined by a fifth The four official guest locomotives now look as though they will be joined by a fifth, with Llangollen Railway-based BR Standard 4MT 2-6-4T No. 80072 set to stay at the SVR until April having…

A MAP of London’s railways issued by the District Railway in 1874, went under the hammer for £1300 at a Transport Auctions of London sale in Croydon on October 28. The railway opened in 1868 between South Kensington and Westminster Bridge underground stations operating steam-hauled trains consisting of gas-lit wooden carriages, and the map was the second edition of the first-ever map of the London Underground. Another four-figure realisation was £1100 for a 1933 special edition of the Harry Beck London Underground diagrammatic card map, while two Southern Railway posters went for £850 and £800, the former being a 1924 issue featuring a painting by an unknown artist of London from Westminster bridge to St Paul’s Cathedral, and the latter a 1938 ‘London Town’ example by Kerry Lee (1902-88). Two…

As December 1967 approached there was really only one place for enthusiasts to go – Carlisle. The border town was a fascinating place to go in the early 1960s to see LMS and LNER engines at the same station. It once had four locomotive sheds: Upperby; Canal (for the Waverley route); Durran Hill (on the Midland line) and Kingmoor to the north. Durran Hill closed on November 2, 1959, Canal on June 7, 1963 and Upperby on December 12, 1966, leaving Kingmoor with just days to go before it also closed to steam on December 31, 1967, exactly 50 years ago. The Britannias were the last Pacific express engines still at work in Britain but had less and less to do, and if any suffered a major problem it was…

AUGUST 11 next year is a very big date for all fans of steam, marking the 50th anniversary of the last steam-hauled services by BR and in particular the feat of Britannia 4-6-2 No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell when it worked the legendary ‘15 Guinea Special’ over the Settle and Carlisle line. Following that memorable trip the 4-6-2 ran light to Norwich, the final steam movement approved by BR, and spent a quarter of a century in Bressingham Steam Museum. Sadly, any plans to involve Cromwell on the main line on August 11 have been laid to rest a long time ago as its main line ticket expires in March. Before that however, the 7P has been booked to work four trips with the ‘Cathedrals Express’, the first of the four…

LAST month we reported that many of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s December main line Santa trains had sold out by mid-October and a month later its officials were able to declare that all trains starting from Belfast and Dublin were fully booked. In addition to a total of 12 trains working between Belfast to Whitehead, Saturdays and Sundays, December 2-23, another 17 are booked to depart from Dublin during the same period In total, 29 Santa specials – the number perhaps the envy of many heritage lines – will be run in the build-up to the Christmas holidays. All trains from Belfast are routed to Whitehead, those from Dublin travel to Maynooth (12) with two from Portadown to Lisburn on December 10. Two locomotives are booked to share…

BOOKED to make a rare appearance on the main line because of gauging issues, Tyseley’s Great Western 4-6-0 No. 4965 Rood Ashton Hall failed to make an entrance on Friday, November 17 when its train, the ‘Friday Night Diner,’ was cancelled a week before the event. At first glance it was assumed that the train was a late entry into Vintage Trains’ tour programme but no, unusually, it was a corporate special. Will it be re-dated? “I am waiting guidance from my client,” replied Vintage Trains’ Ben Mason. Interestingly, he went on to say that Network Rail is proactively running a gauging model for Rood Ashton Hall, Earl of Mount Edgcumbe and Clun Castle based on Vintage Trains’ published tour programme through to April 2018 and a provisional programme for…

UNIQUE BR Pacific No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester will be a rolling chassis by Christmas. Currently undergoing a rebuild at Tyseley Locomotive Works, the chassis has been completely overhauled, with its bogie, trailing truck and driving wheels all back in the frames. Meanwhile, the 71000 Duke of Gloucester Steam Locomotive Trust has clarified the latest administrative move to safeguard the locomotive’s future. Four years after the very successful launch of a new supporting charity, the BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust, the two organisations have created a 50-year agreement, placing the locomotive on loan to the trust. It has taken most of 2017 to create the legal agreement, which carries binding responsibilities on both parties that are suitable to the Charity Commission. Unlike a very poor 1978 loan agreement to…

At 5.15 on eight consecutive Wednesday evenings in 1980 more than five million people – adults and children alike – tuned in to BBC1 to watch a children’s drama series called God’s Wonderful Railway. You might have been one of them! The series caused something of a stir for three reasons. Firstly, it attracted the highest viewing figures recorded for a children’s drama. Secondly, in an era in which home video recording was in its infancy, many adults left work early in order to watch it, and thirdly, the stars of the series were the locomotives and rolling stock of the Severn Valley Railway. I should know. I wrote the series. Thirty-seven years later I’m delighted to say the series is about to be released on DVD to the enjoyment,…

WHILE Britain did not invent the railway concept – that has been attributed to ancient Greek drama, when grooves were cut into stage floors to facilitate the moving of scenery on wheels – it gave the world the self-propelled railway locomotive and so changed it forever. Before Richard Trevithick gave the first public demonstration of a steam locomotive, railways in a comparatively-primitive form were to be found in abundance across the UK, primarily horse-drawn affairs linking coal miners, quarries and other industrial concerns to the nearest transshipment point on a river, canal or sea harbour. The study of early railways has long remained firmly in the field of archaeology, with the enthusiast sector confining itself to the later locomotive eras. This magnificent volume brings the best of Britain’s early railways…

This is a two-disc set showing all eight episodes of the BBC TV children’s drama series first shown on the BBC at 5.15pm on eight consecutive Wednesday evenings in 1980 and watched by over five million people – adults and children alike; the highest viewing figures recorded for a children’s drama. As well as well known names such as Gordon Kaye and June Brown, the stars of the series were the locomotives and rolling stock of the Severn Valley Railway. The series focuses on three generations of the Grant family working on an unnamed Great Western Railway branch line. The first section, entitled Permanent Way, depicts the construction of the line in the reign of Queen Victoria, the second, entitled Clear Ahead, showed the line in operation during Edwardian times,…

THE Heritage Railway Association wants to appoint a full-time senior executive to help the company handle its increasingly busy role. The organisation is not only the voice of Britain’s heritage rail industry, but provides support across every possible aspect of heritage rail ownership, management and operation. In addition, it stages events for training, development, knowledge-sharing and entertainment. HRA chairman Brian Simpson said: “Until now, all our work has been shared across a core group of volunteers, from answering the telephone and handling emails, to keeping tabs on subscriptions and accounts. But the workload continues to increase, and we now need a capably-staffed full-time office in order to continue to serve our members well.” The HRA is inviting applicants from across business and industry, as well as from the heritage rail…

THE Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway has appointed a new general manager to succeed Trevor Stockton who stepped down from his position in early December. Lifelong enthusiast and businessman Peter Brendling has been working alongside Trevor, to ensure a smooth handover of responsibilities. Peter will be relocating his young family from Kendal and temporarily living in the line’s Dalegarth Cottages. He said: “I have been a rail enthusiast since childhood and have many happy memories of holidays spent visiting various narrow gauge railways, so I am naturally excited to be given the opportunity to combine my love of the Lake District with my passion for steam.” The railway will still be utilising Trevor’s 44 years of experience, on a part-time basis, on the operational side of the business.…

BR STANDARD 9F 2-10-0 No. 92134 – the only surviving single-chimney example – has passed its steam tests. The tests were undertaken at LNWR Heritage in Crewe on November 23, 51 years since the boiler last held pressure, and the locomotive, which last ran in December 1966 before being sent to Dai Woodham’s scrapyard at Barry, is now on the final leg of its restoration. On November 15 it had passed its hydraulic examination. Built at Crewe, it entered traffic on May 24, 1957 and was first allocated to Saltley, from where it worked heavy freight to Gloucester, Nuneaton and Derby, and on the Water Orton-Glasgow Class C freight, which it worked as far as Carlisle via Sheffield and Skipton. However, it spent most of its working life at Wellingborough,…

FOR the first time in many years the Fairbourne Railway has been in a position to invest in the purchase of a large quantity of new S10 rail, rather than good second-hand material. The purchase has been made possible by a generous loan from a supporter, with the railway opening an appeal to eventually repay it – donations should be sent to the Fairbourne Railway, Beach Road, Gwynedd, LL38 2EX. The new rail is initially being used to relay the station at Porth Penrhyn, which is being simplified in the process down to a run-round loop and a short layover siding for use on events that require an engine change. Sufficient rail has been purchased to allow a large section of track between the passing loop and Porth Penrhyn in…

A PUB on a site which played a pivotal role in world transport history has been placed on the market. The Locomotion No 1 pub stands opposite Heighington station in Newton Aycliffe, where its namesake, the first steam locomotive to run on the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the world’s first public steam railway, was assembled on the tracks in 1825. The pub and the former Heighington station were due to be auctioned at the Newcastle Marriott Hotel Gosforth Park on December 11 with a reserve price of £230,000 plus VAT. The original part of the building, near the tracks, was completed in 1827 and opened as an inn two years later when it obtained a licence. By 1848 it was no longer in use as a pub and the building…

THE Belgium Steam Museum will commemorate 100 years since the end of the First World War at the Stoomcentrum Maldegem’s steam festival on May 5/6. The Apedale Valley Light Railway’s Kerr Stuart Joffre 0-6-0T No. 3016 of 1916 and privately-owned Kerr Stuart 0-4-0ST Wren Peter Pan will both cross the North Sea for the event. British-built Austerity 0-6-0ST No. WD196 Errol Lonsdale, a former South Devon Railway resident, and Avonside 0-4-0ST Fred will also be at the event, though these are now based in Belgium. Completing the line-up will be 1906-built Hanomag 0-4-0WT Yvonne (believed to have been taken prisoner by the British during the war), the last surviving Prussian T7 0-6-0T from Train 1900 in Luxembourg (representing German designs during the conflict), and resident 1893-built St Leonard 0-4-0T Yvonne.…

DESPITE the suspension of services on the Snaefell Mountain Railway for safety reasons, passenger numbers on the Isle of Man’s heritage lines have soared by 13%. Latest figures showed that between March and November this year, a total of 512,847 travelled on the Isle of Man Railway, Manx Electric Railway, Snaefell Mountain Railway and the Douglas Bay horse tram – a rise of 65,949 customers over the same period in 2016. Despite it running an enforced shorter season after a tramcar ran out of control, the mountain railway had the biggest increase in 2017 with an additional 16,770 customers – a rise of 27%. The Isle of Man Railway was boosted by an extra 32,355 passengers – a 22% increase, while the Manx Electric Railway saw the most customers with…

THE North Yorkshire Moors Railway showed a 2½% increase in cash taken in the 2017 season, and outperformed many of its rival attractions, many of whom saw a fall in numbers. While the number of bed-nights spent in Yorkshire increased in 2017, visitors are not spending as freely as previous years. This trend is expected to continue in 2018, with the railway’s management expecting a flat year, although one encouraging sign is that ticket sales for the visit of A1 No. 60163 Tornado from March 3-11 are already well ahead of those for the same event featuring LMS 4-6-0 Royal Scot in 2017. With both the timetable and fares to be maintained at 2017 levels, 2018 is expected to be a year of consolidation.…

locomotive under it with its blower full on and continuously blowing off steam from its safety valves. The cable was suspended from Grosmont coaling tower and the ‘Black Five’ No. 44806 was parked beneath it, to the suprise of onlookers. NO, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway is not expecting its first electric locomotive! The line received a contract to test a short length of a new design of overhead power cable for use in tunnels, which involved having a steam…

THE Fife Heritage Railway aims to restore a Barclay 0-4-0ST at a cost of up to £80,000. The locomotive is No. 2292 of 1951, nicknamed the ‘Dubbie Pug’, which was owned by the NCB and worked at Francis Colliery in Dysart. Liaison officer Jim Rankin said: “It has good Fife heritage and has a bit of history behind it. It’s also big enough to do what we want but small enough not to eat up lots of coal.” The Kingdom of Fife Railway Preservation Society, which is based at Kirkland Sidings in Methil, was founded in 1992 after John Cameron closed his Lochty Private Railway due to falling visitor numbers and increased public liability premiums. In 1994, the last of the fleet which included the ‘Dubbie Pug’ was moved from…

A KEY part of the heritage of Brunel’s GWR Swindon Works has been removed from an endangered buildings list. Built in 1873, the Chain Test House was at the heart of the works. Inside it workers checked the strength of thick steel chains. It fell into disrepair when British Rail Engineering Limited closed the works in 1986, and English Heritage placed it on the Heritage at Risk register in 1999. The building is now at the centre of a residential development of 56 flats. The Chain Test House had been restored by developer Thomas Homes as a “museum piece”, according to Chris Brotherton, one of the directors of the company. It will be opened four times a year by the nearby STEAM Museum. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! FROM ONLY £20 SEE P30…

THE Bluebell Railway is planning a year of celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the closure of its line by British Railways. The name ‘Sulky Service’ was given to the last train service operated by British Railways in 1958 between Lewes and East Grinstead, after local protester Madge Bessemer won a stay of execution on legal grounds. The ‘Sulky’ trains ran at times that were inconvenient to those wishing to travel on the line or connect with onward services. Two years afterwards, the ground-breaking volunteer-led Bluebell Railway became the first former BR standard gauge railway to run passenger trains. A special ‘Sulky Service’ timetable will run for part of February and March, culminating in line closure-themed events over the weekend of March 17/18. Historic journey On March 16, the…

A TOTEM sign from a station immortalised in a poem by the late Poet Laureate and railway enthusiast Sir John Betjeman was the top seller in a one-off railwayana sale held by Chippenham Auction Rooms on November 10. The BR(S) sign, which went under the hammer for £2700, was from Dilton Marsh Halt, opened by the GWR in 1937 on the Bristol-Salisbury line, renamed without the‘Halt’in 1969, and still open today, as a request stop. Betjeman wrote the poem as part of a successful campaign to save the station when it was threatened with closure in the 1960s, and its last two lines read:“Here to the Halt from Salisbury and from Bristol, Steam trains will return.” Behind this price came a Southern Railway target sign from the Kent station Greatstone-on-Sea…

WEST Coast Railway’s ‘Jacobite’ Fort William-Mallaig tourist trains took centre stage for the first of Channel 4’s new four-part series Coastal Railways, a programme first screened on Sunday, November 26. Seen it all before? Not quite – instead of coverage eternally presented by Michael Portillo or Chris Tarrant or even Paul Merton, the programme’s producer had the refreshing idea of choosing a woman as the travelling commentator. He chose the talented, versatile and oft-humorous Julie Walters for the leading role and it worked. Dubbed the ‘Walters Express’ by at least one television critic, the programme, filmed back in the summer of 2017, featured the ‘Jacobite’s' long-serving, flag-waving, whistle-blowing guard, Florence Maclean, shiny ‘LMS Black Five’ No. 45212 and, of course, Julie. Using time trusted on-board train and lineside camera techniques…

A STRANDED family of six who were given a lift in the West Highlands by a West Coast Railways’‘Jacobite’ service after they lost their canoe in floods have been reunited with their vessel. As reported in our last issue, Jon and Helen Cluett and their four children aged six, eight, 10 and 12 were staying at a remote bothy at Essan on the south shore of Loch Eilt in Lochaber on October 12 during the half-term holidays when the canoe, which had been tied to rocks as mooring, was swept away by a swollen river, and they faced a three-mile walk back to their car across difficult boggy land. The bothy is accessible either by a long walk or by canoe. Police arranged for the next train to stop at…

➜ West but not Central ISSUE 235 was another great edition of Heritage Railway, full of news and features as ever, well done. However, I must take up on Geoff Courtney’s bit about London trains and buses (page 39). Like Geoff, having been a lifelong enthusiast for railways, back in the 1950s I did take up an additional interest in buses in my area (Kent), and sadly that waned when the National Bus Company took over our reliable Maidstone & District and East Kent bus systems with their distinctive liveries and range of interesting vehicles. Sadly, whoever researched the lovely picture of the ‘Golden Arrow’ in Geoff’s article was wrong about the location. The train is seen passing Shornecliffe, later named Folkestone West and still in use today. At that…

SOUTH EAST Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre Narrow gauge, ¼ mile. Arundel, West Sussex. Tel: 01798 831370. Running: Dec 16, 17, 21. Bluebell Railway Standard gauge, 11 miles, footplate experience, wine and dine. Sheffield Park, East Sussex TN22 2QL. Tel: 01825 720800. Engines: 178, 323, 592, 65, 847, 30541, 73082. Running: Dec 16, 17, 22-24, 26 - Jan 1. East Kent Railway Standard gauge, two miles, Shepherdswell, Dover. Tel: 01304 832042. Running: Dec 16, 17, 22-24. 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 Railway Narrow gauge, one mile. Hayling Island, Hants. Running: Dec 16, 17, 22-24. Isle of Wight Steam Railway Standard gauge, five miles.…