Table of contents for Issue 221 in Heritage Railway

A LINESIDE photographer who saw red when a nine-year-old boy stood between him and a clear view of Flying Scotsman has been cautioned by police. The boy, wearing a bright red pullover, appeared at the nature reserve in Stourport Road, Bewdley, just as the green A3 was due to go past, during its recent record-breaking visit to the Severn Valley Railway, which attracted 45,000 people over six days. It was understood that several photographers were at the location at the time. Witnesses said that after arguing with the boy, the photographer attempted to move him. It was unclear as to whether physical contact was made, but it was understood that the boy immediately went home and told his parents, who called police. A police spokesman said:“West Mercia Police received reports…

AS part of celebrations marking its 50th anniversary, the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group is to stage its own gala on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on October 29/30. The showpiece event will feature all of NELPG’s currently steamable locomotives, K1 2-6-0 No. 62005, Q6 0-8-0 No. 63395, and J72 0-6-0T No. 69023, along with others where its members are heavily involved, B1 4-6-0 No. 61264 and BR Standard 4MT 2-6-0 No. 76084. There will be shuttle services and demonstration freights. The J72 is expected to work a short goods train between Grosmont and Goathland on the Saturday morning, followed by a trip from Grosmont to Pickering and back double-headed with the Q6. On the Sunday it will work the Great Northern saloon with guests between Grosmont and Pickering and…

TWO of the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s trademark 2-6-2Ts are to take centre stage at this year’s Warley National Model Railway Exhibition. Appearing at the November show will be No. 1213 Prince of Wales alongside under-restoration No. 7 Owain Glyndwr making their first appearance out of Wales for 30 years. No. 7 was the last steam locomotive to be operated by British Rail. The event will be held at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham on November 26-27. The restoration of No. 7 is progressing with grant aid from the Coastal Communities Fund.…

THE Railway Preservation of Ireland is promoting a one-off, not to be repeated, traditional railtour to mark the end of semaphore signalling at Castlerock at the end of October. The society, in conjunction with the national operator NIR, is offering members of the public a final opportunity to ride on a train from Belfast which terminates at Castlerock. Departing Sunday, October 30 behind 4-4-0 No. 85 Merlin, the train heads for Castlerock where a layover of an hour is planned to let the 1.33pm ex-Londonderry service to pass through the station. Returning to Coleraine, passengers will be allowed to leave the train while No. 85 is turned and serviced prior to the homeward trip back to Belfast. Following the trip, the line is to be temporarily closed from November 2,…

IN A year when one referendum has already made history, another is about to preserve it. As reported in our last issue, a ground-breaking referendum is to be held in Totnes to give local people the chance to decide the future of a site which contains one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s pumping stations for his atmospheric South Devon Railway. Under the banner of Atmos Totnes, the local community has drawn up plans to redevelop an eight-acre disused dairy alongside the South West main line including the pumping station. Facilitated by Totnes Community Development Society, the Atmos Totnes plans have recently been progressing through a new planning process – towards a Community Right to Build Order, which includes a mixture of affordable housing, enterprise space for local business and community facilities.…

THE complete fleet of 24 shunters operated by DB Cargo (23 Class 08s and one Class 09/1 were offered for sale with a closing date of October 5 for expressions of interest. The company did not indicate whether this move is related to possible outsourcing of its shunter requirements or its dispensation of shunting locomotives as this work is transferred to main line locomotives. THE D05 Preservation Group, owner of Class 47/8 No. 47828 based on the Dartmoor Railway, has confirmed its purchase of Class 46 No. 46010/D148. A contractor has been engaged to restore the locomotive on-site at Ruddington on the Great Cedntral Railway (Nottingham) including the retention of its corporate blue livery. It is hoped that the locomotive will return to traffic in mid-2017. A SCHEME to improve…

THE Rail Accident Investigation Branch has decided not to hold an inquiry into the September 10 crash when a Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway train with 50 passengers was in collision with a tractor on an ungated farm crossing. As reported in our last issue, steam driver Zak Clarke was hailed a hero after Davey Paxman Pacific No. 1 Green Goddess was overturned and the leading coach of its 13 carriage train derailed. He jumped out of the cab seconds before the impact with the tractor’s front counterbalance and then picked himself up and went to help passengers out of the coaches. A RAIB spokesman said:“We have undertaken a preliminary examination into the circumstances surrounding this accident. “Having assessed the evidence, we have decided not to conduct a full investigation,…

A COMMEMORATIVE wheelbarrow and spade which were made for the cutting of the first sod of the Llanfyllin Railway in 1861 has been sold at auction for £4100. The items were commissioned by railway engineer, Thomas Savin, who in 1857, formed a partnership to build the Vale of Clwyd Railway and became principal contractor for many of the lines that became the Cambrian Railways. He was declared bankrupt in 1866. The sale price of the two items at the auction held by Halls at Shrewsbury was £1100 more than the minimum guide price of £3000. Halls fine art director, Jeremy Lamond, said: “Railway heritage items with this level of provenance always attract great interest from collectors and we were delighted with the price it achieved at auction.”…

HISTORIC Wolverton Works – once the beating heart of Britain’s first railway town and also Britain’s oldest surviving standard gauge railway workshops – is all but doomed. Works owner, property developer St Modwen, has moved two stages nearer to obtaining legal powers to demolish the remaining railway workshops, dating from 1865. St Modwen received planning consent to build a discount supermarket on a vacant plot of land next to Tesco in September after lodging a revised outline planning application to demolish 99% of the works. The firm’s revised outline plans suggest that just five workshop façades will be retained with a traverser, in a nod to history - with houses built between the façades. St Modwen proposes to retain the two lifting shop ends, both wheel and axle shop ends,…

A STEAM enthusiast turned arsonist has been jailed for 14 years after setting fire to several heritage sites and being branded by a judge as “one of the most dangerous members of the community”. In passing sentence on October 10, County Court Judge John Smallwood said that Archer’s offending was “extraordinary”and that he knew the potential harm he could cause. “The offending is extremely serious and almost beyond comprehension,”the judge added. Nicholas Archer, 28, was a member of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority (CFA), a volunteer- and community- based fire and emergency services organisation, and worked for the Australian state’s Metro rail network. Archer began his catalogue of crime on November 24, 2009 when he set fire to a warehouse at the Newport Steam Rail Club. It was claimed he was…

TO many collectors, and indeed to railway enthusiasts generally, Nigel Gresley was one of the greatest steam locomotive designers of all time. Others will disagree, but whatever one’s opinion, his influence will be evident at GW Railwayana’s November 19 sale, when nameplates from two of his designs will be at the forefront of bidding, headed by Guillemot from A4 No. 60020, built at Doncaster in January 1938 and withdrawn from Gateshead (52A), where it had been a long-time resident, in March 1964. Accompanying the A4 will be Minoru, carried by A3 No. 60062 and named after the King Edward VII-owned winner of the 1909 Derby and 2000 Guineas. This Pacific gave main line service for nearly four decades, having been built at Doncaster in May 1925 and withdrawn from New…

THE enduring appeal of Gresley’s A4s was emphasised at Great Northern’s October 1 sale at Poynton, when Sir Ronald Matthews from the numerical leader of the class, No. 60001, went for £16,000. Named after the chairman of the LNER – hence no doubt the reason for it being ‘No. 1’ – the Pacific emerged from Doncaster in April 1938 as Garganey, but was renamed 11 months later. This realisation was streets ahead of the next highest price, £8500 for Sir Pelleas from SR‘Scotch Arthur’ No. 30778, which in turn headed Albert Hall (GWR No. 4983–£7100) and William Henton Carver from Thompson B1 No. 61215 (£5000). A final BR nameplate – well, a final name, if not plate – was Ellen Douglas, carried by LNER D11 class No. 62688, which went…

WITH A4 Pacific No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley currently under overhaul, sister No. 4464 Bittern yet to be started and No. 60009 Union of South Africa’s ticket set to expire in two years’ time, the rail scene could be‘Streak’-less by 2018... or maybe not. Talking to Gresley’s Tod Slaughter, its appears that No. 60007’s overhaul is running to schedule, and although tenders have been received a decision has yet to made as to which boilersmith will be awarded the contract, depending on timescales involved. As reported last month, Gresley’s driving set is in line awaiting turning at the South Devon Railway’s boiler shop, while volunteers are busy working on the bottom end at York. With regards to Bittern, it was always planned that the A4’s overhaul would not be started…

B1 No. 61306 Mayflower is still in the throes of its extended overhaul. It was a highly frustrated owner, David Buck, who revealed that although progressing well, essential and extensive work to the boiler was contributing to the delay in returning the 4-6-0 into a complete engine at Carnforth, where the bottom end is virtually ready to receive the boiler when it is delivered from the specialists. Saying that the situation“was putting pressure on everyone involved”, David added that he was not prepared to add to the pressure by planning to make a main line return before Christmas. “The engine might well ready to run by then but I’m looking more to early spring before thinking of test runs.” With that in mind, he and Steam Dreams’supremo Marcus Robertson have…

➜ Romney crash: why no investigation? I AM deeply concerned at the outcome of the latest accident on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. It seems that the Rail Accident Investigation Board is not sufficiently concerned to instigate a full enquiry. In view of the lenient responses of the judiciary to the fatal accidents on the RHDR of August 3, 2003 and July 10, 2005 it would appear that the RHDR is seen as a “relatively minor concern” lacking the gravitas of a “real railway”. It is noted that any accident involving death or injury on the national network automatically invokes a full enquiry by the RAIB and results in far more severe sentences for those found culpable. Conversely, the responsibilities of the operators of all railways are equally onerous…

LMS Princess Coronation Pacific No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland was ruled out of the last trip of the ‘Royal Duchy’ season – after becoming derailed at the Midland Railway-Butterley the day before. Passengers who turned up for the Railway Touring Company’s trip from Bristol to Plymouth and Par on October 2 were disappointed to see a diesel locomotive at the head of the train instead – fuelling wild and inaccurate negative speculation as to why there was a no-show from the Duchess. The trip had already been rearranged from September 18 because of engineering works. The original plan was to use the Duchess between Bristol Temple Meads and Plymouth where steam was to be replaced by diesel haulage on to Par and return, with the 4-6-2 turned and serviced at…

HERITAGE RAILWAY’S www.facebook . com/heritagerailway  page has broken through the 300,000 likes barrier, reinforcing its position as the biggest railway enthusiasts Facebook page in the world. As we closed press, we passed the 303,000 mark too. Our page, which offers unparalleled free publicity for heritage railways and preservation groups, carries news and pictures from all aspects of the railway sector. If you are looking for publicity for your railway and events, feel free to post all about on our site, to reach the widest possible audience. See the videos from the latest main lines, galas and ground-breaking action, posted on a regular basis.…

AN air ambulance crew was called to the Newhaven Miniature Railway after a five-year-old boy was knocked down by a train on the 7¼in gauge line. Paramedics were called to Paradise Park in Avis Road, Newhaven at around 2.30pm on Saturday, October 8. The boy was treated at the scene before being taken by road to Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton for further treatment. A spokesman for Paradise Park said that the boy had run in front of the train after passing through safety gates. He sustained cuts to his knee and was first attended to by trained first aiders, before being taken to hospital for checks. A spokesman for South East Coast Ambulance Service said a five-year-old boy suffered injuries to his legs and abdomen but they were…

A PLANNING application to lay a 600-yard narrow gauge railway at the restored Crossness Pumping Station next to Erith Marshes at Belvedere in Kent has been lodged. The former sewage pumping station was designed by the Metropolitan Board of Works’ Chief Engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette and architect Charles Henry Driver at the eastern end of the Southern Outfall Sewer in Bexley. It was built between 1859 and 1865, as part of Bazalgette’s redevelopment of the London sewerage system and features spectacular ornamental cast ironwork, described by architectural scholar Nikolaus Pevsner as“a masterpiece of engineering – a Victorian cathedral of ironwork”. It is hoped to attract Heritage Lottery Fund grant aid to build the railway, as part of a wider scheme to restore more of the original Victorian pumping station to…

THE 12¼in gauge railway at Exbury Gardens – on which the Queen and Prince Charles have ridden – has been granted planning permission to build a quarter-mile extension so visitors can view an area not currently open to the general public. The extension at the Hampshire venue will run into an area known as North Lake and Dragonfly Pond. Planning consent has been granted by the National Park Authority after the scheme was supported by New Forest District Council.…

GREAT Western 4-6-0 No. 4936 Kinlet Hall, one of two locos owned by Johnathan Jones-Pratt – who made the headlines by recently buying another Great Western 4-6-0, No. 7027 Thornbury Castle – was on its way to its former base at Tyseley for overhaul as we closed for press. Vintage Trains’ chairman Michael Whitehouse said that the move marks another busy future for the Midlands-based works already engaged in work on GWR 4-6-0 No. 7029 Clun Castle and unique BR 8P 4-6-0 No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester to name just two main line engines currently being worked on. Following that, No. 7027, a former Birmingham Railway Museum engine, presently being put together as a kit of parts at Rowsley, is another Castle destined for Tyseley in the future.…

The dates for next year’s steam festival at the Stoomcentrum Maldegem in Belgium have been announced as Saturday and Sunday April 29-30 and May 1. Planning is at the early stages, but it is aimed to have up to seven locomotives in steam on narrow and standard gauges. Two of the narrow gauge locomotives are expcted to be guests from the UK. It is also hoped to have Canadian-built Belgian National Railways 2-8-0 No. 29.013 present and working trains, but this has not yet been confirmed.…

CHILTERN Railways supremo, Adrian Shooter, has become a vice-president of the Stephenson Locomotive Society, the oldest railway interest group in the world. Adrian has extensive knowledge of the railway industry having worked up from a management trainee with British Rail in the 1970s to his current status as chairman of three leading companies in the rail sector. Adrian’s current work is with new technology, including development of the Class 230 DMUs, and he also campaigns for better rail services in the UK through Railfuture. He has a private 2ft gauge line, the Beeches Light Railway, at his home in Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire, on which his repatriated Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Sharp Stewart B class 0-4-0ST No. 19 is based. Society chairman, Bob Bemand, said: “The bringing of Adrian’s knowledge and expertise…

A REPORT outlining safety issues and potential solutions for the “dangerous” bridge linking the Welsh Highland Railway to the Ffestiniog at Porthmadog Harbour station is set to be discussed by Gwyneed councillors. It has been claimed over several years that Britannia Bridge is dangerous for cyclists, following several of accidents when bicycle wheels became stuck in the tracks. Safety fears have been raised at meetings of Porthmadog Town Council. The Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway placed new markings along the bridge last year to help guide cyclists to follow the correct path. The Welsh Government also pledged £261,000, available from a transport scheme to lay new tracks. A new report into the bridge, commissioned by Gwynedd Council and carried out by Richard Broun Associates, has examined the possibility of widening…

CLASS14 D9523 is expected to return to service at the Nene Valley Railway in the near future following the replacement of its damaged engine. The loco had suffered engine failure at the start of the 14 at 50 gala, held at the East Lancashire Railway in July 2014, The failed engine was stripped, but close examination revealed a number of faults that were problematic to solve hence the search for a new engine. This resulted in the discovery of a complete Paxman 6YJXZ unit that had seen use as an auxiliary generator. It was installed during August, with the aim of having D9523 running at the NVR’s October 14-16 diesel gala.…

THE fondly-remembered London Underground 1938 stock, as used on the Bakerloo, Northern, Piccadilly and Central lines for half a century – and still in use on the Isle of Wight today – will be in the spotlight at a Transport Auctions of London sale on October 29. Among the items are 38 stock destination plates, while of fascinating and historical interest is a set of emergency candles carried on the 38 stock to be lit by the guard when the current failed. The stock was built by Metro-Cammell and Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Co, and survives in use on the 8½ -mile Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin line on the Isle of Wight, running as Class 483 and now, at nearly 80 years of age, the oldest passenger rolling…

Meanwhile, during Pacific Power, owner the National Railway Museum has revised upwards the full and final cost of saving Flying Scotsman for the nation and returning this iconic steam legend to the tracks. The previous figure given for the overhaul, which took several years longer than first anticipated with, as previously reported, several components having to be re-engineered, was given at £4.2 million. However, a statement from the museum said that with the final stages of the restoration revealing that more remedial work than anticipated was needed to some parts of the locomotive that had been thought fit for purpose, coupled with a tight deadline to meet the inaugural run date on February 25, this brought the final cost to £4.5 million. Museum director Paul Kirkman said: “Saving Scotsman for…

SUCH is the continued popularity of A3 Pacific No. 60103 Flying Scotsman that Steam Dreams has booked the 4-6-2 for the whole of May and the first week of June next year for double day trips, featuring lunchtime menus. This venture marks a further development of afternoon tea trips, which the tour promoter ran earlier this year, running a second local excursion ‘inside’ the main tour. That said, next year’s Scotsman’s Steam Dreams’ season begins with a four-day, three-night break in Edinburgh on May 13-16. From May 19, the lunchtime plus evening trips programme starts with a journey from Cardiff to Shrewsbury, followed by an evening tour from Newport. On May 23, the 4-6-2 heads a Severn Estuary lunchtime tour from Bristol, and then from Bristol to Minehead in the…

IN among its autumn programme and Christmas trains, Steam Dreams is running the company’s annual tribute to the fallen with an ‘Armistice Day Special’ on the 11th day of the 11th month – November 11. This year the train’s destinations in East Anglia is a reminder of the vital, successful part that Fighter Command’s 11 and 12 Group squadrons played in protecting this country against the odds in the summer of 1940. Starting out of London Victoria, the special calls at Broxbourne and Harlow Town, passengers alighting at Whittlesford for Duxford, Cambridge, Ely and Norwich. In 1940 this area of East Anglia was home to Fighter Command squadrons operating from airfields such as Duxford, Fowlmere, Coltishall, Martlesham Heath, North Weald and Hornchurch, to name a few. Norwich, in particular, was…

NETWORK Rail has said that the increase in the numbers of trains running late or cancelled is due to more and more passengers travelling on the network – figures from a recent report that do not augur well for railtour promoters. According to official figures 4.2% of trains were 30 minutes late or cancelled during September, an increase of 2.6 % at the same point as last year. Network Rail has also said that almost every train operator suffered a decline in ‘right-time’ arrivals compared to 12 months ago. This being the case, the ‘domino effect’ will affect and has affected railtours, which often lose time out on the road when service trains are running late. The worst example was suffered some years ago when a Pathfinder trip arrived at…

THE annual operation of the Rail Head Treatment Train programme which, this year, sees a reduced demand for heritage traction as Class 66s will provide much of the requirements. There will, however, be some heritage traction as Direct Rail Services’York-based diagrams still require Class 20s to operate over some of the lighter branches. Hence the move of four 20s to York at the beginning of October with a standby 20 being fettled by Harry Needle at Barrow Hill. DRS has also indicated that its Carlisle-based diagrams might use either Class 37 or 66 traction but has not confirmed which service or diagram will be affected. Colas Rail is also operating Class 56s with No. 56302 being based at Gloucester and Class 56/0 No. 56087 being based at Shrewsbury with Network…

HAD the scenic route to the Welsh coast from Ruabon remained open, the increased populations of Llangollen, Bala and Dolgellau might now have made it viable. More particularly, the contribution such a scenic line could make to tourism might now be considered sufficient reason to retain it. Sadly, consideration of future needs formed no part of the slash and burn policy that destroyed much of our once extensive rail network. Local authorities have often also been as short-sighted regarding rail links. The Llangollen Railway Society has by supreme efforts managed to recreate a portion of this lovely line and it would make huge sense to extend it back to Ruabon and link again to Network Rail. The benefit for Llangollen, particularly at Eisteddfod time seems obvious. Congestion and the lack…

SIX designs for Europe’s latest state-of-the-art national-standard railway museum have been unveiled to the public. The six designs have been submitted by architects vying for the contract for the Great Central Railway’s new £18 million museum at its Leicester North terminus, being developed in conjunction with the National Railway Museum. The designs were unveiled at a special preview at the railway’s Platform Cafe at Greenacres next to the site on October 5, at which visitors were invited to post comments on each. The shortlisted architects were BDP, Carmody Groarke, Farrells, Grimshaw, Hawkins Brown and Wilkinson Eyre. The designs ranged from the broadly traditional to the outright futuristic. Five of the six included a tuntable – essential if the GCR is to become a destination and starting point for main line…

UK Railtours’‘Magna Carta’ trip from King’s Cross to Lincoln on October 8 was diverted after police closed a railway line while investigating the death of a woman whose body was found there. The 28-year-old woman was reported to have been struck by a train near the railway footbridge south of Winsover Road level crossing in Spalding at around 8.15am that day. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her house in nearby Havelock Street was later cordoned off by Lincolnshire Police who were attempting to establish how she came to be on the line. East Midlands Trains services between Spalding and Peterborough were halted until 1.30pm, and Tornado’s tour instead went both ways via Newark-on-Trent rather than out and back via the circular route from Peterborough via Spalding and Sleaford.…

THE North Yorkshire Moors Railway has reached agreement with the Royal Scot Locomotive & General Trust for LMS 4-6-0 No. 46100 Royal Scot to pay a short but intensive working visit to the railway early in 2017, along the lines of this year’s highly successful visit by Flying Scotsman. Unlike the Flying Scotsman visit, however, these services will not replace February half term services. It is intended that any surplus income generated by these trains will be regarded as being outside the budget and will be used to reduce bank borrowings. Although it is not expected that these trains will generate the phenomenal level of interest and patronage that the Flying Scotsman trains did, it is hoped that they will give rise to a healthy profit. Relatively little work With…

STEAM enthusiast John Bryant must be the country’s most dedicated heritage railway volunteer. For the 62-year-old retired university lecturer is a regular fireman on the Bluebell and Kent & East Sussex railways despite the minor obstacle of living 3300 miles away in the Canadian capital Ottawa. Speaking to Heritage Railway during his latest volunteer turns on the KESR at the beginning of September, John, who was born in Preston but emigrated to Canada with his family at the age of seven, explained how his love of steam developed from a very early age. “My father, who was an accomplished modeller, had an interest in all things railway. Our house was full of railway books, and as one might expect most were related to the UK. The old Highland Railway was…

POLICE are hunting vandals who broke into a miniature railway and decapitated 43 garden gnomes. The gnomes were part of the Elf Village set up alongside the 7¼in gauge Echills Woods Railway at Kingsbury Water Park near Tamworth, to where the line moved in 2006 after moving from its original home at the Royal Agricultural Showground in Stoneleigh. Vandals also bent signs and damaged a plastic crocodile in the late night attack on Friday, September 16. Discarded beer cans were found at the scene. The gnomes had been collected over more than a decade. The railway’s general secretary Jeff Stevens said:“We’ve found beer bottles as well and so it looks like some idiots have got drunk and just trashed the place. They have ruined for all the children who enjoyed…

DEVELOPER Bluestone is planning to restore Pembrokeshire’s Grade II* listed Blackpool Mill at Martletwy to its Victorian splendour and create a visitor attraction with a narrow-gauge steam railway, complete with its own station, at a cost of £2.5 million. The five-floor building was operational until the Second World War and has survived with a full set of machinery. POLICE are hunting thieves who stole a concrete ornamental steam locomotive from the garden of a house in Gravel Lane, Hemel Hempstead between 6pm on Wednesday, September 21, and 4.15pm on Friday, September 23. It is believed that it would have taken two people to carry it away. Anyone with information is asked to call Hertfordshire Police on 01707 354000, quoting crime reference D1/16/6818. WORK on the overhaul of Shillingstone-based Yugoslavian-built USA…

THE long-awaited appearance of Didcot’s blue King, No. 6023 Edward II on the main line will now not happen until the spring. The Great Western Society’s Roger Orchard revealed that the 4-6-0 is reaching a stage of readiness, with the fitting of the mandatory electronic safety systems nearing completion. Prior to that the King’s rearranged blastpipe, hopefully the last, was preceded by reducing the height of the cab, whistle and chimney to meet anticipated gauging requirements. The engine has been weighed and balanced, overcoming springing problems associated with the latter. Once the fitting of TPWS apparatus is completed the 4-6-0 is virtually ready to run, but decisions have yet to be made regarding the choice of heritage railway selected for running in or, for that matter, a date for main…

IN modern parlance, it looks“distressed”. It certainly looks well past its sell-by date, and is unarguably in need of restoration. But is has a nostalgic air that has seeped into its buckling wooden planks and faded cast iron nameplates – an air that led Roger Phipps, one of the country’s leading railwayana auctioneers, to muse:“If it could speak, one can only imagine what it would say about the sights and sounds of the expresses hurtling past in the good old days of steam.” Seats, though, can’t speak, be they thrones for monarchs or a pragmatic bench for weary travellers awaiting the arrival of their train. The example that provoked Roger into his bout of nostalgia is most definitely the latter, yet no less interesting for that. It comes from the…

WITH its recent road access problems now resolved, the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway brought in two distinguished visitors from foreign parts for its autumn steam gala on October 8-10. WR 4-6-0 No. 7822 Foxcote Manor continued its tour of Yorkshire, calling in at the Worth Valley after also starring in the North Yorkshire Moors autumn gala. SR Battle of Britain Pacific No. 34053 Sir Keith Park had been requested for last year’s KWVR event but was unable to be moved at that time because of problems with low-loader access to Ingrow yard. LMS ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 No. 45212, recently overhauled at Riley & Son’s works at Bury, was repainted and after light engine test runs from Haworth to Oxenhope during the week, made its passenger-hauling debut on the Friday…

NEWLY-RESTORED Orenstein & Koppel 0-6-0WT Pedemoura was officially returned to service at the Leighton Buzzard Railway on Saturday, September 24, when Jose Galaz, Attache for Social Affairs and Transport at the Portuguese Embassy in London, unveiled its nameplate and joined many of those who have worked on its restoration for a trip down the line. The locomotive was built in Berlin in 1924 for the Pedorido coal mine in the Douro valley in Northern Portugal. Imported into the UK for preservation in the 1972, it was for many years housed at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway at Gelert’s Farm, Porthmadog, but eventually found her way to Leighton Buzzard in early 2005 where restoration was resumed. It was last in steam almost 50 years ago.…

IVATT 2-6-2T No. 41313 – bought from Barry scrapyard as a source of spares more than 40 years ago – is set to return to steam on the East Somerset Railway by the spring. No. 41313 was built at Crewe in 1952 and spent its working life across the Southern Region until withdrawal in November 1965, arriving at Barry the following February. It was bought by the Ivatt locomotive Trust in 1975 as a source of spares for its two other locomotives, Nos. 46447 and 41298, but after a change of mind it was decided to restore it to full working order in its own right. The locomotives were first moved to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. The Ivatt Locomotive Trust, which comprised two school friends from the 1960s, Roy Miller…

CONSTRUCTION company Beard has been appointed to build a new museum honouring GWR engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The museum alongside Bristol’s Floating Harbour forms part of the £7.2m Being Brunel project. Appointed by the SS Great Britain Trust, Beard is working with Alec French Architects on the new two-storey building which will lie alongside the historic transatlantic steamship. Beard will construct a harbour-side building that will connect to the historic Dock Office and Brunel’s Drawing Office and a steel-frame exhibition hall. Building work is due to be completed in February 2018.…

SWINDON’S smallest railway has been extended by half a mile. The 5in/7¼in dual-gauge Coate Water Railway in Coate Water Park, Marlborough Road, welcomed modellers from around 20 other clubs to the official unveiling. North Wilts Model Engineering Society chairman Ken Parker gave the green flag to send a Class 66 onto the extension. He said: :“We aim to continue improving the railway over the autumn and winter, ready for next season, with better landscaping, and finally sorting out the signalling on the extension. Further pointwork will be completed to allow a variety of routes to be taken, giving variety for passengers and drivers alike. During this time the railway will continue to operate on Sundays.”…

THE Snowdon Mountain Railway made headlines across the globe after a story about a pensioner, who was refused a seat on a train because a fat family of four allegedly refused to budge for him. Anthony Poppel, 69, from Martlesham, in Suffolk, claims he was told there was no space in the one-carriage train, despite the fact that he had booked and paid for his ticket, because the obese family refused to sit opposite each other. Mr Poppel, who was staying in Llandudno in August, was left with no time to rebook the £32.50 return journey. He said:“When I went to get in, there were people sitting down and several kids in there as well. The young guard who was there said‘sorry, it is full’. I had to go and…

A NEW 1960s version of The Railway Children – one very local to the Nene Valley Railway – is to be performed in Peterborough. In the production by Eastern Angles, Edith Nesbit’s classic novel, subject of EMI’s big-screen blockbuster in 1970, is transported to Peterborough during the last days of steam. The (Fletton) Railway Children, created by actress turned writer Julie Mayhew and directed by Poppy Rowley, is described as an “imaginiative retelling” of the original. The (Fletton) Railway Children explores loss of innocence, nostalgia and a sense of belonging in an era of great change and new, uncertain beginnings. Expect Beatlemania, teenage rebellion, sibling solidarity and heaps of train enthusiasm, all set against the backdrop of the Beeching cuts. The three children – Bobbie, Phyllis and Peter – turn…

A GRADE II-listed Georgian country house will be the centre of attention at Talisman’s November 26 auction, when nameplate Gayton Hall goes under the hammer. It was carried by Gresley B17 No. 61641, built at Darlington in May 1933, withdrawn from March (31B) in January 1960, and named after the Norfolk family seat of the Earl of Romney. Another name to feature is LNER A3 No. 60044 Melton, whose smokebox numberplate is appearing at auction for the first time. The same category includes 90770 from a class of 25 War Department 2-10-0s that evaded all but the best-travelled southern trainspotters by being shedded in Scotland, mostly at Grangemouth (65F) and Motherwell (66B), the latter being the home of No. 90770. Other highlights include a Macclesfield, Bollington & Marple Railway handlamp,…

VINTAGE Trains’plans for the next six months reveal the Birmingham-based tour promoter ending this year with three trips and starting 2017 with four new excursions. Before then, the‘Pannier Rambler IV’departs Tyseley (Warwick Road) on November 12 only. The ramble includes visits to Stratford-upon-Avon and Worcester, with a possible return to New Street via the Lickey bank to be confirmed. The trip will mark the return to the main line of 0-6-0PT No. 9466, partnered by either of Tyseley’s L94 or No. 9600. The penultimate train – the‘Lindum Christmas Fayre’– starts from Warwick Road, calling at Coleshill, Nuneaton and Leicester for Lincoln on December 3, worked by GWR 4-6-0 No. 4965 Rood Ashton Hall. Vintage Trains’ year ends on December 10 when Castle 4-6-0 No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgecumbe heads…

BULLEID West Country 4-6-2 No. 34046 Braunton – otherwise known as Lord Dowding – has returned to Southall in readiness for its next turn on November 29. It has been fitted with circular drivers after a ‘wheel locked’ incident on Sapperton bank, which produced six flats Locomotive Services Ltd spokesman Peter Greenwood confirmed the 4-6-2 will assume its correct identity in the new year. He also said that LMS 4-6-0 No. 46100 Royal Scot had suffered an injector problem while on duty in Scotland, working the Borders Railway trips. The problem was sorted out at Millerhill depot, with Mr Greenwood saying: “It was no real problem as such, however LMS exhaust steam injectors can get a bit temperamental when boiler pressure drops to 160 lbs.” In terms of the Sunday…

Fifty years ago, on October 28, 1966, enthusiasts booked a room in a pub called the Bridge Hotel, next to George Stephenson’s High Level Bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne, in the hope of forming a preservation society to save one of the last North Eastern Railway J27 0-6-0s and Q6 0-8-0s, then nearing extinction. On that night they decided on the name, the ‘North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group’, they formed a committee and made a collection. Due to most of their money being spent on Newcastle Brown Ale, however, this managed to raise just 15 shillings (75p). The enthusiasm to save a J27 had no limits, but the hard reality was that with a membership of less than 100 people, and only word of mouth able to tell the world,…

THAT was a splendid photo of the elegant HMS Hood on page 17 of your issue 220. I am so glad this photo was published alongside that of the Class 50 diesel which carries its name. After such a long time, it is good to remind younger readers what the locomotive was named in honour of. It was a matter of great regret that BR did not insert the words Warship Class after the names on the second, Class 50, series of diesels to be thus named, in contrast to the first (diesel-hydraulic) Warship Class which thus identified clearly where the engine’s name originated by using that suffix. Just one thing though. She was not a battleship but a battle cruiser. These ships were faster and less heavily armoured than…