Table of contents for Issue 444 in Steam Railway

The birthplace of many of the LNER’s best known and regarded locomotives, Doncaster Plant Works’ New Erecting Shop, is now a listed building thanks to the efforts of one 72-year-old enthusiast. English Heritage has awarded the workshop Grade II-listed status for its historic and architectural interest, as well as its proximity to the listed original Plant Works building of 1851 and main engine shop of 1853. The latter contains the works’ original erecting shop. Barry Lifsey, of Finningley, entered the rail industry in 1958 and spent almost three decades working at the site on Hexthorpe Road before redundancy from his job as an industrial engineer in 1987. Two of his grandfathers, his father, son, an uncle and an aunt also worked at the Plant. Over 18 months, Mr Lifsey prepared…

Not content to rest on its laurels after the debut of Royal Scot, the Severn Valley Railway has secured another of the biggest names in the steam world after its autumn gala, with Peppercorn ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado booked to spend the whole of October on the line. Now setting out on its second stint of service following the completion of its overhaul at Darlington in June, the new-build LNER-design ‘Pacific’ will be at the ‘Valley’ from October 6-27. It is to be rostered for public service trains on October 10/11,17/18 and 24/25, together with a private dining train on October 16 and footplate experience courses on October 22/23. Photographic charters are also confirmed (see pages 18/19). There will be at least two other opportunities to see the early British…

Snibston Discovery Museum – the Leicestershire science and industry centre with operating railway – closed its doors for the last time on July 31 after a judicial review failed to overturn Leicestershire County Council’s cost-saving decision. During its final week the Coalville attraction, which opened in 1992, attracted around 1,000 visitors a day; more than 800 turning out on the last one. Hundreds more gathered outside to protest against the move, which LCC claims will save £900,000 a year. Built on the site of the former Snibston Colliery, the museum became well-known to enthusiasts thanks to its restored ¾-mile colliery railway. This was set against a backdrop of two sets of restored and listed colliery headgear, and became popular for photo charters until the use of steam ended following complaints…

A pioneering scheme to combine 19th-century signalling with the latest technology is poised to go live on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway this autumn - using the Internet to increase the flexibility of its intensive steam workings. Extension of Electric Token Block (ETB) working - already in force between Grosmont and Goathland - southwards from Goathland to Levisham and New Bridge near Pickering has long been the aim of the NYMR. These lengthy single-line sections are currently controlled by Staff & Tablet working, but the obstacle to installing ETB has always been the high cost of installing the 15 miles of electric cable that would be required. Instead, the ‘Moors’ has become the location for a pilot scheme by Siemens (formerly Westinghouse) to trial a new system in the UK…

A major infrastructure upgrade for the Esk Valley line will permit the North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s steam workings to be accommodated alongside increased passenger services - all thanks to what is described as the ‘biggest potash mine in the UK’. North Yorkshire Moors National Park’s Planning Authority granted permission on June 30 for Sirius Minerals to go ahead with the development near Sneaton. The first new potash mine to be built in Britain for 40 years, it will be sunk to a depth of almost 5,000ft before tunnelling out under the North Sea. It is envisaged that it will operate for up to five decades and create 50 new jobs. Ironically, unfulfilled expectations of such activity in the 1960s led to the track on part of the Whitby-Scarborough route over…

Irish main line steam fans face a difficult choice this summer - whether to head south to travel behind recently restored LMS-NCC ‘WT’ 2-6-4T No. 4 - or go north to cover GNR(I) ‘V’ class No. 85 Merlin. It is the first time since 2011 that the society has fielded two main line express locomotives at the same time, with one based in Dublin and the other at Whitehead. But to the anguish of enthusiasts, there has been a clash of dates with simultaneous operations north and south on July 26, August 9 and 23. No. 85 was handling the ‘Portrush Flyer’ on all three Sundays, while No. 4 was booked to cover trips from Dublin to Dundalk on August 9 and Kilkenny on August 23. The Derby-built ‘Jeep’, which…

The withdrawal of Stanier 4-6-2 No. 6201 Princess Elizabeth from the planned line-up will not prevent Barrow Hill Roundhouse from staging what is believed to be the biggest gathering of LMS steam in preservation history at its 50th anniversary gala. Shedmaster Mervyn Allcock confirmed that the ‘Princess’ will not be able to attend the event on September 25-27 - but with 10 engines confirmed so far, a further three are in the pipeline. In operation will be Severn Valley-based Ivatt ‘Flying Pig’ 2-6-0 No. 43106 (representing a class on the depot’s allocation when it closed to steam five decades ago in October 1965), ‘Black Fives’ Nos. 45305 and 45337, ‘Jinty’ No. 47406 and ‘8F’ No. 8274, while an LMS ‘Pacific’ presence is still assured by No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland.…

Something sooty was afoot at Bridgnorth at the end of July when the 82045 Steam Locomotive Trust completed pattern-making for its ‘Standard 3MT’ chimney. The vacuum ejector exhaust ring pattern was also finished and the trust hopes to have both cast soon. Project engineer Tony Massau told Steam Railway: “The smokebox wrapper and front ring have been drilled in preparation for riveting together. The distance piece for the centre of the smokebox door has been machined and once further components arrive, such as the hinges and inner liner etc., work on the door can continue.” Steel work for the cab structure is now at the project’s base at Bridgnorth in flat pack kit form. The roof still needs to be shaped to the correct profile, which will be carried out…

Steam could be part of the opening ceremonies for a new railway in Poland in September - provided the overhaul of ‘Mikado’ No. Pt47.65 is finished in time. The Wolsztyn 2-8-2 has been undergoing a protracted rebuild at Chabowka, in the south of the country. The new inland railway between Gdansk and Gdynia is intended to complement the existing line between the neighbouring cities along the Baltic Sea coast; it is to open on September 1 and normal services are to be worked by diesel railcar. Reactivation of No. Pt47.65 should also help in boosting Wolsztyn’s steam fleet, from the current single engine to a planned trio of engines, in time for the intended revival of regular steam services from the town from January 1 (SR443). The world’s last regular…

Coinciding with the change in fortunes at Wolsztyn, PKP Cargo’s weekend steam operation over part of the Chabowka-Nowy Sacz line in southern Poland has also seen positive developments, writes Andrew Rapacz. The summer service, which runs at weekends from June 27 to August 30 (excepting August 22/23 due to the yearly Parowojazda event) has been extended by 8km over a steeply graded and scenic portion of the route to Kasina Wielka. This station, which at an altitude of 580m is the highest on the former Galician Transversal line and appeared in the Steven Spielberg film Schindler’s List, serves a chairlift up the 1,008m peak of Snieznicza. The timetable has been altered to allow passengers to travel to the top during a layover of 1 hour and 20 minutes. The development…

Fears that the ‘Hunslet 150’ event further north could have a negative effect on attendances at the Foxfield Railway’s annual summer gala ultimately proved unfounded although, ironically, it was a Leeds-built locomotive that helped to attract a healthy crowd over the same weekend. This time it was a product from the opposite side of Jack Lane - 1938-built Hudswell, Clarke 0-6-0ST Wissington - which was the centre of attention. The one-time British Sugar locomotive (W/No. 1700) had been on the Foxfield’s radar ever since its restoration by the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway Society in 2012, and the ‘Crocks & Curios’ event made for the perfect showcase for this East Anglian steam icon. With six engines in steam, banking and double-heading freight trains into and out of Foxfield Colliery,…

The South Tynedale Railway has received two of the six new bogie carriages ordered from its Romanian contractor. They are being adapted from Class 100 steel-bodied standard gauge tramcars that ran on the Badnerbahn, Vienna. The old doors and driving compartments have been removed, giving them open balconies similar to those on the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s Hungarian stock. The STR order is for two three-carriage sets, one in maroon, the other green. Each will have an enclosed multi-purpose coach with passenger (20 seats)/bike/guard area and wheelchair access, an enclosed passenger car (34) and a semi-open tourist vehicle (34). The STR’s newly-restored 1908-built Thomas Green 0-6-2ST Barber has been in regular service since May, replacing Henschel 0-4-0WTT Thomas Edmondson. Barber’s restoration, which took 2½ years, cost £194,680 against a…

Two locomotives that have not steamed for 65 years will haul trains during the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s ‘forgotten engines’ weekend on September 26/27. Hunslet 0-4-0ST Margaret and Kerr, Stuart 0-4-0T Diana, both the subject of restoration in the railway’s new workshop, will be joined by Julian Birley’s Hunslet 0-4-0ST Winifred, which returned to steam at the Bala Lake Railway in April, and Graham Lee’s Statfold Barn Railway-based Hunslet 0-4-0ST Sybil Mary which was revived in 2013. Winifred will be making one of its last appearances with its original paintwork, and the engines will work shuttles between Aberystwyth and Capel Bangor, including double-heading, while the normal timetabled service will run to Devil’s Bridge with both the VoR’s operational 2-6-2Ts. There will be photo opportunities with the three Hunslets, and guided…

It’s less than three years since the Epping Ongar Railway arrived on the scene in a blaze of publicity as the closest preserved line to London, and already it’s getting even closer. Were it not for the curvature of the track and the lineside vegetation, steam locomotives at the end of their six-mile journey from Ongar would now be visible from the bridge immediately to the north of Epping station - the terminus of the Central Line since 1994, when the Ongar branch became a rare casualty on the London Underground network. This is a preservation gap that has narrowed rapidly since the EOR first reopened between Ongar and Coopersale on May 24 2012; just two months later, steam ventured to within half a mile of the LU terminus, and…

Who would have thought that a world-leading attraction could evolve from such humble beginnings? Certainly not the handful of who gathered one day in the Cooper’s Arms in Kidderminster to discuss of saving part of the Severn Valley Railway. A multimillion business was not exactly at the front of their minds. That was back in 1965. Today, the Cooper’s Arms is closed and neglected, not unlike the scene that greeted the pioneering preservationists at Bridgnorth. But, Keith Beddoes and his new friends, who had answered his call to arms in a local newspaper advertisement, had a vision. That was to create a base for a possible preserved railway so that steam locomotives and carriages could be housed there. Several possibilities were considered, but it was decided that Bridgnorth would make…

It’s not just the North East’s pioneering railway that’s aspiring for recognition from UNESCO in the next few years. Over in Wales, another hotbed of early British rail developments, the Talyllyn Railway, announced on July 3 that it is to support a forthcoming World Heritage application by the country’s slate industry. The announcement was made at the railway’s 150th anniversary ceremony, and has an advantage over the Stockton & Darlington Railway because the slate industry application - led by Gwynedd Council - has already been shortlisted as one of the UK’s possible sites for future World Heritage status. Several major claims to importance make the Talyllyn stand out. It is the only example of a railway built for the transportation of slate, and has operated continuously since opening in 1865.…

If there was ever any doubt as to the romance of the Waverley Route, that seemed to be dispelled after bookings for ‘A4’ No. 60009 Union of South Africa’s steam trips opened in late July. In fact, says Marcus Robertson, from ScotRail’s booking agent Steam Dreams, up to eight telephone lines were busy at once as people rushed to gain a place on Britain’s brand new main line steam railway. Adult standard tickets cost £40. It really isn’t long now until the first trains run. Shortly after normal services start, and the day after the line is graced by a Royal presence (see News), September 10 will see the first public steam specials from Edinburgh’s wonderful Waverley station to the rather more basic and brand new Tweedbank terminus on today’s…

Here’s a bit of good news, at a time of some general jitters about passenger numbers: this year’s ‘Shakespeare Express’ trains are “virtually full”. So says Tyseley’s Ben Mason: “If you want lunch on the ‘Shakespeares’ you’re going to have to wait until 2016. The first ‘Shakespeare’ was the best opener ‘we’ve had, and the other trains are booking extremely well.” So… why are these Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon trains doing such good business this time out? “The ‘Shakespeare’ doesn’t rely heavily on the enthusiast/ knowledgeable railway person market. We’re not about to restore Defi ant with the money we make, but it’s all good.” Tied to the marketing effects, I’d suggest, is the ‘Shakespeares’ pricing. A pre-booked adult return from Birmingham is £20 (£25 on the day), while if you’re…

This practice of swapping identities was performed again by the LMS, when Stanier ‘Pacific’ No. 6229 Duchess of Hamilton was sent on a US tour in 1939; it was altered to No. 6220 Coronation to cross the Atlantic. The pair returned to their original status when the engine returned home. The Western region found itself in a tight spot in February 1952 when its ‘Castle’ 4-6-0 No. 4082 Windsor Castle was unavailable for the funeral of King George VI. Sister No. 7013 Bristol Castle, less than four years old at the time, took its place, and remained in service until early 1965.…

‘West Country’ No. 34092 Wells could be set to make an earlier-than-expected return to the main line metals where it became a celebrity in the 1980s - because it is currently unable to return to its Keighley & Worth Valley Railway base by road. A ban on abnormal loads imposed on a bridge just outside Ingrow West station by Bradford Metropolitan District Council precludes total vehicle weights over 44 tons - effectively ruling out all deliveries of locomotives and stock to the KWVR’s loading point. The restriction was triggered by an incident during the Bulleid ‘Pacific’s movement to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s steam gala in late May, when - as detailed in SR442 - the locomotive was accidentally loaded with its boiler still full of water, causing the trailer to…

SEPTEMBER 30742 CHARTERS Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, No. 3850 ‘weathered’ with goods train. £62. COMPO CLUB Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway, No. 4612 (weathered) and No. 5637 with 2/3 Mk 1s and box van, goods and ballast trains plus RSH ‘Mech Navvies’. £60 per day, £110 for both days. RURAL URBAN STEAM SCENES Barrow Hill Roundhouse, night shoot with Nos. 1000, 2500, 8274, 41708, 45305, 45337, 46233 and 47406. Other locomotives TBC. £70 (can also be booked through 30742 Charters) TIMELINE EVENTS Great Central Railway, No. 45305 with maroon Mk 1s and CCT van. £65. Amberley Museum with vintage buses (am), Bagnall 2-4-0T Polar Bear and Bagnall 0-4-0ST Peter (pm). £55. OCTOBER 3P20 PARCELS GROUP Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, No. 31806 with ‘blood & custard’ Bulleid coach, Maunsell ‘Matchboard’ brake and…

Fewer children are being introduced to the delights of West Country branch line steam thanks to the so-called ‘Gove Effect’ of a ban on holidays during school term periods. New laws introduced by former education secretary Michael Gove in September 2013, imposing fines of up to £60 a day for parents who take their children out of school for breaks, have been blamed for a decline in tourism across Devon and Cornwall, estimated to have cost the industry a total of £87 million in recent months - and affecting the region’s preserved railways. At the Bodmin & Wenford Railway - the only standard gauge steam line in the largely tourism-dependent Cornwall - General Manager Chris Hart told Steam Railway that sales of child or family tickets had dropped by 20%…

The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s newly-restored Great Northern Railway (Ireland) ‘Q’ class 4-4-0 No. 131 made history on July 25 by hauling its first public trains for more than 50 years, operating at the RPSI’s Whitehead site for the annual Food & Folk Community Festival. It was the first appearance of the 1901-built locomotive since it undertook a running-in trip to Carrickfergus in February, under special licence from NIR. The express engine, which last saw service in 1963, has still to be fitted with the on-train monitoring and signalling equipment required for main line operation. At present it is running with the tender belonging to ‘S’ class 4-4-0 No. 171 Slieve Gullion, which itself is nearing the completion of an overhaul in the RPSI’s works. However, the society has…

A new museum planned for Bristol to honour the life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel has been awarded £4.78 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The SS Great Britain Trust announced the successful outcome of its application to help fund ‘Being Brunel: the national Brunel project’ on July 23. Designs have been drawn up for the museum to open on Bristol’s harbourside, close to the Brunel Institute and SS Great Britain - the wrought iron steamship developed by Brunel and launched in 1843. Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South West Nerys Watts said: “The new museum will, for the first time, allow people to get up close to the places and objects that tell Brunel’s story.” Never-before displayed artefacts from the Trust’s collection, including personal possessions and documents of the…

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Class 2 locomotive No. 567 has driven forward with the cutting of the locomotive’s main frames and other frame components. This marks a watershed for the project, the outcome of its engineering struggle to extract details from the 19th century Kitson drawings to generate accurate and verified frame drawings suitable for a modern supply chain. No. 567’s frames were cut by PP Profiles, of St Helens, Merseyside, on July 21 under the supervision of main contractor Ian Howitt. Also ready are both side plates, the buffer beam, the trailing headstock and the two doubler plates to reinforce the cylinder apertures. This gives the GCR567 Locomotive Group the components for its basic frame assembly. As this issue went to press, the parts were still being inspected…

Preserved railways in Belgium that were recently forced to close due to new safety legislation are back up and running again - but operations look likely to be restricted for some time to come. Three of the country’s five standard gauge steam lines found themselves unable to carry passengers on June 13 when the Belgian department of transport introduced regulations requiring the railways to obtain new operating licences and safety cases (SR443). Although the new laws had been announced a year previously, only the Chemin de Fer des Trois Vallées and Chemin de Fer du Bocq received temporary operating licences in time, while Stoomcentrum Maldegem, Stoomtrein Demdermonde-Puurs and Kolenspoor did not. Maldegem was finally granted permission to carry passengers again on July 17, along with the Dendermonde-Puurs line - but…

A preserved railway having to up sticks and move to a new operating base is not an uncommon story on the news pages of Steam Railway. The Colne Valley Railway’s recent troubles are a case in point, as is the Helston Railway’s relocation following the closure and sale of the Trevarno estate and gardens in late 2012. As with the compulsory purchase of the Chasewater Railway’s former Brownhills station site to make way for the M6 Toll, such moves are not made through choice but are, instead, forced upon the railways. But not Steamport in Southport, whose exhibnits are safe and well 20 miles away in Preston. As many will recall, Steamport was based in the old Lancashire & Yorkshire steam shed in the coastal resort, opening its doors in…

Remember July 24 2015. That was the day key steam players agreed to put virtually every aspect of steam operation under the microscope, under the watchful eye of the Office of Rail and Road. The ORR’s Deputy Chief Inspector David Keay left little doubt after his organisation’s ‘steam summit’ as to just how seriously Britain’s inspectorate is treating this process. He warned that a “number of safety incidents” have raised “questions about the future of steam operations”. The meeting comes shortly after the regulator formally accepted that West Coast Railway Company had met the conditions laid out in an improvement notice served on the Carnforth organisation after Bulleid ‘Battle of Britain’ 4-6-2 No. 34067 Tangmere passed a signal at danger on the Great Western Main Line in March. The notice…

Tornado north of the Border One of the most enlightened features of the new franchise awarded to Abellio Scotrail to operate services in Scotland was its decision to plan for steam-hauled trains to stimulate tourism. It admits that the scale of the positive reaction from the public has been a surprise, as it eclipsed its own plans for new trains! So far, a series of four-day excursions has been run, all using ‘A1’ Pacific Tornado, with coaching stock provided by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society (SRPS) and operated by DB Schenker. These covered the Highland Main Line to Inverness, the Far North line up to Brora (for Dunrobin Castle) and a circuit from Carlisle to the Glasgow outskirts, out via Beattock and back via the Clyde Coast and the Glasgow…

It is said that one of the hallmarks of a competent engineer is an ability to improvise and adapt when the occasion demands. He who can come up with smart solutions when the chips are really down can be worth his weight in gold to the railway fortunate enough to have call on his ingenuity. Step forward Mike Pearce, for the last 20 years mechanical foreman at the Llangollen Railway. Mike’s far too modest a chap to make these sort of claims for himself - so let me make them for him. He’s versatile, adaptable and resolute - and absolutely the kind of talent you’d want on your team in a time of crisis. A few winters ago, when Llangollen’s water supply was frozen solid, he fired up a diesel…

When Great Western steam went into serious decline in 1965 - 50 years ago - there were few better places than Severnside to witness the changes first-hand. Gloucester became something of a hub for the many and varied steam-worked duties, central as it was to remaining operational Western Region sheds at Worcester to the north, Oxford and Banbury to the east, Severn Tunnel Junction and Newport to the west and Bristol Bath Road to the south, all of them providing a variety of motive power. Locomotives from London Midland depots also contributed to the variety. Engines were still working into South Wales and back from the Midlands with numerous freights from the Bristol area, in addition to workings from Oxford. Main line passenger steam workings by then were few and…

David Pearson (SR443) labels members of the Master Neverers Association (MNA) as criminals for their activities towards the end of BR steam in the 1960s. It’s a most peculiar notion. To most of us, a criminal is usually a convicted robber, thief or extortionist, at the extreme of anti-social activities. It is a bit of a stretch to include a set of lads pursuing their hobby of railway photography, albeit rather enthusiastically in some cases. I am the same age as the MNA members, and although I had no connection with the group, do recall their activities. It was a different age - I can’t recall any photographer being convicted of trespass or thieving in that time. David Pearson mentions Paul Riley’s untimely death; he seems to suggest falling off…

It was a requirement for engines purchased from BR for preservation in the early 1960s not to carry the BR crest, and this is Stroudley ‘A1X’ 0-6-0T No. 32636 undergoing defacement following arrival at the Bluebell Railway. There is no date with the picture, although the slide was processed in June 1964 - the RCTS history of the class states that the engine was sold on May 13 1964, but is that the date it arrived on the line? The ‘Terrier’ arrived in steam from Brighton.…

Our ‘Glorious Years’ feature marking 60 years of the Crostiboilered ‘9F’ 2-10-0s (SR441) generated quite a response from readers contacting us to fill in some of the historical gaps. Former Bedford spotter and South African steam locomotive driver Peter Odell identified the location of the picture on page 89, taken from a Crosti’s footplate, as the approach to Ouse Bridge signalbox on the Up fast line passing Bedford shed: “The coaling stage is just visible and the third track on the right is the shed ‘throat’. “Just beyond the ‘box, the slow lines that served the station rejoin from the left to form quadruple tracks into St Pancras. About half a mile further on the next ‘box is Kempston Road Junction, where no doubt I was waiting with ‘Abc’ in…

The Queen is to ride with steam over part of the Waverley Route, more than 45 years after it closed. Union of South Africa is to have the honour of conveying the monarch and Prince Philip as well as Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon over the Borders Railway on September 9, the day before the first public specials. Starting at Edinburgh Waverley, the train will run to the new terminus at Tweedbank, with a stop-off at Newtongrange on the way; it may make world headlines because September 9 also marks the date that The Queen becomes Britain’s longest serving monarch. “We are thrilled that Her Majesty The Queen will open the new Borders Railway on such a special day for the Royal Family,” ScotRail Alliance Managing Director Phil Verster said.…

LMS No. 46100 Royal Scot is poised to make its long-awaited return at the Severn Valley Railway’s autumn steam gala on September 17-20 - and its first main line run since 1962 could follow immediately afterwards. The Fowler-designed (and Stanier-rebuilt) ‘7P’ 4-6-0 is well within sight of completion at LNWR Heritage’s Crewe works, with its valves being set during late July. Once painting is completed it is due to move across to the former Crewe Diesel Depot - the new headquarters of LNWRH and Jeremy Hosking’s Royal Scot Locomotive & General Trust which uses the ‘Icons of Steam’ label - for initial tests. Trustee Peter Greenwood told Steam Railway that the ‘Royal Scot’ is expected to arrive at the ‘Valley’ by road during the week commencing September 7, leaving almost…

A CONTROVERSIAL proposal that could have ended UK rail photographers’ freedom to reproduce photographs of landmarks without advance permission from the rights-holder has been defeated by a vote in the European Parliament. Yet the successful challenge on July 9 to an attempt by some MEPs to remove ‘freedom of panorama’ from the EU member states that have it (SR443) only maintains the status quo across Europe. Countries such as France and Italy will continue to impose restrictions on the reproduction of photographs of public buildings. At present, the United Kingdom and popular steam destinations such as Germany and Poland enshrine in law the unrestricted right for photographers to publish and earn money from their images of public buildings and landmarks without prior consent from the copyright holder. This is dubbed…

After courting controversy with its initial proposals for the new Broadway station building, the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway has revealed how the structure will appear as Great Western-like as possible when it starts to take shape later this year. The ‘GlosWarks’ found itself on the receiving end of a barrage of criticism for not following GWR practice, modern building and fire regulations being cited as the reason for the steel-framed structure and full-height frontal ‘curtain wall’. However, the revised plans, exclusively published by Steam Railway this month, show how a more appropriate-looking canopy, similar to the genuine article at Toddington, is to shelter passengers arriving at the GWSR’s new northern terminus when the first trains arrive in 2018. The roof trusses are to be made by Toddington’s locomotive department and will…

A runaway goods wagon collided with a steam locomotive on static display at Union Station in Utica, New York State, on July 21. No injuries were reported from the impact, which forced preserved New York Central 0-6-0 No. 6721 to smash into the station near to a pedestrian bridge. Had the locomotive not been standing in the path of the wagon, people waiting on the other side of the platform would have been hit by the runaway. The wagon, carrying plastic pellets, travelled about 2.5 miles and is estimated to have reached a speed of 40mph by the time it collided with No. 6721. Investigations into the crash by Utica Police Department and the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway are ongoing. A 13-year-old boy, who was playing on the…

A handful of North Wales enthusiasts have been allowed privileged access to the inside of Bangor’s surviving steam to mark the 50th anniversary of its closure. The LMS building, which remains largely intact and even has rails still in situ, is now occupied by steel suppliers Barclay and Mathieson, who allowed two local railway societies inside the building on the June 12 anniversary date. The Llandudno & Conwy Valley Railway Society had six members present as did the Bangor/Anglesey-based North Wales Railway Circle (www.northwalesrailwaycircle.co.uk). Some had brought numberplates and other artefacts from locomotives that were once housed at Bangor, including BR ‘2MT’ 2-6-0 No. 78058 and Stanier 2-6-4T No. 42489, while others had photographs to recall the shed in its heyday, when it was a major employer, and home to…

Arrangements are now ready to return No. 1014’s frame to Didcot on August 12/13 to be joined on the locomotive works’ No. 4 road by the tender underframe, superstructure, wheels and cab. The next step for County of Glamorgan is to start checks of all the parts needed to re-wheel it. Project Manager Mike Cooper said: “We are naturally cautious about committing to a date for this major milestone, but we hope it will be by the end of 2015.” Although work on the tender underframe has been going well while the frames were at Tyseley, there was a slight predicament with the rear dragbox. Without prior experience or instructions, the project’s engineers didn’t realise until the dragbox was in place that it wasn’t possible to drill some of the…

The name of the Hunslet Engine Company is known in railway circles throughout the world, but all eyes were on the company’s home city of Leeds on July 18/19, as the Middleton Railway marked 150 years since the first locomotive rolled out of the famous Jack Lane works. The Middleton’s events team spent a year planning ‘Hunslet 150’, which focused events not only on the MR’s own line, but also on the site of the former Hunslet factory, thanks to global energy specialist Schneider Electric, which now occupies the site. Sponsoring the event, it allowed the laying of some 2ft gauge track behind the original works building. Five visiting steam locomotives were rostered over the weekend on the two sites, along with Hunsletbuilt diesels and rolling stock, as well as…

The euphoria justifiably surrounding next month’s reopening of 30 miles of the North British Railway’s Waverley Route from Edinburgh to Tweedbank (see news pages) is a far cry from the dark days of the 1960s when staff morale had been driven into the ground by fear of mass job losses imposed by disinterested governments. The Conservatives fashioned the axe, and Labour wielded it. Cast-off locomotives built for some of the LNER’s top link expresses shared parcels and mixed goods services with survivors of humbler origin, and the sight of them in appalling external condition was only punctuated by the occasional spotless engine bulled up for a farewell special. Very little is known about George Kinghorn, whose images are published here. He is an almost unknown local photographer who took the…

In a commemorative supplement of The Locomotive Magazine, dated June 30 1925, only a few months before the Stockton & Darlington Railway’s centenary, John Dixon - the railway’s Chief Civil Engineer from 1842 to 1865 - was quoted as saying: “Shildon, if not the birthplace of the locomotive, has been its nursery.” It was pleasing, then, to witness the strong commitment made almost 90 years later to that area’s vital role in the international development of rail transport at Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon on June 17. This comes at a time when British appreciation of northern England’s lasting contribution to railway history stands to be diminished by millions of pounds, earmarked to fund a new rail museum more conveniently within reach of the south east. As the…

‘Have you heard…?’ Words uttered on platforms across the country ever since boys started underlining numbers, long muttered between middle-aged blokes through sandwiches at linesides, and - quite often - excitedly conveyed down the telephone to writers on magazines such as this. So… have you heard that Gresley 4-4-0 No. 62712 Morayshire is to be returned to the main line for the first time since the 1980s, specifically to haul ScotRail’s steam specials? No? Well, to be honest, neither had I until a phone call just the other day. Still… it’s an exciting prospect, huh? It was back in the 1980s that the final surviving ‘D49’ - an engine that’s owned by the National Museums of Scotland but long in the care of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society - last…

Well, it was GW Railwayana Auctions, so you might expect items from the GWR would do well at one of their sales - and you’d be right! Best-selling nameplate of the day was from Lydford Castle at £15,000, but then you are really getting two for the price of one with this particular plate. It was originally fitted to ‘Castle’ No. 5055, but when that locomotive became Earl of Eldon, the nameplate went to No. 7006. This fact is borne out by the stamping on the rear of this plate, with further provenance of the accompanying original BR paperwork. Its first appearance at auction added further appeal. The second best-selling nameplate of the day was another ‘Castle’ with an equally interesting history. Earl of Plymouth was originally carried by ‘Dukedog’…

The return to the main line of LMS ‘7P’ 4-6-0 No. 46100 Royal Scot is only a few weeks away, but it is now half a century since the real class pioneer went to the scrapyard unnoticed. It has long been a standard practice during locomotive overhauls to use parts from other engines, and it is the norm for only the frames to be the consistent component of an engine throughout its life. The identity swap for Glasgow-built Royal Scot was, however, complete and permanent, because the ‘real engine’ was unfit, after six years in service, for a high-profile tour around the United States and Canada. The solution was to swap the plates with those of No. 6152 The King’s Dragoon Guardsman, a Derby product that was in better mechanical…

I have a passion for the past - particularly steam - but I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe it was the prospect of being covered head to toe in oil and coal dust - the kind of dirt every child seems to gravitate towards. Or maybe it was the idea of forging a link to a world gone by, one that I had never witnessed. Perhaps both of these reasons play a considerable part. And now steam is not only my hobby and passion, but also my job. This can never be an account of personal experiences in the ’50s and ’60s or even how I dodged station staff to catch a glimpse of a rare locomotive. Instead, this brief insight into the mind of a youngster involved in railways…

Peppercorn ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado is to make a very special main line trip for the 25th anniversary of its creators this year - a commemorative East Coast Main Line run that offers you the exclusive chance to see under-construction ‘P2’ 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales. Dubbed the ‘Silver Jubilee Talisman’ in homage to both the famous King’s Cross-Newcastle streamliner as well as the later express that has been commemorated by No. 60163’s builder before, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s train will run on Saturday, September 26. It will run from King’s Cross to Darlington - where there’s the opportunity to alight and see Prince of Wales in the same Hopetown Lane workshops where Tornado was created - and visit the city of Newcastle. As it’s in conjunction with…