Heritage Railway

FRESH from the paint shop at Crewe, Locomotive Services’BR 7P No. 70000 Britannia is back in traffic after an absence of three years from the main line. Dogged with vibration problems, the 4-6-2 was‘stopped’for intensive work on its wheels and axles

CHRISTMAS has deservedly come early for the 1903 NER Electric Autocar Trust, and not before time. Yet again, I cannot praise highly enough the efforts of those who rediscovered one of the world’s most historically important passenger vehicles and aga

LEGENDARY original Welsh Highland Railway flagship Russell has returned to the upper reaches of the route, 81 years on. The Hunslet 2-6-2T, which dates from 1906 and which is the only surviving locomotive from the original line, successfully complete

EUROPEAN steam railway heritage has been in mourning for one of its giants. Andras Szendrey, who died on November 3 in Budapest aged 66, was a career railwayman who developed an interest in heritage and became director of MAV Nosztalgia, the Hungaria

VINTAGE Trains Limited’s first major exercise as a Train Operating Company – the debut of the steam-hauled ‘The Polar Express’on the UK main line – appears to have been a stunning success in terms of the amounts of tickets sold. As we reported in our

A RUN-DOWN cottage with its own private platform on the Ffestiniog Railway has scooped a major national heritage award. Abandoned Coed y Bleiddiau, built in 1863 for Henry Hovenden, the superintendent of the Ffestiniog Railway, has now been transform

APART from the national accolades mentioned in the previous pages, several heritage railways have carried off prestigious awards in the past weeks. The Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway has won a Special Award, for opening its main line interchang

A HALL packed with railwayana collectors, enthusiasts and the media saw LNER Pacific No. 60103 Flying Scotsman add another world record to its CV on November 17 when one of its nameplates sold at auction to an overseas collector for £64,500. Much had

A VISION of the future which is paying tribute to the past was unveiled at Crewe Heritage Centre over the weekend of November 10/11 – when the LMS-Patriot Project’s new-build locomotive was displayed publicly with its boiler in situ, coupled to a bor

THE Talyllyn Railway has launched an appeal to restore the line’s original locomotive watering point at Ty Dŵr between Abergynolwyn and Nant Gwernol. Before the locomotive shed and workshop opened at Tywyn Pendre in 1867, the railway’s first locomoti

FOLLOWING November’s repaint of D1015 Western Champion into BR blue, having carried maroon for 15 years, the arrival of D1013 Western Ranger at Kidderminster depot from Bridgnorth, raises the possibility of the Severn Valley Railway becoming the firs

A HOUSE built for a manager at the world’s first steam-operated public railway is up for sale for £155,000. Layfield House in Urlay Nook Road, Eaglescliffe, was built in 1840 by the Stockton & Darlington Railway, for a manager at the Hole of Paradise

BARNACLE-ENCRUSTED track panels from a lost tramway across Summerleaze Beach at Bude have been uncovered by high tides. The 2ft gauge track appears to be an extension of rails which are set into the harbourside where the Bude Canal forms the town por

NORMAN Preedy, one of the country’s leading railway photographers whose name was known to many thousands of steam and diesel trainspotters through his photographs in the Ian Allan ABCs, has died suddenly at the age of 75. Norman, who was unmarried, w

OLIVER Cromwell – the named star of the‘Fifteen Guinea Special’which marked the end of BR steam-hauled passenger trains half a century ago – sent attendances soaring at its final Great Central Railway mini-gala appearance. BR Britannia Pacific No. 70

A STATION in the remote Highlands of Scotland which saw its last train in November 1968 has reopened as the Highland Heritage and Culture Centre following complete refurbishment of the original buildings and the laying of short sections of track. Gra

NEW West Somerset Railway plc chairman Jonathan Jones-Pratt has vowed to make a complete spring clean of the line in order to bring it into the 21st century. Appointed as acting chairman two months ago but now having taken on the position permanently

AFTER a 17-year absence, BR Standard 2MT No. 78022 has returned to passenger traffic on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. The Standard 4 Locomotive Society’s 2-6-0 appeared back in service on November 24, on the last weekend of ‘normal’ timetabled

GREAT Central Railway-based 1948 Locomotive Exchanges participant No. 6990 Witherslack Hall, will be spending Christmas in the Severn Valley after being signed up to bolster the railway’s steam fleet for its busy Santa season and the railway’s walk-o

AS HE bid farewell to No. 31430 Sister Dora in October, Mangapps Railway Museum boss John Jolly feared he would suffer from withdrawal symptoms, for the Class 31 was the sole remaining‘big’diesel on site. However, within days he was his usual ebullie

MEG Gooch is a dab hand in the kitchen, having cooked for royalty, but she has another skill that is serving up a treat for visitors to the Kent & East Sussex Railway – that of signwriting rolling stock, an art which requires a steady hand and a lot

THE A1 Steam Locomotive Trust is offering members of the public the chance to jump on board throughout the 12 days of Christmas – and sponsor a component for Britain’s newest and most powerful express passenger steam locomotive in the £5 million Gres

THE occupants of a car whose driver failed to heed the warning signs at a North Norfolk Railway level crossing escaped unhurt after it collided with a steam locomotive and was wrecked. At around 11.20am on Saturday, November 17, GER Y14 0-6-0 No. 564

THE project to create a new GWR County 4-4-0 – potentially to be based at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway – can now claim to have a‘real’locomotive. The Churchward County Trust’s No. 3840 County of Montgomery officially came into being on No

THE North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) is delighted to announce its curtain raiser for 2019 will be the visit of No. 60009 Union of South Africa next spring. Passengers will be able to travel behind the popular ‘A4’ Pacific, designed by Sir Nigel G

FOLLOWING the death last year of owner Esmond Lewis-Evans, the Bulleid 4DD Group has purchased Bulleid EMU driving motor car No. 13003 from the receivers appointed to manage his estate. The vehicle is stabled in a corner of the private locomotive res

NO gala – no visiting star guests – it was just the home fleet in operation on the Severn Valley Railway, but amidst some of the most wonderful autumn colours we have seen for many years. After the long hot summer when steam was banned many times thr

A major milestone was achieved by Vale of Berkeley Railway volunteers on November 9, when the first of four 880ft sidings was sufficiently cleared of undergrowth to run their first‘train’– in the form of a hand trolley. Volunteers have been working a

THE Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway has boosted its diesel fleet with the acquisition of 0-6-0DM Rachel. Built in 1959 by Guest Engineering, Rachel was originally designed for the Shillingstone Light Railway as a 10¼in gauge locomotive, but

The UK’s railway heritage sector marked the centenary of the Armistice in a variety of ways. World War One began on July 28, 1914 – the calamitous conflict ended four years, three months and 14 days later on November 11, 1918. Railways played a pivot

THE last few stays and rivets went into the refurbished boiler that will operate with new-build GWR 4-6-0 No. 6880 Betton Grange, at Tyseley Locomotive Works in November. All three sections of the boiler were assembled in time for trial-fitting in th

THE Williams Review – the remit of which is“to look at the structure of the whole rail industry”– was announced by Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling to much industry fanfare. Headed by former British Airways chief executive Keith Willia

IT WAS smiles all round for Transport Auctions of London boss Michael Wickham and his team after his autumn sale set a record realisations total for the auction house and also raised the benchmark on prices for a number of lots, including one railway

REBUILT ‘Merchant Navy’ Class 4-6-2 No. 35028 Clan Line worked the Chiltern & Downs tour on Saturday, November 24 with 13 carriages in tow. Operated by UK Railtours, the trip departed London Paddington, before stopping at Oxford Parkway and Shalford

ENGINEERS are continuing to work on Tornado with the aim of getting the 4-6-2 cleared to head the first of a series of ‘North Briton’excursions on February 9, taking in the Settle and Carlisle line. Working in conjunction with DB Cargo’s fitness-to-r

IT’S generally known that A4 No. 60009 Union of South Africa is due to run out of its ticket next year... but will it ? The A4 is the only example of Gresley’s streamlined 4-6-2s currently working on the main line and its main line certificate expire

STANDARD class tickets sold out within hours for the mainline comeback of Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45596 Bahamas, which is set to work a special train from Oxenhope to Carlisle on February 9. Handed over to Bob Meanley and his engineering team at Tyseley Lo

THIS time I am going to describe a fabulous run from 2012 with National Collection-owned BR Standard Class 7 Pacific No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell, which has now been withdrawn from the main line and will be taken out of service from the Great Central Ra

The north-east of England is rapidly becoming an important centre in new-build locomotive construction for the domestic heritage railway scene. From the high-profile projects such as the A1 Tornado and the P2 Prince of Wales to the ‘smaller’ products

It started way back in 1991. I visited the Bala Lake Railway and had a long talk with the guard, a most friendly gentleman. Encouraged, I wrote to the Bala Lake Railway Society offering to volunteer and to join. A month later, in July that year, my j

The 1830s saw the railway building mania accelerate dramatically. While many leading locomotive engineers formed specialist locomotive building companies, larger rail firms began to establish their own in-house resources. Edward Bury was one of the e

FOLLOWING the excitement of the Santa specials in the weeks up to December 25, a good number of our heritage lines are operating post-Christmas trains – be they mince pie specials, enthusiast events or regular services. For me, there’s always somethi