THE latest new-build steam locomotive in the British Isles has hauled its first public train on the Isle of Man’s Groudle Glen Railway (GGR). Unable to facilitate the permanent return of the 2ft gauge line’s original Bagnall 2-4-0T No. 1781 of 1905 P

It may seem hard to believe, but it’s 25 years since the construction of 101mph Peppercorn A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado – held by many to be a 21st-century equivalent of Flying Scotsman – officially started on Wednesday, July 13, 1994, at the then Br

THE first production Class 43 High Speed Train (HST) power car has been displayed at STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway in Swindon, prior to taking its place in the National Collection. No. 43002 Sir Kenneth Grange was taken by low-loader to

THE Hayling Seaside Railway has been placed on the market for £310,000 by its founder Bob Haddock. The asking price for the mile-long seafront 2ft gauge line includes locomotives and all rolling stock, tools and machinery, the lease from Havant Borou

SATURDAY, June 1 saw what is thought to have been the longest (and heaviest) train to run on the Severn Valley Railway when it received a 21-wagon consist over its Network Rail connection at Kidderminster. Consisting of 18 ‘Osprey’ track carriers and

ABSOLUTELY no one in the hall at GW Railwayana’s July 13 sale at Pershore High School was surprised that nameplate Kingfisher from No. 60024 was the runaway winner, as reported in the news section of this issue – but three other plates at least also

FORMER Durham Water Board Barclay E class 0-4-0WT Glyder – which ended up on the famous Penrhyn Quarry scrap line in 1965 – has returned to steam in its‘home’county following repatriation from the USA six years ago. No. 1994 of 1931, which was origin

If you’ve been fortunate enough to join a heritage line as a young volunteer, you’ll be only too aware that experiences gained there can put you in good stead for your future career and life in general. Opportunities abound to interact with a whole c

LONDON’S newest heritage railway has carried its first passengers. The 2ft gauge Royal Arsenal Narrow Gauge Railway (RANG) is being built to take visitors to the Crossness Pumping Station in Bexley from the car park 800 yards away. Two years ago, the

AN early-Victorian main line station, lauded as one of the country’s finest examples of Gothic railway architecture, has received a major refurbishment that has preserved the building and ensured its survival for decades to come. The station is at Ba

STEAM Dreams’bold decision to run four steam trips to Windsor every Tuesday from June 4 up to and including Tuesday, September 3, has been vindicated by the public response. Both ‘Royal Windsor Steam Express’ departures from Waterloo and the evening

CAMBRIAN Heritage Railways (CHR) has opened a significant 295-yard extension to its operational passenger line in Oswestry and has removed the last major obstacle to running trains to Weston Wharf. Once regarded as an impediment to the re-opening of

MANGAPPS Railway Museum owner John Jolly is celebrating the working venue’s 30th anniversary by unveiling an expansion project that will propel the Essex visitor attraction into a major player on the preservation scene. Under the scheme, on which wor

FOLLOWING a five-year cosmetic restoration, what is believed to be Britain’s busiest surviving rail vehicle – 2HAP two-car EMU No. 4308 – has been unveiled at the Locomotion Museum in Shildon, to mark its 60th birthday. Nicknamed ‘Project Commuter’,

VINTAGE Trains has announced a series of charters for the rest of the year in its new brochure. The programme opens with, as reported last issue, a trip to Gloucester’s August 24‘retro’event which features music, vintage cars and vehicles, motorbikes

At the turn of the century there were locomotive superintendents who had been in their jobs for over 30 years. Born soon after the dawn of the steam age, these engineers had designed engines that were modern and successful in their day, but 1870s-sty

STEAM and the seaside have always been splendid bedfellows. Many of Britain’s traditional seaside resorts were created by railways, and as highlighted by our special feature in this edition, coastal heritage lines of all shapes and sizes today form a

THE Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway (LCLR) celebrated the 10th anniversary of it reopening in Skegness on July 13. An iced wooden ‘cake’ was ‘fed’ to the line’s Peckett 0-6-0ST Jurassic at its Walls Lane station, in the Skegness Water Leisure Park i

THE Scottish Maritime Museum (SMM), which includes displays on railway-owned steamers, has decreed that ships, locomotives and other pieces of machinery will now be referred to in gender-neutral language. The words ‘she’and‘her’have now been official

AN 88-year-old pensioner who rode on one of Lincolnshire’s legendary potato farm railways as a 12-year-old schoolboy has been reunited with one of ‘his’ trains. In the school holidays in 1942/43, Peter Jarvis of Nottingham was drafted into the Linc

THE combination of the world’s most famous steam locomotive and the longest masonry viaduct across a valley in the UK made for something of a carnival atmosphere. Crowds gathered as A3 No. 60103 Flying Scotsman headed the Railway Touring Company’s se