Heritage Railway

WE join with everyone in the heritage railway sector in congratulating two truly outstanding recipients of New Year’s Honours for 2019. When local lad Mervyn Allcock set out to preserve the behemoth that is Barrow Hill roundhouse and turn it into a m

FOLLOWING its return to traffic following repairs, crowd-pulling A1 Peppercorn Pacific No. 60163 Tornado is to spend two months on the Wensleydale Railway. Providing that all goes well with its imminent main line test runs (see separate story below),

AT a time of continued growth in visitor and volunteer numbers on in its heritage services, Rossendale Borough Council, one of the three East Lancashire Railway local authority partners, is driving forward plans to introduce commuter trains on the he

A claim by an Australian syndicate that it had bought a“certain English locomotive”– widely believed to have referred to preserved No. 60010 Dominion of Canada – has been exposed as a hoax, after a‘true or false’mystery worthy of an Agatha Christie n

AMONGST all the family excitement and hustle and bustle created by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s sell-out main line Santa specials, one train brought Iarnród Éireann public services to a halt. According to a brief report issued by the

AMBITIOUS plans to conserve and promote the route of the Stockton & Darlington Railway – the world’s first modern locomotive-powered line – in the lead up to major celebrations for its 200th anniversary are now taking shape. A partnership of the thre

THE agreement between the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways and the National Trust for the loan of Quarry Hunslet No. 855 of 1904 Hugh Napier has been extended for a further 10-year period. The deal was confirmed to Heritage Railway by Ff&WHR dire

THE Buckinghamshire Railway Centre received an early Christmas present when WR 4-6-0 No. 6989 Wightwick Hall became the 150th locomotive rescued from Barry scrapyard to be returned to steam. The fruits of a restoration project which has taken nearly

THE Ivatt Diesel Recreation Society – which is re-creating the first UK main line diesel locomotive, LMS No. 10000 – has taken a major step forward in the groundbreaking project, with the purchase of a suitable set of bogies. The bogies have been bou

THE Welsh Highland Railway is to run what aims to be its best ever gala to celebrate a century of its heritage. Easter marks the 20th anniversary of the visionary decision by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to overturn the recommendation of a p

THE Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway has completed its new locomotive and stock servicing pit – making the heritage line an even more attractive destination for main line charters. The lack of this vital piece of infrastructure was identified a

ON December 11, a railway-themed memorial was unveiled at the Catterick Military Camp near Richmond in North Yorkshire marking a century since the end of hostilities in the First World War. The memorial is unusual in that it is a North Eastern Railwa

THE Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s March 8-10 spring steam gala looks set to be a‘must-attend’event, with recently-overhauled LMS Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45596 Bahamas to be joined by LNER B12 4-6-0 No. 8572. Bahamas will be making its first gala appea

WHAT is said to be the biggest and most-expensive overhaul carried out on a Severn Valley Railway steam locomotive has at last been completed at Bridgnorth Works, with the culmination of the long-running repairs to BR Standard 4MT 4-6-0 No. 75069. Th

NEARLY two years after announcing that it had secured Heritage Lottery Fund support to restore the now unique J21 0-6-0 No. 65033, its owners are finally beginning the work. Since receiving a £954,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant in March 2016, the Lo

THE railway nameplate collector who in November paid a world-record £64,500 for a plate from No. 60103 Flying Scotsman, has revealed that it may be donated to the National Railway Museum on his passing. While he expressed a wish to remain anonymous,

SIX years after Padstow station – the westernmost point on the Southern Railway – was faced with the threat of demolition, it has been reborn as a showpiece museum for the town. Fears were sounded in 2012 when radon gas, four times higher than the re

A SMALL piece of mid-Wales made a big impression in the Far East on Saturday, December 8, when the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway signed a‘sister railway’co-operation agreement with the Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC). The signing ceremony was hel

THE Dean Forest Railway has bought WR pannier No. 9682 from the GWR Preservation Group at Southall. 1940-built GWR Toad brake No. 17488 is also included in the deal. A team of members has been busy getting No. 9682, which is currently dismantled, rea

THE Talyllyn Railway has been celebrating a boom year – with passenger numbers soaring by 9% to above the 48,500 mark. Furthermore, revenue in the cafe and shop rose approximately 20% and 7% respectively year-on-year. According to marketing officer D

AN emergency appeal for £120,000 to save GWR large prairie No. 4110 for the West Somerset Railway has been launched by members of the line’s mechanical engineering department after it was offered for sale by the line’s own plc. When the announcement

THE Nene Valley Railway’s March 9/10 Southern Steam event has been boosted with the confirmation that LBSCR‘Terrier’Martello is to visit from Bressingham Steam and Gardens. The 1875-built A1X 0-6-0T will operate brake van rides from Wansford to Yarwe

A MODEL of an LMS Princess Coronation Pacific described as“one of the best railway models ever built”will be going under the hammer at auction on March 12, with an estimate of up to £150,000. It is a 7¼in gauge live steam No. 6230 Duchess of Buccleuc

THE second year of Saphos Trains operating charters is set to see not only a significant expansion of the number of tours, but an increase in the variety of destinations served. Noticeable by their absence are diesel-hauled tours, with diesel tract

TORNADO builder and owner The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has made three key senior appointments to boost its engineering and operations teams. The trust, which is building Britain’s most powerful steam locomotive in Gresley P2 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of

A FORMER Norwich driver has identified the remote‘mystery’location of a 50-year-old photograph published in last month’s Heritage Railway that showed two diesel locomotives at a rural outpost – and he has even identified the driver. The photograph, f

As in the wider world of work, some people in the heritage railway sector appear to naturally achieve great things because of sheer determination and their ability to bounce off each other. When I met some of the members of the Urie Locomotive Socie

THE Swanage Railway’s multiple award-winning scheduled diesel services to Wareham may resume this year. Just over 13,000 passengers were carried on the grant aid-funded 60-selected day trial train service from Swanage to Wareham on Tuesdays, Wednesda

DECEMBER was an unexpectedly special month for Clan Line – for it hauled the Royal Train, in addition to the owning group, the Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society (MNLPS) celebrating the locomotive’s 70th birthday of its release into traffi

THOUGHTS of B1 4-6-0 No. 61306 Mayflower returning south for Steam Dreams’duties in December were dashed following its second main line (loaded) proving run around the West Coast Railways circuit on December 6. The 4-6-0 is still at Carnforth receivi

IN December 2017, the Railway Touring Company ran its usual series of steam tours to York during the festive season. A major selling point was the use of two Class 8 Pacifics – LMS Princess Coronation No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland and LNER A4 No. 6

SINCE its return to main line service after its lengthy and costly overhaul, LNER A3 Pacific No. 60103 Flying Scotsman has tended to only come out in summer and has spent the winter months under maintenance. This winter though, the engine has made a

VINTAGE Trains’ venture into the world of Warner Brothers’ Christmas fantasy ‘Polar Express’ trains proved to be an outstanding success, attracting no less than 22,000 parents and children who travelled between Birmingham Moor Street to Tyseley. Arou

I DON’T like the long, dark days of winter and so avoid anything which means timing in the dark for any length of time. Many charters are timed not to return until very late, which even if they are in the south sometimes means a struggle to get home

JUST two weeks after GW Railwayana achieved a world record £64,500 for a nameplate from LNER No. 60103 Flying Scotsman, as reported in last month’s issue, the tills were also ringing at Great Central’s December 1 sale at Stoneleigh Park, with the top

CREWE Diesel Preservation Group has announced that its Brush-built Type 4 is to return to the main line as part of an 18-month agreement with Locomotive Services Limited. In a statement, CDPG said:“This is a safeguarded deal whereby No. 47712 will co

Established in 2011 as an organisation with charitable trust status, the B17 Steam Locomotive Trust is building a full-size working example of an LNER B17 express passenger locomotive for use on the main line network and heritage railways. The locomo

CELEBRATING its 21st year of operation in 2019, Wantage-based PTG Tours offers what it calls‘general interest rail, nature and culture’and a separate programme of‘enthusiast’holidays from the UK, using rail travel as a theme. According to PTG, comfor

FOR over 21 years The Railway Touring Company has brought main line steam back to life through its pioneering day trips – and its 2019 steam programme continues to offer the great choice of locomotives, routes and destinations which have won it a loy

WITH reference to Geoff Courtney’s obituary of Norman Preedy in the last issue, may I add my thoughts on someone who was a great friend and a superb and enthusiastic railway photographer. Norman was a real character and quite a local legend held in t

The period from 1840 to 1850 saw continuing rapid progress in steam locomotive design. A new generation of engineers was coming through and the designs of steam pioneers such as Timothy Hackworth were being quickly superseded. While Hackworth was the

THE team at Inside Track is committed to creating and developing quality holidays throughout the UK and Europe, with an exciting and varied range of destinations. Being only a small organisation, it is able to offer a personable service to each and e

IT MAY be the so-called‘low season’ when heritage lines traditionally wind down their operations to carry out maintenance on infrastructure and rolling stock but there is still plenty of events happening at several heritage railways across the countr

I NOTE the plaintive appeal from D Martin in Platform, issue 248, for the reincarnation of The Great Bear. This is not the first time this sentiment has been aired in the pages of Heritage Railway. The fact of the matter is the designer G J Churchwar

THE Steam Dreams Rail Co has recently announced an exciting programme of holidays by steam for 2019, including a nine-day trip to the Scottish Highlands, featuring Flying Scotsman, and a six-day Emerald Isle‘Craic Express’trip with the option to see