Heritage Railway

NINE years after Network Rail needlessly demolished three redundant signalboxes to the chagrin of local conservationists and Solihull’s then MP, the powers that be have now woken up to the fact that the North Warwickshire Line is a major asset to the

PART of West Somerset Railway will be closed to traffic between November and March to allow the next phase of major infrastructure works to be carried out in readiness for the 2020 season. The line was closed for the first three months of this year t

THE A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has placed a £1 million order for new boilers, one for its new-build Gresley P2 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales and the second as a spare for use by Peppercorn Pacific No. 60163 Tornado. The order for the diagram 118a boi

WEST Somerset Railway plc chairman and road transport company boss Jonathan Jones-Pratt has bought the late Dennis Howells’go-anywhere WR Hawksworth pannier No. 9466 for an undisclosed sum. As highlighted in issue 253, the 1951-built locomotive, whic

THE last steam trips though the London Underground tunnels beneath the city centre, held over the weekend of June 22-23 to mark the 150th anniversary of the District Line, have been hailed as a sell-out and a resounding success. However, but for the

THE world’s biggest operational steam locomotive – Union Pacific Railroad Big Boy 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 – is to stage a major tour of US mid-west cities throughout July. Following its appearance in Ogden, Utah, on May 9, to mark the 150th anniversary of t

THE Welsh Highland Railway’s showpiece modern £3 million Caernarfon terminus was officially opened on Friday, June 14 – only hours before the ribbon cutting at the re-created traditional station at Waunfawr. A special from Dinas, hauled by NGG16 Garr

BACK in April while visiting Sandstone for the International Stars of Sandstone festival (issue 254) it seemed clear there were problems boiling under with the Rail Safety Regulator imposing excessive restrictions regarding the running of the railway

POSITIVE energy continues to drive the Talyllyn Railway – with further exciting developments in terms of its volunteer and commercial offering and passenger numbers on the up in the season so far. “This year we forecast a 10% reduction in passenger n

ADVERTISED as The Hall and Saint Event, it was actually the Halls and Saint plus auto train – though two of the Halls were static and not in steam. The Great Western Society’s (GWS) Didcot Railway Centre hosted this popular event over the weekend of

THREE steam locomotives which have been out of the public gaze for decades will be unveiled as the star attraction of the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s September 14/15 Steam Festival Weekend. Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0ST No. 704 of 1899 Nesta will be seen in p

DENT station, which at 1150ft above sea level is the highest in England, is now on the market for £395,000. The Grade II listed building regularly sees steam charters pass its front door due to its location on the iconic Settle to Carlisle line, a ro

TODAY it’s the location of Stratford International station and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the latter covering 560 acres and a testimony to the power of money and sport, the vision of the British people of many cultures, and how a quest for a l

THERE were scenes of elation at the Mid-Hants Railway’s Alresford station on Sunday, June 2, when the Urie Locomotive Society (ULS) relaunched one of its two Urie S15s, No. 506, following an 18-year overhaul. The Eastleigh-built 4-6-0 looked stunning

A SPARK from a passing steam train was believed to have set tracks ablaze on the Churnet Valley Railway. It was conjected that a gas main beneath the railway near Kingsley & Froghall station ruptured, allowing gas to rise to the surface. When a train

RAILWAY personnel who heroically saved a Cambridgeshire market town from a blazing ammunition train during the Second World War were remembered at the Mid-Hants Railway on June 2. On the 75th anniversary of the Soham railway explosion, Class 47 No. 4

THE Dartmouth Steam Railway is to repeat its phenomenally-successful American-style Christmas Train of Lights for a second season in December. Planning for the 2019 show is already well underway, with designs aiming at an even bigger and better lig

MAJOR progress on the Northampton & Lamport Railway’s southern extension has taken place with the refurbishment of the 140-year-old seven-arch low viaduct, known as Bridge 11. The work began on Monday, June 3, and by the Friday, all the fill material

THE project which aims to build a new example of Britain’s first main line diesel has launched an appeal to acquire a second engine. The Ivatt Diesel Recreation Society plan to replicate and operate D16 No. 10000, which was scrapped at Cashmore’s y

THE sell-out ‘All Change’ Open Day at Locomotive Services Limited’s Crewe diesel depot proved to be a real winner, despite bad weather on the day. More than 5000 visitors attended the show on Saturday, June 8, to see a mixture of modern and heritage

PETER Best’s United States Army Transport Corps S160 2-8-0 No. 2253 has been outshopped in maroon livery and named Omaha in honour of the D-Day invasion of Normandy 75 years ago. The locomotive was constructed by Baldwin’s of Philadelphia in March 19

THE award-winning Totnes Riverside station, eastern terminus of the South Devon Railway is home to a GWR van which took part in the build up to D-Day. No. 594, which was built to diagram P18 at Swindon in 1918 and fitted with American bogies, was a

CANTERBURY & Whitstable pioneer Invicta, the world’s first locomotive not only to haul regular passenger trains but to enter preservation, hit dizzy new heights on Sunday, June 16 – when it was craned into its new museum home, 189 years after being d

NAMES have been an integral and fascinating part of the UK steam locomotive scene since the birth of the railways. From Catch Me Who Can of 1808, a name that epitomised pride and a challenge, to Evening Star of 1960 – a name that concentrated minds a

THE Vale of Rheidol Railway’s (VoR) new Edwardian GWR-style heritage station at Aberystwyth was officially opened on June 6 – concluding the first phase of the line’s £2.2 million‘Wales to the World’ project. As reported in issue 248, the project is

SOUTH African rail authorities have promised to work more closely with steam operators and tourist organisations following the call to implement a series of measures to prevent further embarrassing cancellations of major tours because of infrastructu

Around 1802, Cornish mining engineer Richard Trevithick was working at Coalbrookdale on water pumps when he designed the world’s first railway locomotive. Trevithick had earlier built a steam-powered road vehicle, but quickly realised that the poor,

IT was game and set, if not match, to the LNER at Great Central’s auction at Stoneleigh on June 1, when Great Central from A1 No. 60156 and Falcon from A4 No. 60025 outsold nameplates from any of the other Big Four with respective realisations of £28

PTG Tours has offered £4000 towards the reconstruction of the Talyllyn Railway’s original locomotive watering point at Ty Dŵr between Abergynolwyn and Nant Gwernol. An appeal to reconstruct the watering point built for the railway’s opening in 1865 w

THE weekend of June 15/16 saw celebrations to mark the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Didcot to Oxford railway by GWR in 1844. Vintage Trains ran a circular trip from Oxford behind WR 4-6-0 No. 7029 Clun Castle as part of the proceedings. At

NO sooner had its three inaugural‘Royal Windsor Steam Express’departures from Waterloo been completed, on Tuesday, June 4, Steam Dreams announced that the same format would operate again next year. A fourth Tuesday train, the evening ‘Sunset Steam Ex

THE Branch Line Society (BLS) is running two day excursions hauled by Class 37s – better known by fans of the English Electric diesel locomotives as ‘tractors’. On Saturday, August 10 three West Coast Class 37s are set to work ‘Type 3 to the Sea’fr

IT MAY be summer holiday time, but it is not too early to be thinking about Christmas and the Railway Touring Company has published details of its extensive steam railtour programme for the festive season. Christmas markets in all parts of the countr

THIS time I am looking in detail at the work of two very different locomotives on Sapperton bank and at their performance elsewhere on their respective railtours – plus some brief comparisons with the work of other locomotives on the Golden Valley Li

It was over the weekend of June 9/10, 1979 that a gala weekend with a difference was held on the West Somerset Railway. The event celebrated the extension of regular heritage services from Stogumber to Bishops Lydeard, and the reopening of the Mine

IN ISSUE 249, I was astonished to read a letter explaining that the National Collection’s unique Midland Railway railmotor carriage was now sited in the open and exposed to the elements at a honey farm near Berwick-on-Tweed. In subsequent issues I ha

Unlike the previous year, 2019 did not see a hard winter, with fewer frosts and no real snow at all. However, spring was slow in coming, held back by a few late frosts. After the mid-winter shut down period, the Severn Valley Railway started running

It is probably fair to say that the Dartmouth Steam Railway & River Boat Company (DSRRBC) has not registered as high on the radar of many committed railway enthusiasts as its 6.7 mile length and 1-in-60 gradients deserves to warrant, but from the out

The year 1892 saw the end of the Great Western broad gauge and in 1897 the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway opened its London extension and reinvented itself as the Great Central Railway. Then in 1899, after years of rivalry, the South Eas