Heritage Railway

A NEW-build working replica of one of Southwold Railway’s original locomotives is set to be built in Darlington – and it could bring steam to the Suffolk resort within two years. As we closed for press, NBR Engineering Services, the engineering arm o

By Robin Jones EMMA SEDDON THE heatwave in late June and early July has hit the heritage sector on both the national network and preserved lines with diesel traction replacing steam because of‘tinderbox’conditions on the lineside. On all routes affe

By Robin Jones NICK GILLIAM CSS MATTHEW DITCH A SECOND series of the highly-acclaimed fly-on-the-wall TV documentary on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway has been commissioned. Darlow Smithson Productions Ltd is to return to the Moorsline to film se

MASTER stonemason Philip Chatfield has again been contributing his skills at the Severn Valley Railway, in a volunteer capacity at Arley station. He carefully researched the history and construction of an unusual floral chimney pot dating from 1904,

THE weeks ahead will see several special events and railtours to mark the 50th anniversary of the last steam train run over the main line by BR, the‘Fifteen Guinea Special’on August 11, 1968, and to mark the occasion, our special issue this month con

By Gareth Evans KIERAN HARDY A 2ft steam locomotive that was displayed at the Birmingham Museum of Science & Industry prior to the museum’s relocation and relaunch as Thinktank, has returned to steam at the Amerton Railway. Lorna Doone , Kerr Stu

STEPHEN Middleton’s Nidd Valley Railway sole survivor Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST No. 1208 of 1916 Illingworth/ Mitchell has officially completed its 22-year restoration with a naming ceremony. Based on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway, the locomo

By Geoff Courtney NRM AN original nameplate from No. 60103 Flying Scotsman that was controversially withdrawn from sale by leading auction house Bonhams in 2016 after an intervention by the late Sir William McAlpine, a former owner of the legendary

By Gareth Evans RYAN MIDDLETON/CCLR THE Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway celebrated its 70th birthday by announcing a £250,000 plan to build a southern extension to boost its appeal to the tourist market The 15in gauge line is to extend by about two

By Phil Marsh PHIL MARSH THE Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway is working round the clock to have its new northern terminus operational in time for its palled official opening on August 15. The running line used for heritage services for the last

By Gareth Evans ALL PHOTOS: GARETH EVANS IN A YEAR in which the centenary of the Armistice is being marked, it’s easy to forget the pivotal role transport played in the conflict – particularly railways. “Most people have a vision of mud, horses and

By Robin Jones NRM COLIN DAVISON/DISCOVERY MUSEUM NORTH TYNESIDE MUSEUM WHILE George Stephenson’s Rocket is based in its home town for the Great Exhibition of the North, one of his earlier locomotives has stolen some of the limelight. Stephenson’s 0

By Robin Jones ANDREW RAPACZ VINTAGE Trains has denied a Stratfordon-Avon District Council report that said land it owns at the town’s station has been sold. A report to the council’s July 2 cabinet meeting discussing a new link road for the town sa

Words and pictures by JohnTitlow MANY railways have 1940s weekends, but how many re-enact a full blown battle along the lineside? The Severn Valley Railway held its popular 1940s event over the weekends of June 30-July 1 and July 7-8. One of the hig

By Hugh Dougherty HUGH DOUGHERTY COUNTY Donegal’s Cashelnagor station, regarded as the remotest stop on the former Letterkenny & Burtonport Extension Railway, has been restored to its former glory, 71 years after the last train passed through its l

By Robin Jones LEWIS MADDOX THE Severn Valley Railway has completed one of the biggest Engine House Visitor Centre locomotive reshuffles in preparation for its Last Days of Steam event on Saturday, August 4. A week before the‘Fifteen Guinea Special’

THURSDAY, June 21 was a special day for members of the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group as it marked the official return to traffic of 1923 North Eastern Railway-designed P3 (BR J27) 0-6-0 No. 65894. A special train for members and patrons

By Roger Melton BRIAN DOBBS THE Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway Society has purchased a further LNER carriage to add to its collection on the North Norfolk Railway. UniqueThompson brake corridor third No. 1866 was originally preserved by Geof

By Robin Jones MICHAEL WHITEHOUSE TYSELEY Locomotive Works – a rare and precious bolthole for standard gauge steam following its end on the national network in 1968 – is to celebrate 50 years since its first open day. On September 29, 1968, Tyseley

By Gareth Evans GARETH EVANS THE Bala Lake Railway operated its first passenger trains to be hauled by a tender locomotive in the route’s narrow gauge era when 1863-built George England 0-4-0STT Palmerston visited for a week on June 18. A tender loc

By Gareth Evans KENNY FELSTEAD GARETH EVANS A ROLLING chassis for LMS Patriot No. 45551 The Unknown Warrior is on course for completion by late August, according toThe LMS Patriot Project, the organisation behind the new-build steam locomotive. The

By Robin Jones BRIAN DOBBS THE Mid-Norfolk Railway has won a three-year contract worth more than £3 million to store Abellio Greater Anglia’s new fleet of Stadler Flirt trains when they arrive in the UK this year. The money will see part of the GE

By Robin Jones MARK LEWIS LBR THE diminutive vertical-boilered locomotive which hauled the first public steam train on the Leighton Buzzard Railway has restaged the feat 50 years on. June 29, 1968, is perhaps best known as the day when public servic

By Geoff Courtney 1. NORMAN PREEDY ARCHIVE/ GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAYANA BKB GREEN › NORMAN PREEDY ARCHIVE A STEAM locomotive nameplate that delighted regulars at a pub in Leamington Spa is to go under the hammer for the first time at an auction in St

CHANNEL 4 screened the fifth and final episode of its acclaimed Great Rail Restorations series on Saturday, July 7, as an alternative to the World Cup coverage elsewhere. While England were beating Sweden 2-0 in the quarter-final, the fifth and last

INVICTA, the Robert Stephenson & Co locomotive that came off the production line immediately after Rocket, has been found a new home. The 1829-built locomotive was supplied to the Canterbury &Whitstable Railway, hauling its inaugural train on May 3,

BY GEOFF COURTNEY A 1904 poster issued jointly by the South Eastern & Chatham Railway and the travel firm Thomas Cook was a top seller at a Transport Auctions of London sale in Croydon on July 1, going under the hammer for £1300. The poster featured

By Cedric Johns AFTER months of preparations including the internal reorganisation of operations and external negotiations, VintageTrains, the Birmingham-based railtour promoter, appears to be on the verge of obtaining itsTrain Operating Company lic

By Robin Jones BOTH: AVR THE Aln Valley Railway (AVR) has scooped £146,000 to build a new halt and run-round loop. The railway has been successful in its bid to get a Rural Development Programme for England grant to support local rural tourism infra

By Geoff Courtney NEVILLE STEAD/ THE TRANSPORT LIBRARY TREVOR STREETER A COUNCIL tourism chief has mounted a fierce attack on plans to link two heritage railways, despite the project being given approval by the council of which she is a member and a

By Cedric Johns THOMAS MILLS HAVING opened the‘Torbay Express’ season for RivieraTrains on Sunday, June 3, Merchant Navy class 4-6-2 No. 35028 Clan Line became the first-ever Bulleid heavyweight to cross theTamar and enter Cornwall. Originally plann

AN APPEAL has been launched to fund Bagnall 0-6-0ST No. 2654 of 1942 Cherwell for use at the Rushden Transport Museum & Railway. Cherwell was one of six engines of its kind used to transport ironstone from Charwelton to Byfield, in Northamptonshire,

By Gareth Evans MARTIN CREESE MARTIN CREESE GARETH EVANS ALISTAIR GRIEVE SPENDING a weekend at a cement works probably isn’t at the top of most people’s priority lists – but it is for us enthusiasts. Ketton Cement Works, which lies three miles west

By Geoff Courtney COLIN CLODE A FORMER slate quarry locomotive that changed hands for just £30 in the 1960s has stepped into the breach at a west London steam railway after its resident engine was withdrawn for boiler repairs. With its regular 0-4-0

In the coming weeks, a long-lost but key vehicle in the history of railways worldwide will enter service for the first time in the heritage era – the North Eastern Railway Autocar. The Edwardian period came to be regarded as an age of significant cha

I’m sure many steam enthusiasts like myself considered it was Saturday, August 3, 1968, when BR steam operations came to an end. Yes, there were the five farewell to steam tours the following day, but normal steam operations ended on that Saturday ev

Robin Jones. ROBIN JONES Show me a Fifties’ or early Sixties’ short-trousered schoolboy who claims he never read, yet alone owned, an Ian Allan locospotters’ book – and I’ll show you a liar. Back in 1942, a young Ian, who worked at Waterloo station

By Cedric Johns MARTIN CREESE REPORTS that the Railway Touring Company had secured the use of Tyseley-based GWR 4-6-0 No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe to head the first of this season’s‘Royal Duchy’excursions appear to have been over-optimistic. RTC’

ON Sunday, August 5, the Scottish Railway Preservation Society will be running steam-hauled trips around the Fife Circle and over the Forth Bridge toTweedbank via Edinburgh and the Borders line. They will utilise the same well-proven itinerary as las

A quarter of a century may have passed, but some of us can still remember it like yesterday. The Hunslet Hundred gala of 1993 has since served as a benchmark for all Ffestiniog Railway galas. Hunslet 125, which took place over three days from June 22

“Let’s just sit back, be grateful, and let our imagination take over” AS PRESIDENT of the Halstead & District Local History Society, I would like to respond to Ian McKenzie’s strong criticism in last month’s issue of the wording‘train station’– rathe

By Don Benn BRYAN BENN DON BENN “ ‘Black Five’ No. 45212 was being worked very hard indeed throughout the whole climb and as Table One shows, it looked as though it was taking the full 395 ton load until hitting the 1-in-90/80 from milepost 171. Fro

THE Railway Carriage is a replica GWR brake van and provides spacious accommodation for up to four plus a baby, with a king-size bedroom and a twin room. There is a well-equipped kitchen, bathroom, dining, living area and a private hot tub. Railway C