Heritage Railway

THE Bahamas Locomotive Society’s Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T No. 1704 of 1938 Nunlow is to return to its original home, the G & T Earle Cement Manufacturers works at Hope in Derbyshire. Nunlow, the boiler ticket of which expired in April 2018, will be ta

HAVING played a starring role at the Severn Valley Railway spring steam gala in March, Didcot-based GWR Large Prairie No. 4144 is to stay on for the summer season, with Collett 0-4-2T No. 1450 going in the opposite direction – over-running repairs ha

A SPECIAL steaming day will be held at Didcot Railway Centre on Saturday, June 15, as part of a day of major celebrations to mark the 175th anniversary of the GWR branch to Oxford. Festivities to commemorate the opening of the Didcot to Oxford line i

NOT for the first time, Network Rail and the British Transport Police have issued a warning about flying drones over or close to railways. This latest warning followed an incident on the South West Main Line when Flying Scotsman was ‘buzzed’ by a d

THE Great Central Railway is waiting to hear whether its bids to overhaul two National Collection locomotives are successful. As we closed for press, officials were negotiating a draft contract from the National Railway Museum on the line’s proposa

THREE GWR 78xx Manors, maybe two visiting pannier tank engines, and the West Somerset’s own mogul No. 9351 and resident Somerset & Dorset 7F No. 53808 are expected to be the line’s principal all-steam, star motive power this summer, making it a feast

TEENAGE vandals broke 112 windows during an attack on the Great Central Railway – Nottingham’s Ruddington site on the evening of Monday, April 29, causing an estimated £80,000 worth of damage. At around 5.45pm, six male offenders, believed to be aged

➜ PEPPERCORN A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado will make its second visit to the Wensleydale Railway from Saturday, May 18 to Tuesday, June 4, and on Friday, May 31 it will make the first-ever non-stop run over all 22 miles from Leeming Bar to Redmire and

FOR most readers of this magazine, the name Dr Richard Beeching immediately conjures up images of the ultimate railway bogeyman who, through his recommendations to close nearly a third of the UK national network, led to him being described as the mos

WITH new-build GWR 4-6-0 No. 6880 Betton Grange on the home straight and set to steam this year, the group building the 81st class member has turned its attention to constructing a new Collett 3500-gallon tender of the type made extinct when the las

THE Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways’partnership with Network Rail has been celebrated by the naming of a Class 97 diesel at Minffordd station. No. 97302 (formerly No. 37170) was named Rheilffyrdd Ffestiniog ac Eryri/ Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland

THE visit of Flying Scotsman to the Swanage Railway brought an unexpected financial windfall both to the railway and local traders, according to the heritage line. The highly successful five-day operation of the A3 Pacific, commencing on Friday, Marc

THE South Tynedale marked Earth Day on Easter Sunday with the launch of Green Dragon, an environmentally-friendly steam locomotive. Hunslet 0-4-2T No. 859 of 1937 was supplied to Natal in South Africa, where it hauled sugar cane crops. Repatriated in

WITH six steam locomotives already in North Yorkshire Moors Railway service by Easter, and a seventh in the form of BR Standard 4MT No. 76079 nearing the end of winter maintenance, the Grosmont shed staff and volunteers are not letting up on their ef

THE Mid-Norfolk Railway’s new storage sidings at Kimberley Ballast Pit, to hold Greater Anglia rolling stock, are approaching completion, with rides on the new track being offered as part of the railway’s spring diesel gala. In early 2018, a £3.2 mil

VISITORS to the Nene Valley Railway’s June 1-2 model railway weekend will be able to take advantage of the rare opportunity to ride behind former London Underground Sentinel 0-6-0 DL83. The diesel locomotive will be operating freight trains between

THE Rail Accident Investigation Branch has reiterated safety procedures after a Ffestiniog Railway driver ignored a stop sign and crashed through the closed gates of the level crossing at Penrhyndeudraeth. An RAIB report into the January 6 incident

THE Talyllyn Railway has secured further funding for employing its first two apprentices. The Hendy and Pendle Charitable Trust has donated £5000 to aid the training of Oscar Hutchinson and Ross Waddington who were both employed last year. Oscar

THE A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has launched a £450,000 appeal to build a tender for its second locomotive, the £5 million Gresley P2 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales. The trust has set up The Tender Club, with the goal of recruiting 250 supporters, each

THE Spa Valley Railway has launched a £200,000 appeal to buy LMS 3F No. 47493 from Barry Buckfield, who has owned the 0-6-0T since 1972. The ‘Jinty’ arrived at the Spa Valley for overhaul in 2000, entered service in 2004, and proved to be the perfe

WELL known for its use of diesel traction as the mainstay of its annual tour programmes, Pathfinder Tours has secured A1 No. 60163 Tornado to head four trips this year. The popular Pacific stood in for Union of South Africa when the A4 was stopped

THE Swanage Railway is hoping to begin its DMU services over the main line to Wareham this year. Furthermore, officials are also in discussion with local train operating company South Western Railway regarding the operation of a summer Saturday servi

THE overhaul of No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester has taken a further step forward with the despatch of the 4-6-2’s wheelsets to South Devon Railway Engineering. “The tyres have been removed from all six driving wheels at Buckfastleigh,”said Trevor Tuckle

Opened in 1874, the 3ft gauge line still runs with its original rolling stock for 15 miles between Douglas and Port Erin. A single trip along the scenic line takes an hour, hauled by the fleet of Beyer Peacock-built 2-4-0Ts and a solitary Dübs 0-6-0T

By Tim Bryan (softback, Shire Publications, 80pp, £8.99, 9781784423209). FOR the general public at large, locomotives are the big draw at heritage railways and all too often carriages are viewed as a functional necessity. Here, the author, a form

➜ Making a welcome Great Eastern comeback IT IS fantastic how the GWR has been filling the gaps in its stock with several new-build locomotives and the way that the Llangollen Railway workshop has become almost a production line with these new builds

SINCE the Southwold Railway Society was formed in 1994, revivalists have plugged away, often coming up against a seemingly impassible wall of NIMBYism, to restore at least part of one of England’s finest and legendary narrow gauge railways. However,