Heritage Railway

BRITAIN’S standard gauge heritagefleet is on course to celebrate two landmarks this year. Once the test steamings of GWR 4-6-0 No. 6880 Betton Grange are completed, we will delight in the sight of the first class member at work for nearly six decades

BRIDGNORTH’S‘other’heritage railway reopened on Monday, March 4, after having been closed for more than 14 months. Services on Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, England’s oldest and steepest inland electric funicular railway, resumed at 9am. The line, which

GWR Saint No. 2999 Lady of Legend has not only stepped in as the star guest in place of fellow newbuild No. 6880 Betton Grange at the East Somerset Railway’s 50th Anniversary Steam Gala on March 16/17, but it will also feature in the 30742 Charters’s

AFTER almost a century since a pair of Hughes Falcon 0-4-2STs were last seen at Maespoeth Junction, history will be made in June when No. 3 Sir Haydn returns to its former shed on the Corris Railway to star alongside that line’s new-build example of

THE overhaul of Sharp Stewart B class 0-4-0WTT No. 19B – the only locomotive from the British-built Darjeeling Himalayan Railway resident in the UK – is set to cost its new owning group an unexpected sixfigure sum before it can steam again. As report

ALTHOUGH many will advocate for a clean and presentable engine for a good impression to the public, a photographic charter on February 24 at the Mid-Hants Railway proved that a weathered one can have its own merits. As steam was phased out in the 196

THE sole-surviving GWR Dukedog has returned to a shed it called home during its working life – after going on loan to the Vale of Rheidol Railway for display in its new Aberystwyth museum. The class combined components from two other classes of GWR 4

MEMBERS, volunteers and staff of the GreatWestern Society and Didcot Railway Centre were in mourning after Graham Perry, former chairman and one of the group’s founders, died on February 9, just a few weeks short of his 80th birthday. Born on April 1

A 100-year-old Bournemouth tramcar is to be sold at auction on April 3 and is expected to fetch between £3-4000. Tramcar 113, which is believed to have run from Lansdowne to Southbourne, is being sold by auctioneer Charterhouse in Sherborne. Richard

SINCE the Barry Tourist Railway formally ceased running services in 2022, when the rail depot it had been operating out of was taken over by Transport for Wales for servicing and storing its new trains, heritage traction has been notably absent in th

THE Kent & East Sussex Railway’s first diesel gala in more than a decade has confirmed its full line-up with the addition of a Class 37 to the April 1214 event roster – perhaps the largest diesel locomotive to ever grace the light railway. Built by E

A £500,000 SOS appeal to save the world’s oldest railway station has been launched by the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway. The group is seeking to buy the derelict Heighington station building, which stands five miles north-west of Darli

THE East Anglian Railway Museum has completed construction of a new exhibition building to allow it to protect more vehicles in its historic collection. The building, which has been erected on a former orchard site purchased by the museum some years

IT may have withdrawn from its annual landmark exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham, but a new partnership with the Statfold Narrow Gauge Museum Trust Ltd will now see the Warley Model Railway Club continue putting on such sho

THE Severn Valley Railway is to increase its passenger services from March 26 in a bid to boost its fortunes. Having opened at the start of the February half-term with an off-peak timetable, in the run-up to Easter, the railway will have more steam-a

A STALWART of the main line scene throughout the last decade, Chris Beet’s LMS Jubilee No. 45690 Leander will bow out of service in May as it falls due for overhaul – with a farewell tour of heritage railway visits announced set to conclude with a vi

FOLLOWING 16 years of hard graft, the grand opening ceremony of the Northampton & Lamport Railway’s southern extension and new station at Boughton is to be held on Saturday, March 30. Completing the extension has involved repairing a seven-arch low v

THE Stanier 8F Locomotive Society, the owner of Severn Valley Railway-based 2-8-0 No. 48773, is aiming to recruit new members to take an active part in the ongoing story of a uniquely well-travelled locomotive with a glorious past in both war and pea

THE Severn Valley Railway entered into organising diesel night photography events at its Kidderminster diesel depot last year – and they sold out immediately. Now, similar steam sessions have proved also to be a soaraway success. Over the late evenin

A ‘DREAM’ combination of LSWR T3 and T9 4-4-0 in regular service is the new aim of the award-winning 563 Locomotive Group at Swanage Railway Trust. As reported last issue, the group, together with the Swanage Railway, carried off the Heritage Railway

THE North Norfolk Railway is to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the closure of its route with special steam and diesel services on April 6/7. It was on April 6, 1964, that BR closed the line from Melton Constable to Sheringham. When the majority

THE LappaValley Railway’s new locomotive has been officially named City of Truro – echoing the legendary GWR 4-4-0. LappaValley, a railway and leisure park near St Newlyn East, issued an appeal for suggestions of names for the new Bo-Bo, designed and

FOLLOWING the donation of six steam locomotives to various museums and groups, as reported last issue, the National Trust clear-out of the former Penrhyn Castle railway museum has seen a seventh vacate the museum in the guise ofNeilson & Co 0-4-0WTNo

A SHARK brake van which stood marooned next to a main line station siding for three decades despite efforts by enthusiasts to have it saved has been scrapped. There are not many pieces of rolling stock that develop a cult following; locomotives catch

LONDON Transport Museum has launched a brand-new behindthe-scenes tour of London Underground’s Holborn station, with tickets available to book now. Originally opened in 1906 as a complex of four platforms to serve the Piccadilly Line, Holborn station

BALLINAMORE station on the former Cavan & Leitrim Railway has been saved from demolition, thanks to a 2.4 million Euro project which has converted it into a community hub, arts and enterprise centre. Dubbed Junction Ballinamore, the restored building

THE Severn Valley Railway’s footplate experience courses have been hit by a surge in public demand, with those in January and February a virtual sell-out. Many railways are offering the courses again, giving ordinary members of the public the opportu

THE Mid-Hants Railway has celebrated the sterling service of its‘Fab Five’– volunteers who have worked on the Watercress Line for a combined total of more than 250 years. Long-service certificates were presented to Brian Lawes, Mark Walden, Steve Hay

THE Strathaven Miniature Railway, Scotland’s oldest railway in its category, is celebrating notching up three-quarters of a century of running round in circles on its 7¼in gauge track at Strathaven Park in South Lanarkshire. The SMR opened on Saturda

THE East Anglian Railway Museum is holding a special weekend to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the landmark Chappel Viaduct. Spanning the Colne valley, it was built by the Colchester, Stour Valley, Sudbury & Halstead Railway under the direction o

There are two ways of defining when spring starts and finishes. Astronomical spring starts on March 20, ending this year on June 21, and meteorological spring starts on March 1, ending on May 31. However, in these days of global warming, nothing is c

UNIQUE BR 8P Pacific No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester is to be based at Crewe under a new 10-year operating agreement signed with the Royal Scot Locomotive & General Trust. Once its current overhaul at Tyseley Locomotive Works is completed in June or Jul

MIDLAND Pullman has announced a trip under the title of ‘Exmoor Coast Pullman’on Saturday, May 18, with a chance to travel on heritage metals. Starting from Whitchurch on the Welsh Marches line, the tour is planned to head south to pick up passengers

LNER A4 Pacific No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley has been booked to haul a Steam Dreams trip from London to Chester on Saturday, May 11. Departing from Euston, No. 60007 will head along the West Coast Main Line to pick up additional passengers at Milton K

ON Saturday, April 20, UK Railtours Is planning ‘Neasden Nonsense’, making use of Hastings Diesels DEMU set No. 1001 in an extended seven-car formation. Starting from Tonbridge, the tour will pick up passengers at Bromley South and London Victoria. F

HENLEY-IN-ARDEN station – which serves the North Warwickshire Line also known as the Shakespeare Line, the southbound route of Vintage Trains’ ‘Shakespeare Express’– has been given a major facelift. Its original GWR station building of 1908, which ha

16 ‘The Cumbrian Mountain Express’ Euston, Carlisle and return. Steam-hauled from Carnforth (outward) to Preston (return). Loco: Steam: TBA. Electric: 86259 Les Ross. RTC 16 ‘The Cotswold Explorer’ Northampton, Worcester and return. Steam-hauled thro