Wadebridge set for big Cotswold festival

Oliver Cromwell at Loughborough station. BRIAN SHARPE.

BULLEID West Country light Pacific No 34007 Wadebridge returned to service on the Mid-Hants Railway on 13 April for the first time since the fire that gutted its cab.

The locomotive performed well and ran all day, hauling a six-coach coach train with ease.

Minor repairs, including rewiring, work on the brake ejector and steam chest pressure gauge and small leaks still needed to be tackled.

The locomotive is now set to join the guest list at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s big Cotswold Festival of Steam over the weekends of 24-26 May and 31 May-1 June after being delivered to Toddington in late April.

It will run alongside SR 4-6-0 E850 Lord Nelson, GWR 2-6-2T No 5542, GWR 0-6-2T No 5619, plus the line’s home fleet.

Also visiting the line will be two GWR auto trailers, which will be hauled behind No 5542 to recreate services on the line in the steam era.

The home fleet will also be in action, and it is hoped to dress up David Shepherd’s BR Standard 9F 2-10-0 No 92203 Black Prince to resemble its appearance when it was delivered to Longmoor Military Railway in 1968 after he bought it.

- End of online sample -

Cromwell comeback starts end of steam anniversary

Staff and volunteers worked round the clock to get Oliver Cromwell ready for
the May Bank Holiday gala. ROBIN JONES

By Robin Jones

CELEBRATIONS to mark the end of BR main line steam haulage kicked off in superb style with the return to steam of preservation icon BR Britannia Pacific No 70013 Oliver Cromwell.

Following the lifting of the boiler back into the frames at the Great Central Railway on 10 April after its successful earlier steam and hydraulic tests, paid staff and volunteers have been working round the clock to reassemble the locomotive in Loughborough shed.

As we closed for press, the locomotive was scheduled to be launched back into traffic during the line’s 3-5 May steam gala, as a precursor to a later and eagerly anticipated return to the main line to haul a series of specials.

On Sunday 27 April, its cladding back on and the locomotive repainted in Brunswick green with new number transferred being applied, it was hauled out of the works by a diesel shunter to have its valves set.

- End of online sample -

Read the full news article in the current issue >>

Barrow Hill plans ‘biggest ever’ UK gala

HERITAGE gas turbine traction is set to line up alongside steam, diesel and electric traction at a massive four-day gala at Barrow Hill roundhouse to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of BR standard gauge steam haulage.

The event, which will run from Friday 22 August until Monday 25 August, will also mark the tenth anniversary of Staveley Midland shed as a heritage venue – and organisers say it is on course to be the biggest and best event of its kind ever held in the UK preservation sector.

As part of a star-studded line-up, organisers were in talks to borrow BR Brown-Boveri gas turbine locomotive No 18000 from The Railway Age, Crewe, for static display.

Operational steam locomotives confirmed so far include Lancashire & Yorkshire A class 0-6-0 No 1300, LSWR Beattie well tank No 30587, LBSCR ‘Terrier’ 0-6-0T No 662 Martello, Metropolitan Railway 0-4-4T No 1, the replica of Liverpool & Manchester Railway 2-2-0 Planet, Peckett 0-6-0ST No 2000 of 1941, Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T Manchester Ship Canal No 70 and GWR 0-6-0PT No 6430. Examples of a GWR Castle, a BR Standard 9F 2-10-0, a Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway 7F 2-8-0 and BR Standard 2MT 2-6-0 No 78019 have been requested.

- End of online sample -

Read the full news article in the current issue >>

East Kent now owns its line!

The East Kent Railway has received a double boost with the purchase of the freehold of its line and the site of the line’s original locomotive and carriage workshops.

The railway now owns the entire two-mile trackbed from Shepherdswell to Wigmore Lane via Eythorne, plus a 16-acre site at Shepherdswell known as 'The Knees'.

The site comprises 13 acres of woodland and three acres of meadow on which the workshops stood when the line was part of the Colonel Holman F Stephens light railway empire.

The railway wants to rebuild the workshops on the site while preserving the woodland, which is designated as being of nature conservation interest.

The £42,000 needed to buy The Knees was raised within three months by members and outside donors.

Read more news articles in the current issue >>

Steam whistles and wedding bells

A LOCOMOTIVE owner is racing against the clock to restore his engine to working order – so it can pull his wedding train.

Andy Booth hopes to complete the overhaul of Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Class 27 0-6-0 No 1300 by October.

It is then he ties the knot with fiancé Hayley – and the pair have booked their wedding reception on board a train on the East Lancashire Railway, hopefully pulled by No 1300.

Andy said that he hoped to have No 1300 running again by June or July.

Read more news articles in the current issue >>

Bluebell asks members for £2.5m

AS we closed for press, the Bluebell Railway was set to launch its biggest-ever appeal to members in the form of a £2.5-million share issue.

The money is needed towards the £4-million cost of extending northwards into East Grinstead and re-establishing a main line connection. The work will involve the removal of domestic waste from Imberhorne cutting by specialist teams.

Following the completion of the final legal hurdles, prospectuses were being sent out to members.

Read more news articles in the current issue >>

LNER A4 Pacific No 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley finally returned to the main line with a Carnforth-Hellifield-Blackburn circular test run on 16 April. The A4 crosses Capernwray Viaduct soon after departure from Carnforth.
JOHN SHUTTLEWORTH

‘First’ Pullman to Minehead cancelled

Read the full news article in the current issue >>

Top of the page >>