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Heritage Railway Opinion - 2 September 2010

It will now form part of the Bodmin & Wenford Railway fleet, and although it will never be able to run to Padstow again, it takes its rightful place as part and parcel of North Cornwall transport history and further enhances the heritage line’s status as a definitive working railway museum for the county as a whole.

A fortnight after the T9 makes its public appearance at the 2-5 September LSWR gala, the Launceston Steam Railway will be undertaking trials of Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Manning Wardle replica Lyd, with it scheduled to haul public service trains there on 19 September.

The best is yet to come, however, with the Lew replica appearing at the modern-day L&B’s Woody Bay station on service trains on 24/25 September. If you want to stay within 50 miles, book your hotel now to avoid disappointment!

Much effort has over the past few decades gone into researching whatever happened to Lew, last heard of on a ship bound for South America. The fate of the original is likely to remain hidden in the mists of time, but its design is now well and truly with us again, thanks to builder the Ffestiniog Railway. It is already being dubbed the Tornado of narrow gauge, and will no doubt generate much-needed publicity for the L&B revivalists.

Both the Bodmin & Wenford and revived L&B are doing so much for their local area, but what are their localities doing for them? Having just returned from a summer holiday in North Cornwall, and the peak-season traffic jams, it is frustrating to see that the multiple benefits to be gained by returning the railway to Wadebridge are still years away. By contrast, two local councils in Dorset have defied the recession to pledge a vital £3-million towards the restoration of regular public services between Swanage and Wareham. What is particularly refreshing here is the fact that three decades ago, one of these councils did not want the railway back and aimed to turn the trackbed of the Swanage branch into a bypass, which has now turned out to be a road to Damascus.

The L&B desperately needs cash to escape its current straitjacket, being hemmed in by infilled bridges at either end of the line. Readers will not need to be convinced of the obvious benefits of having a park-and-ride service for Lynton, or of taking hordes of visitors straight through the heart of the environmentally sensitive Exmoor landscape without damaging a blade of grass. If Dorset can do it, how about making it happen, Devon and Cornwall?

The release of the T9 for restoration to running order by owner the National Railway Museum also has to be applauded, along with the recent indication by museum director Steve Davies that more of its locomotives may be based at heritage lines. Engines were designed to operate, not be stuffed and mounted, and the benefits to education and learning can best be appreciated by seeing them working as they were intended to be. The saddest example here remains LMS Princess Coronation Pacific No 46235 City of Birmingham, long incarcerated in Birmingham’s Thinktank museum, where it is squeezed into a barely adequate space, rather than being restored as a high-profile ambassador for the city on the main line.

Finally, I would like to offer my condolences to the family of John Leach, who was a brilliant ambassador not just for the Severn Valley Railway, but also for the movement as a whole. The continuing success of this fabulous line remains a monument to his efforts.

Robin Jones
Editor