The complete steam news magazine

We’re as old as the new Welsh Highland!

On April 20, Pete Waterman officially opened the completed Welsh Highland Railway from Porthmadog to Caernarfon.

Marking parent company the Ffestiniog Railway’s 175th anniversary, the multi-millionaire record producer unveiled a plaque at Pont Croesor to mark the completion of the restoration of the great trans-Snowdonian route, effectively creating a 40-mile steam highlway between Caernarfon and Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Pete unveiled the plaque at 10.38am in the presence of Ffestiniog Railway Trust chairman Dr John Prideaux and Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas AM, Presiding Officer of the Welsh Assembly.

A second banner-breaking ceremony was held at Pont Croesor, officially marking the completion of the last section of the line, that through Porthmadog itself, was to be reopened.

It was 12 years ago that during Easter 1999, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott delighted everyone in the heritage movement by announcing the green light for the railway to be rebuilt after nearly four decades of campaigning by would-be revivalists.

He overturned the recommendations of the Inspector who chaired a Department of the Environment, Transport & The Regions public inquiry into the FR’s application for a Transport & Works Order to rebuild the entire route which had closed in 1936, who had said that there were insufficient benefits to Snowdonia National Park.

The decision, which resulted in the recreation of one of Europe’s greatest railway routes as far as scenery is concerned, was the big story which broke in the first issue of Heritage Railway, released in time for May 1999.

My first Opinion column was headlined: “The right line: the right place: the right decision”. Yet little did I realise it would take 12 years to achieve, and that I would also still be in the editor’s chair when it did.

When I was approached in early January 1999 by Paul Appleton, co-owner of Stamford-based CMS Publisher, to launch a railway magazine, after an initial meeting with Peter Kelly, then editor of our sister title Old Glory, I seized the opportunity with both hands, but thought I would be there less than a year. It was my intention to launch the title, hand over the reins to someone else, and move on to other projects, whatever they may be.

However, despite the fact that we launched just three months later without a promotional budget, it proved a resounding success. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the heritage movement and the support from many people who said that such a publication, covering all aspects of the heritage scene, steam, diesel electric and even horse worked, had been long overdue. My wife Jenny came on board and quickly built up the advertising section to a very healthy level, and for us it became something of a family business by the back door.

The other big news stories in that first edition included the Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway buying Dart Pleasure Craft’s fleet of five pleasure cruisers and two river ferries, another landmark. The purchase led to the creation of the ‘round robin’ trips using boats to take rail passengers from Kingswear up river to Totnes, and vintage buses to return them to the starting point of Paignton. The impact of the acquisition on the fortunes of parent company Dart Valley Railway plc was to be great that the line is now known as the Dartmouth Steam Railway & River Boat Company.

Another major story was the return of A3 Pacific No. 4472 Flying Scotsman following a £750,000 rebuild at Southall under previous owner Dr Tony Marchington, a pharmaceuticals entrepreneur. I can recall linesiding in the middle of the night in the hope of getting a flash picture of it undergoing trial runs in grey primer.

There was also talk of using parts from GWR 4-6-0 No. 4942 Maindy Hall, to be ‘back converted’ by the Great Western Society into a new Saint, No. 2999 Lady of Legend, for the planned new 6880 Betton Grange project, yet to receive its official launch at Llangollen. I never dreamed that 12 years on, we would be in a position whereby we could say, as we did last month, that we had managed to raise £10,000 towards the casting of new cylinders within just six weeks.

Another major decision saw HM Railway Inspectorate approve the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s plans to extend from Gotherington to Cheltenham Racecourse, the announcement being made in time for the line’s March steam gala.

Elsewhere, we reported on Barrow Hill roundhouse’s first successful diesel and electric gala, and plans by the Churnet Valley Railway for a two-mile extension from Consall to Kingsley & Froghall station, while providing a run-round loop at its northern end, Leekbrook Junction. Both aims materialised; last year, the adjacent Cauldon Lowe branch was reopened for heritage trains for a series of three autumn gala weekends, and a recent share issue by the Churnet Valley to buy a stake in that line’s operator, Moorland & City Railways, has raised £100,000 in two weeks.

Taking into account the proposed revival of the long-mothballed link from Leekbrook to Stoke-on-Trent, the combined railway is on track for becoming the biggest heritage network of all.

The Swanage Railway launched a £122,000 appeal for the last mile of its westward extension to link with the main line section of the original LSWR branch at Motala.

Now incoming specials are a fairly regular event, although the line has yet to be opened for regular public services to Wareham.

Bressingham Steam Museum was seeking grant aid to return No. 6100 Royal Scot to the main line. The huge costs of the project eventually led to the locomotive being transferred to a new charitable trust overseen by multi-millionaire locomotive owner  Jeremy Hosking.

Rebuilt Furness Railway 0-4-0 No. 20 was undertaking trial runs on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway in time for its first official steaming on April 25 that year.

The South Devon Railway, meanwhile, was planning a bid to buy the freehold of its line from Dart Valley Railway plc, which years earlierhad considered closing the Buckfastleigh line until it was taken over by its own supporters’ association. Using volunteer manpower, the line became a huge success and last year carried 112,000 passengers, the highest number of people in the present administration's 19-year history.

Sadly, another big splash in issue 1 did not come to fruition, nor is ever likely to. The Bodmin & Wenford Railway announced plans to extend to Padstow, the westernmost extremity of the LSWR ‘Withered Arm’. However, while a new route past Wadebridge was identified, hugging the west bank of the River Camel, this was later blocked after planning permission was given for blocks of luxury flats. With Padstow bursting at the seams with summer holiday traffic, a brilliant park-and-ride system using one of the most beautiful stretches of coastal rail route in Britain was lost, leaving the railway with just Wadebridge to aim for as its ultimate destination.

We also had a story about Deltics making a main line comeback. The wheel has turned full circle: in this issue we report on No 55022 Royal Scots Grey returning to revenue-earning service hauling aluminium trains.

Also in issue 1, the Cambrian Railways Society offered Railtrack, the predecessor to Network Rail, £154,000 for the Oswestry branch. As reported in our News section this issue, the first heritage era trains out of Oswestry have just run. Another story reported Anglesey Council’s bid to buy the mothballed Amlwch branch – but on this one we are still very much waiting.

Our first centre spread was BR Standard 4M T 2-6-4T No. 80079 hauling a ‘Dawlish Donkey’ special out of Dawlish en route to Newton Abbot.

A page feature looked at the three surviving Robinson O4 2-8-0s in Australia. Two issues ago, we reported on fresh moves to repatriate one of them.

We also featured the Keith & Dufftown Railway revival plans. Here, the revivalists succeeded in their aims of reopening the entire route, and building a replica split-level station at Keith Town. Sadly, its remote position as Britain’s most northerly standard gauge heritage railway has precluded an introduction of steam and the attendant essential resources to run it, and diesel traction still rules the roost.

We also covered the impending debut of the latest new-build locomotive, the Ffestiniog Railway’s single Fairlie Taliesin, and the very early stages of the construction at Boston Lodge of a replica Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Manning Wardle 2-6-2T to be named Lyd. It is now completed and taking a starring role on the new Welsh Highland.

Much water has passed under the bridge since that first issue, both in the world of publishing, where everything is now all but digital, and in the preservation sector itself, where many wild dreams, like the building of A1 Pacific Tornado, have been realised to resounding effect.

We still have much of the team together from the early days. Main line writer Cedric Johns came on board in issue 2, and correspondents Fred Kerr and Roger Melton followed soon afterwards. My deputy Brian Sharpe joined us in April 2002, a year after CMS Publishing had been bought by Mortons of Horncastle.

Heritage Railway has flourished over the ensuing years with circulation regularly on the up, and we now have a website www.heritagerailway.co.uk which is updated every time a big story breaks after we have closed for press. Mallard going to Germany, the National Railway Museum’s NRM+ project scuppered, Lyd becoming the first engine booked for Railfest 2012 – they were all on the website first!

Last year, Mortons acquired cutting-edge modern traction and modelling title Rail Express, and followed up its purchase with that of The Railway Magazine, the market leading publication which has been the definitive benchmark for railway journalism since Victorian times. The net result is that Mortons is now Britain’s biggest railway publisher – and its railway division’s longest tap root can be traced back to a lunchtime meeting I had with former The Railway Magazine editor Peter Kelly in the Periwig pub in Stamford in early January 1999. I don’t regret a minute of the years that followed.