Sam Hewitt

Words and pictures by Stuart Chapman PROGRESS on a bid to restore a closed military line in Scotland is making headway. The Shed47 group takes its name from the original locomotive shed number at the former Royal Naval Store Depot at Lathalmond north of Dunfirmline. The preservation group is on the site of the Scottish…

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It is now half a century since Britain’s last steam main line went over to electric traction overnight. Brian Sharpe gives a summary of how this historically significant anniversary was marked. When Britain’s railways were nationalised in 1948, the decision was made to appoint Robert Riddles as British Railways’ chief mechanical engineer and this undoubtedly…

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RAILWAYANA: The mighty throb of the Deltics’ 18-cylinder Napier engines that so enthralled East Coast Main Line trainspotters on their debut in the early-1960s will be recalled in the appropriate setting of Newark on August 12. Those memories, still vivid today due in part to the survival of six members of the 22-strong class, will…

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THE July 14-16 gala held to mark the Foxfield Railway’s 50th anniversary proved to be an outstanding success, say the organisers. More than 1200 people turned up to the gala at what in 1967 set off on the road to become one of the UK’s top industrial heritage locations. Freight to Foxfield Colliery ceased in…

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THE Dartmoor National Park Authority’s controversial masterplan for part of Ashburton – which would have scuppered any hopes of a northern extension of the South Devon Railway into the town’s Brunellian station – has been ditched. The plan, which included a 3.5-hectare mixed use redevelopment of the rundown Chuley Road area, which would have included…

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A DIESEL locomotive thought to have been written off in a blaze which destroyed much of Britain’s best-known and oldest pub railway, is back in service again. As previously reported, disaster struck at the 10¼in gauge line Fancott Miniature Railway, around 3.40pm on March 3, 2015. A fire, believed to have been started by a…

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The platform buildings at Gobowen station on the Shrewsbury to Chester line, part of the GWR route from Paddington to Birkenhead, have been bought by community organisation the Gobowen Area Improvement Group – and may be used to help start a new shuttle of heritage service to Oswestry. The buildings on both the Up and…

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The Severn Valley Railway’s August 12/13 Steam on the Road event will feature a Land Rover that can also run on the track. The 1957 Series 1 88in Land Rover, PSL193, owned by Mark Saville since 2002 and affectionately known as Plimsoll, has a 1997cc four-cylinder petrol engine, a four-speed main gearbox and a two-speed…

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A GB Railfreight Class 66 diesel has been officially named Royal Corps of Signals to mark a 33-year association with the Swanage Railway – during which 5000 soldiers have installed telephone and communications equipment along the Purbeck heritage line. The naming of No. 66756 was carried out at Swanage station on national Armed Forces Day,…

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