Sam Hewitt

THE North Yorkshire Moors Railway-based LNER Coach Association is on the verge of making a significant breakthrough in the restoration of 1894-built East Coast Joint Stock dining car No. 189. The coach body is currently mounted on an underframe from a former LNER suburban coach, but this is not quite the right length and has…

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ONE of Britain’s most luxurious main line fine dining trains is to be based on the Severn Valley Railway. Under a new partnership agreement, the Belmond Northern Belle, sister to the Belmond British Pullman, will make extensive use of the main line connection at Kidderminster and the fine dining train will complement services run on…

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AN organisation which has been a defining backbone of northern steam preservation for more than half a century, and a heritage railway which broke new ground by running main line trips, have shared the Heritage Railway Association’s Annual Award (Large Groups) 2016. The prestigious trophy has been shared between the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group…

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PLANS to bring the Llangollen Railway further into Corwen town centre have made major progress in recent weeks. The railway’s £128,000 grant aid application from the Welsh Government’s European Regional Development Fund has been progressed to the point of receiving an initial letter to ‘Proceed at Risk’, allowing the volunteer workforce to begin construction of…

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THE Foxfield Railway has moved the body of North Staffordshire Railway first class coach No. 228 to Stanegate Restorations at Haltwhistle for assessment as a prelude to its full restoration. No. 228 has been placed on a 99-year loan to the Knotty Coach Trust by the North Staffordshire Railway Co (1978), based at Cheddleton on…

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THE Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway is seeking £2 million in grant aid to build a new steam maintenance facility. Its operator, the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, has asked the Heritage Lottery Fund for money to provide a modern base to care for its locomotive collection. If given the go-ahead, the scheme will create new jobs…

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WHILE the Great Western Society has built its new Saint 4-6-0 No. 2999 Lady of Legend to main line standard, it may never see action on the national network. It was in 1974 that No. 4942 Maindy Hall – a representative of the class that was developed from George Jackson Churchward’s Saint 4-6-0s – was…

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By Martin Creese Down by the waterfront probably conjures up the idea of a nice meal out or drinks in one of the many bars in the city, but for a group of railway photographers the attraction was the other side of the water, by MShed, which many readers may be more familiar with as…

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