Sam Hewitt

THIS beautiful 5in gauge model of Flying Scotsman sold for £35,400 at Special Auction Services’ 30th Trains Galore auction at Newbury on December 14-15. That was more than double the top end estimate. Originally owned by a stationmaster who had several live steam models, this beautifully executed and detailed live steam coal-fired model, built in…

Continue reading »

IAN Allan – regarded by many as the world’s greatest publisher of railway titles – has pulled out of the sector after more than seven decades. The shock announcement, made before Christmas, has seen Crécy Publishing acquire the railway, transport and military books previously published by Ian Allan Publishing. Crécy has also acquired the Oxford…

Continue reading »

GREAT Western Society rolling stock company secretary Viv Cooper has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2017 New Year’s Honours list for her 53 years of service to railway heritage. Viv, 70, who is married, has three daughters and four grandchildren and lives in Maidenhead, joined the society when she was in her…

Continue reading »

STEAM is set to return to London Underground after an absence of two years. The weekends of September 2-3 and 9-10 have been pencilled in by organiser London Transport Museum for public steam trains over the Metropolitan Line between Wembley Park, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Watford. The trains will be hauled by Metropolitan Railway E class 0-4-4T…

Continue reading »

THE special guest locomotive at the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway in the spring will be Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST Wissington. Appearing at Ludborough courtesy of owner the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway Society, Wissington will be operating on April 30, May 1, 14, and 28-29. Wissington was built in 1938 by Hudswell Clarke of Leeds for…

Continue reading »

DESPITE patchy weather, passenger numbers at the Last Hurrah, the Great Central Railway’s final gala of the season, were 15% up on the corresponding event last year. The November 19/20 gala featured five locomotives in steam plus a diesel, as contrasted with the first such event in 2010. In action were BR Standard Pacific No.…

Continue reading »

By Fred Kerr MID HANTS Railway-based Class 27 D5353/27007, currently resident at Alresford, is to be used to recreate an example of the long-extinct North British Locomotive Company Class Class 21. In early December, the current owner confirmed his intention to use the locomotive’s chassis and bogies to recreate a 21. He already owns a…

Continue reading »

SOUTHWOLD Railway revivalists are set to bring their first 3ft gauge steam locomotive to the legendary line. All of the original Sharp Stewart locomotives which ran on the Suffolk railway were scrapped in 1941 for the war effort, 12 years after the last trains from Halesworth to Southwold ran. Because of takeover attempts by local…

Continue reading »