News

By Geoff Courtney SOME of the world’s top railway artists have been brushing up on their unique talents in readiness for the annual exhibition organised by the Guild of Railway Artists that opens at Kidderminster Railway Museum on August 25. Railart 2018, which is being held at the museum for the 14th time, will feature…

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REMARKABLE progress is being made on the National Collection’s 2HAP two-car EMU, comprising vehicles Nos. 61275 and 75395. The workshop staff and volunteers at the Locomotion museum in Shildon are now nearing the end of the restoration of the first carriage, in partnership with the Network South East Railway Society, whose members are working on…

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By Geoff Courtney TO SAY Sarah Tagart has steam railways in her blood would be akin to describing The Shard as a fairly tall building, or Lewis Hamilton a reasonably good racing driver. An archetypal British understatement. The 22-year-old charity worker has become the third generation in her family to qualify for working on the…

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BRIDGNORTH is renowned as the northern terminus of the Severn Valley Railway (SVR), Britain’s second most popular heritage line in terms of passenger numbers. However, it is often forgotten it was also a cradle of the steam railway. For it was in the town’s Hazeldine Foundry the locomotive which hauled the world’s first fare-paying passenger…

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By Roger Melton The fine weather of the summer months had brought mixed blessings to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR). At the end of July the year-to-date figures were showing an increase of around 13% in visitor numbers, equivalent to around 11,400 extra passengers, although income was up by a lesser amount at 9%,…

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The Fairbourne Railway’s annual steam gala took place at the end of July this year, rather than the end of May as previously, and suffered a little from the abrupt end to the heatwave and its replacement by powerful winds. There were the now-traditional 15in-gauge visitors on the dual- gauge track at Fairbourne, with Exmoor…

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NEWLY restored and reliveried Duchess of Sutherland has been booked for the Severn Valley Railway’s September 20-23 autumn steam gala, which organisers are boasting will be bigger and better than ever. The annual showpiece event will also feature LMS ‘Black Five’ No. 45231 The Sherwood Forester and the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group’s LNER Q6…

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By Geoff Courtney A PRESERVED steam locomotive worksplate error that went undetected for decades has been corrected at a small ceremony during a rail gala at Amberley Museum in West Sussex on July 14-15. Former ironstone quarry 0-6-0ST Scaldwell had been carrying the wrong worksplate throughout its 35 years at Amberley and possibly before, but…

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SOUTHERN Locomotives Limited-owned unrebuilt Bulleid Pacific No. 34072 257 Squadron moved under its own steam at the Swanage Railway on August 9 after an absence of 15 years. The occasion was the first major test the 4-6-2 has had since leaving the line’s Herston Works last year. Further mileage accumulation and testing will follow, before…

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THE overhaul of the Nene Valley Railway’s flagship BR Standard 5MT No. 73050 City of Peterborough – which has a claim to being the final steam locomotive to leave a BR shed in August 1968 – is progressing at the line’s Wansford workshops. The 4-6-0 was withdrawn at the expiry of its boiler ticket in…

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