News

THE Heritage Shunters Trust has launched a £15,000 appeal to bring back a Class 04 shunter from Italy. A supporter has already agreed to fund the purchase price of the locomotive, D2289, but extra money is now needed for transport costs. Isle of Sheppey company Shipbreaking (Queenborough) exported around 15 redundant Class 03, 04, 06…

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A NEW project is seeking help from local communities as it compiles a new history of the Midland Railway main line between Derby and Manchester. The first phase of the Derwent & Wye Valley Railway Trust project has just received £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Tracking Our Heritage project. The money will…

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By Geoff Courtney The distinctive sound of a Rolls-Royce Merlin-engined Spitfire aircraft, Churchillian speeches, military vehicles, and steam-hauled passenger trains, will reverberate around the town of Tenterden on the weekend of May 19-20, as the Kent & East Sussex Railway holds a 1940s gala that will bring back memories to locals and visitors of a…

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THE ‘dream pairing’ of blue-liveried Caledonian Railway survivors 812 class 0-6-0 No. 828 and 493 class 0-4-4T No. 419 will be the highlight of the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway’s November 2-4 autumn gala. Dubbed the ‘Caley Reunion’, the ‘must see’ event will see 1899-built No. 828 brought from the Strathspey Railway to run alongside No.…

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A GROUND-BREAKING ‘modern’ freight vehicle has been donated to the Locomotion museum. The nationally significant High-Speed Freight Vehicle 1 (HSFV1) has been given to the Shildon venue by the APT-E-Support Group following the enforced closure of the Electric Railway Museum at Coventry. The HSFV1 made international high-speed travel and freight carrying possible. It was developed…

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By Roger Melton A ‘Spaceship’ – the now-unique single-chimneyed BR Standard 9F 2-10-0 No. 92134 – is to be based on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for at least its 10-year boiler ticket. Class members were so nicknamed by some enthusiasts for the amount of daylight visible under their boilers, which was a rare phenomenon…

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By Cedric Johns TYSELEY Locomotive Works is steaming ahead with plans to launch its own Train Operating Company, and its share issue for the purpose was nearing its £800,00 target as we closed for press. Adrian Shooter, the chairman of Tyseley’s negotiating team, said: “We are discussing various detail issues with members of the Office…

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SPONSORED by Heritage Railway publisher Mortons, the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s Cotswold Festival of Steam is set to be the biggest and best ever – with BR Britannia Pacific No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell joining the action. As reported last month, the Great Central Railway-based ‘Brit’ has been given an extension to its boiler ticket so it…

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THE Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s June 24-July 1 50th anniversary gala will welcome back two old stalwarts. Bulleid West Country light Pacific No. 34092 City of Wells – for which its current home, the East Lancashire Railway has a £340,920 appeal to buy it from its three current owners, and LMS ‘Black Five’ No.…

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The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway has claimed a world first with the relaunch of 4-8-2 No. 6 Samson on Saturday, March 21. The Mountain class locomotive’s comeback happened five years after it last hauled a passenger train. The action was streamed around the world on Facebook and Twitter with an internet-connected camera on the…

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