News

THE South Devon Railway has been in mourning following the death of the man believed to be the world’s longest-serving steam driver who, in 2017, clocked up 63 years’ continuous footplate service. Dave Knowling, who had just celebrated his 78th birthday, was one of the original members of staff to join the Dart Valley Railway…

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THE North Yorkshire Moors Railway is considering setting up a subsidiary trust to take on the long-term overhaul and management of Riddles WD 2-10-0 Dame Vera Lynn. However, it is understood that its ultimate ownership will be retained by the North Yorkshire Moors Historical Railway Trust, in accordance with the wishes of the late Clifford…

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The £5 million new-build Gresley 2-8-2, No. 2007 Prince of Wales, is set to becoming a rolling chassis this spring. Three new plain coupled axles were expected to arrive at Darlington Locomotive Works from South Africa via Unilathe at Stoke-on-Trent, where they have been finish machined, in early January. They are the replacements for those…

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By Phil Marsh Wolverton Works, the longest continuously-open standard gauge railway works in the world, was legally consigned to history on December 20 by Milton Keynes Council. That was the date which will go down in history as the formal signing-off of the planning application by its owners, property development company St Modwen. The company’s…

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By Geoff Courtney Passengers of all ages loved it, staff and volunteers were delighted, and doubtless Father Christmas thought it pretty special too. A humble 0-6-0T had returned to service in time for the Kent & East Sussex Railway’s Santa Specials, resplendent in blue livery enhanced by red lining that drew admiring glances and approving…

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By Phil Marsh THE Isle of Wight Steam Railway could be extended at both ends, to provide a new link between Newport and Ryde St Johns Road, if plans for the Isle of Wight’s rail network come to fruition. A public meeting in Shanklin Theatre on December 14 was billed as what the future shape…

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GREAT Central Railway directors have spent the festive season investigating the possibility of saving the scheme to build an £18 million national-standard landmark museum at Leicester North, after the project was delivered a pre-Christmas ‘body blow’ by principal backer the Heritage Lottery Fund. On December 13, both the railway and the heritage sector in general…

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By Geoff Courtney Two medals awarded to hero steam train driver Wallace Oakes, who died saving his passengers on a Euston-Carlisle express, have been put on permanent display by the National Railway Museum, while a memorial at his grave, which has been unmarked since his burial 52 years ago, is to be dedicated at a…

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STEAM passenger trains have returned to the Alnwick branch after two decades of effort by revivalists. The last BR steam passenger trains ran from Alnmouth to Alnwick on June 18, 1966 when the Standard 9F 2-10-0 No. 92099 hauled two-coach trains on the branch. However, the clock was put back on Thursday, December 28, when…

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Christmas came two days early for the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway when a 35 year dream of returning trains to the Cotswold tourist honeypot of Broadway finally came true. On December 23, the last rail on the line’s northern extension was fixed into position, linking it to the rails already laid between the platforms of the…

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