News

BARRY wreck GWR 2-8-0 No. 2859 has been sold by the Llangollen Railway Great Western Locomotive Group to a private buyer for £38,000. The sale, completed on October 6, came after three separate groups expressed an interest in buying the 1918-built locomotive, which came minus a tender and many other fittings. The new owner, Paul…

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WHAT will be Britain’s most powerful steam locomotive has been ‘twinned’ with the country’s largest warship. A ‘bond of friendship’ between new aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and new Gresley P2 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales has been forged between builder The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust and the Royal Navy. HMS Prince of…

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THE Foxfield Railway-based North Staffordshire Railway Rolling Stock Restoration Trust has been awarded £89,600 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for its accessible brake coach project. The £150,000 project involves the restoration of the remains of a unique 1880s North Staffordshire Railway four-wheeled brake third coach, built locally in Stoke-on-Trent. It will provide additional seating for…

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FORMER BR driver Jeff Madge has taken his last turn on the footplate on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway – after 65 years in the rail industry. Jeff, who lives in Caerphilly, joined Cardiff Canton depot in August 1952 aged just 15, the following year moving to Old Oak Common in London, where he passed…

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The two-year trial diesel service from Swanage to Wareham has earned the Purbeck Community Rail Partnership an Innovation in Community Rail award. The award was made at the annual dinner for the Association of Community Rail Partnerships at its gala evening on October 5. It was hosted by East Midlands Trains in Derby’s roundhouse museum.…

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By Hugh Dougherty A ROAD van body, used to house a generator for a nearby caravan on the North Channel shore, one mile north of Port Logan, in Dumfries and Galloway, has stumped experts from the Glasgow & South Western Railway Association, who said that it’s impossible to determine which company the grounded vehicle body…

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Saturday, October 14 was a landmark occasion for the Cornish Steam Locomotive Preservation Society (CSLPS) when Bagnall Austerity 0-6-0ST No. 75178, resplendent in its War Department livery, went for its first trial run after a very lengthy restoration on the Bodmin & Wenford Railway. Four decades after it had previously steamed, a fire was lit…

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A £90,000 appeal has been launched to manufacture the motion for new-build NER G5 0-4-4T No. 1759. The Class G5 Locomotive Company Limited is building the locomotive on the same site as the old BR wagon works in Shildon and hopes to run it not only on heritage lines but the main line, too. Progress…

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THE last of three Ivatt locomotives gifted to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway has returned to the island. The Ivatt Locomotive Trust relocated 2-6-2Ts Nos. 41298 and 41313 and 2-6-0 No. 46447 to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway between 2006-8. The ownership of all three was subsequently transferred to the railway. The East…

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LNER A4 Pacific No. 60009 Union of South Africa is approaching the end of its active main line preservation career and attracts attention wherever it goes in a busy programme on both the main line and heritage lines. After a series of railtours in the south of England, the A4 reached York at the head…

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