News

East Coast sunrise spectacular FLYING Scotsman – the locomotive which has the uncanny ability of writing world transport history without a second thought – has done it again. As helicopters circled overhead, global headlines and newsreel footage were generated on a steady production run after dawn on Sunday, April 23, when No. 60103 stood to…

Continue reading »

WITH the ongoing overhaul of A4 4-6-2 No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley reported to be on schedule at York and Llangollen (boiler), it is likely that the 4-6-2’s return to the main line will coincide with the planned and permanent withdrawal of sister locomotive No. 60009 Union of South Africa. Then the national A4 line-up…

Continue reading »

By Cedric Johns WHAT was described as a vision for the future was launched by Tyseley Locomotive Works chairman Michael Whitehouse on Saturday, March 18 when he officially unveiled plans for a multi-million project to redevelop Vintage Trains’ existing facilities as a major Midland tourist centre. The pre-publicised launch, held at nearby Tyseley Working Men’s…

Continue reading »

AS PART of the BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust’s ongoing efforts to raise funds to pay for the heavy overhaul of its unique BR three-cylinder 4-6-2 No. 71000, the human Duke of Gloucester has signed several prints taken from a new painting by Nick Trudgian. Commissioned by trust secretary Ron Mitchell, the painting depicts…

Continue reading »

With no Premier League heavyweight in the mix, the nameplate category at Great Central’s March 4 auction at Stoneleigh looked on paper to be a close call for top honours. And so it proved, with the leading three being less than £3000 apart, followed by another batch of three snapping at their heels Pride of…

Continue reading »

By Hugh Dougherty WORK has started on the restoration of ex-BR Class 311 103 at Summerlee Industrial Museum as part of the site’s 30th birthday celebrations which fall in March next year. Originally a three-car unit built by Cravens in 1967 as one of the second batch of the famous Glasgow ‘Blue Trains’, two cars,…

Continue reading »

By Geoff Courtney FORMER quarry company 0-6-0ST Ring Haw is to boost the Spa Valley Railway steam fleet during the summer after its arrival at the Tunbridge Wells-based line on May 22, when it will join resident steam locomotives Nos. 62 and 72. The saddletank is a wartime product, having been built by Hunslet Engine…

Continue reading »

By Geoff Courtney A leading European preservationist has turned to Heritage Railway for information about a veteran steam locomotive which has a strong British connection and is part of a growing collection at a new railway museum that opened last year. The locomotive is a vertical-boilered 0-4-0T built by Cockerill, an iron, steel and manufacturing…

Continue reading »

THE £5 million project to build the seventh Gresley P2 2-8-2 continues to make rapid progress at Darlington Locomotive Works, despite a setback with the axles. On extracting the plain coupled axles from the packing crates in which they were transported from South Africa, they were inspected by Unilathe at Stoke-on-Trent, and found to have…

Continue reading »

THE Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways has scooped a £464,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant for its Heritage Trainees project. Twenty people will be offered year-long traineeships to develop their heritage skills, while maintaining the line and its rolling stock, gain a greater understanding of the broader heritage scene and act as messengers for heritage within…

Continue reading »