News

THE Severn Valley Railway’s share issue for the upgrade of Bridgnorth station has clearly captured the public imagination – with nearly £500,000 in shares subscribed within five weeks as we closed for press. SVR officials are jubilant at the public response to the scheme, designed to elevate the line’s northern terminus into a modern facility…

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WORK on upgrading the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at the Talyllyn Railway’s Tywyn Wharf station has begun after the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £42,700 to the project. Following the grant aid award, physical work on improving the exhibits and displays started immediately, with a projected completion date of March next year. In addition to refreshing…

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By Cedric Johns Rumours that have been circulating for months have now become reality, as both Jeremy Hosking’s Locomotive Services and Vintage Trains are intending to apply to become licenced Train Operating Companies. This latest development was always a possibility for Locomotive Services but Vintage Trains’ application, coming hard on the heels of a £1…

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COMPLETING its pre-Christmas run on December 12 with a trip to Canterbury, The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust’s new spring programme opens with either a visit to RAF Cosford and its vast aircraft museum, the Blists Hill Museum, Telford, or to Shrewsbury, behind 4-6-2 No. 60163 Tornado, working the ‘Red Rose’ from Victoria on February 11, calling…

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AN ENGINEER accused of failing to properly inspect a steam locomotive which suffered a blow-out on the Beer Heights Light Railway, injuring the trainee driver, has been cleared. Andrew Lake was badly burned after being showered in hot cinders and boiling water while driving the 1999-built 0-4-2T Samastipur when its ashbox blew out on July…

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By Geoff Courtney THE sound of new trains that will carry members of the public for the first time have echoed through the century-old tunnels of a closed railway that ran beneath the streets of central London for 76 years. Photographs released exclusively to Heritage Railway show a train on test on November 16, preparing…

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Preservation powerhouse Julian Birley has announced the final choice of the route of the planned green and brownfield extension of the Bala Lake Railway into the heart of the town. Instead of using the former trackbed of the long-closed GWR route to Blaenau Ffestiniog, and building a new bridge to cross the River Dee, it…

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By Phil Marsh THE demolition of Wolverton Works – the world’s oldest, longest continually open standard gauge railway works – was sanctioned at a Milton Keynes Council planning meeting on November 17. The council’s development control committee approved the controversial outline planning application of the property developer and owners of the Works, St Modwen’s. There…

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By Paul Appleton GWR 0-6-0PT No. 7714 has made its first loaded test runs at the Severn Valley Railway and is set to make its public debut during the line’s busy festive season. Having just missed out on the SVR’s Season Finale gala – where it was due to star alongside fellow returnee 0-6-0ST No.…

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THE South Devon Railway has won the Heritage Railway Association Interpretation Award – bringing to 10 the total honours won by the Buckfastleigh line in 2016. The award, sponsored by Heritage Railway magazine, is to be presented to the railway for the completion of a new – yet authentic – GWR country station at Totnes…

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