Features

With steam surviving into the 21st century, China was perhaps slow in making efforts to preserve its earlier railway heritage, but Paul Stratford reports from Beijing on the country’s impressive railway museum. The United Kingdom may be able to boast the National Railway Museum in York and the annexe at Shildon, but China, better known…

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It is nearly 50 years since the first steam locomotive was rescued from Barry scrapyard for preservation. Fiona Kennaugh tells the story of how her father, Alexander Macdonald, was instrumental in saving this locomotive, a move which was to open the door for a further 212 steam engines to leave the famous yard. The only…

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By Don Benn As a change from the usual full day out with steam, and in response to demand, UK Railtours and the Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society decided to try a short day circular trip on Saturday, November 18. The itinerary was different from the usual Belmond Surrey Hills circuit and embraced lines where…

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TV dramas are not always noted for their historical accuracy, but one children’s series in the 1980s was very different in this respect. Avril Rowlands, who wrote the stories, recounts the efforts made to achieve authenticity while filming on the Severn Valley Railway. At 5.15 on eight consecutive Wednesday evenings in 1980 more than five…

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Hugh Dougherty visits the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s museum on the Antrim coast, which has now been nominated for a Heritage Railway Association Peter Manisty Award for excellence. When the first RPSI members moved their embryonic Irish railway heritage collection to the old Whitehead Excursion Station at Whitehead in County Antrim in 1966, they…

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