Features

Garratt articulated locomotives are the perfect choice to handle the heavy demands made on engines operating on the Welsh Highland Railway’s steep winding route through Snowdonia. Allan George outlines the history of the WHR fleet of Garratts. The Welsh Highland Railway runs from beneath the walls of Caernarfon Castle, through the rugged landscape west of…

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There has been considerable debate recently about raising the speed limit for main line steam to 90mph and Tornado is about to undertake some experimental runs. John Forman argues that it is time for a more realistic assessment of high speed steam performance on the main line. First of all, it is completely wrong to…

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Been thinking about whether to volunteer at your local preserved railway? Paul Appleton encourages you to take that step forward… something he did at the Severn Valley Railway just three years ago. We hear it all the time: “our heritage railways need more volunteers”, so why don’t more of us roll our sleeves up and…

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The Chinnor branch has seen a succession of visiting pannier tanks from the South Devon Railway. Martin Creese describes a photo charter in wintry conditions in Oxfordshire. The early return of London Transport-liveried 0-6-0PT L92 (5786) to its home railway in South Devon, brought about the unexpected return of former Weymouth Docks and latterly Wenford…

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Steam locomotive restoration the world over is not generally funded by governments but by the valiant efforts of individuals, societies or private companies as in the UK. It is therefore remarkable that Ecuador has seen a government-funded railway and steam locomotive rebuilding programme on an unprecedented scale, including the setting up of a workshop for…

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By Don Benn My theme this time is steam out of Marylebone in the 1960s and 1980s. I didn’t cover the Great Central line in its heyday; only when it was in serious decline in the mid-1960s, and then as a change from the South Western main line. In September 1964, the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’…

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“Towing a failed DMU” were words that appeared regularly in the railway press in the 1960s, but such workings were rarely photographed. Robert Anderson, who was in a privileged position, remembers many such workings. spent but six months of my railway career at Bradford’s Hammerton Street Diesel Traction Depot and I have to say those…

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In a special feature to mark the imminent reopening of the much-loved Settle and Carlisle route to through trains following last February’s landslip and the completion of Network Rail’s £23 million repair programme, Brian Sharpe and Robin Jones look at a dozen of the best lineside locations to capture the much-anticipated return of steam action.…

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