News

THE reinvigoration of the Vale of Rheidol Railway has reached another stage – with the announcement that passenger facilities are to be significantly enhanced at the line’s Aberystwyth terminus. Titled ‘Wales to the World’, the £2.2 million project will see the current terminus transformed into a GWR-style station suitable for the modern tourist, together with…

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A 107-YEAR-OLD tram has been gifted to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and is now on display at Havenstreet station. The standard gauge vehicle is the only surviving example of a tram built by Pollard and Sons, carriage and motor car builders of Hill Street, Ryde. Although the body was new in 1911, the…

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By Jonathan Webb and Robin Jones The Great Western Society is gearing up for its 60th anniversary in 2021 and has announced that Collett 0-4-2T No. 1466 is to be overhauled in time for the big event. The locomotive was the first to be acquired by the GWS, along with auto coach No. 231, so…

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THE railway sector has paid tribute to Railway Touring Company founder Nigel Dobbing, who passed away in hospital following an illness on October 14 at the age of 66. Nigel, a father, brother and grandfather, died in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, where the popular tour operator was based. Coming from a farming…

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THE Churnet Valley Railway has gained a key foothold in its bid to extend into Leek town centre by rebuilding the former ‘interchange’ station at Leek Brook Junction. Using grants from Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and Peak Leader, which helps rural business and communities, the station has been built as an exact replica of the…

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NEW Train Operating Company Vintage Trains is to bring the hugely-successful US-style Polar Express to Birmingham city centre this Christmas. The theatrical recreation of the classic children’s tale by professional dancers and actors has been phenomenally successful as prime family entertainment on heritage lines like the Telford Steam Railway, Dartmoor and Weardale Railways – but…

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HUNSLET 0-6-0ST No. 1589 of 1929 Newstead, which was rediscovered in a corrugated shed in the grounds of a convent after it was thought ‘missing-presumed scrapped’ has been moved from the Nene Valley Railway to the Spa Valley Railway. Restored in the early 1990s by Malcolm Saul at his home but never used, Newstead arrived…

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By Jonathan Webb NOVEMBER 5 saw the Heritage Railway-backed project to re-create an LMS Patriot class take a significant leap forward, with the boiler being lowered into the frames of No. 5551 The Unknown Warrior at Crewe Heritage Centre. Although only a trial fitting, it was deemed important to get the boiler, being constructed by…

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By Dick Wood THE South Devon Railway has run a special train to commemorate the last BR services on the GWR Ashburton branch 60 years to the day. Regular timetabled passenger trains on the 10-mile Totnes to Ashburton branch, which opened in 1876, ran for the last time on November 1, 1958, with a final…

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THE Llangollen Railway ran the last public service train of the 2018 season with commemorative bilingual headboard and flags, to mark the end of four years of successful operations to the Phase 1 temporary platform at Dwyrain Corwen East. Fittingly, on Sunday, November 4, GWR 2-8-0 No. 3802 performed the honours as it did with…

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