News

  • Crowds drawn to Welshpool & Llanfair Railway gala this month

    Crowds drawn to Welshpool & Llanfair Railway gala this month

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    Visitors were not in short supply at the annual Welshpool & Llanfair Railway gala, held between Friday, August 31 and Sunday, September 2. One of the highlights of the narrow gauge scene’s calendar, as is tradition, the Mid Wales 2ft 6in gauge line operated its most intensive timetable of the year – but with some…

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  • A1 Trust launches new V4 subsidiary for new-build

    A1 Trust launches new V4 subsidiary for new-build

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    TORNADO builder The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust has launched a new subsidiary to build a Gresley V4 2-6-2 at a cost of around £3 million. The trust has acquired more than 500 original class V4 drawings from Malcolm Barlow, a Doncaster scrap dealer who launched the now-defunct Gresley V4 Society in 1994 to build a…

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  • Duchess of Sutherland is back in its birthday suit!

    Duchess of Sutherland is back in its birthday suit!

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    Princess Coronation 4-6-2 No. 6233 Duchess of Sutherland is back in steam – and also in its original LMS crimson lake livery to mark its 80th birthday. Following the completion of a major overhaul, a special ‘roll out day’ was held on Sunday, September 9 at the iconic 1938-built locomotive’s base – the West Shed…

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  • Untitled post 5557

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    Golden memories as ‘Streak’ in the spotlight The smokebox numberplate from LNER A4 No. 60031 Golden Plover will head the line-up at a Thirsk Railwayana Auctions’ sale in North Yorkshire on September 22. The Gresley Pacific was built at Doncaster in October 1937 and withdrawn from Glasgow’s St Rollox shed (65B) in October 1965. Another…

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  • Countrywide selection scales the heights at ticket sale

    Countrywide selection scales the heights at ticket sale

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    A collection of 800 mostly BR, but also pre-Nationalisation, platform tickets from all the regions topped the charts among the railway ticket realisations at Paddington Ticket Auctions’ sale in central London on July 21, with a hammer price of £780. An even larger collection, comprising 1500 rail tickets also both pre and post-Nationalisation and mostly…

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  • Latecomers boost Great Central’s Stoneleigh auction nameplate tally to 14

    Latecomers boost Great Central’s Stoneleigh auction nameplate tally to 14

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    Three latecomers have swollen the number of main line steam nameplates at Great Central’s Stoneleigh auction on September 1 to 14. As reported in last month’s column, the sale was listed to offer 11 plates, headed by a GWR Star, a SR Battle of Britain, and an LMS Royal Scot. At a late stage, however,…

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  • Second XI to give stars full support in live steam sale

    Second XI to give stars full support in live steam sale

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    As REPORTED in the news section of this issue, five live steam locomotive models with estimates of up to £50,000 will head a transport sale being held by Dreweatts on September 19. The quintet are GWR No. 7017 G.J. Churchward and a Manor class 4-6-0, LMS ‘Black 5’ No. 5041, BR Standard Class 2MT No.…

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  • Single collection sets tills ringing

    Single collection sets tills ringing

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    Five nameplates from a single collection comprising four GWR examples and a Standard Britannia set the tills ringing at GW Railwayana’s sale at Pershore on July 14, with hammer prices ranging from £3700 to £11,900. The five-figure realisation was for St. Mawes Castle from No. 5018, which emerged from Swindon works in August 1932 and…

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  • Smell the coffee, ladies!

    Smell the coffee, ladies!

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    Just what world do the likes of Amber Rudd MP and Sally Ann Hart live in? For a council tourism chief to claim that extending the Kent & East Sussex Railway into Robertsbridge will have a negative effect on tourism (News, issue 244) shows how totally out of touch they are with reality. I visit…

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  • Basingstoke’s Milestones Museum

    Basingstoke’s Milestones Museum

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    Railways comprise a major part of local history. Phil Barnes visits a Hampshire museum which recognises this with an impressive display. Portraying Hampshire’s living history, Milestones Museum is situated to the west side of Basingstoke only a stone’s throw from the site of the former junction of the branch line to Alton via Cliddesdon, which…

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