News

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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Gareth Evans reports on the East Lancashire Railway’s autumn steam gala, with its varied locomotive line-up. THE East Lancashire Railway’s three-day autumn steam gala held on October 19-21 offered a wide selection of motive power large and small. The timetable ranged from the mighty elegance of No. 6233 Duchess of Sutherland, to delightful resident stalwart…

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THE Bluebell Railway’s new interactive locomotive exhibition, SteamWorks! is now open Andrew Blessley, a Heritage Lottery Fund South-East committee member, and the Bluebell’s Roger Kelly, threw open the doors of the attraction on October 19 at 1.30pm. This marked the completion of the first phase of the railway’s three-year ASH (Accessible Steam Heritage) project. The…

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Words and pictures by Brian Sharpe THE Elsecar Heritage Railway leads a relatively low-key existence, rarely making the headlines, but in a unique collaboration with local university students, during the autumn the line played host to a former main line steam locomotive for the first time. Built by the South Yorkshire Railway, the branch became…

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By Gareth Evans THE Mid-Hants Railway Preservation Society has moved its ‘Black Five’ No. 45379 to Locomotive Storage Ltd.’s undercover facility in Margate, Kent. The 4-6-0’s boiler certificate expired on September 9. The MHRPS confirmed the locomotive is likely to stay there for up to five years while it awaits its turn in the overhaul…

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