News

By Jonathan Webb LOCOMOTIVE Services Limited has commenced steam crew training on the Severn Valley Railway. The TOC currently makes great use of drivers from other operators, such as DB Cargo, which are hired in to drive their steam charters, as it has very few steam qualified drivers of its own. The training, which involves…

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By Robin Jones and Cedric Johns BRITAIN’S newest Train Operating Company, Vintage Trains Limited, has run its first official train – and it wasn’t steam or heritage stock. Just nine days after the TOC’s public launch, on Thursday, September 27, VTL provided the crew and paths for mileage accumulation on the new Vivarail Class 230…

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The weekend of September 29-30 saw Tyseley Locomotive Works celebrate in style the 50th anniversary of its first open day back in 1968. Robin Jones encountered a fresh atmosphere of euphoria and positivIty around the GWR depot as Vintage Trains embarks on its next great adventure in its new role as a Train Operating Company.…

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Gareth Evans reports on the Super-Power 2018 gala, which celebrated the start of Welsh Highland trains between Dinas and Caernarfon in 1997 – and he also gains a look inside the line’s impressive new northern terminus It’s staggering to think 21 years have elapsed since the rebirth of the Welsh Highland Railway from the Caernarfon…

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This year’s Severn Valley Railway’s September 20-23 autumn steam gala has been described as the event of the year, featuring no less than three express passenger locomotives in Royal Scot, Duchess of Sutherland and Britannia. A fortnight later, the GWR cross-county route played host to a fourth generation of raw West Coast Main Line super…

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THE Dartmouth Steam Railway is to light up Christmas… and offer a festive steam special like no other. It will run a series of American-style Christmas trains, with locomotives and carriages lit up with in excess of 100,000 lights plus miles of cabling. The formula has for years proved immensely popular with the operations across…

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THE National Railway Museum has confirmed that the workshop at York is to close in order to create both more gallery space and more space for displaying rolling stock. Titled The Works, the Heritage Lottery Fund grant-aided facility opened in 1999, and it enables visitors to look down from a balcony on locomotives being overhauled,…

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By Cedric Johns DESPITE indifferent morning weather when Flying Scotsman departed Plymouth North Road to begin the A3’s first-ever visit into Cornwall, thousands lined the 78 miles of the testing route across the Duchy to Penzance on Saturday, October 6. The extended week of action began on Thursday, October 4, when Flying Scotsman supported by…

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