News

THEY toiled for 36 years to reach this goal – and so the volunteers and shareholders were given the privilege of riding on the first Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway trains into the new Broadway terminus. Around 2000 of them accepted invitations to board a series of private ‘Return to Broadway’ specials on March 21 and 22,…

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Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Q class express 4-4-0 No. 131 has been officially launched into traffic following the completion of a £400,000 overhaul. No. 131, which was built by Neilson Reid in Glasgow in 1901, was withdrawn from traffic in Dublin in 1963, and after a period in storage, was first displayed on a plinth…

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By Cedric Johns IN a move which took many by surprise, Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited operated its first passenger train – albeit a private charter – on Saturday, March 24. Hauled by a pair of the company’s Class 47 diesels, the charter departed Crewe and travelling north, crossed the border at Berwick heading for the…

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SIR William McAlpine Bt, FRSE, FCILT – one of the most important figures in the history of railway preservation, and certainly one of the most loved – took his final journey behind steam. The man, known at work as ‘Mr Bill’ and to so many as just Bill, has long been hailed a national hero…

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A £275,000 appeal to save the Severn Valley Railway’s Falling Sands Viaduct has been launched – and is being backed by Heritage Railway and our sister title The Railway Magazine. As we reported last month, the Heritage Lottery Fund has given the railway £71,800 to firm up a scheme to carry out repairs to the…

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Jubilees and B1s weren’t in all honesty the stuff of dreams for us 1950s’ trainspotters – although the former carried names that were at least recognisable and pronounceable, unlike many of the latter – but six decades later their nameplates have a following that transcends their original muted appeal to teenage enthusiasts. One of each…

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The famed works at Crewe will be a dominating force in Great Northern’s sale at Poynton on April 7, when nameplates from three locomotives built there will be jostling for collectors’ attention. They are Duchess of Kent and Leinster (LMS Nos. 46212 and 45741), and William Wordsworth from Britannia No. 70030. The Princess Royal was…

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Nameplates from two GWR 4-6-0s that ended their days within six months of each other at London’s Old Oak Common shed (81A) will headline GW Railwayana’s sale at Pershore on March 17. They are Ketley Hall from No. 4935 and Usk Castle from No. 5032. The Hall was built in June 1929 and withdrawn in…

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Now reaching the final stages of its overhaul, B1 4-6-0 No. 61306 Mayflower has, at this late stage, been declared out of gauge for its first revenue-earning trip, the long delayed charity train from London to Harwich on April 15. As reported last month, the 4-6-0’s boiler has been delivered to Carnforth to enable final…

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