News

IN a sector that was long regarded an exclusively male-oriented domain, three ladies have been appointed to top jobs. In a move that had been widely anticipated for several months, Judith McNicol has been confirmed as the permanent director of the National Railway Museum, one of the top jobs in world railway heritage and becomes…

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PLANS to extend the Bala Lake Railway into the heart of the town have begun. In February, the removal of the very toxic brown asbestos cladding on the disused industrial building on the site of the new station began. Once it was removed, the main demolition of the ‘eyesore’ building started. Fundraising is progressing with…

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THE tender from WR 4-6-0 No. 6984 Owsden Hall has been taken to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre to be paired with fellow ex-Barry hulk and sister No. 6989 Wightwick Hall, in anticipation of a possible steaming this year. The 6989 Wightwick Hall Restoration Group said that its locomotive, which was built at Swindon in 1948…

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By Geoff Courtney CLOSER links between British narrow gauge preservationists and their counterparts in Russia are set to be forged in April, when a small delegation from the former Eastern Bloc country visits the UK. Sergei Dorozhkov and Dmitrii Kalinovskii, two narrow gauge enthusiasts and specialists from one of Russia’ s leading railway museums, will…

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FIFTY years have passed since British Rail ran its last steam trains on the national network – and the heritage sector is thriving like never before. That was the message from the Heritage Railway Association’s 2017 Awards presentation evening which drew around 200 delegates to the MacDonald Burlington Hotel in Birmingham on February 10. Master…

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A ROAD in Darlington has been officially named after new-build Peppercorn A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado. Tornado Way is now the new name for a major commuter road in the town, previously and provisionally known as the Darlington Eastern Transport Corridor. It was first opened to motorists in 2007, linking the A66 with Darlington town…

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A NEW project to re-create a long-lost Welsh Highland Railway locomotive is set to be launched. Single Fairlie 0-6-4T Gowrie was built by Hunslet in 1908 for the WHR’s predecessor, the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway, but is believed to have been scrapped in or around 1928. A group of engineers want to build a…

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THE Duchess of Cornwall gave an early start to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s 50th anniversary celebrations when she took a trip in a special train over part of the line. Camilla rode in the Old Gentleman’s Carriage as featured in the 1970 EMI big-screen version of The Railway Children. Her visit to the…

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THE Bodmin & Wenford Railway has laid the first all-new piece of track work in its heritage era history. The track work is a new point leading into the sidings at the Walker Lines industrial estate to the south of Bodmin. All other track work on the line was inherited from British Rail or supplied…

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By Colin Tyson The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway has returned to providing a full service from February 1, following last year’s 104-day total shutdown of the heritage line amid the political unrest in the region caused by the pro-Gorkhaland campaign. Gorkhaland separatists (Indians of Nepali origin) want the area around Darjeeling to be split off from…

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