News

PECKETT 0-6-0ST Scaldwell has left its long-time home at Amberley Museum for restoration to running order on the Southwold Railway. The locomotive, No. 1316 of 1913, was taken by low-loader from the Sussex museum where it had spent the last 35 years. As previously reported, the museum agreed that Southwold was the best place for…

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THE Downpatrick & County Down Railway has been in mourning following the sudden death of its co-founder and president Bill Gillespie. Bill, who was 85, passed away on June 30, while on holiday in Jersey with his wife Winnie. He and co-founder Gerry Cochrane first met Eddie McGrady in 1982 to propose a heritage railway…

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By Paul Appleton PLANS have been announced for a new three-road wagon shed to be constructed on the site of the former British Sugar Corporation sidings at Foley Park, between Kidderminster and Bewdley on the Severn Valley Railway. The proposal has come about following discussions between the SVR’s wagon department and other related groups during…

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THE Swindon & Cricklade Railway is appealing for extra help in rebuilding a 58-year-old DEMU driving trailer, which replaced another destroyed in an arson attack. Skilled welders and steel fabricators are required to return the ‘Thumper’ vehicle to its former glory, and the heritage railway is offering free membership to anyone who can help. The…

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Exclusive: By Geoff Courtney THE National Railway Museum has dismissed reports from Australia that it is considering a bid for Beyer-Garratt No. 6029, the world’s largest operational locomotive which is currently at the heart of enthusiasts’ concerns down under, following the collapse of the society that owns it and the closure of its museum home.…

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THE Llangollen Railway’s new Corwen Central terminus will have a ‘capital city’ feel about it. The project has obtained 13 cast-iron columns that came from Blackfriars station for use as the basis of the platform canopy. Collected from the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway, the columns are thought to be of London Chatham & Dover Railway…

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SEVERN Valley Railway patron Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, was scheduled to launch new workshop facilities on the South Tynedale Railway, on the day that its northern extension to Slaggyford was also officially opened. At an official engagement in the afternoon of July 24, after we closed for press, the duke was to visit…

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THE Penrhyn Quarry Railway at Bethesda has closed down at short notice. The group running the fifth-of-a-mile section of the former Penrhyn Railway is also dispersing its stock from its Felin Fawr base to other narrow gauge lines. In a statement posted on Facebook, Penrhyn Rail Ltd director Ellis Griffith Morey said: “It is true…

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SATURDAY, July 8, was the first time that a DMU operated on a timetabled revenue-earning service over the Gwili Railway’s newly-opened extension from Abergwili Junction near Carmarthen to Bronwydd Arms. The only previous known operations of DMUs on the former Carmarthen to Aberystwyth line were in the late 1960s and early 1970s when several railtours…

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