News

By Geoff Courtney When Stuart Black retired from his high-flying job as a weapons systems operator and instructor on supersonic Phantom, Tomcat and Tornado fighter aircraft, he opted for a rather quieter and slower life that reflected his family history of a passion for railways. Stuart retired from the RAF in 2005 after a 31-year…

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By Hugh Dougherty THE race is on to complete the restoration of Glasgow ‘Coronation’ tram No. 1245 in time for the streamliner’s 80th birthday. Members of the Summerlee Transport Group have reunited the tram’s top and bottom decks in the Coatbridge museum’s workshop and are working hard to complete the work by May 2019, 80…

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Amberley Museum launches its 2017 railway gala season on April 9, with an industrial locomotives day that will include public steam trains and demonstration freight runs by diesel and battery engines. The public steam trains will be hauled on the museum’s ½-mile 2ft gauge line, which has three stations, by resident 0-4-0ST Peter, built by…

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THE Historic Dockyard Chatham has sounded an SOS for volunteers to help keep its standard gauge railway running. Since the Royal Navy Dockyard closed in March 1984 and became a unique visitor attraction as the world’s only preserved naval dockyard from Tudor times, the internal standard gauge railway has continued to operate at least once…

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THE South Devon Railway and the South Devon Diesel Traction Group held a John Frood Memorial Running Day on February 25. John was a long-term serving member of the South Devon Diesel Traction Group and was usually to be seen acting as second man to the diesel locomotives on gala days. He had already achieved…

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PLANS to turn Dover’s Old Harbour Station into a live music and theatre venue have been given the go ahead. Last August, the plans were submitted to Dover District Council by local man and lessee Stuart Cameron to convert the Elizabeth Street premises into an entertainment venue, with temporary staging and a licensed bar. The…

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PLANS to expand the heritage line laid on part of the Waverley Route have been submitted to Scottish Borders Council. The Whitrope Heritage Centre, which is based in two railway carriages at Whitrope Sidings, just off the B6399, wants to enhance its railway operation. The first section of the track was laid in 2005, with…

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THE Ravenglas & Eskdale Railway will be celebrating two major events this year – the debut of its ‘Train from Spain’ and the 50th anniversary of what is considered the heritage sector’s first new-build locomotive. The Train from Spain, Krauss Pacific No.8457 – which ran at the Ibero-American Exposition in Seville from 1929-32 and was…

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For many years, the National Railway Museum’s LSWR Beattie well tank No. 30587 was locked in behind a concrete barrier in the South Devon Railway’s Buckfastleigh museum, seemingly with no hope of ever running again. It was one of a trio which, before the heritage railway movement got into full swing, drew enthusiasts from all over…

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The back conversion of Bulleid Merchant Navy Pacific No. 35011 General Steam Navigation reached another milestone with the launch of a ‘cranking up the pressure’ appeal to convert its plain flawed central axle into a crank axle. General Steam Navigation was placed in storage when it was withdrawn from service in February 1966, but in…

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