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Letters

  • Should we re-create The Great Bear?

    Should we re-create The Great Bear?

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    Over the past few years the Great Western Society has made great strides to close the missing gaps with the new build 4-6-0 Grange, 4-6-0 Saint and the 4-6-0 County and of course the 2-8-0 Night Owl. Now the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway has just announced its intension to build the 4-4-0 County: add to this…

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  • Eardington is lighting the way

    Eardington is lighting the way

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    I am a volunteer lampman at Eardington station on the Severn Valley Railway, where we have set up a small lamp room dedicated to the repair, restoration and display of railway lamps from the pre-electric era. We have a modest collection of working hand lamps, signal lamps, loco lamps, platform lamps and related items. The…

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  • GWR memories in a garage in the 1950s

    GWR memories in a garage in the 1950s

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    The article by Geoff Courtney in issue 244 of nameplate Knight of the Thistle from GWR Star class No. 4012 coming up for auction reminded me that this was one of several nameplates hanging for years on a garage inside wall just along the road from me. Two others were Tre Pol and Pen from…

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  • Safety and security must come first

    Safety and security must come first

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    During my two decades in railway journalism, conflicts between the requirements of rails and the ambitions of cyclepath promoters have often been vexed issues, the latest manifestation being the controversy over the use of the footbridge that links Totnes to the South Devon Railway’s Totnes (Riverside) terminus and the town’s magnificent rare breeds farm next…

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  • Smell the coffee, ladies!

    Smell the coffee, ladies!

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    Just what world do the likes of Amber Rudd MP and Sally Ann Hart live in? For a council tourism chief to claim that extending the Kent & East Sussex Railway into Robertsbridge will have a negative effect on tourism (News, issue 244) shows how totally out of touch they are with reality. I visit…

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  • A different train of thought

    A different train of thought

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    As president of the Halstead & District Local History Society, I would like to respond to Ian McKenzie’s strong criticism in last month’s issue of the wording ‘train station’ – rather than ‘railway station’ – used by Lidl with its superb tile mosaic on the outside wall of the supermarket group’s new store in the…

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  • Midland 0-4-4T information required

    Midland 0-4-4T information required

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    I was given the enclosed postcard during my travels for work but regrettably cannot remember any detail. It is a Midland Railway 1262 class 0-4-4T built by Neilson in 1876 and withdrawn in 1927, but no other details have come to light. Can any readers shed any light as to the location, date or other…

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  • In praise of Chinese railway museum

    In praise of Chinese railway museum

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    Thanks to the magazine and Paul Stratford for the article and pictures of the China Railway Museum. How gratifying it is to see the Chinese are taking their heritage seriously with this impressive museum. I visited China on an organised tour in 1988 and visited a ‘museum’ at Shenyang, next to Su Jia Tun depot,…

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  • The forgotten heritage railway bank branch!

    The forgotten heritage railway bank branch!

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    As a regular reader and subscriber to Heritage Railway, I see that you carry what I would call ‘human interest’ stories as well as core heritage topics. I recently received a communication from Royal Bank of Scotland to advise that its Longsight, Manchester branch was to close on November 8. You may ask why this…

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  • Why can’t City of Birmingham be returned to steam?

    Why can’t City of Birmingham be returned to steam?

    by

    Sam Hewitt

    –

    Over the many years you have done some excellent interviews with the management of the National Railway Museum but I can never remember an interview with the custodians of the Duchess No. 46235 City Of Birmingham (which is in public ownership), asking them why it has to be literally stuffed and mounted for ever. I do remember…

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