Heritage Railway

Editor Robin Jones rjones@mortons.co.uk Deputy editor Gareth Evans gevans@mortons.co.uk Senior contributing writers Geoff Courtney, Cedric Johns, Brian Sharpe, Pete Kelly Contributors Fred Kerr, Roger Melton Designer Tim Pipes Production editor

THE Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Trust (G/WR) has raised more than £200,000 in less than three months through its nationwide £250,000 appeal, not launched to cover costs during Covid-19 lockdown as is the case of most other lines, but to fund

A NEW long siding linking the National Railway Museum to the East Coast Main Line (ECML) forms part of the latest planning application for the York Central regeneration development. The application to City of York Council unlocks the 111-acre site

THE Wensleydale Railway voluntarily suspended services in advance of discussions with the Office of Rail & Road (ORR) over safety issues following two incidents. An incident on February 22, in which a tree on adjacent private land a third of a mile f

THE 2ft gauge Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway has confirmed it sold its Henschel 0-6-0T No.105 Siam (No. 29582 of 1956) to a line in Latvia approximately six months ago. It was formerly one of two 2ft 6in gauge locomotives at the private Kent lin

THE Heritage Railway Association (HRA) has been asked to mediate in the dispute which has seen the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust (SDRT) given a year’s notice to quit Washford station. The West Somerset Railway plc, West Somerset Railway Association

THE North Norfolk Railway (NNR) has been given a much-needed cash boost to help tide it over during the Covid-19 lockdown – after its founding society and major shareholder bought a steam engine, a DMU and crane from it. The Midland and Great North

THE Nene Valley Railway (NVR) is mourning the loss of founder member David Smith, a former director, chairman and president, who passed away on March 20 in hospital. Paying tribute, fellow NVR volunteer Roger Manns said: “I can recall David supportin

ENTHUSIAST Ellis Morey has completed a lockdown marathon in aid of three heritage lines closed by the pandemic – by completing a 26.75-mile journey over a friend’s 7¼in gauge railway in Anglesey in seven hours, using a hand crank. The 25-year-old y

WORK on Phase One of the Severn Valley Railway’s (SVR) Heritage Lottery Fund-backed £1.324m refurbishment of its 1877-built, seven-arch, red brick Falling Sands Viaduct, one mile out from the railway’s southern terminus at Kidderminster, was reported

AS soon as the Covid-19 pandemic is over, the heritage sector will immediately face a fresh crisis – over doubts regarding the future supplies of steam coal, the Heritage Railway Association (HRA) has warned. As we closed for press, decisions were aw

PLANS have been laid for a second replica Southwold Railway Sharp Stewart 2-4-0T to be built, at an estimated cost of £400,000. The Halesworth to Southwold Narrow Gauge Railway Society, launched two years ago to rebuild the legendary Suffolk 3ft ga

PRINCE Harry has made an international Thomas the Tank Engine debut – by introducing a new 22-minute special episode of the Reverend Wilbert Awdry’s The Railway Series, marking its 75th anniversary this year. The episode, Thomas and Friends: The Roya

THE West Somerset Railway (WSR) is in mourning for long-time supporter Tim King who brought big-screen fame to the line. As part of his former role as West Somerset District Council’s tourism officer, he was responsible for David Leland’s 1998 Second

A £50,000 appeal has been launched to complete the restoration of one of the Severn Valley Railway’s first locomotives. Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST No. 2047 of 1926 Warwickshire (picture, page 42) hauled permanent way works trains and gave footplate rides

DIDCOT Railway Centre has come to the aid of Network Rail which has made preparations for the event of a shortage of signallers due to Covid-19. Former Network Rail signallers who have moved to other roles began refresher courses on March 31, using

CLOSED by the coronavirus pandemic, which has left the line divided by the suspension of the Bridge 11 replacement works, an entire class of traction has been stored on the bottom end of the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. All 23 Class 144 Pacer DMU

BECAUSE its big annual gala has had to be called off due to the coronavirus lockdown, the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway has organised a virtual counterpart for Saturday, May 16. Held at www.facebook.com/RHandDR, the virtual steam and diesel gala

THE Talyllyn Railway launched an appeal to raise £75,000 to cover losses in the first three months of the lockdown – and raised the money within six weeks, it was announced on April 30. The online Virtual Tour appeal page at www.talyllyn.co.uk/covid-

CLEARLY disappointed that its popular annual Wartime in the Cotswolds 1940s event scheduled for April 25/26 had to be cancelled, the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (G/WR) nonetheless went ahead with it – but online. Several of the entertainer

OFFICIALS of closed heritage railways across the UK have expressed fears for the safety of members of the public who have seen fit to walk on tracks during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. With railway paid staff furloughed en masse and many volunt

DONEGAL Railway Heritage Centre has launched an urgent appeal to allow the museum to reopen after the Covid-19 crisis comes to an end. In common with most heritage railways and railway museums, the centre, which houses Ireland’s major collection of C

IT WOULD be hard to believe that any reader of Heritage Railway has not heard of John Farrow who organised railtours over the last five decades. Aged 70, he died in the early hours of Sunday, April 19 at the Royal Free Hospital in London, leaving beh

THE project to build new Gresley P2 2-8-2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales – Britain’s most powerful steam locomotive, has launched a fresh appeal for £20,000 to build the leading pony truck. The Pony (Truck) Club has been set up to finance the single-axle b

➜ THE National Railway Museum has been named as a finalist in the Large Visitor Attraction of the Year category at this year’s Visit York Tourism Awards, which was held as a ‘virtual’ ceremony on Minster FM because the planned venue, the museum itsel

PLANS to build a new LNER B17 4-6-0, No. 61673 Spirit of Sandringham have taken a major step forward with the completion of a lengthy redesign of the rolling chassis so that roller bearings can be fitted to the locomotive. As the design and specifica

MORE than £100,000 has been raised towards the building of up to four more new Lynton & Barnstaple Railway (L&B) Manning Wardle 2-6-2Ts. The 762 Club, which built and owns replica Baldwin 2-4-2T No. 762 Lyn on the North Devon heritage line, plans to

THE Great Western Society has launched a new initiative to raise £30,000 to complete the motion for its new-build 4-6-0 No. 1014 County of Glamorgan. Members of the Thirty Counties Club can ‘adopt’ the names of one of the original Hawksworth Counties

THE restoration of unique Peckett diesel No. 5014 is the next big project for the Welsh Railways Trust at the Gwili Railway. Bristol-based Peckett & Sons had been manufacturing steam locomotives with full order books well into the 1950s. The manageme

THE Gwili Railway needs to raise up to £220,000 to develop its southern terminus at Abergwili Junction. Following the long-awaited opening of the southern extension on July 1/2, 2017, bringing the heritage line up to a total length of 4½ miles, the n

THE Corris Railway has begun work on its long-awaited southern extension. The railway has for the past four decades found itself ‘hemmed in’ by a missing section of original trackbed south of Maespoeth, its southern terminus and engine shed. In 1980,

LYNTON & Barnstaple Railway supporters appeared to have been beaten in their bid to buy Bratton Fleming station. The supporting land-owning group Exmoor Associates said that officials heard on the morning of April 16 that the vendors of the station

THE building of a replica Hughes Falcon 0-4-2ST for the Corris Railway has continued to make progress at Alan Keef’s workshops in Ross-on-Wye. Before the Covid-19 enforced shutdown, the chassis of No. 10 has taken on an 0-4-2 appearance with the pony

THE Heritage Railway Association (HRA) has appointed two new directors at its recent annual general meeting. Steve Clews, chairman of the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway since 2014, and a driver and mechanical inspector, and Stuart Williams, gen

A MEMORIAL train is set to be run in honour of David Madden, the North Norfolk Railway’s (NNR) first general manager, who passed away on January 20, aged 82. David, who began a railway career as a signalman on the Great Central’s London Extension n

NEW-BUILD GWR 2-8-0‘Night Owl’ No. 4709 is to leave the Llangollen Railway’s workshops and move to an engineering firm’s premises near Exeter. At Leaky Finders in Hele, what will be the 10th member of G J Churchward’s class of heavy mixed traffic l

THE Dolgarrog Railway has made significant progress towards completing its first platform – the biggest project it has yet undertaken at the site in terms of man hours and cost. The Dolgarrog Railway Society aims to re-establish a small industrial ra

THE Covid-19 lockdown has seen all work suspended on the new-build Brighton Atlantic at the Bluebell Railway, so despite earlier hopes that the locomotive could appear this year, the 4-4-2 is not now likely to run until spring 2021. The boiler for

SEVEN ‘Nightingale hospitals’have been set up by the Government to treat Covid-19 patients during the pandemic. However, the concept can be traced back to the Crimean War – and a prefabricated emergency hospital designed by none other than GWR engine

THE Severn Valley Railway Diesel Group has opened an online shop. A range of items are available from the shop at http://svrdiesels. co.uk/ – including cufflinks, pin badges, T-shirts, mugs and keyrings. In a statement, the group said: “The curren

THE East Kent Railway has secured a £10,000 grant to help it cover costs following an arson attack, and closure because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The railway lost vital equipment worth £15,000 and historic artefacts after fire tore through Shepherdsw

THE railtour business remains in paralysis with no firm indication of a date for easing, let alone lifting lockdown being announced by the Government as we closed for press. Speaking in the second month of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, Pa

FOLLOWING my aborted attempt to escape northwards from Southampton on February 22, as reported last time, the way seemed clear for my first ‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ (CME) of 2020 on February 29, so a 4.30am start saw the 5.16am Southampton Airport

THE support coach allocated to the Great Western Society’s (GWS) blue King, No. 6023 King Edward II, has been sold for future use on the main line. In November 2019, GWS announced its intention to focus on engaging audiences at its Didcot Railway Cen

ASTONISHED South Devon Railway office staff were sent a boiler washout plug in the post – together with a note from the thief who stole it from the Severn Valley Railway in 1984. The carefully-wrapped plug arrived in a small white box at the line’s a

GREAT Central Railwayana has replaced its quarterly June 6 live sale at Stoneleigh with a continuous series of‘mini’internet, email, telephone and postal auctions that will each comprise 75 lots and start on May 30. Each will run for two weeks, with

THE LMS and GWR shared top honours in Great Northern’s rescheduled two-week postal, email and telephone sale that ended on April 18, although modern traction forced its way into the spotlight. The top realisation in the auction, which replaced the or

SIMON Stewart’s two-week Justaclickago online auction of photographs, slides and negative, which runs until May 24, is set to boost the funds of the Severn Valley Railway (SVR). The sale, which opened on May 11, comprises 240 lots and includes colour

HELJAN is to expand its offering of BR Mk.1-based rolling stock in O gauge – with new variants of both carriages and vans. The Danish manufacturer is to produce a new batch of Mk.1 coaches covering a variety of modern-era liveries, using a fresh tool

Great Northern’s Dave Robinson was in the spotlight when he had to cancel his March 28 live auction due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Faced with a number of options, he decided to switch it to a postal, email and telephone sale, as reported in this col

WELSHPOOL & Llanfair Light Railway (WLLR) volunteer William Bickers-Jones, who is also a trustee of the Friends of Sierra Leone National Railway Museum, was all set to celebrate Sierra Leone Independence Day on April 25 on the mid Wales heritage line

Historic England describes Princes Risborough North’Box (PRNB) as the ‘largest and only unaltered example of a Churchward era GWR design box.’ After a period of dereliction, the Grade II listed building has been undergoing a gradual renaissance at th

1904 The year Princes Risborough North Signalbox was built. 126 The number of levers originally fitted inside the ’box. 421 The number of window panes in the ’box. 99 The duration in years of the lease agreed on the structure between CPRR and Netw

As is often the case in the heritage railway sector, the signalbox project has a four-legged team member, who maintains an eye on proceedings. “The dog is called Marag and attends with volunteer Paul Webb,” explained Steve Growcott, signal & telegrap

The project to restore the signalbox has been led by Steve Growcott, the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway’s (CPRR) Signal & Telegraph (S&T) department manager. “I started as a teenage volunteer at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre in the 1970s,”

Among the team of volunteers who help run and maintain the RVLR is career railwayman Les Jackson. “I started work at Workington shed in 1952 as a cleaner,” he said. After a career spanning nearly 50 years, which included time as both a steam fireman

The first monarch to arrive at the Flour Mill was King Faisal of Iraq, Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST No. 3183 of 1944, which was sent new to the armaments depot at Bicester as WD 85133. It acquired its name when the 11-year old King Faisal visited the de

THERE is naturally great concern among the preservation fraternity regarding travel restrictions and leisure activities due to the coronavirus pandemic. As this is an unavoidable situation, the only response is to maximise the opportunities and, surp

REGARDING‘The mystery of a girl from Crewe’by Geoff Courtney (News, issue 266): just a thought – the nameplates on the left against the wall have the writing from bottom to top – the ones on the right from top to bottom – as in the direction of a clo

WITH no special events for the foreseeable future due to the coronavirus crisis and all the ‘joy’that sucks out of our hobby, we thought it would be helpful for our normal ‘The Month Ahead’ page to take on something of a lighter tone. If you’ve got a