Heritage Railway

EDITORIAL Editor Robin Jones rjones@mortons.co.uk Staff writer Owen Hayward ohayward@mortons.co.uk Senior Contributors Geoff Courtney, John Titlow Contributors Sally Clifford, Hugh Dougherty, Tim Hobman, Luke Ryan Designer Tim Pipes Production editor

THE owners of WR Class 52 diesel hydraulic D1048 Western Lady have given it to the Western Locomotive Association, which also owns D1013 Western Ranger and D1062 Western Courier. An association statement said: “The WLA is also grateful to the Severn

SWANAGE was filled with the sound of church bells on the morning of Saturday, October 7 as invited guests arrived at the seaside resort to witness an historic moment – the first public trains headed by London and South Western RailwayT3 4-4-0 No. 563

THE Network North revival of the long-mothballed Stoke to Leek line – the northernmost section of which is currently being built as an extension of the ChurnetValley Railway – has been given a cautious welcome by Staffordshire Moorlands District Coun

THE North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group’s NER J72 0-6-0T No. 69023 Joem was moved by Railway Support Services from Hopetown Carriage Works into road three in the newly-refurbished 1861 Shed at the Darlington Rail Heritage Quarter on October 1

THE approaching winter is set to be a busy time for the Bluebell Railway. Alongside the return of the Bulleid for Steamlights and Santa services, new-build Brighton Atlantic No. 32424 Beachy Head will move into the main workshops for completion work

HERITAGE railways, museums and other organisations are being invited to stage their own events as part of Railway 200, the planned year-long celebration of 200 years of train travel in 2025, as reported last issue. A main aim of Railway 200 is to ins

ABOUT £60,000 worth of artefacts were on show at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s first Railwayana Valuation Day, starring BBC TV’s Antiques Roadshow expert Paul Atterbury the Lifford Hall in Broadway on October 1. The event, the brainchild

RAILWAY heritage will be brought to the forefront in County Durham as part of Heritage Places, a new £200 million 10-year commitment to nine places in the UK from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to the funding, the global impact of the cou

DUE to the impending retirement of its current owner, the 10 ¼in gauge Leek & Rudyard Railway, which runs for 1 ½ miles around Rudyard Lake near Leek has been offered for sale as both a complete package or for individual assets. It has three stations

A MAJOR breakthrough in the Bala Lake Railway’s bid for planning permission to extend into Bala town centre appears to have been made. As reported in issue 306, on April 19 the line’s application for the extension was refused by Snowdonia National Pa

DURING the morning of October 10, the Museum of Liverpool, home to the Liverpool & Manchester Railway 0-4-2 No. 57 Lion, was evacuated after a suspicious device was found there. A bomb disposal unit cleared the venue – which was also hosting a Labour

Following its previous owner advertising it for sale earlier in the summer, BR 0-6-0DH class 14 D9513 (currently running as NCB No. 38, as was applied during its time at Astley Colliery in Yorkshire) has been bought by a director of the Wensleydale R

TO say the death of railwayana auction house boss Chris France on October 1 was unexpected is an understatement. I had been speaking to him about his forthcoming auction a few days before his untimely passing at the age of 74, and indeed only the day

IRISH steam stalwart Canon John McKegney, a past Railway Preservation Society of Ireland chairman, died peacefully at home in Portrush on September 22 after a long battle with prostate cancer. Born in Derry in 1947, John followed his father, the rect

HUNDREDS of steam, diesel and music fans descended on Mangapps Railway Museum in deepest Essex on October 1 for a locomotive naming ceremony that featured two stars – rock legend and former trainspotter RickWakeman and the locomotive itself, preserve

ACROSS the Devon/Cornwall border, on September 21 the South Devon Railway was also playing its part in supporting dementia sufferers by hosting a memory café aboard one of its service trains. Noticing an advert in a local newspaper that was seeking a

THE historic Blackpool trams will see a temporary reduction in services while the main Rigby Road bus depot, where the heritage fleet is primarily based and restored at, undergoes redevelopment to provide new engineering facilities that will addition

THE Bridgnorth Art Trail, which celebrated the town’s link with Richard Trevithick’s pioneering locomotive Catch Me Who Can, has closed after five years. Painted by local artists, 13 aluminium statues of the locomotive – which was constructed during

A NEW active travel route for walkers and cyclists, including two historic Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway viaducts, has been approved. Somerset Council has given the green light to the scheme between Shepton Mallet and Emborough by Greenways & Cycle

THE Severn Valley Railway’s Christmas Gift Fayre will be held at the Engine House Visitor Centre, Highley, on October 28/29, open from 10am to 5pm each day. A range of exibitors will offer everything from home-made jams and chutneys to stained glass,

CUMBRIA’S Cliburn station is for sale at offers of more than £1.4 million. The four-bedroomed Station House, once a station on the Eden Valley Railway, sits in 4½ acres of land and also boasts 14 acres of woodand. The sale includes a one-bedroom conv

A FORMER lifting tower at Leeds Central station is being given a new lease of life as a mini museum and exhibition space. Wellington Place, a sustainable business community being developed in the city, is keen to hear from people with cherished memor

FOLLOWING the return of the original works plate of the Launceston Steam Railway-based Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0ST No. 763 of 1901 Dorothea, as reported last issue, another two plates have been reunited with their original locomotive at the Leighton Buzza

A GROUP which saved a signalbox that gave its name to the nearby village is appealing for more volunteers and donations to help with its reconstruction as a heritage venue. A volunteer group was formed in 2014 (issue 196) in a bid to save the St Jame

Concluding its autumn tour that saw it visit both the Severn Valley and Mid-Hants railways in the weeks beforehand, Bagnall 0-6-0ST No. 401 Vulcan, which ran in the Dean Forest’s Royal Forest of Steam weekend, worked Port Talbot’s Abbey works under o

THE Railway Touring Company will run eight railtours in December, including two with A3 No. 60103 Flying Scotsman. The festive month gets underway with two stalwarts on the same day, Saturday, December 2 – one trip to Bath and Bristol and the other t

VINTAGE Trains is once again running the UK’s only main line version of the ‘Polar Express’. The magic of the 2004 movie, based on the 1985 children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, is theatrically recreated aboard a steam excursion running at 45-60mph

LEADING the way by announcing its first trips for 2024 is Pathfinder Railtours, with five outings over the scenic Cambrian Coast Line to Barmouth and a four-day land cruise through Scotland. The Cambrian Coast tours will run on April 4, 18, May 16, S

THE Midland Pullman is offering customers six chances to visit Edinburgh and two chances to visit Bath during the Christmas period on board its luxurious HST set. The season kicks off on Saturday, November 18, with the first trip to Edinburgh from Sw

UK Railtours has added another off-train option to its‘Manchester Christmas Markets’tour on Saturday, December 9. Departing from Euston, the tour will pick up at Watford Junction, Milton Keynes Central, Northampton and Rugby as the train makes its wa

SCOTTISH Railway Preservation Society founder and stalwart Stuart Sellar, who died on August 1 aged 86, is to be commemorated in an exhibition of his photographs, accompanied with stories of those who knew him, at the Museum of Scottish Railways at B

THE Branch Line Society has announced a tour in collaboration with the 125 Group on Saturday, October 28. The group’s first-ever charter using their own rolling stock, under the title of the ‘Midland Venturer’, the tour will give passengers the chanc

JUST four months after selling nameplate Barnsley from LNER B17 No. 61669 for £26,200 at its summer auction, Talisman Railwayana has a shot at another ‘Footballer’success when Bradford from No. 61667 goes under the hammer at Newark Showground on Nove

I spent many years of my life living near to the South Eastern main line from London to Ashford, Folkestone and Dover, always within sight or sound of trains when it was a proper main line and No. One boat train route. My train timing actually starte

A member of the nobility, an Indian city, and two thoroughbred racehorses are late additions to the cast list of nameplates in GW Railwayana’s November 11 sale. They are Earl of Dudley from GWR No. 5045, Mysore from LMS Jubilee No. 45586, and LNER du

GAUGE 1 led a Vectis Auctions’ railwayana and model train sale on September 28 by achieving six fourfigure realisations, including a close race at the top that saw three models battle it out for victory. The winner, at £2800, was a clockwork Lancashi

AN inaugural railwayana valuation day on October 1 that featured BBC TV’s Antiques Roadshow expert Paul Atterbury and GW Railwayana’s Simon Turner is set to become an annual event. “It was a great success, with a steady flow of people, and the nine s

A Southern Railway Lyme Regis target sign sold for £5800 at an automobilia and enamel signs auction held by Charterhouse of Sherborne, Dorset, on September 26. The station, which was the location of a sub-shed of Exmouth Junction (72A), was opened in

AN internet and telephone auction due to be held by Railwayana Sales from October 30 to November 5 is expected to be called off following the sudden and totally unexpected death of the auction house’s boss, Chris France. As reported in his obituary o

AN AceTrains O-gauge electric LMS Princess Coronation Pacific No. 6229 Duchess of Hamilton was the top seller at £850 in an auction of model trains held by Martin & Pole ofWokingham on September 18. Close behind were two Hornby Dublo models of GWR 0-

Nameplate Dumbleton Hall from preserved GWR 4-6-0 No. 4920 outsold all else in Great Northern Railwayana’s September 21-October 1 online auction with a realisation of £3900. As reported elsewhere in this issue, the successful bidder for the plate, wh

WITH Locomotion Models and Rails of Sheffield having recently combined forces to launch the new Railway Icons range, a new running number has now been added to the previously announced line of GWR Q13 Inspection Saloons from Dapol. No.W80974W, which

AT the end of September, Rapido received decorated samples of its highly-anticipated OO gaugeWisbech & Upwell tramway bogie coaches.With 10 different carriages to choose from (including the Buffet car version from The Titfield Thunderbolt), a wealth

THIS year’s Warley National Model Railway Exhibition will be held over the weekend of November 25-26 at the NEC. It’s the 29th at the Birmingham venue, and the club’s 54th annual show. The event is open to the public between 09.45am and 6pm on the Sa