Sam Hewitt

STATFOLD Barn Railway’s (SBR) September 8 Open Day featured two visiting locomotives. Both First World War veterans, Greensand Railway Museum Trust’s Baldwin 4-6-0T WDLR No. 778 was appearing at SBR for the first time, while War Office Locomotive Trust’s Hunslet 4-6-0T WDLR No. 303 returned to run in public following its private July 8 launch at SBR.…

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MANX Electric Railway’s (MER) 125th anniversary was celebrated over September 1-8 with a daily programme of events and photo opportunities featuring its fleet of power cars, trailers and non-passenger stock. Highlights included the September 3 official launch into service of 1898-vintage MER ‘Ratchet Car’ No. 14 following a three-year restoration project. The big day was September…

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THE visit of Brienz Rothorn Bahn (BRB) rack locomotive No. 2 and BRB coach No. B1 to the Snowdon Mountain Railway (SMR) came to fruition through the month of September. The unprecedented project had been five years in the planning, and is unlikely to be repeated. No. 2 was built by Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of…

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FIFTY years to the day after the closure of the ‘Waverley Route’ on January 5, 1969, Pathfinder Tours is organising a Deltic-hauled train to Tweedbank to mark that sad anniversary. Famously, the penultimate passenger train over the whole line 50 years ago was hauled by No. 9007 Pinza, and it was subject to a series delays…

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PEPPERCORN ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado will enter its second decade of main line work with a programme of five tours between Edinburgh and Aberdeen during March and September 2019. The launch train for the ‘Aberdonian’ will run on March 14, followed by the main series of late-summer trains on August 1, 8, 31 and September 7.…

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SEPTEMBER 6 was Horse Tram Day at Crich Tramway Village, providing an opportunity for some of the National Tramway Museum’s non-powered trams to steal the limelight. Making a rare appearance in front-line service was Sheffield Corporation horse tram No. 15 (pictured), built in 1874 by the Starbuck Car & Wagon Company of Birkenhead. The car survived…

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BLACKPOOL Heritage Tram Tours welcomed 1986-built ‘Centenary’ car No. 642 into its operational fleet on August 19, two and a half years after it last ran over the system. No. 642 failed in January 2016 and subsequently sat in store awaiting its turn in the overhaul queue. During the spring of this year it entered Rigby Road…

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FORMER Blackpool trams are a familiar sight in the Derbyshire countryside at Crich, but visitors to the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway between July 5 and August 9 may have had to do a ‘double take’ when presented with the sight of an 81-year-old ex-Blackpool Corporation railcoach operating out of Wirksworth station. Brush-built No. 636, one of 20…

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A PROPOSAL to build a railway tunnel under Boston, Massachusetts, connecting its two currently isolated commuter rail systems is being considered by planners, with a public consultation underway. The idea, known as the North South Rail Link (NSRL), is not new – previous plans developed in the 1990s form the basis of the current plan.…

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ROLLING stock first delivered in 1928 remains in daily use this summer on both sides of the Alps in Switzerland and Italy. In Switzerland, metre gauge operator Rhätische Bahn (RhB) has been operating two pairs of trains between Davos Platz and Filisur, using heritage locos and historic rolling stock, including open air vehicles, between May…

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