Sam Hewitt

THE RPSI’s £4million Whitehead Railway Museum received top honours at the annual Heritage Railway Association awards dinner in Birmingham on February 10, scooping the prestigious Manisty Award for Excellence. The ‘Manisty’ is the HRA’s most prestigious award, being presented on an occasional basis for an exceptional and outstanding contribution to railway preservation. For its 2017…

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RAIL users in Northern Ireland will soon see a new name added to the timetable after Translink announced Belfast Central station will be renamed Lanyon Place as part of a major refurbishment and modernisation. The station, which last year saw in excess of 2.6million passengers, will receive a new modern frontage to replace the current…

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BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Railway Centre-based Sentinel 4wVBT No. 11 (9366/1946) made its long-awaited return to public service on February 11. The former Tottenham Gas Works locomotive, which last steamed in 1983, has been the subject of a fast-track overhaul led by Michael Patterson, who co-owns the loco with Keith Lobley. The work has included a full re-tube and…

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THE Northampton & Lamport Railway (N&LR) has secured a steam presence for at least the next two or three seasons after obtaining the services of former Dunlop Rubber Company Peckett ‘W7’ 0-4-0ST Dunlop No. 7. The 1951-built locomotive (W/No. 2130) left its long-time home and restoration base at the Battlefield Line’s Shackerstone headquarters on February 7 in…

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TWO ‘Big Four’ liveries provided a foil for British Railways’ dominance at the Great Central Railway’s Winter Steam Gala on January 26-28. LNER-liveried ‘B12’ No. 8572 from the North Norfolk Railway joined East Lancashire Railway-based LMS ‘Crab’ 2-6-0 No. 13065 for the successful three-day event, which also saw several members of the resident steam fleet in action…

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THE 6201 Society’s Stanier Pacific No. 6201 Princess Elizabeth was back on the network on February 22, albeit diesel hauled when transferred to the West Coast Railway Company’s Carnforth works. Since being withdrawn from the main line in November 2016 with weeping small boiler tubes, Princess Elizabeth has been at the Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust’s…

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PEPPERCORN ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its completion with a string of visits to preserved lines, interwoven around its busy main line – 90mph – schedule. The ‘A1’ was in action for running-in at the Great Central Railway-Nottingham on February 10-11 following winter maintenance at Loughborough’s Locomotive Maintenance Services. It was…

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HOLDEN ‘B12’ 4-6-0 No. 8572 arrived at the Severn Valley Railway on February 8 ahead of the railway’s Spring Steam Gala on March 16-18. At the time of writing the M&GN Society locomotive was the first of the gala guests on site, with the Great Western Society’s BR blue ‘King’ No. 6023 King Edward II arriving from…

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GREG Wilson’s Lima Locomotive Company-built ‘S160’ No. 5197 started its 2018 hire spell at the Dartmouth Steam Railway on February 7, working the railway’s first steam services of the year three days later. The USATC 2-8-0 makes an unusual addition to the line’s traditionally GWR motive power, covering for absentee 2-8-0Ts Nos. 4277 (at the Churnet Valley…

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GEORGE and Robert Stephenson’s Rainhill Trials-winning 0-2-2 Rocket of 1829 may be destined to become a centrepiece exhibit as part of a £50million redevelopment at the National Railway Museum in York. Proposals presented to industry professionals on January 8 in relation to the York Central cultural quarter development revealed a seven-year plan to redevelop the…

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