Sam Hewitt

NETWORK Rail has permanently stabilised half a mile of subsiding embankment beneath the Chiltern main line in Buckinghamshire, using a novel Japanese system. NR engineers used a Giken silent piling machine to drive 865 six-metre steel sheet piles deep into the earth and form solid barriers either side of the railway at Bridge Farm, near…

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COVENTRY City Council has released images of the proposed new look for the city’s station – which is reported to be the fastest growing outside London. The £82million scheme will include the creation of a second footbridge to connect all four platforms and extend the platforms, a second entrance onto Warwick Road with step-free access…

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BRIDGE strikes, where over-height road vehicles collide with railway bridges, are costing UK taxpayers more than £23million a year in damages and delays, according to new industry figures. Network Rail reports the problem reaches its peak in October/November ,with around 10 incidents per day, but around 2,000 strikes every year affect hundreds of thousands of…

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BELMOND’s ‘Grand Hibernian’ luxury train ventured onto new metals on October 24 as part of a trial that took the train from Limerick to Dublin via Athenry. In many respects the trial was inconclusive as the train engine was Class 071 No. 073, and not one of the Class 201s, which have yet to travel over…

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MAIN line testing for the RPSI’s Great Northern Railway (Ireland) ‘Q’ No. 131 got underway on November 5 when the 1901-built 4-4-0 made a series of light engine and loaded runs over Northern Ireland Railways metals. The inside-cylinder locomotive, displaying the legend ‘GREAT NORTHERN’ on the new ‘D1’ type tender, began with a light engine run…

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VOLKS Electric Railway (VER) tram cars began running between Aquarium and Halfway station (aka Peter Pan’s Playground) on October 14, the first operations over the 2ft 8½in-gauge line in 2017. VER services ceased on September 4, 2016 (RM Oct 2016) for work to start on reconstruction funded by the £1.65million Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) award…

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BREDGAR & Wormshill Light Railway (B&WLR) closed its season with seven locos in steam on October 29. Fowler 0-6-0WT Limpopo, Fowler 0-4-2T Zambesi, O&K 0-4-0WT Eigiau, and Arn Jung 0-6-0WT Katie handled the bulk of all-line passenger operating. Bagnall 0-4-0ST Armistice primarily worked a demonstration freight between Warren Wood and Stony Shaw stations, with limited…

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NOVEMBER 12 brought the curtain down on both the Chasewater Railway’s main operating season, and the current working career of resident Peckett ‘Yorktown’ 0-4-0ST Teddy (2012/1941). The ex-Ministry of Supply loco has reached the end of its 10-year boiler certificate, and for its final day the railway handed over all operations to the 7in-cylindered ‘Pocket…

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TESTING of the Cornish Steam Locomotive Preservation Society’s Bagnall ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST No. 75178 (2766/1944) got underway at the Bodmin & Wenford Railway on October 14. The former Maesteg Colliery locomotive, carrying its newly applied War Department livery and number, notched up a total of three miles during the day, running light engine in the yard at…

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IT IS not often that a humble industrial saddle tank steals the gala limelight from its main line brethren, but that was certainly the case at the Great Central Railway’s Last Hurrah of the Season event on November 18-19. Roger Hibbert’s newly outshopped ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST No. 68067 made its public debut at the event in its…

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