Sam Hewitt

RICHMOND Light Railway’s August 19 Open Day featured five locomotives in steam. Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway’s Bagnall 0-4-0ST Armistice became the first steam loco to visit this private line. It joined residents Couillet 0-4-0T Chuquitanta, O&K 0-4-0WT Susan, and Arn Jung 0-4-0WT Jenny. The fifth was 0-4-0VBT Leary, constructed a few years ago at…

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SITTINGBOURNE & Kemsley Light Railway-based Bagnall 0-6-2T Superb provided guest steam for Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s (W&LLR) September 1-3 Steam Gala. It is believed to be the first time the 1940-built loco had worked away from its Kent home, with operations including double-heading with W&LLR’s Kerr, Stuart 0-6-2T Joan, showing their design similarities. Out-of-ticket…

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By Hassard Stacpoole IARNROD Éireann-Irish Rail (IÉ) quietly released its annual report on September 7, showing the annual operating deficit was reduced to €2.9million compared to a deficit of €7.7m in 2015. The reduction was helped through revenue increasing by 4.5% to €244.5m. IÉ’s passenger business carried 42.8m passengers in 2016, an increase of 8%,…

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THE Middleton Railway’s Hunslet 0-6-0ST Brookes No. 1 made its post-overhaul passenger debut on August 28, effectively marking the culmination of its Heritage Lottery-funded purchase and overhaul. The project has taken a little more than four years to complete, starting in April 2013 when the 1941-built loco (W/No. 2387) was dismantled at Moor Road. Brookes No. 1…

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IT WAS a case of ‘seeing double’ at the East Somerset Railway on September 16, when newly overhauled Ivatt ‘2MT’ 2-6-2T No. 41313 was joined by Mid-Hants-based classmate No. 41312 for one day only. It was the first time the two numerically sequenced ‘Mickey Mouse’ tanks had met in preservation, and likely the last for…

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TRANSPORT for London put steam back onto the Metropolitan lines over the weekend of September 9-10 in what it branded as Vintage Summer Steam. The weekend was effectively a 21st century take on the classic Steam on the MET events, featuring the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre’s Metropolitan Railway ‘E’ class 0-4-4T No. 1, Dennis Howells’ Hawksworth…

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THE North Norfolk Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala on October 1-3 was the line’s most successful in four years, producing an upturn in passenger numbers not seen since the visit of ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado in 2013. However, just one week before the event, the railway received the news the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s ‘WD’…

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THERE was something for virtually all tastes at the Severn Valley Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala on September 21-24, featuring four visiting locomotives and much of the home fleet over the four days. Proceedings got off to a grey and wet start on the Thursday with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s ‘Schools’ 4-4-0 No. 926 Repton…

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AN EXTENDED station building and full platform canopies are just two of the improvements the East Lancashire Railway (ELR) hopes to deliver as part of its planning application for the redevelopment of Rawtenstall station. The application for the £600,000 project was submitted to Rossendale Borough Council on September 1, with the ELR hoping the improved…

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THE air around the Great Central Railway echoed to two new exhaust beats during September after two locomotives took to the rails following restoration. The first to get a run out was Doncaster-built Riddles ‘5MT’ 4-6-0 No. 73156, which has been the subject of a 15-year restoration by the Bolton Steam Locomotive Company in conjunction with…

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