Sam Hewitt

SOUTHWOLD Railway Trust (SRT) has bought the site at Blyth Road, Southwold on which it will develop its Steam Works attraction. The land is next to the Southwold Railway’s 1879 trackbed. SRT secured planning permission to develop a workshop and tourist facilities, including 22 chains of track (3ft-gauge demonstration yard and a 7¼in-gauge miniature railway)…

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STATFOLD Barn Railway’s Kerr, Stuart ‘Wren’ 3128/1918 Roger was a late addition to Beamish’s April 6-9 Great North Steam Fair. It joined Phil Mason’s Kerr, Stuart ‘Sirdar’ class 0-4-0T Diana. The theme was the Kerry Tramway – the forestry line in mid-Wales where Diana originally worked – and there were also visiting timber-carrying wagons, including…

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‘THE Royal Scotsman’ luxury landcruise train started its 2017 season of tours on April 17 with a four-night ‘Classic Tour ‘ taking in Speyside, Kyle of Lochalsh and the Cairngorms. GB Railfreight, in its second year providing power for the train, sent Belmond red No. 66746 north to work the train. The immaculate train, formed of…

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LOCO-HAULED trains are seen at Kyle of Lochalsh on a fairly regular basis, but four Class 37s in the station at the same time on April 16 was exceptional. Pathfinder’s ‘Spring Highlander’ tour of Scottish scenic lines, powered by DRS No. 37609 and 37259, was joined by a Network Rail infrastructure management train top-and-tailed by Colas…

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THE first-generation DMU era will finally come to an end in May when Chiltern Railways retires its two passenger-carrying Class 121 railcars (see Traction News). To mark the event, the Branch Line Society ran the ‘Bubble & Squeak Tracker’ on April 9, visiting various rare crossovers, loops and sidings on the Chiltern system, as well…

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PULLMAN Car Phoenix became the oldest rail vehicle to move by rail through the Channel Tunnel in late-March. It is part of the Belmond ‘British Pullman’ train. The 1927-built Parlour Car was moved by DB Cargo UK from London to Dollands Moor and over Eurotunnel metals to Frethun, before being taken forward to Clermont-Ferrand by…

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APRIL 2 saw two English communities regain rail services after their previous facilities were withdrawn in the 1960s, writes Mike Haddon. The long-anticipated reopenings took place at Low Moor in West Yorkshire and Ilkeston in Derbyshire. The locations have much in common, each having extensive car parking facilities, both costing in the region of £10million,…

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INDUSTRY support is growing for alterations to the track and station layout at Ashchurch enabling Tewkesbury station in Gloucestershire to increase flexibility, reliability and capacity. The Ashchurch, Tewkesbury & District Rail Promotion Group (AT&DRPG) is proposing an extension of the Down goods loop to join sidings behind the station and upgrading the loop to bi-directional…

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TRANSPORT for London (TfL) has compiled a ‘wish list’ of possible improvements to rail services aimed at coping with the capital’s rapidly growing population. The package of upgrades is valued at £3.6billion. The project would include preparatory work for Crossrail 2, linking north-east and south-west London, by quadrupling the Lea Valley route, platform lengthening schemes…

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