Sam Hewitt

NEARLY a year later than planned, the first all-night running of London Underground on Friday and Saturday nights began on August 19 on two Tube lines covering 51 stations. London Undeground said that there were 103,000 journeys over the first weekend of operation with trains running on the Victoria and Central lines. Later this year,…

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IT WAS anything but a ‘standard’ month for locomotive comebacks, as three British Railways Standard 4s and a ‘2MT’ all returned to running order in August, significantly boosting the operational fleets of four railways. Fresh from welcoming Riddles ‘Britannia’ No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell back into steam, the Great Central Railway (GCR) put Standard Mogul No. 78018 through…

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ALMOST 52 years after the last of the original Hawksworth ‘County’ 4-6-0s was consigned to the scrapyard, the Great Western Society unveiled the rolling chassis of its ‘new’ No. 1014 County of Glamorgan at Didcot on August 27. The special ‘County Day’ was intended to not only showcase the bottom end of the 4-6-0 to…

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IT IS one of the shortest main line charter itineraries since steam returned to the main line in 1971, but its significance outweighed any potential sleights about mileage deficiencies. The North Norfolk Railway (NNR) ran its first timetabled train to Cromer on August 10 in a blaze of glory and sunshine as Standard ‘4MT’ No. 76084…

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A STANDARD ‘4MT’ tank will finally reappear at Midsomer Norton South – 50 years after the closure of the Somerset & Dorset route, and after multiple failed preservationist attempts. Llangollen Railway-based No. 80072 will be the star turn of the S&D Heritage Railway Trust’s September 10-11, 17-18 steam weekends in a reprise of the dying embers…

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THE recent arrival of a new saddle tank for the Worcester Locomotive Society’s Kitson 0-6-0ST No. 47 Carnarvon (5474/1934), currently being restored at the South Devon Railway, has raised the question as to which of the current crop of ex-Stewarts & Lloyds locomotives under restoration will steam first. Work on the bottom end of Carnarvon is…

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THE first completed Class 345 Crossrail ‘Elizabeth Line’ EMU has been moved to the Rail Innovation and Development Centre (RIDC) at Old Dalby, Melton Mowbray, for further testing. It is the first train for the UK on Bombardier’s ‘Aventra’ platform. On July 29, The RM was given its first preview of the new train –…

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NETWORK Rail will be tackling one of the biggest challenges of the Great Western Main Line electrification programme from September 12 when it takes full possession of the Severn Tunnel for a full six weeks until October 21. This will allow engineers to work ‘24/7’ in order to make the 130-year-old tunnel fit for a…

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COMMUTERS using London Bridge station were able to make use of the first two-thirds of the all-new concourse from August 29 after the newly built platforms 7 to 15 came into use together with the associated new retail units and station exits. The new concourse, when it opens in 2018, will be the largest in…

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STEAM tours into Cornwall are feasible again with the revival of fortunes of the turntable at St Blazey, Par. The 65ft table has been in and out of use over the past couple of years, but a Railway Heritage Trust and Railway Touring Company-funded initiative enabled it to be repaired by Cambrian Transport and volunteers…

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