Features
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Sweden disbands final strategic steam reserve locos
It’s hard to believe that 16 years into the 21st century, Sweden has disbanded its final Strategic Reserve, steam locos that were kept on standby in the event of war in Europe. Bob Sweet witnessed the removal of the final two locos from storage. TRAVELLERS on Sweden’s rail network over the past 60 years can…
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Two decades of steam at Perrygrove
The Perrygrove Railway is approaching its 20th anniversary. With an enthusiastic and experienced young family team at the regulator it looks set fair for the next couple of decades, as Cliff Thomas reports. THE 15in-gauge Perrygrove Railway, near Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, has always been a family-run operation with families at the forefront…
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From the Granite City to Mount’s Bay
John Heaton FCILT, rides Britain’s longest passenger journey, which runs from Aberdeen to Penzance – a distance of 776 miles. It is just before 08.00 as an insignificant Class 2 local train shuffles unassumingly into a bay platform at Aberdeen station. To the staff it is simply ‘2A01’ and, to its passengers, simply a humdrum…
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Inside Drax
The term biomass will be familiar to many, but what is it, where does it come from, and how is it used? Chris Milner visits Drax power station, the first in the UK to switch to biomass consumption on a large scale, and finds out how rail plays a vital link in the supply chain.…
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“To be or not to be…”
It’s 40 years since a cash-strapped British Rail closed what was an alternative rail route between Birmingham and Cheltenham, avoiding the Lickey Incline. Fraser Pithie looks back over the origins of the line, its heyday, its chequered existence post a BR reorganisation, its closure, what happened afterwards, and why demands are now growing for the…
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The Hurn Branch: Lost but still remembered
Stephen Roberts recalls a Hampshire branch line that was first proposed for closure nearly 100 years ago. The Hurn Branch: Lost but still remembered ‘West Country’ Pacific No. 34104 Bere Alston approaches Christchurch with the remains of the Hurn branch disappearing to the left. The stub continued for less than a mile. The building behind…
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A LONG-CHERISHED DREAM TURNING INTO REALITY
Professor Dennis Wilcock provides a progress report on the exciting scheme to build bridge for the Great Central Railway over the Midland Main Line at Loughborough. A LONG-CHERISHED DREAM TURNING INTO REALITY An artist’s impression of the new bridge from the Loughborough Midland platform. FJD CONSULTING Back in the dark days of railway closures in…
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CHURCHILL’S SECRET STATION
The London Transport Museum has launched a new series of Hidden London tours featuring disused Tube stations. Chris Milner visited Down Street station, a location that became a bomb-proof bunker and was used by wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill. CHURCHILL’S SECRET STATION On the walls in the unused passageways at London Euston are remnants of…
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British Locomotives, Polish Electrification and the Cold War
Readers of The RM wishing to see British-designed electric locomotives could go to Willesden, Crewe, or even Ipswich, but the stations in the Polish cities of Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakow and Katowice may all have more to see. Chris West tells an interesting story with several unusual twists. British Locomotives, Polish Electrification and the Cold War…
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Scotland’s Union Man
John Cameron is that rarest of men… one who has risen to the top not only in the world of preservation but in the professional rail industry, too. Not only does he own two of Britain’s best-known steam locomotives – Union of South Africa and The Great Marquess – but he has been chairman of…
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