News

NETWORK Rail has cancelled a nine-day blockade of the Brighton Main Line planned for October, deferring much of the work until February 2019. NR had agreed with Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which operates Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express services, to close the route between Three Bridges and Brighton and Three Bridges and Lewes for two…

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DEVON’S 2ft 9in-gauge Seaton Tramway formally opened its new £3million terminus station at Seaton on June 28 after 10 months of construction work. The new facility is a big departure from the Edwardian-style ticket office it replaces, being built in a contemporary modern style and making use of expansive glazing to make the best use…

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MICHAEL Holroyd Smith, the pioneering inventor and father of the electric street tramway, will be commemorated in a new permanent exhibition at the National Tramway Museum (NTM) at Crich in Derbyshire. The museum has been awarded a grant of £74,500 from the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) and Biffa Award to develop Holroyd Smith –…

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THE Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society celebrated its 20th anniversary with a steam event at Adrian Shooter’s private Beeches Light Railway on July 1. Mr Shooter’s Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) Sharp, Stewart B-Class 0-4-0STT (3518/1888) No. 19 hauled a passenger train, comprising two replica DHR coaches, and his replica Scindia State Railway carriage, plus two visiting locos…

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FAIRBOURNE Railway has launched an appeal to finance the returning to steam of its 12¼in-gauge 0-6-4ST Beddgelert. The half-size loco was designed and built by David Curwen in 1979/80, and based on the long-scrapped North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway’s (NWNGR) Hunslet 0-6-4ST Beddgelert. It visited Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway’s June 22-24 Hunslet 125 gala…

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THE Talyllyn Railway marked the first occasion in many years that all of its steam and diesel locos were in working order with an Anything Goes event on June 16. Hughes 0-4-2ST No. 3 Sir Haydn is now back in service following overhaul, Kerr, Stuart 0-4-2ST No. 4 Edward Thomas is back in traffic following wheelset attention,…

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THE War Office Locomotive Trust’s ex-WDLR Hunslet 4-6-0T No. 303 (1215/1916) made its debut in steam at a private July 8 event at Statfold Barn Railway. The locomotive was bought in Australia in 2004 by The War Office Locomotive Society and returned to Britain in September 2005. Ownership was then transferred to the specially formed trust…

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THE Chasewater Railway’s Bagnall 0-4-0ST Dunlop No. 6 spent the weekend of June 30-July 1 at Hanson Cement’s works at Ketton, Rutland, to take part in the works’ annual open day on the 30th.With the help of tank side vinyls the Bagnall assumed the guise of Ketton Portland Cement Co Lt No. 3, pictured here during a…

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AGE finally caught up with the Stephenson Railway Museum’s (SRM) Kitson 0-6-0T A No. 5 (2509/1883) on July 6 when the veteran Consett Iron Company ‘long boiler’ loco was withdrawn for the foreseeable future. The locomotive is the only operational example of Robert Stephenson’s innovative ‘long boiler’ design, and returned to operation condition in 2013…

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THE return of steam to Cavan & Leitrim Railway (C&L) metals could be just a few months away after the Dromod line’s Avonside 0-6-0T Nancy was returned to the workshops of Alan Keef Ltd at Ross-on-Wye in early July for the completion of its restoration.The ex-Stanton Ironworks Company loco has been at Keef’s since 1999,…

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