News

WORK has begun on the £23.4 million extension of Blackpool’s Tramway from the seafront to the town’s North railway station. Construction work along Talbot Road has uncovered previously abandoned tram tracks buried under the road surface. Blackpool has the country’s oldest surviving tram system, which dates back to the 1880s, but was relaunched in 2012…

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A RARELY depicted but impressive shed scene at Wolsingham on the Weardale Railway. Viewed from a passing train on May 6, the depot, which has no public access, is about half a mile east of Wolsingham station. The three-road shed was built in 2004 for the reopening of the railway, and is on the site of the former Wolsingham steelworks.…

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IT HAS been confirmed former BR Class 04 No. D2289 has been secured for preservation in the UK, following several weeks of speculation. No. D2289 has been bought from Lonato S.p.A. and ends 46 years affiliation of ex-BR locos sold to steel-processing companies in the northern Italian town of Brescia. The loco was built in 1960 by…

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MAY 5 was not a good day on the Severn Valley Railway, when No. 6023 King Edward II failed at Bridgnorth after its first run, and did not run again that day. Golden ochre-liveried Class 14 No. D9551 was sent out to replace the blue ‘King’, but that also failed at Bridgnorth while waiting to head the…

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BAGNALL 3211, an 0-4-0DH, is undergoing a major restoration at the Chasewater Railway, where it moved to in May 2016. The work includes returning the unusual-looking loco to its original appearance. A new cab has been fabricated, along with new floors and running boards, with other cut-back items receiving attention. It has had a complete…

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CLASS 121 single-unit DMU No. W55024 made its first appearance on May 7 following thorough restoration and repaint at the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway (C&PRR). It entered BR traffic in 1960 on Western Region London suburban and branch line services. No. W55024 was displaced on the Thames and Chiltern lines when Class 165 ‘Turbos’ entered service,…

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EAST Lancashire Railway-based Class 14 No. D9531, known as ‘Ernest’, visited the Foxfield Railway’s May 5-6 diesel gala. The 0-6-0DH was used by the National Coal Board (NCB) following withdrawal by BR, and saw use at several collieries in the North East in the 1970s/early-’80s. The nickname ‘Ernest’ was bestowed during restoration, which was dragging on…

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THE return to service of the Talyllyn Railway’s (TR) Hughes 0-4-2ST No. 3 Sir Haydn will be marked by a June 16 Anything Goes event. Sir Haydn returned to the TR on April 19 following overhaul at the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s Aberystwyth works. The day will feature double-heading, with Fletcher, Jennings pair 0-4-2ST No. 1 Talyllyn…

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By Hugh Dougherty FINTOWN station building has been gifted to Comhlacht Traenach na Gaeltachta Lair (CTGL), operators of the 3ft-gauge Fintown Railway, by owners Donegal County Council, to help boost the narrow gauge line. The station was built in 1895 to a standard design for the Stranorlar to Glenties railway – later part of the…

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THE Downpatrick & County Down Railway (DCDR) took delivery of its now-preserved Northern Ireland Railways 80 Class unit over the weekend of May 12-13 following an unprecedented response to its fundraising appeal (RM April). The four vehicles that make up the ‘Thumper’ – power cars No. 8090 and 8069 and driving trailers Nos. 8752 and 8749 –…

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