News

CLASS 101 DTCL No. 54342 (56342) is seen at GCR Quorn & Woodhouse Yard ready to be dragged by Class 08 No. D3690 to Loughborough on April 5. It arrived from the Midland Railway-Butterley two days earlier. No. 54342 is lucky to have survived following withdrawal in 1989 and seeing internal use by BR at Leeds Neville Hill. When…

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AVON Valley Railway’s diesel gala on April 14-15 had to be cut back from the event planned. No visiting locos were expected, but two key residents were unavailable. Class 08 No. 08202 was not back from its hire to Knorr-Bremse, Wolverton Works as hoped. Class 31 No. 5518 (31101) disgraced itself on the first day after working…

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CLASS 08 No. 08757 Eagle worked its first general passenger service at the Telford Steam Railway (TSR) on March 31. It attracted enthusiasts from as far afield as Lincoln, Leeds and Bristol, and is seen departing Lawley Village. This loco was bought with the proceeds from the railway’s 2016 ‘Polar Express’ trains. It top-and-tailed with a…

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THE Growler Group’s Class 37 No. D6948 was the first diesel to head a passenger train on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway’s new extension to Broadway when it worked the 16.00 departure from Toddington on March 21. This was the last of four trains for GWSR shareholders and supporters, arriving just before 17.00. The Type 3…

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CONSTRUCTION work has begun on the £225million rail link that will connect Luton Airport with Luton Airport Parkway railway station. The Luton DART (Direct Air-Rail Transit) will be a double-shuttle, fully-automated people-mover, capable of operating 24 hours a day. It will be a cable-driven system offering a journey time of less than four minutes and…

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THE Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has announced plans for a ‘Congestion Deal’ that would see £80million spent on 27 extra trams. Extra money would also be spent on improving cycling lanes and other forms of public transport. Manchester has been listed as the second most congested city in Britain by the traffic data…

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THE 7¼in-gauge line at Plowmans Garden Centre, Ferndown, Dorset has had to cease operations. The garden centre is one of nine that has closed after the owning group went into administration on March 27. There were two railways here. The original was Plowmans Railway, with two Roanoke petrol locos. It ran for many years, but…

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THE Devon Railway Centre (DRC), near Tiverton, celebrates 20 years of operation with a gala on May 12-13. All three 7¼in-gauge locos will be running: Cromar White ‘Hymek’ Bo-BoBE, 4wPH Pfeifferbahn 20 of 1993, and the rarely used Bimpson Bo-BoPH ‘Rio Grande’. A platform shelter was built last year for the miniature line station, now…

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HASTINGS DEMU No. 1001 made the first of several planned main line trips on March 24, working from Hastings to Hereford via Westbury and Newport. By the time this issue of The RM is published, it will also have made a rare foray into East Anglia with the ‘West Norfolk Wanderer’ tour to King’s Lynn on…

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PATHFINDER Tours’ early-summer programme includes an attractive day out in the Peak District, heading for Buxton and the Hindlow branch on June 9. After an early start from Taunton, the train runs via Weston-super-Mare, Bristol, Cheltenham and Birmingham New Street, where the DB Cargo Class 66 gives way to a Colas Railfreight Class 56. The…

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