News

THE end of Liverpool’s trams 60 years ago formed the subject for a series of events held by the Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society (MTPS) and Wirral Transport Museum (WTM) in mid-September, culminating in a celebratory event on September 16. On September 14, six decades exactly since the last tram ran, the WTM hosted the Mayor…

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THE introduction of Blackpool’s Brush-built tramcars 80 years ago was celebrated over the weekend of September 23-24, forming the centrepiece of Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours’ (BHTT) annual Tramway Anniversary Weekend. The 20 cars built by the Loughborough firm in 1937 owed much of their design to the earlier English Electric ‘railcoaches’ that had helped transform…

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TRANSPORT for West Midlands has announced funding for two extensions to the Midland Metro tram network. The Government has given £59.8million for the 1¼-mile (2km) extension to Edgbaston, while £27.5m has been promised by local bodies for a tram stop at the proposed Curzon HS2 station. The Edgbaston extension will include five new stops –…

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RICHMOND Light Railway’s August 19 Open Day featured five locomotives in steam. Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway’s Bagnall 0-4-0ST Armistice became the first steam loco to visit this private line. It joined residents Couillet 0-4-0T Chuquitanta, O&K 0-4-0WT Susan, and Arn Jung 0-4-0WT Jenny. The fifth was 0-4-0VBT Leary, constructed a few years ago at…

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SITTINGBOURNE & Kemsley Light Railway-based Bagnall 0-6-2T Superb provided guest steam for Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s (W&LLR) September 1-3 Steam Gala. It is believed to be the first time the 1940-built loco had worked away from its Kent home, with operations including double-heading with W&LLR’s Kerr, Stuart 0-6-2T Joan, showing their design similarities. Out-of-ticket…

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By Hassard Stacpoole IARNROD Éireann-Irish Rail (IÉ) quietly released its annual report on September 7, showing the annual operating deficit was reduced to €2.9million compared to a deficit of €7.7m in 2015. The reduction was helped through revenue increasing by 4.5% to €244.5m. IÉ’s passenger business carried 42.8m passengers in 2016, an increase of 8%,…

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THE Middleton Railway’s Hunslet 0-6-0ST Brookes No. 1 made its post-overhaul passenger debut on August 28, effectively marking the culmination of its Heritage Lottery-funded purchase and overhaul. The project has taken a little more than four years to complete, starting in April 2013 when the 1941-built loco (W/No. 2387) was dismantled at Moor Road. Brookes No. 1…

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IT WAS a case of ‘seeing double’ at the East Somerset Railway on September 16, when newly overhauled Ivatt ‘2MT’ 2-6-2T No. 41313 was joined by Mid-Hants-based classmate No. 41312 for one day only. It was the first time the two numerically sequenced ‘Mickey Mouse’ tanks had met in preservation, and likely the last for…

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TRANSPORT for London put steam back onto the Metropolitan lines over the weekend of September 9-10 in what it branded as Vintage Summer Steam. The weekend was effectively a 21st century take on the classic Steam on the MET events, featuring the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre’s Metropolitan Railway ‘E’ class 0-4-4T No. 1, Dennis Howells’ Hawksworth…

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THE North Norfolk Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala on October 1-3 was the line’s most successful in four years, producing an upturn in passenger numbers not seen since the visit of ‘A1’ No. 60163 Tornado in 2013. However, just one week before the event, the railway received the news the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s ‘WD’…

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