News

PERMANENTWAY Type 27A MkIII rail trolley No. WD9024 (Wickham 7090) was returned to service last year. It is currently based on the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway. It was delivered new in 1955 to the Ministry of Supply at Kineton, Warwickshire, and sold to the Battlefield Line on August 18, 1977. Passing to the Swanage Railway…

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GREAT Northern Railway (Ireland) 4-4-0 No. 85 Merlin was back to winning ways on June 4 when it worked the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s ‘Midland Compound’ railtour from Dublin to Maynooth and return. The RPSI had been working tirelessly to cure the ‘V’ class Compound’s big end bearing issues that had plagued it during…

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A FORMER signal cabin that controlled part of the GNR(I)’s Bundoran Junction in Kilskeery, County Tyrone, has been reopened at the Downpatrick & County Down Railway (DCDR), thanks to a £10,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. In its heyday ‘Bundoran Junction North’ cabin sat at the northern end of the busy triangular junction, where…

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LINCOLNSHIRE Coast Light Railway Historical Trust’s Peckett 0-6-0ST Jurassic (1008/1903) moved under its own steam at the Skegness line for the first time on May 31. Jurassic provided steam at the original Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway at Humberston from 1961 until that line closed in 1985 and last steamed during a visit to Leighton Buzzard…

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LYNTON & Barnstaple Railway’s (L&BR) May 13-14 Spring Gala featured Bagnall 0-4-2T 3023/1953 Isaac, Kerr, Stuart 0-6-0T Axe and John Uphill’s 0-4-2T Faith from the Gartell Light Railway, in steam. Axe and Faith alternated hauling ‘freight’ trains between passenger services handled by Isaac. Resident Bagnall 4-4-0T Charles Wytock is currently out of service, dismantled for…

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FIVE Kerr, Stuart locomotives line up in the Apedale Valley Light Railway’s yard on May 7, during a shoot organised by 30742 Charters in advance of Moseley Railway Trust’s May 13-14 Stanhope Steam Gala. Left to right are Phil Mason’s ‘Sirdar’ class 0-4-0T Diana, Statfold Barn Railway’s ‘Wren’ 3128/1918 Roger, Gully family owned ‘Wren’ Jennie…

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TYSELEY’S flagship locomotive – No. 7029 Clun Castle – made its post-overhaul debut at the Tyseley Locomotive Works open weekend on July 24-25, albeit incomplete and on static display only. The event, which was supported by The Railway Magazine, provided Tyseley with an ideal opportunity to showcase the work that has been carried out on the…

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VIVARAIL’S prototype Class 230 DMU No. 230001 carried its first passengers on June 21-22 at the Rail Live! event at Long Marston. The unit was used to shuttle passengers between the show site on the former MoD base and Honeybourne station, where a temporary platform had been built. In the week prior to the show, the…

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LONDON Underground introduced a new timetable on the Victoria line on May 22, that sees a train every 100 seconds during the rush hour. This equates to 36 trains per hour each way, making the Victoria Line one of the most intensive metro services anywhere in the world – claimed to be second only to…

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