News

A NORTHERN Counties Committee ‘W’ class 2-6-0 has emerged as a contender if the RPSI elects to pursue a new-build locomotive project. The society has been considering the reconstruction of a second LMS-NCC ‘WT’ 2-6-4T (or ‘Jeep’) for a number of years, having acquired a spare set of driving wheels, fittings and motion components when…

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THE Railway Preservation Society of Ireland is on the cusp of finalising an agreement that will see its Dublin-based General Motors Class 121 put through a major overhaul at the Inchicore works of Iarnród Éireann-Irish Rail. No. 134 – one of the single-cab GM ‘Switchers’ that led the American invasion of CIE back in 1961 –…

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LEASING Company Porterbrook and train operator Northern are to jointly develop an innovative rolling stock solution by introducing diesel power packs to Class 319 units. The novel concept will see the units dubbed Class 319 ‘Flex’, and by fitting two diesel-powered alternators, one under each of the driving trailer cars, it will allow the unit to…

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NETWORK Rail has recently delivered more than £100million of infrastructure renewals and upgrades in 200 projects across the country. The work took place over the 10-day Christmas and New Year period. More than 24,000 staff worked a total of 600,000 hours, often in freezing conditions, to build, demolish and replace bridges, install new signalling systems,…

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ALL four rail routes between Edinburgh and Glasgow will be electrified by 2019 after Network Rail awarded Carillion Powerlines a £49million contract to electrify the Shotts line. The contract covers the current ‘missing link’ between Midcalder Junction, west of Edinburgh, and Holytown Junction on the outskirts of Glasgow, and is part of a wider £160million…

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WHEN DRS wanted Class 37 No. 37401 returned from a loan period at the SRPS Diesel Group it was offered No. 37703 in its place, as the former was being overhauled at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway (B&KR). No. 37703 needed attention but was soon returned to working order in 2015, running initially in DRS blue with ‘…

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RIDDLES ‘4MT’ 2-6-0 No. 76084 will be just days away from its full revenue-earning main line debut as this issue of The RM goes on sale. The 76084 Locomotive Company Limited’s Mogul is preparing to work the Railway Touring Company’s ‘Buxton Spa Express’ on February 25 with ‘Jubilee’ No. 45690 Leander. It is a case of second…

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ON March 5, 1967 Tyseley’s Collett double-chimney ‘Castle’ No. 7029 Clun Castle became the last steam locomotive to operate out of the old Birmingham Snow Hill station. Now, 50 years later, 84E’s other double-chimney 4-6-0 – No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe – will mark that event with a railtour from Snow Hill to Didcot on March…

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TALYLLYN Railway completed its 150th anniversary celebrations on December 16 with a re-enactment of the line’s first public passenger train. The same locomotive as worked the first train in December 1866 (Fletcher, Jennings 0-4-0WT No. 2 Dolgoch), hauling the vehicles believed to have formed the original train (coaches Nos. 3 and 4 and brakevan No. 5), departed…

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THERE was cause for celebration at Mervyn Mayes’ Yaxham yard on December 20 when the boiler of Norfolk Heritage Steam Railway Ltd’s Hunslet 0-6-0ST Norfolk Regiment (3193/1944) was reunited with the frames after a seven-year absence. Progress on the ‘Austerity’ has continued rapidly over the past few months, most notably on November 17 when the…

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