News

TWO passengers suffered slight injuries after a London Midland Class 350 EMU was derailed by a landslip on the northern approach to Watford slow tunnel on September 16 following torrential rain. Unit Nos. 350264 and 350117 were working the 06.19 Milton Keynes-Euston at 70mph when the train hit the chalk and earth debris, causing the…

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IT IS arguably the most convincing Somerset & Dorset revival yet… The sight of a BR Standard ‘4MT’ tank and a solitary coach was a most faithful re-creation of the much-loved inter-county main line at the restored Midsomer Norton South station and its associated short-section of double track. Llangollen Railway-based 2-6-4T No. 80072 took on the…

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TYSELEY’S dormant ‘Castle’ Defiant will be returned to steam in an ambitious £1million public sponsored project – to complete a unique in-house collection of three main line-registered locomotives from a single class. Defiant will be put through the Birmingham works once sufficient money has been raised to kick-start the project, with the intention of its…

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A GRESLEY ‘A3’ met its Peppercorn express passenger Pacific successor at an historic and record-breaking Severn Valley Railway (SVR) show. In the wake of the contentious decision to abandon its traditional autumn gala format, the SVR revelled in a sell-out weekend, together with the major press coverage, that the Pacific Power event brought over five…

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FOWLER ‘7F’ No. 53809 returned to joint railway metals again this summer – but many miles away from its traditional Somerset & Dorset ‘home’. The North Norfolk Railway (NNR), which operates over five miles of former Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway track, played host to the 1925-built workhorse, which was making its first visit to…

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ROYAL Deeside Railway-based Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST Bon-Accord (807/1897) left its native Scotland for the first time in its 119-year existence on September 11, transferring by road to Locomotion in Shildon to take part in the museum’s autumn steam gala. The ex-Aberdeen Gas Works locomotive, which returned to traffic in June following extensive repairs, was appearing…

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A LOCOMOTIVE pairing with a combined age of 207 years was the showpiece of a wet Chasewater Railway gala over September 3-4, with both coming from the Andrew Barclay stable. A threat of rain for the Saturday was fully actioned by the start of train services at 10am; a heavy and persistent downpour settled in…

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CONSTRUCTION work on Manchester’s new Ordsall Chord is now well underway. The project controversially severs the historic rail link into the original Liverpool & Manchester Railway Liverpool Road station (now home to the city’s Museum of Science & Industry). The view captured on September 1 shows the now vacated L&MR trackbed, with the bridge that…

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LEIGHTON Buzzard Railway’s major 2016 event over August 28-31 and September 3-4 marked the centenary of War Department Light Railways (WDLR) beginning First World War operations on the Western Front. Star visiting loco was Moseley Railway Trust’s Hudswell, Clarke ‘Ganges’ 0-6-0WT 1238/1916 No. 104, very similar to the pair of long-scrapped locomotives employed when the original…

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THERE was something new and blue snaking its way around the joint Irish rail network throughout September following the public launch of Belmond’s highly anticipated ‘Grand Hibernian’ luxury train. The maiden voyage began on August 30 when Iarnród Éireann/Irish Rail driver Ray Kenna eased an immaculate InterCity-liveried Class 201 No. 226 River Suir away from Dublin’s…

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