Heritage Railway Issue 310

JUDGING by the superb quality of readers’ photographs that have packed our inboxes over the past few months, there is no doubt that in its 50th year, the Great Central Railway has pulled off a succession of magnificent events, the latest being August’s hugely-imaginative Railways atWork gala. The line from Loughborough to Leicester North has for decades been a defining stage for the best our railway heritage sector has to offer. However, what about the next 50 years? The GCR, long renowned for its unique doubletrack main line, sits within earshot of one the sector’s biggest sources of untapped and unrealised potential – the Great Central Railway (Nottingham). In August, I undertook a journey from Loughborough Shed to see for myself just what is needed to rejoin the two heritage-era…

THE Severn Valley Railway has sold out-of-service Vulcan Foundry-built LMS Stanier‘ Black Five’No. 45110 – which made history when it headed the last leg of the August 11, 1968‘Fifteen Guinea Special’– to an unnamed buyer. The locomotive has not steamed since 2008, and after stints on display in both Barrow Hill Engine Shed and the SVR’s Engine House at Highley, it has spent the past four years in Kidderminster carriage shed. SVR management said the railway would not have been in a position to consider the locomotive’s restoration in the foreseeable future, and that the revenue generated by the sale will play an important part in securing the railway’s finances, with confirmation that sales of other surplus rolling stock are being considered. In April, the SVR launched a £1.5 million…

THE eagerly-anticipated return to passenger service for LSWRT3 4-4-0 No. 563hasbeensetfortheSwanage Railway on October 7. It is due to haul two round trips in the formal launch and supporters’ specials on the Purbeck line. Following the T3’s first moves under its own steam at Bill Parker’s Flour Mill workshops at Bream, in the Forest of Dean, as reported last issue, work has continued apace. The tender was rewheeled at Herston Works on August 17, followed by the application of the purplebrown border to the tank and raves, and the signwritten LSWR lettering receiving its gold leaf. Following this, two coats of varnish have been applied to give the tender a shine matching the front half of the locomotive. Young support A steady stream of donations has continued to be received,…

A PROJECT to replicate pioneering Festiniog Railway Small England 0-4-0T+T has passed a landmark with the trial-fitting of the boiler to the rolling chassis. On August 19, 15 members of 1863 Mountaineer Locomotive Ltd attended North Bay Rasilway Engineering Services Ltd’s base in Darlington to see the boiler trial fitted to the rolling chassis. Mountaineer was built for the FR in 1863 as one of the line’s original locomotives, and in 1879 became the only one of the four to be scrapped. Named after a local stagecoach that ran from Barmouth to Caernarvon, the identity was decades later applied to the Alco 2-6-2T that came to the line in 1967. The project was launched at the Warley National Model Railway Show in 2019 with the aim of filling a major…

A SPECIAL day for readers of Heritage Railway and the other railway titles published by its parent company Mortons Media is to be held at the Statfold Barn Railway, nearTamworth, on October 7. The star of the show will be Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Sharp Steward 0-4-0WT No. 19B, which, as reported in issue 308, was bought at an auction of the late Chiltern railway founder Adrian Shooter’s Beeches Light Railway on June 21. The newly-formed Darjeeling Tank Locomotive Trust was also successful in buying the two replica DHR coaches Adrian had built at the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Light Railway’s Boston Lodge Works. The 2ft gauge locomotive and coaches were moved days later to their new base at the Statford Barn Railway, now part of the Statfold Country Park transport…

THE already impressive narrow gauge collection at Statfold Barn Railway and Museum hasexpanded oncemore followingitsmostrecentarrival– Bagnall 4-4-0T No. 2627 of1940A.Boulle, which is onloanfromSuzanneBallandherfather, GraemeWalton-Binns. A. Boulle was one of several locomotives built by Bagnall for the Tongaat sugars mill in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and is one of six of the former Tongaat Bagnalls to survive into preservation. Its arrival at Statfold sees it reunited with former stablemate No. 2820 Isibutu of 1945, which also resides at Statfold. A. Boulle was the last of the three ex-Tongaat locomotives that Graeme repatriated from South Africa, the others being No. 2287 Sinembe (of 1926, now on the Teifi Valley Railway) and No. 2819 Charles Whytock (also of 1945, now residing at the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, where it has been renamed Sir…