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OPINION BRITAIN’S standard gauge heritagefleet is on course to celebrate two landmarks this year. Once the test steamings of GWR 4-6-0 No. 6880 Betton Grange are completed, we will delight in the sight of the first class member at work for nearly six decades. Later this year, again all being well, the replica of LBSCR Brighton Atlantic No. 32424 Beachy Head will emerge on the Bluebell Railway. There is no doubt that both new-builds have immense crowd-pulling potential and will boost attendances at every venue they visit. At the other end of the scale, however, the majority of an irreplaceable item of heritage traction is about to be scrapped. As reported in News, page 26, one of only two surviving prewar EMUs still in original formation, Class 503 4SUB No.…
THE Severn Valley Railway is set to host the eagerly-awaited gala debut of new-build GWR 4-6-0 No. 6880 Betton Grange. As this issue of Heritage Railway closed for press, the 81st Grange was still undergoing final refinements, including painting and lining Tyseley Locomotive Works, and was being readied for its first private steaming and yard runs in March, prior to being taken to the Battlefield Line for test running (as reported in issue 314). Subject to all work being completed and the tests being satisfactory, the locomotive was pencilled in to be unveiled to members of the 6800 Betton Grange Society Ltd at Shackertone. Afterward, it was booked to be taken to the Severn Valley Railway where, all being well, it will be rostered for the April 18-21 Spring Steam…
BRIDGNORTH’S‘other’heritage railway reopened on Monday, March 4, after having been closed for more than 14 months. Services on Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, England’s oldest and steepest inland electric funicular railway, resumed at 9am. The line, which runs for 11 feet up and down the town’s sandstone cliffs, has linked HighTown with LowTown since it opened on July 7, 1892. It was closed on December 21, 2022, pending the rebuilding of a deteriorating retaining wall on a neighbouring property which was beyond its direct control. During the closure, a team of skeleton staff continued to maintain and care for the railway in readiness for its reopening. All staffunderwent updated training immediately prior to the reopening, while the interiors of the two stations have been repainted in a fresh livery. Due to popular demand,…
GWR Saint No. 2999 Lady of Legend has not only stepped in as the star guest in place of fellow newbuild No. 6880 Betton Grange at the East Somerset Railway’s 50th Anniversary Steam Gala on March 16/17, but it will also feature in the 30742 Charters’six milk tankers photographic event at Cranmore on March 25. Furthermore, No. 2999 (pictured overleaf) will, if all goes to plan, then meet up with Betton Grange at the Cotswold Festival of Steam. An ESR statement said:“We are tremendously grateful to the Didcot Railway Centre for allowing us the hire of Lady of Legend, which will stand in at the event. “No. 2999 is set to be the first of its class to ever traverse the ESR and will appear alongside home fleet locomotives GWR…
UP to eight engines are set up run during the West Somerset Railway’s May 3-6 gala weekend. Joining the previouslyannounced LNWR Webb coal tank No. 1054 and BR B1 No. 61306 Mayflower is GWR 2800 heavy freight 2-8-0 No. 2807, courtesy of Cotswold Steam Preservation Ltd and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. Returned to service last September after a swift overhaul, it will be the 2-8-0’s first venture away from the Cotswolds under its new boiler ticket. A second locomotive also making its first venture away from home since overhaul will be GWR 0-6-2T No. 6695, from the Swindon & Cricklade Railway. It arrived at the WSR on February 23 on an extended loan and will return home in June. Furthermore, new-build GWR No. 6880 Betton Grange has also been provisionally…
WHILE its class as a whole celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, March marked the centenary of GWR 4-6-0 No. 4079 Pendennis Castle with a weekend event of steam at its Didcot Railway Centre home before it set out on its travels. Delivered new to Old Oak Common from Swindon on March 4, 1924, its working life saw it take charge of services to SouthWales and the West Country. The following year it partook in the locomotive exchange trials, during which it was loaned to the LNER to compete against the company’s iconic A3 and A4 express locomotives, such as No. 4472 FlyingScotsman. It successfully out-performed its rivals, the locomotive being described as having“ covered itself in soot and glory”, which then resulted in the GWR sending Pendennis Castle to…
