Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 552 i Steam Railway

‘A4’ NO. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley could be back in service in time for its final booked railtour of the year, despite suffering a failure in its right-hand cylinder. The streamlined Gresley ‘Pacific’ was hauling the York-Edinburgh leg of Steam Dreams’ ‘Edinburgh Christmas Market’ railtour on November 23 when “large pieces of the piston ring became detached in the steam circuit, causing damage to the valve heads,” the Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Trust said. Unable to continue with the tour, the BR blue 4-6-2 was subsequently towed back to Crewe on November 27. Trust chairman Nigel Wilson told Steam Railway: “There is some damage to the valve heads and liner, so the valve heads will need to be replaced and everything realigned. Fortunately, we have spares in stock. It’s only…

THE DOWNPATRICK & County Down Railway – Ireland’s only 5ft 3in gauge heritage line – has launched an emergency appeal after suffering “an absolute disaster” following major flooding in Downpatrick at the end of October and start of November. The railway said that its site had been “totally overwhelmed” by the floodwater, which submerged streets and inundated shops in the town centre when the nearby River Quoile overflowed its banks. D&CDR vice chairman Mike Beckett said on November 2 that “the railway has been completely inundated, with severe flooding across much of our railway lines, station, sheds, yard, outside storage, and other areas. The railway is severely impacted, and we have definitely incurred much damage to the rolling stock (carriages and locomotives), buildings, extensive spares collection, permanent way machinery, tools,…

THERE WAS a record attendance at the Heritage Railway Association’s autumn conference in Newcastle-upon-Tyne on November 7/8. Supported by Steam Railway and held at the Crowne Plaza hotel, next to Newcastle Central station and its surviving North Eastern Railway water tower – and within sight of Robert Stephenson & Co’s famous Forth Street Works – there were 200 attendees at the event, representing 61 HRA member organisations. Leading the presentations was a talk by Davidson Ward from USA-based FMW Solutions, discussing the company’s work in converting locomotives to oil-firing and its collaboration with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to modify WD 2-10-0 ‘Dame Vera Lynn’ to burn oil. On Day One of the conference there were talks from Network Rail on how it manages biodiversity and the impacts of climate…

THE OVERHAUL of ‘7F’ No. 53808 is set to begin next year, the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust has confirmed. The ex-Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway 2-8-0 bowed out of traffic on the Mid-Hants Railway on November 4. The 1925-built locomotive has been resident at the ‘Watercress Line’ since August 2020, after the trust was given 12 months’ notice to quit its base at Washford on the West Somerset Railway by the WSR plc in February that year (SR503). The WSR plc had been under an agreement to carry out No. 53808’s overhaul, but stated in 2020 that it was not in a financial position to do so (SR506). However, in early November, S&DRT chairman Roger Hardingham told Steam Railway: “I am in discussion with various parties including the West…

THE MIDSOMER Norton-based Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust has purchased a piece of former S&D trackbed vital to its extension plans. The trust, which has long harboured ambitions to extend its running line south to Chilcompton, has negotiated the purchase of a 750-yard portion of trackbed, from just south of the Chilcompton Tunnels to Redan Bridge. Also included in the purchase is several acres of former agricultural land, which the vendor stipulated had to form part of the purchase. S&DRHT chairman Stephen Lacey said: “The trust will benefit greatly from the ownership of this additional land as it provides a useful point of road access and, in the long term, has income potential.” The purchase has been funded by a “generous legacy” left to the trust. Lacey added: “Before…

ENTHUSIASTS HAD a chance to see inside the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s transformed engine shed at Aberystwyth as part of a ‘soft opening’ on October 31/November 1. The former Great Western Railway locomotive shed, which closed to steam in April 1965, has served as the VoR’s main engine and rolling stock shed for several decades. However, the shed has been refurbished into a multi-function display space as Phase 3 of the railway’s £2.2 million ‘Wales to the World’ redevelopment project – a wide-ranging scheme to transform the VoR’s Aberystwyth terminus, including the provision of a new, purpose-built, three-road rolling stock shed (SR512), a new GWR ‘pagoda’ style station building, and a new, Great Western-style, brick-built booking office. The former standard gauge locomotive shed has been carefully renovated; following the removal…

STOP and Examine I HAVE BEEN tinkering around in this engine shed for 44 years now and I have seen a few things along the way. As a heritage railway insider, your editor has kindly given me the opportunity to say a few words, and in my debut piece I am moved to action by this column in last edition’s Steam Railway. Just a couple of years back, I stood on a misty platform at one of the big heritage railways in the Midlands. My friend, a volunteer of nearly 50 years, stood with his overalls in a pile, a can of accelerant in one hand and a box of matches in the other. No, not an arson attempt – far from it – merely a way to express the…

GET IN TOUCH Steam Railway, Media House, Lynchwood, Peterborough PE2 6EA steam.railway@bauermedia.co.uk or www.facebook.com/steamrailway STAR LETTER LNER legends live on I’m sure that many people will be saddened to hear about the death of Peter Townend (SR551), one of the last remaining links with the old LNER. It’s interesting that Doncaster seemed to breed well-known railway personalities such as Peter, Dick Hardy and John Bellwood – lifelong career railwaymen who also helped the preservation movement over many years. Here in Sheffield, I’m very fortunate to know another Doncaster apprentice, Rex Mercer, who also started at Doncaster in 1941. He tells me many interesting stories of what life was like at Doncaster. One particularly pertinent story is that Peter Townend had been involved in designing the oil-fired equipment for the WD…

RAILWAYS RE-USED Once almost hidden by trees, literally overgrown by ivy and often unnoticed by visitors to Settle, was a remarkable survivor of the steam age: the Settle station water tower, or tank house. These structures were once familiar features of the railway scene. Their function was to store water at a sufficient height above the railway and in sufficient volume to enable thirsty steam locomotives to refill quickly. Several survive in working condition on preserved steam lines but elsewhere they were demolished with little ceremony on becoming redundant when steam finished in 1968. Even on the Settle-Carlisle line where main line steam now flourishes, the large tank house at Garsdale, identical in size to Settle’s, was demolished in 1971. Only its foundations remain. At Appleby there is a relatively…

6H SHEDCODE Special Set against a rolling backdrop of greenery, Bangor shed was one of the last true bastions of the London & North Western Railway (LNWR), as well as a popular place for enthusiasts to visit until its closure. The first indication that Bangor was becoming a locomotive depot was in 1852 when a 36ft turntable was delivered to the initial site, being replaced by a 40ft example in 1859. No official date is given for a shed being erected, but by 1879 the LNWR – specifically Francis Webb – wanted to move the ‘existing shed’ to beside the station. It must have seemed too great an undertaking as, in 1884, an entirely new facility opened, but not to Webb’s northlight-roofed design. This later building was brick-built and had…

How do I reflect on 2023? The best way of putting it, I think, is with mixed feelings, and probably better than a lot of people imagined…” Steve Oates furrows his brow at the question before adding, “This time last year, one of the things the HRA was doing was encouraging people to refresh and rethink, reimagine, and reinvent themselves. A lot of railways and supporting groups were thinking the same way. Many were still possibly unsure about how to move forward. Maybe the level of agility and the new thinking that was required wasn’t there.” We feature the words of Steve a lot in this magazine’s pages. Quietly spoken, he is the official face and head of the Heritage Railway Association (HRA) and contributes his views in his regular…

TRAINS TO Broadway on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway might not resume as planned in March after “a long-standing open joint” was discovered on Stanway Viaduct. The 15-arch brick-built structure, which is situated between Toddington and the line’s terminus at Broadway, has been closed to trains since the end of the main 2023 season to allow Phase 1 of planned remedial repairs to begin on the 1904-built viaduct. This has involved removing the rails, sleepers and ballast to replace the viaduct’s failed waterproof deck with a new concrete layer that would ensure water flows towards the catch pits, with the aim of reopening the viaduct before the GWSR’s services resumed in March 2024. However, in the process of removing the permanent way, it was discovered that a mortar bond on…

THE QUAINTON Railway Society at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is open to offers for its ex-Egyptian National Railway Sentinel railcar. Built in 1951 – with its boiler, engines and running gear supplied by the Sentinel Waggon Works of Shrewsbury and the bodywork by Metropolitan-Cammell of Saltley, Birmingham – the articulated three-car unit (Works No. 9518) was one of ten units supplied to the Egyptian National Railway. Numbered 5208 in ENR service, the unit was primarily used on suburban services around Cairo, working out of El Wasta depot, some 50 miles south of Cairo, and around Tanta, approximately 50 miles north of the city. Designed to operate at 335lb/sq. in and capable of operating at over 60mph, it was withdrawn in 1962 and subsequently stored at El Wasta. No. 5208 was…

GREAT CENTRAL Railway-based BR ‘2MT’ 2-6-0 No. 78019 will be visiting two former Southern Region lines over the winter and into the new year. The first is the Kent & East Sussex Railway; the 1954-built ‘Mogul’ was delivered to the line’s Rolvenden works on November 24, and will stay on the Tenterden-Bodiam line over the Christmas period helping haul its Santa services. The second ex-Southern line No. 78019 will grace is the Spa Valley Railway. The Riddles-designed locomotive is set to appear at its Winter Steam Gala on February 9-11, working alongside its larger Standard cousin ‘4MT’ 2-6-4T No. 80078, as well as air-smoothed ‘Battle of Britain’ No. 34072 257 Squadron, ex-Caledonian Railway ‘812’ 0-6-0 No. 828, and newly overhauled Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST Works No. 2315 ‘Lady Ingrid’. The Standard…

THERE WILL be several locomotives making their debuts and finales at the Severn Valley Railway’s forthcoming Winter Steam Gala on January 6/7. The event is a new addition to the SVR’s calendar for 2024, joining the regular Spring and Autumn Steam Galas (planned for April 18-21 and September 19-22 respectively). Although the Winter Steam Gala will primarily be a home fleet event, it is also set to feature visiting USATC ‘S160’ 2-8-0 No. 2253 ‘Omaha’. The 1943-built locomotive, appearing courtesy of the Dartmouth Steam Railway, has been at the SVR since September, when it arrived ahead of its appearance at this year’s Autumn Steam Gala; the January event will be its final workings on the SVR before returning to Devon. Also taking a bow at the gala will be SVR-based…

TRAINS ON the Mid-Norfolk Railway will return to Wymondham Abbey at some point next year, with repairs to a key bridge well in hand. The station has been isolated from the rest of the MNR throughout 2023 owing to the need to replace life-expired waybeams on Crownthorpe Bridge. However, thanks at £40,000 raised by supporters, plus additional funds from the railway’s general finances and the acquisition of lower cost materials, the work is expected to be completed before the next summer’s running season begins. Other vital infrastructure work completed on the MNR this year includes extending Platform 2/3 at Dereham. The railway has also relaid the level crossing at Gravestone, while work to re-signal the line between Dereham and Wymondham is making good progress, with Dereham and Thuxton nearing completion,…

THE STATFOLD Barn Railway & Museum has completed the cosmetic restoration of 18in gauge ex-Royal Arsenal Avonside 0-4-0T Woolwich. Completed in 1916, Woolwich (Works No. 1748) was one of 16 ‘Charlton’ class locomotives built by Avonside for the Royal Arsenal Railway at Woolwich which, at the peak of its operations, covered 147 miles of track in three gauges, in just two square miles. Woolwich was part of an initial batch of six oil-fired locomotives, enabling them to operate in the most dangerous areas of the arsenal. Subsequently retired in 1956, Woolwich moved in 1962 to the Bicton Woodland Railway near Budleigh Salterton, Devon, along with ex-Royal Arsenal Hunslet 0-4-4-0DM Carnegie and several items of rolling stock. Woolwich ran at Bicton for several years until Bicton Gardens changed hands in 1998;…

THE GLYN Valley Tramway Trust at Chirk has taken delivery of a replica of one of the original line’s two four-ton closed vans. Both of the original vans were built in 1893; although they survived the closure of the line in 1935, one was burnt in 1975 and the second scrapped in 1972. The replica van began life as a 2ft 6in Royal Naval Armaments Depot van; it was purchased in the 1990s by a private individual and heavily modified to resemble a GVT van. It was later purchased by the original GVT trust that disbanded in the 1990s, after which it was used as a garden shed. In April this year, it was taken to C.J.S. Engineering in Wigan, where it was stripped, rebuilt, repainted and re-gauged to 2ft…

DONORS TO the North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s latest £50,000 fundraising appeal will be entered into a competition to win a year’s free travel on the line. The appeal has been launched to help the railway cover its costs during the winter off-season, ahead of the resumption of services in 2024. NYMR director of fundraising, Julia Clark, said: “We took a huge financial hit during COVID-19 and since then, with running costs continuing to soar, the railway has struggled to recover.” The NYMR’s director of mechanical engineering, Paul ‘Piglet’ Middleton, added: “Running a railway like this is challenging in terms of the costs involved and the skills required. For example, vital running costs cover the three tonnes of coal per day each locomotive requires, and most tender engines have 12 brake…

The HRA view I STARTED A Google search and then regretted it, although I already had an inkling of what I would find. Type ‘heritage’, ‘cultural heritage’ or ‘historic’ into your search engine and, you know how it works. You’re first presented with definitions and a load of links. Before I knew it, I was off on a journey around various sites and quickly had numerous tabs open for English, Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh websites. So let’s take a quick scan of some of those websites – Historic England, Historic Wales, Historic Environment Scotland, UNESCO, English Heritage, and other similar websites, and a handful of more obscure sites. For many of these organisations and for a number of fairly significant tourism websites, it’s apparent that stuff relating to ‘heritage’…

Want to be featured? Send your reports and pictures to: steam.railway@bauermedia.co.uk GWR & CONSTITUENTS 3850 Riley & Son Engineering at Heywood in Lancashire has completed the overhaul of the 2-8-0 ‘2884’ class’ boiler and has dispatched it back to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway for steam testing to be carried out. 5526 In a short-term locomotive swap between the Gloucester Warwickshire Steam Railway and South Devon Railway, ‘Prairie’ No. 5526 will go to the GWSR for the Christmas season, while ‘Manor’ No. 7820 Dinmore Manor has departed for the SDR. The ‘4575’ class has been rostered to work over Christmas and the New Year on both regular passenger services as well as festive specials. 7827 Lydham Manor has returned to traffic on the Dartmouth Steam Railway following completion of its…

NUMBER 36 Crossword aficionado and railway enthusiast Alan Frost has come up with the perfect way to spend ten minutes (if you are quick) or a couple of hours (if research is required). The Steam Railway crossword is back – just for fun. No need to send in your answers – just test yourself and find the answers here next issue. ACROSS 1Red for home, yellow for distant (6)4Collett ‘Hall’ 5984, with ‘Lea’ famous traditional English song (6)8Arthurian link to Tintagel on BR Standard 5 engine 73113 (9)10 City giving name to LMR ‘Coronation’ class 46248 (5)11 Peppercorn ‘A1’ class 60133, named after a champion racehorse (7)12 Sound of soldier on Stanier LMR 46157 in action (7)16 Long-distance alternative to rail journey built by Zeppelin company (7)17 Birds, one giving…

THE COUNTY DONEGAL RAILWAY When thinking of the railways of Ireland, one of those that most likely comes to mind is the 3ft gauge County Donegal Railway – or to give its proper title from 1906, the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee (CDRJC). Running through dramatic scenery with a fleet of large tank engines, and with passenger stock in a smart scarlet and cream, the line is just as well known for its fleet of railcars that transformed the financial decline of the line in the 1920s and kept it as a going concern until 1959. Reaching an impressive mileage of 124½ miles, it was the largest narrow gauge railway in the British Isles. Route roots The CDRJC’s origins lie in the Finn Valley Railway, built to the Irish standard…

THE WORLD’S most famous steam locomotive is set to enter 2024 with a period of uncertainty, as the National Railway Museum has revealed that it currently has no plans to operate Flying Scotsman beyond December 31 this year. The current contract with Riley & Son (E) Ltd to operate No. 60103 on both the main line and heritage railways throughout the UK expires on the last day of 2023. At that time, the ‘A3’ is due to be at the NRM’s Locomotion site in Shildon as part of the last scheduled part of its centenary celebrations. Once the visit to Shildon concludes in the first few days of January, there are no further published plans. Although announced in February 2018, the six-year contract signed between the long-standing Lancashire engineering firm…

THE KEIGHLEY & Worth Valley Railway has been awarded a massive £5 million grant, which will be put towards several major projects. The seven-figure-sum, one of the largest grants ever awarded to a UK heritage railway, has come from the Government’s ‘Levelling Up’ fund, as part of a £20m package for schemes across Keighley. It comes two months after the KWVR was awarded £1m from the Government’s Community Ownership Fund to rebuild Bridge 27 near Haworth (SR550). The projects to benefit from the £5m grant include upgrading the signalling at Keighley and installing signalling on the Haworth loop, developing a diesel/ DMU facility on the ‘GN Straight’ between Keighley and Ingrow, and potentially further undercover carriage accommodation at Ingrow, and possibly also on the ‘GN Straight’. KWVR chairman Matt Stroh…

REBUILT ‘BATTLE of Britain’ No. 34053 Sir Keith Park is to be renamed ‘303 Squadron’ next year as tribute to the Polish and Czech pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain. Although the squadron, which was almost entirely composed of exiled Polish pilots, was one of Fighter Command’s most successful during the battle – shooting down 203 enemy aircraft and suffering only 29 losses – it was not one of those units honoured by the Southern Railway’s ‘Battle of Britain’ class 4‑6‑2s, as it was not a British squadron. “IT WAS NOT HONOURED BY THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY AS IT WAS NOT A BRITISH SQUADRON” The idea of renaming one of Southern Locomotives Limited’s Bulleid ‘Pacifics’ was first suggested by volunteer Mike Frackiewicz, “but only recently did our director Peter…

THE GREAT Central Railway rounded off its 50th anniversary year with a successful ‘Last Hurrah’ gala on November 18/19. The two-day event was largely a home fleet affair, but also featured visits from the North Eastern Railway petrol-electric autocar No. 3170 from the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway, and BR Derby lightweight railcar ‘Iris’, on loan from the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. There were five steam locomotives from the GCR’s resident fleet running at the gala, including ‘Modified Hall’ No. 6990 Witherslack Hall – the Hawksworth 4-6-0 having been returned to its true name and number having temporarily run as scrapped classmate No. 6988 Swithland Hall since the GCR’s Railways at Work event in August (SR549). Also in action were ‘8F’ No. 48305, BR Standard ‘5MT’ No. 73156, ‘2MT’ No.…

THERE WILL soon be step-free access at the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway’s Sittingbourne Viaduct station, once work to upgrade the platform is complete. Following the end of the main 2023 running season, the 2ft 6in gauge line has begun replacing the life-expired platform at Sittingbourne Viaduct, using pre-cast concrete components supplied by building product supplier Ibstock. The parts were delivered free of charge by Seymour Transport Ltd to the SKLR’s Kemsley Down headquarters, then transported by rail to Sittingbourne Viaduct for assembly, as the station lacks suitable road access. The new platform will be wider and higher than the current platform, enabling wheelchairs and pushchairs to be driven directly, or pushed up a ramp, onto the train. The gap between the platform edge and the train is also being…

THE STATFOLD Barn Railway has donated its four Lynton & Barnstaple Railway-style carriages to the Bala Lake Railway. Originally built by Alan Keef Ltd in the early 1990s as part of a batch of eight vehicles for use on the Thorpe Park railway, five were subsequently acquired by the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, while the remaining three went to the Lynbarn Railway at Milky Way near Clovelly in 1994/5. Four of the L&BR’s carriages were rebuilt as five-compartment enclosed coaches, and were the railway’s main passenger carriages from 2004 until 2013. Rendered surplus to requirements by the arrival of the North Devon line’s authentic, replicated L&BR carriages, the four Alan Keef vehicles were sold to Statfold Barn in May 2014. The four carriages donated to the BLR are No. 517…

BARNSLEY MUSEUMS and Historic England have announced a £25 million plan to revive the Elsecar Heritage Railway (EHR), together with a replica of the 1849 locomotive Fitzwilliam, which ran on Earl Fitzwilliam’s private railway that had its station at Elsecar Iron Works – now part of the Elsecar Heritage Centre. The EHR first opened in April 1996 on the old mineral branch from Elsecar Junction near Wath, on the former Doncaster to Barnsley section of the South Yorkshire Railway (later part of the Great Central), to Elsecar via Cortonwood. The branch was originally built to serve several collieries and ironworks owned by the Rockingham family, headed by Earl Fitzwilliam, who had his own private station at Elsecar. Cortonwood Colliery closed in 1984/85 and the branch was mothballed, but owing to…

THE COLLECTION of locomotives and rolling stock of the Prestongrange Railway Society has undergone a big move to its new home. Located at the Prestongrange Industrial Museum in Prestonpans, east of Edinburgh, on the site of a former colliery, the railway collection was latterly housed in the colliery’s old pithead baths. This building was life-expired with a leaking roof, necessitating the move to a new, purpose-built two-road shed, which was completed in January 2023. In order to move the rail vehicles from the old bath house to the new shed a section of the demonstration line had to be lifted; the move, which involved a low-loader and a crane to move the locomotives across site and place them into position, was completed on November 16. Among the society’s collection is…

Every heritage railway has a different story about how it was formed, but one constant is the passion of people keen to see steam live on well past its sell-by date. The tale of how the Plym Valley Railway came into existence is rather unusual, even by heritage railway standards. “The idea came through hospital radio. I was asked to do a feature because someone came up with an idea to import steam engines from Iran to run on the Gunnislake branch on Sundays,” Bernard Mills, a founding member of the society, recalls. That sounds like a pie-in-the-sky thought in 2023, let alone in 1980 – when the idea was mooted – given that at that time main line steam was only operating on certain approved routes and, needless to…

PART ONE It will always be a mystery to me why the Great Western Railway’s last Chief Mechanical Engineer, Frederick W. Hawksworth, chose to construct the 30 engines that became known as the ‘County’ class. These locomotives were built immediately after the Second World War, a time of extreme austerity, and it seems strange that locomotives of this calibre were needed when the GWR’s existing engines were more than capable of covering any work over the system. Arguably, any money spent on building the ‘Counties’ could have been better invested in improving the performance of existing locomotives. Swindon’s work in improving the steam-shy ‘Manors’ and ‘93XX’ class 2-6-0s was quite remarkable, and a number of other classes also benefited greatly from improved draughting and superior superheating. The ‘Modified Halls,’ particularly…

GET IN TOUCH Got an event you want to be included? email steam.railway@bauermedia.co.uk DECEMBER 29-31 SOUTH DEVON RAILWAY: Winter Steam Gala. JANUARY 2024 20/21 SPA VALLEY RAILWAY: Wizard Weekend. 26-28 GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY: Winter Steam Gala 27/28 SPA VALLEY RAILWAY: See Bluey! FEBRUARY 2024 9-11 SPA VALLEY RAILWAY: Winter Steam Gala. 9/10 SPA VALLEY RAILWAY: Real Ale & Cider Trains. 25 EPPING ONGAR RAILWAY: Winter Bus Event. 29-1 MARCH EAST ANGLIAN RAILWAY MUSEUM: Winter Beer Festival. MAIN LINE DIARY FEBRUARY SAT 24 ‘THE SETTLE & CARLISLE WINTER EXPRESS’ Bristol Temple Meads – Bristol Parkway – Cam & Dursley – Cheltenham Spa – Worcestershire Parkway – Birmingham New Street – Stafford – Carlisle and return (PT) MARCH SAT 2 ‘LONDON TO YORK’ London Kings Cross – Welwyn Garden City – Huntingdon…