Heritage Railway Issue 303

Having trouble finding a Editor Robin Jones rjones@mortons.co.uk Staff Writer Owen Hayward OHayward@mortons.co.uk Senior Contributors Geoff Courtney, John Titlow Contributors Hugh Dougherty, Tim Hobman, Roger Melton Designer Tim Pipes Production editor Lucy Wood Publisher Tim Hartley Editorial address Heritage Railway magazine, Mortons Media Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ Website www.heritagerailway.co.uk ADVERTISING Advertising representatives Craig Amess 01507 529537 camess@mortons.co.uk Fiona Leak 01507 529573 fleak@mortons.co.uk Group advertising manager Sue Keily skeily@mortons.co.uk CUSTOMER SERVICES General Queries & Back Issues 01507 529529 Monday-Friday 8.30am-5pm Answerphone 24H help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk DISTRIBUTION & PRINTING Distribution Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 Poultry Avenue, London, EC1A 9PU Enquiries Line: 0207 429 4000 Printing Acorn Web Offset Ltd, Normanton, West Yorkshire. MORTONS MEDIA GROUP LTD Sales and distribution manager Carl Smith Marketing manager Charlotte Park Commercial director Nigel…

I FOUND the Great Central Railway’sWinter Steam Gala a truly breathtaking experience, not only for the performance of the locomotives and crews but also the size of the crowds that turned up. On the Friday, usually the quietest of the three days of most weekend gala, car parks and verges along the line were packed, as was the remote muddy track that is Kinchley Lane, everyone’s favourite photographic vantage point, despite the overcast weather on the day. The event proved to be a cracking start to the railway’s 50th anniversary, and in one of two special features on the GCR in this issue, we look back at the early Seventies when a motley band of seemingly over-optimistic volunteers set out to confound the critics and again proved that railway preservation…

FURNESS Railway 0-4-0 No. 20 is to run at Didcot Railway Centre’s during the Easter bank holiday weekend – and will stay for about two months. The 1863-built locomotive will be in service from April 7-10. A total of nine steamings over the two months has been agreed with its owner, the Furness Railway Trust. No. 20 is one of six examples of the class which were sold to the Barrow Haematite Steel Co. at Barrow in 1970. It continued in traffic until 1960, when diesel locomotives were introduced, and was then presented to George Hastwell Special School in Abbey Road, Barrow, where it was displayed for more than two decades. Bought privately in 1983, it was moved to the Steamtown Railway Museum at Carnforth. After the Heritage Lottery Fund…

THE exact 120th anniversary of the first GWR bus service will be celebrated by the Helston Railway on August 17. Faced with an estimated £85,000 bill to construct a light railway to extend the Helston branch to Lizard Town, the decision was made to test the market with bus services on the route. After local red tape stopped the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway using its two buses for a link with Ilfracombe, the GWR bought them to start a Lizard service, which started on August 17, 1903. For the celebration, which has been arranged in the middle of the summer season, the Helston Railway has arranged with Thames Valley bus group to bring a genuine GWR bus to run from Truthall Halt to the Lizard. Other events at the railway…

PLANS to celebrate the bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 2025 have been awarded £3,211,630 in National Heritage Lottery Fund grant aid. The award, announced on February 7, is a major contribution towards the capital costs for Darlington’s groundbreaking new Rail Heritage Quarter as a national and international visitor centre, along with the implementation of an activity plan to engage with communities along the 26 miles of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, plus a programme of small grants to enable communities to organise their own celebratory events and projects. Opening in 2024, the quarter will redevelop a cluster of heritage buildings around Darlington’s Head of Steam museum, and has been estimated as capable of attracting more than 360,000 visitors each year. The funding will also enable the creation…

➜ Apiece of James Bond history could be yours as LMS four-wheel CTT No. 37066 is for sale at the Nene Valley Railway. The vehicle was modified to have personnel end doors for the filming of the 1983 Octopussy film, which remain to this day. The wooden body requires replacement, however, the chassis is complete and nominally operational, having recently been moved. For more information, email Keith Parkinson at signalengineering@ nvr.org.uk ➜ BARCLAY 0-4-0ST No. 2157, previously based at Mangapps Farm Railway until sold and moved to a private Wiltshire site in November 2022, has taken up residence on the Swindon & Cricklade Railway, where its overhaul will now continue at its new home. ➜ CLASS 14 D9537 Eric has been confirmed as the first visiting locomotive for the North…