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OPINION EVERY steam enthusiast in the UK and beyond owes an enormous debt of gratitude to Quentin McGuiness and the 6880 Betton Grange Society, plus all those who have contributed over the past 26 years to fill a major missing gap in transport history by creating the 81 st GWR Grange. Ultimate honours must equally go to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, which started out 40 years ago running an industrial tank engine from a station saved from near-dereliction over a few hundred yards to track – and is now a - 14-mile heritage line capable of holding a heritage sector landmark event and impressing during every minute of its three days. When Tom Rolt and his volunteers began running the Talyllyn Railway on May 14, 1951, did any in their…
British Rail unsuccessfully sought permission to demolish the 1904-built Stanway Viaduct in 1980, and it survived to become the standout feature of today's Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. Thanks to the completion of the first phase of remedial works costing £750,000 earlier this year, as reported in issue 318, services over it resumed on Good Friday, and during the hugely-successful May 25-27 Cotswold Festival of Steam it carried passenger trains between Broadway and Toddington, The total cost of restoring the 650ft-long, 45ft-high viaduct is £1.8 million, and the railway is running an appeal for funds at www.gwrt.org.uk/donate/stanway-viaduct-appeal The railway is also offering supporters commemorative plaques which will be permanently mounted on each of the 240 stainless steel plates on the viaduct parapets. The plaque could be in memory of a loved one, or…
THE eagerly-awaited debut of GWR 4-6-0 No. 6880 Betton Grange and its superb performances proved to be the pinnacle of the May 25-27 Cotswold Festival of Steam, one of the most successful events held by the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in its 40-year history. The unique gala, on the theme of Western Workhorses, was the first time in the history of the UK heritage sector that three new-build standard gauge steam locomotives were seen together in action, the other two being visitors GWR Saint 4-6-0 No. 2999 Lady of Legend, from Didcot Railway Centre, and West Somerset Railway 2-6-0 No. 9351. It was also the first time that all types of two-cylinder Great Western-designed steam locomotives, following development from 1904 to 1950, were together at the same time in preservation, and…
PEPPERCORN A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado has been moved to the Great Central Railway for test running following its planned return to the main line this summer. Due to a delay in completing its overhaul, which was said to have cost nearly £1 million, what is arguably the most high-profile standard gauge new-build locomotive was unable to fulfil its planned Easter visit to the Nene Valley Railway to mark its return to steam, and its rearranged visit for May 21-27 was also subsequently cancelled. Trust chairman Steve Davies MBE said: "We have faced unanticipated challenges in the area of coded welding, a matter that has affected a number of heritage railway projects as well as our own. "On reassembly of the boiler and its fittings, we needed to undertake some…
AS A non-GWR locomotive, Merchant Navy Pacific No.35006 Peninsula & Oriental S.N. Co was the odd one out in the ground-breaking Western Workhorses-themed Cotswold Festival of Steam - but was booked to take a starring role to star in another landmark historical gathering, this time with Southern classmates. No. 35006 will take part in the Swanage Railway's June 7-9 Strictly Bulleid II gala, which will see the largest gathering of Merchant Navies hauling trains since the end of southern England steam in 1967. It will also be the biggest heritage-era gathering of Bulleid Pacifics in their original 'Spam can' 1940s form with an air-smoothed metal casing over the boiler - and the first time that two rebuilt Merchant Navies have worked services together since 1967. Since the gala was reported…
FOLLOWING a four-year overhaul, NER autocoach No. 3453 was officially launched back into service during the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway’s May Bank Holiday weekend transport festival. Together with NER autocar No. 3170, the pair are transporting passengers along the five-mile heritage line. No. 3170 was the subject of an earlier award-winning 15-year restoration programme by Stephen Middleton to get it back on track following its use asa holiday home after it left railway service. Post-Grouping conversion No. 3453 was built in 1904 asa noncorridor brake third to NER diagram 116. A few years later, it was converted toa push-pull driving trailer to work with steam locomotives and avoid the need for the engine to run round at the end of each journey – with the characteristic portholes cut…
