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IN this year of Railway 200, we are celebrating the marvellous transport phenomenon that originated here in Britain and changed the world forever. Yet those wheels of change have never stopped turning, long after the end of the steam age which made it all possible. Not only are there major developments in public rail transport, but the heritage sector continues to defy all odds. On September 27, we will celebrate the bicentenary of that keynote first steam-hauled passenger trip on the Stockton & Darlington Railway behind Locomotion No. 1. However, months before the climax to the bicentenary, we are applauding the efforts of the BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust and its predecessors. For more than half a century, they have fought to preserve the locomotive that represents the other…
FOLLOWING a 13-year absence from the main line, unique BR 8P Pacific No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester is poised for a comeback, having successfully undergone initial running-in trials on the Severn Valley Railway following its latest rebuild. The overhaul included new wheel bearings, a new centre crank axle, a boiler retube, new firebox tube plate and Caprotti boxes returned to their original cams, plus the improvements the BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust believed that Robert Riddles, BR’s executive for mechanical engineering, would have carried out had he been given the time after two years of running of the national network and before the proposed building of a class of 50 Dukes, blocked by the 1955 BR Modernisation Plan, was completed at Tyseley Locomotive Works under the guidance of Alastair…
THE company building Britain’s newest railway, High Speed 2, has donated 4000 tons of ballast to the Bluebell Railway as part of Railway 200. The ballast, enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool, was used by HS2 Ltd in specially constructed sidings while work on the now complete five-mile Northolt Tunnel West was carried out at West Ruislip. The donation was organised by Skanska Costain STRABAG joint venture (SCS JV), the company responsible for building tunnels beneath London for HS2 and officially handed over to the Bluebell on April 29. Such donations eliminate the need for unnecessary treatment and transportation of the material for waste disposal. It will be used to reopen Horsted Keynes station’s Platform 1, which has been out of use since 1914, and which after being bought…
THE Vale of Rheidol Railway has been given approval by the Welsh Assembly to operate Brecon Mountain Railway services once it has bought the line. The VoRR began talks to acquire the BMR in 2023, and on January 20 this year it submitted a Transport and Works Act Order application. On May 19, the VoRR said it was delighted to announced that it had been notified by Rebecca Evans, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, that it had been successful, subject to the completion of the intended sale of the BMR to the VoRR. The two railways will continue as separate entities but will work together to share financial benefits. The amalgamation is intended to preserve the legacy of business partners Tony Hills and Peter Rampton, who built the…
A BID to attract Government funding to connect West Somerset Railway services with the main line at Taunton has failed. The WSR and Somerset Council had requested £137,000 from the Department for Transport, which has now announced it will not be providing funding for the project but will hold discussions to see what improvements can be made locally. Rachel Gilmour, the Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Minehead, raised the issue in the House of Commons on May 15, saying that residents of both towns faced “many challenges when it comes to transport connectivity” and that the connection would boost tourism. A council spokesman said: “We are disappointed this link is not being considered, having worked closely with WSR on the business case. “We look forward to the DfT reaching…
LOCOMOTION No. 1– which kick-started a world transport revolution and is the focal point of the Railway 200 celebrations – is to join the lineup of Alstom’s sold-out The Greatest Gathering, the biggest-ever exhibition of historic and modern rolling stock, at its Litchurch Lane plant in Derby on August 1-3. It was the world’s first locomotive to haul a passenger train, when the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened on September 27, 1825, and paved the way for other lines to follow around the globe, and is on loan for the event from the National Collection. Locomotion No. 1, currently based at the Locomotion museum in Shildon, was built in Newcastle by Robert Stephenson & Co, the first company in the world created specifically to build railway engines and which later…
