The only magazine specialising in narrow gauge railways. We recall the past, and offer comprehensive, in-depth coverage of today’s narrow gauge scene. We speak with authority to our readers, many of whom run narrow-gauge railways.
Welcome to NGW190–the date on the front of this issue says January-February, denoting the start of a new year and hopefully some optimism for the future, but it’s the way of things that these words are being written in the depths of a December winter just 10 days before the 25th, and around me the festive chaos is in overdrive. The Christmas season is more vital to many a heritage railway than perhaps many NGW readers realise. Santa Special trains, hated by many a purist, bring in more revenue in a few days than much of the rest of the season, and help make possible all those enthusiast-themed happenings that we all enjoy. As a heritage line Trustee I fully appreciate the importance of Santa trains, and the effort that…
Two storms that hit the UK within two weeks of each other wrecked the start of the financially crucial Santa Special season for several of the UK’s narrow gauge lines, and caused damage that for some could even affect the start of the 2025 operating season. The Brecon Mountain Railway in south Wales began its festive services on Saturday 23rd November, just as Storm Bert arrived over the UK. However an early-morning inspection on the following day revealed a serious landslip close to the trackbed on the hillside route towards Pontsticill. The BMR had planned to begin daily Santa services on the following weekend, but having called in specialist help to repair the damage the line was forced to cancel all trains until Saturday 7th December, losing around 400 bookings.…
The Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway’s 2025 events programme will include the national celebrations of ‘Railway 200’ – the 200th anniversary of the opening of the world’s first public railway between Stockton & Darlington. The north Wales line will join with many others, narrow and standard gauge, for a ‘Whistle-up’ at noon on 1st January, officially launching the Railway 200 programme. Organised by the Heritage Railway Association the initiative hopes to involve at least 200 locomotives. The FF&WHR’s flagship event will be the line’s 70th anniversary of preservation between 20th and 22nd June. The event is set to begin with a slate train of 50 wagons – 200 wheels – while on the Sunday the line plans a grand cavalcade of all of its available fleet, 200 powered wheels running…
A threat of closure that was hanging over the only operating narrow gauge railway in Surrey has been averted. In August the future of the 2ft gauge Old Kiln Light Railway near Farnham was put in doubt after the Rural Life Museum, within which the line runs, launched an urgent £150,000 fundraising campaign. The museum has suffered rising costs in recent times, in particular electricity charges dubbed “crippling”, and a significant drop in footfall. It stated that if the funding target was not reached by the end of October it would have to close. On 1st November the museum was able to announce that thanks to more than 2,500 individual donors, it had raised the £150,000 needed. The money will solve an immediate cash-flow crisis, allow cash taken from reserves…
The project to build an eventual four new Manning Wardle 2-6-2Ts for the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway has stepped up a gear with the awarding of the boiler construction contract for two of them. The 762 Club, which is overseeing the project after successfully recreating Baldwin 2-4-2T ‘Lyn’ for the Devon line, has contracted the long-established Israel Newton & Sons Ltd to build and commission the boilers for ‘Yeo’ and ‘Exe’. Israel Newton manufactured the boiler for the existing new-build Manning Wardle ‘Lyd’, which is based on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway and has visited the Lynton line on several occasions. Physical construction of the first boiler, for Yeo, will take place over 12 months in 2026 with that for Exe expected to follow immediately, taking nine months. Based…
The National Slate Museum, located in the former Gilfach Ddu workshops of the Dinorwic Quarry at Llanberis in North Wales, will be closed for more than a year for major redevelopment. The museum was opened in 1972, three years after Dinorwic, the largest slate quarry in Wales, closed. It has long been a favourite destination for industrial narrow gauge enthusiasts, displaying many items of slate industry stock in the authentic surroundings of the former workshop buildings and yard. Also resident at the museum is quarry Hunslet 0-4-0ST ‘Una’ (873/1905) which ironically was not built for Dinorwic but the Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry further west. The museum closed in November and is not set to reopen until 2026. It will undergo what is described as “an exciting transformation,” to “breathe new life into…
