Heritage Railway 191 2014

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Issue 191

July 3 – July 30, 2014

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No. 191

NICK OWEN

Contents

Issue 191 July 3 – July 30, 2014

News 6

10

Cover

HEaDlinE nEws

ree John Bunch locomotives move to Swanage for 25 years; Gresley P2 No. 2007 Prince of Wales set to become a rolling chassis within a year aer driving wheels ordered; Bluebell chairman Roy Watts made an MBE and GCR bridge plan recommended for approval.

nEws

Green-liveried BR Standard 9F 2-10-0 No. 92214 departs from Loughborough Central on June 22.

ALAN WEAVER

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Swanage Railway granted Transport & Works Order for Network Rail section of branch; lady chairman takes over Llangollen Railway; Britannia to star in Dartmouth 150 week of celebrations; North Yorkshire Moors Railway Whitby platform set for August 2 opening; prototype High Speed Train power car runs again on Great Central Railway (Nottingham); Underground August steam tickets now on sale; Olton Hall stars in Tyseley open weekend; two A4s safely home in North America; Lottery £4.5 million

boost to reopen London’s Post Office Railway to the public; departing Kent & East Sussex boss fears for future of heritage lines; Tornado to help Swanage Railway mark 35 years of services; First World War engines brought together in ‘first’ at Apedale Valley; Transport Trust award for Barber and GCR driverless train crash first report published.

Regulars 54

CEntRE

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main linE nEws

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LMS Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45699 Galatea passes Low House crossing with Statesman Rail’s ‘Fellsman’ returning from Carlisle on June 18. DAVE COLLIER

Neville Wellings’ view of 8F No. 48151 on Dent Head viaduct takes centre stage this month.

ComPEtition

■ WIN a steam drIvINg

Report into Tangmere connecting rod drop on third rail published; Seaford marks 150 years of its railway; Tornado heads ‘Devon Belle’; Yeovil Railway Centre celebrates 20 years and Sir Nigel Gresley back at Grosmont.

main linE itinERaRy

Brian Sharpe’s definitive guide to steam and heritage modern traction railtours in the coming month.

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74 Railwayana

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Geoff Courtney’s industry standard definitive guide to Britain’s railwayana auctions with details of latest prices and forthcoming events.

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PlatfoRm

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UP & RUnning

Where your views matter the most.

Brian Sharpe’s complete listing of museums and operational heritage lines.

106 tHE montH aHEaD

Our at-a-glance guide to the big events coming up in the next four weeks, with Heritage Railway, as usual, bringing unrivalled coverage.

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experIeNce course oN the North yorkshIre moors raIlWay, BrItaIN’s most popular steam lINe!

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www.heritagerailway.co.uk

Features RailWay days like tHis

Celebrated television journalist and presenter Nick Owen is as much at home with the heritage railway movement as he is in front of the cameras.

He went to the Bluebell Railway to see COVER if he could get STORY on the footplate, although generally found himself “the third man on the footplate”.

Peter Brown caught up with him in central London to discover just how involved he is and just how his enthusiasm for railways started.

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www.heritagerailway.co.uk

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Hoe, Hoe, Hoe! RecoRds tumble at mid-NoRfolk steam stuNNeR

e takeover of the Mid-Norfolk Railway deep in Great Eastern territory for three days by three big-name LMS locomotives from the West Coast Railways fleet was the biggest success in the one-time diesel-only line’s heritage era history, writes Robin Jones.

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Welcome back Wells

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a teddy beaR Jubilee

It was the sight no one expected to see, a ‘Spamcan’ on the main line in preservation, but it happened in 1981 and aer a 25 year overhaul, City of Wells is about to make another comeback. Brian Sharpe looks at the history of a remarkable engine.

July marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Class 14 D9500 to Bristol Bath Road depot during Period 7 of 1964 – the last hydraulic locomotive design from a BR workshops and the last locomotive class to be built by Swindon Works. As heritage lines

celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the class in 2014, Fred Kerr looks back on an eventful life that started off with few prospects of survival.

auf WiedeRseHeN, dampf

Hundreds of British enthusiasts, travelling either in groups or as individuals, arrived in Germany at the end of May to travel on or photograph the magnificent five-day Dampfspektakel event in the Rheinland-Pfalz region. David Rodgers reports on the event at which the organisers estimate that no fewer than 25,000 additional passengers travelled on the 100 or so steam trains on what may possibly have been the final classic free German steam event.

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News

£4½ million Lotto boost means capital project is set to deliver

By Geoff Courtney

A £22½ million project that includes opening to the public a secret mothballed underground railway that ran 70ft beneath the heart of London has received a major boost with the award of a £4½ million Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

The grant is almost the final piece in the jigsaw of a dream by the British Postal Museum & Archive that includes the building of a threestorey museum and an innovative railwaybased exhibition and corporate hire centre.

Based at the Royal Mail Mount Pleasant centre near King’s Cross, the project will see the museum open in 2016. It will also see the development of the exhibition and corporate hire facility, and – most exciting of all for rail enthusiasts – the opening by 2019 of part of a 2ft gauge underground railway that was closed in 2003.

This line was opened in 1927 as the Post Office Underground Railway, and carried mail 6½ miles from Paddington station in the west of London to Liverpool Street and Whitechapel Road in the east, with a maintenance and repair depot halfway along the route at Mount Pleasant.

At its peak it carried four million letters a day, calling at eight stations en route, each of which handled mail from central London sorting offices. The world’s first driverless electric railway, its 22 hours a day operation went largely unnoticed, with London’s millions of residents and visitors not even being aware of its existence.

Renamed Mail Rail in 1987, the end came in 2003 when – not for the first time in the history of railways – lorries became a more attractive proposition to the accountants. However, instead of sealing off the railway, Royal Mail

Delivering Mail Rail: British Postal Museum & Archive director Adrian Steel, who has announced a £4½ million Lottery grant towards a major project that will see part of London’s former postal underground railway opened to the public. BPMA

decided to mothball it, and has maintained it ever since. Under the British Postal Museum & Archive plans, 1km of the original route would be opened for public rides beneath Mount Pleasant, with passengers gaining access to the trains at the exhibition centre, which is to be developed from the former maintenance and repair depot.

Announcing the success last month of the museum’s application for a £4½ million

Wangfield Steam Museum for sale THE Wangfield Steam Museum, a private enterprise that has been built up over the last 20 years in the grounds of a private house in the Botley area of Hampshire, has now been offered for sale by the firm of Wallis and Stevens.

The project began over 25 years ago when a modeller wanted to build a steam railway in his garden and the person he contacted for assistance proved to have similar interests; this led to a friendship which resulted in the building of the railway and its operation over many years.

There came a time when the railway was sold but the modeller also had a collection of machinery which included a lathe, drill and line shafting dating from 1900.

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These had been bound for scrap but instead had been retained and stored; with the sale of the railway the modeller turned his attention to the machinery.

It was quickly set up to reveal the need for a steam engine to drive the equipment and this led to the establishment of a steam museum with a collection that now includes a steam saw mill, steam driven workshop, three stationary steam engines, portable steam engine and a quantity of spares and tools.

The owner is now looking to sell the museum and the sale is being handled by Bob Millard who can be contacted through the website at http://bobmillard8.wix.com/ wallis-and-stevens

Heritage Lottery Fund grant, director Adrian Steel said: “We have taken another major step towards building a world-class museum that will highlight the story of our universally recognisable postal service, and we thank the HLF for showing its support to this project.”

Communications manager Harry Huskisson said: “In addition to the museum, we plan to open parts of the unique Mail Rail system to the public for the first time in its history. New trains will carry people, rather than post, through a section of the original tunnels, before exploring an interactive exhibition in the depot at Mount Pleasant, where train maintenance was undertaken throughout the railway’s life.”

Sue Bowers, head of HLF London, said the new museum would be enhanced by the plans to open up part of Mail Rail to visitors, while the entire project would regenerate a part of London that had a strong community involvement but ranked high on the list of social deprivation. “It is an exciting project, and we are delighted to confirm an investment of £4½ million.”

The HLF grant was the second major hurdle overcome this year by the museum. In March, Islington Borough Council approved the plans to open part of the railway, a decision that led Adrian Steel to say at the time: “It is fantastic that the council has given us the green light to open up these unique tunnels to the public and reveal the captivating story of Mail Rail.”

Harry Huskisson said that following the HLF grant, work on building the museum would begin this summer and on the Mail Rail exhibition and corporate hire centre early next year. He said that the project was now 95% funded, and it was hoped the remaining 5% would be raised by the end of the year, through a combination of trusts, foundations, donors and corporate sponsors.

Barry ‘bubblecars’ on the market

A PAIR of Class 121 railcars that were bought by the Barry Tourist Railway as a source of spares have now been offered for sale following investigations that have confirmed that making either vehicle serviceable is beyond the line’s means.

The pair (Nos. 977975/55027 and 977976/55031) were initially converted by Network Rail in 2003 for use as the Severn Tunnel Emergency Trainset but were rarely used hence were placed in store at Long Marston in December 2007.

They were subsequently sold by Network Rail to Arriva Trains Wales in June 2008 as a source of spares for its Class 121 unit used on Cardiff Bay shuttle services but when that vehicle was withdrawn the duo were again offered for sale and bought by the Barry Tourist Railway earlier this year.

The BTR has been able to salvage the generators for use in the GATEX coach set and the steam rake currently being refurbished, but an assessment has confirmed that this salvage plus the stripping of spares by previous owners has made the task of making either serviceable beyond the BTR’s means.

As a result the BTR has now declared both vehicles surplus to requirements and is now offering them for sale. Both units still contain many useful spares and the BTR can offer spares to make good some of those parts that have been stripped off.

The BTR is seeking to sell for scrap value and estimates each vehicle to weigh about 30 tons in their present condition; interested parties are asked to contact John Buxton on 01446 748816 or 07595 023749. www.heritagerailway.co.uk

Volunteers put Weardale service back on track

LNER A4 Pacific No. 4464 Bittern pauses at the tiny Finghall station, a request stop on the Wensleydale Railway, to collect passengers while working the 3pm Leeming to Redmire service on June 8. MAURICE BURNS

Tornado helps Swanage celebrate 35th anniversary A1 PEPPERCORN Pacific No. 60163 Tornado is to take a starring role in the Swanage Railway’s celebrations to mark the 35th anniversary of its first passenger trains.

The Swanage 35 event on July 12-13 will recall the time in 1979 when Fowler industrial fourwheeled diesel shunter No. 4210132 May hauling halfpainted 1947-built Bulleid semiopen brake third coach No. 4365 ran over a few hundred yards of track from a temporary scaffolding platform set up under the Northbrook Road bridge.

From those humble beginnings, the Purbeck line now carries more than 210,000 passengers a year over the 51⁄2 miles between Swanage and Norden Park & Ride.

Visitor Tornado will run alongside the home fleet of steam and diesel locomotives including Bulleid West Country Pacific No. 34028 Eddystone, making its last trips before its 10 year boiler ticket expires.

The public will have their first chance to travel on service trains behind No. 60163 Tornado, a Peppercorn class A1 Pacific steam locomotive built from scratch thanks to an ambitious and against all odds 18-year project.

The public have the chance to take to the controls of Tornado www.heritagerailway.co.uk

A service train at Swanage in August 1979. MICK STONE/ANDREW PM WRIGHT COLLECTION

with driver experience opportunities on July 11, 18 and 19. A special ‘Twilight Tornado’ dining train is to be hauled by the A1 on Saturday, July 19.

Swanage Railway Company chairman Peter Sills said: “It is absolutely amazing what has been achieved by the Swanage Railway since a band of small volunteers first gained access to a boarded up and trackless Swanage station back in February, 1976. The disused station building, goods shed and engine shed had come close to being demolished. Having built a

successful railway operation over the last 35 years, our thoughts are naturally turning to heading onwards towards Wareham and re-establishing the link with the national railway network and operating passenger trains into Wareham station.”

Swanage Railway Trust chairman Gavin Johns said: “Back in the 1970s and 1980s, most people thought a rebuilt Swanage Railway to Corfe Castle and beyond to connect with the national railway system was a mad pipe dream that was unrealistic and unattainable.”

WEARDALE Railway volunteers have restored passenger services, 18 months after the line’s operator axed them because they did not pay.

Members of the newlyformed Weardale Railway Heritage Service (WRHS), a subsidiary of the Weardale Railway Trust, launched the new services on June 14.

Operator British American Railway Services axed the services because they were not deemed to be financially viable.

However, volunteers who were not happy with the decision have ever since been planning to reintroduce them.

Now BARS subsidiary Weardale Railway Community Interest Company, which owns the railway, has given the volunteers permission to use the track and stations.

The reintroduced service is being funded through interest free loans from WRHS directors and members of the new group. It will be operated by volunteers and there will be no paid staff.

Weardale Railway Trust director Dr Mike Wood bought former EWS Class 122 ‘bubblecar’ No. 55012 which had been severely vandalised while in storage at Thornaby.

It has been rebuilt by Rail Restorations NE at Shildon, and arrived at the Weardale Railway in April 2012.

The 60 seater unit runs over the six miles between Wolsingham and Stanhope three times a day every weekend until mid-October.

Extra days will be added if the demand is there, and it is hoped to extend the services to Witton-le-Wear, Bishop Auckland at a later date.

The trust is also raising funds for the restoration of 1954-built Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-6-0T No. 40, a veteran of the NCB system in Northumberland. Its boiler certificate expired in 2012.

WRHS president Tony Slack said: “We understood why the heritage service ended but were not happy. It’s important we don’t run before we can walk and grow a service sustainably to benefit both the railway and the dale.” The first train leaves Stanhope at 10.30am and Wolsingham at 11am, with the last departing Stanhope at 3.30pm and Wolsingham at 4pm.

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In a brief flash of sunlight, LMS 8F 2-8-0 No. 48151 crosses Dent Head Viaduct with Statesman Rail’s first ‘Fellsman’ of the summer season on June 11.

NEVILLE WELLINGS

Dampf

Hundreds of British enthusiasts arrived in Germany at the end of May to travel on or photograph the magnificent five-day Dampfspektakel in the Rheinland-Pfalz region.

David Rodgers reports on the event at which the organisers estimate that no fewer than 25,000 additional passengers travelled on the 100 or so steam trains on what may possibly have been the final classic free German steam event.

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his year’s event was not a ‘plandampf ’ in the true sense of the word, where enthusiasts would pay an additional fee to replace diesel and electric traction on scheduled passenger and freight services with steam traction and, where possible, vintage stock.

Sadly, that concept is no longer possible as the volume of passengers using swing-door vintage stock extends dwell times at stations compared with the schedules designed for modern trains with automatic doors and not requiring water stops or run round facilities at the end of each journey.

It is indeed fortunate that German railway infrastructure has not been so drastically pruned as in Britain so that the steam trains would supplement, rather than replace, the timetabled services and running to similar schedules but with additional dwell time at stations.

Rheinland-Pfalz, with a population of some four million and with its capital city of Mainz, is one of 16 länder which are constituent states of

the Federal Republic of Germany and encompasses the cities of Koblenz, Trier, Ludwigshafen and Worms.

The south and west of the region offers idyllic river landscapes and historic towns and cities in a hilly area bordering France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

The Dampfspektakel event was based in Neustadt an der Weinstraße, a town of some 54,000 inhabitants, a significant junction on the mainline from Mannheim to Kaiserslautern and Saarbrucken and centre of one of the most important wine producing areas in Germany.

The Dampfspektakel 2014 event was over two years in planning and was organised and supported by the Federal State of Rheinland-Pfalz whose Ministry of Economics, Transportation, Agriculture and Viticulture ensures a wellfunctioning regional public transport network with the German equivalent of a British Passenger Transport Authority as well as a Train Operating Company, and funded from the www.heritagerailway.co.uk

Still in original DR condition with large Wagner deflectors Class 01 Pacific No. 01 118 belies her 80 years of age as she is seen making a volcanic start from Landau with the 8.51am Neustadt-Karlsruhe on May 31.

Neustadt (Weinstraße) depot was opened to the public on the evening of May 30 with locomotives lined up and taped off for photography for a modest fee of just €10. By 10.15pm most of the locomotives had returned from their workings, had been serviced and were lined up in front of the shed. From left to right are Pacifics Nos. 01 118, 01 150 and 01 202; oil-fired Class 41 2-8-2s Nos. 41 018 and 41 360 and Kriegslok 2-10-0s Nos. 52 4867, 52 7596 and 52 8134. Prussian G-12 2-10-0 No. 58 311 and 0-6-0 Speyerbach were still undertaking station pilot duties at the time.

On both Saturday and Sunday (May 31 and June 1) 4-6-2 No. 01 202 worked two round trips each day on a 128km (80 mile) circuit from Neustadt via Landau, Pirmasens Nord and Kaiserslautern. After stopping for a crossing with a service train the Pacific heads past the impressive protestant church in Wilgartswiesen on the outward journey on Sunday, June 1.

budget of regional train services.

In view of the large number of foreign nationals present it was surprising that the event was not funded from the state’s tourism budget. Such events have become very popular over the last decade but for marketing reasons have been aimed at increasing the awareness of the local population to use rail rather than private cars.

The first such event in the Rhein-Pfalz region was held in 2000 in Kaiserslautern and similar events have been held every four or five years; the last was based in the Eifel area at Gerolstein in April 2010 to also commemorate the 175th Anniversary of German railways.

This year’s event celebrated 25 years of a linked public transport system in the Rhein-Neckar region and 20 years since local bus and rail transport services in the state were combined, making it one of the most successful local transport concepts in Germany. Abandoned routes have been re-activated, stations modernised and regular interval timetables have www.heritagerailway.co.uk

The area around Neustadt is a noted wine producing area. Class 01 Pacific No. 01 202 accelerates away from Neustadt on May 31 passing through vineyards with the 8.27am circular working via Landau and Kaiserslautern formed of Silberlinge stainless-steel coaches once very common on steam-hauled semi-fast trains in the 1960s.

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The month ahead

one for the future: on display at birmingham Railway museum’s July 5-6 open weekend will be GwR 2-8-0 no. 2885, now being overhauled after being bought by a private group from the GwR preservation Group at southall following years of being displayed at birmingham moor street station. The 1938-built locomotive spent much of its working life at stourbridge Junction and was withdrawn from severn Tunnel Junction in January 1964. experts have said that it is in remarkable condition for an ex-barry scrapyard locomotive that has not steamed for half a century. ROBIN JONES

The enthusiasts’ calendar is still full throughout July – and Heritage Railway will be with you all the way to cover the events!

The heritage lines are entering the peak summer season and family-orientated events predominate in the calenders but there are still major steam enthusiasts’ events every weekend in July with Tyseley and Foxfield both running their well-established summer events and the much younger Swanage Railway celebrating no less than 35 years in the business.

As always, we will be bringing you the best of the action from across the heritage lines as the season progresses towards the summer.

SPECIAL EVENTS JULY 4-6: buckinGhamshiRe Railway cenTRe: Days ouT wiTh Thomas 4-6: easT lancashiRe Railway summeR Diesel Gala 5: abbey pumpinG sTaTion: Railway Gala Day 5, 6: easTleiGh lakesiDe Railway: Days ouT wiTh Thomas 5, 6: eVesham Vale Railway annual sTeam Gala 5, 6: isle of wiGhT sTeam Railway: 1940s expeRience 5, 6: seVeRn Valley Railway: 1940s weekenD 5, 6: Tyseley locomoTiVe woRks: open Days Following a tradition which started in the 1960s, Tyseley’s popular annual open days this year will star LMS Princess Coronation Pacific No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland and GWR 4-6-0 No. 5972 Olton Hall as Hogwarts Castle, making its last appearance before going on show in a Harry Potter theme park. There will be the usual passenger shuttles, lineups and cavalcades with turntable and other demonstrations and workshop visits.

5-13: noRTh noRfolk Railway: QuaD-aRT week 12, 13: GReaT cenTRal Railway: noTTinGham Diesel Gala weekenD 12, 13: ponTypool & blaenaVon Railway: 1940s weekenD 12, 13: sTainmoRe Railway: sTeam GaTheRinG

12, 13: swanaGe Railway: swanaGe 35 Gala The railway celebrates 35 years of heritage trains with the first chance to travel on service trains behind LNER A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado.

A range of home fleet steam and diesel locomotives will be in operation on the most intensive and varied timetable yet, together with a diesel multiple unit giving the first opportunity to ride beyond Norden. It will be the last gala appearance of West Country Pacific No. 34028 Eddystone before its 10 year boiler ticket expires.

13: colne Valley Railway: colne Valley aT waR 13: fawley hill Railway: sTeam Day 18, 19: easT lancashiRe Railway: Raise The Roof 18-20: wensleyDale Railway: Diesel Gala weekenD 19: seVeRn Valley Railway: peep behinD The scenes 19, 20: foxfielD Railway: sTeam Gala This popular event grows year on year and has become a highlight in the heritage railway calendar. An intensive passenger service will connect Caverswall Road with Dilhorne Park from where visitors will be able to alight and make the short walk to Foxfield Colliery. Bagnall 0-6-0ST Florence No. 2, Haydock Foundry 0-6-0WT Bellerophon, Hunslet Austerity Whiston, and Dubs 0-4-0 crane tank No. 4101 will be joined by visiting Vulcan Foundry 0-4-0ST Vulcan to take their turns hauling the heavy trains up the ruling gradient from the colliery averaging 1-in-25. For the first time, guided tours of the pit will take place.

19, 20: kiRklees liGhT Railway: Day ouT wiTh Thomas 20: easTleiGh lakesiDe Railway: summeR sTeam Gala

25-27: easT lancashiRe Railway: class 14 50Th eVenT 25-27: GloucesTeRshiRe waRwickshiRe Railway: Diesel weekenD anD open Day 26, 27: easT someRseT Railway: 40th anniVeRsaRy sTeam Gala 26, 27: llanGollen Railway: 1960s weekenD 27: Romney hyThe & DymchuRch Railway: capTain howey Day 26-28: kenT & easT sussex Railway: Days ouT wiTh Thomas 30-auG 3: isle of man sTeam Railway: heRiTaGe TRanspoRT fesTiVal The five day festival will feature steam and electric railways, vintage bikes, classic cars, buses and more. As well as the Steam Railway and the Manx Electric Railway, there will be events on the Groudle Glen Railway, Snaefell Mountain Railway, Great Laxey Mines Railway and Douglas Bay Horse Tramway. There will be unique steam doubleheaders, steam workshop tours, a guided walk from St John’s to Peel and the first official trip using newly-restored MER Wagon No. 10 from Derby Castle to Ramsey.

RAILWAYANA JULY 5: Talisman Railwayana, Templecombe 12: GReaT cenTRal Railwayana, sToneleiGh paRk

Heritage Railway will be bringing you all the action from a selection of events, large and small.

ISSUE 192 IS OUT ON JULY 31, 2014

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