Heritage Railway - Issue 193 - August 28 – September 24 - Preview

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Issue Issue 193 193 August ugust ugust 28 28 –– August September eptember 24 September 24

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in W a trip in a Moors opens second Whitby platforM

£4.20

HSt cab!

aussie Monster beyer Garratt pulls train

No. 193

■ West Coast outburst over steam ban ■ severn valley passes 2m miles mark

CONTENTS ISSUE 193

August 28 - September 24

News

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Baldwin 4-6-0T No. 778 hauls the newly restored Ashover Railway coach

HEADLINE NEWS

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B1 Mayflower moves to North Norfolk after sale; Great Central link project boosted by canal bridge survey sponsorship; West Coast supremo David Smith hits out at main line steam ban and the Severn Valley Railway locomotive fleet passes the two million miles mark.

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Russell in steam on the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway

NEWS

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Welsh Highland flagship Russell back in traffic; first DMU into new Corwen station; first steam in Oswestry station since 1965; riding the new North Staffordshire Railway train; P2 project reaches nearly a quarter of cost in pledges; official launch for East Lancashire ‘Crab’; A4 Dwight D. Eisenhower exhibition opens in Wisconsin; plans to rebuild world’s first steam railway in Merthyr Tydfil; preview of National Railway Museum’s Trainspotting exhibition; Rudyard Lake Railway up for sale; teenage railway owner buys second line; British-built locomotive in French main line debut and anniversary celebrations at Chinnor.

Regulars

Features

Centre spread

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Main Line Tours

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Railwayana

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Metropolitan No. 1 at Faringdon

by Brian Sharpe.

Steam and heritage diesel railtours.

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The railmotor working on the main line on the Looe branch

MAIN LINE

Auction news and events.

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GWR steam railmotor for Brentford branch in October; Tangmere slips at Evershot after returning from repair; ‘Torbay Express’ picture special, Princess Elizabeth back next year.

Tornado boiler to be serviced back in Meiningen and Britannia return delayed.

AUTUMN GALAS GUIDE 88

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Capital steam supreme Following in the wake of last year’s national award-winning Metropolitan Railway 150 celebrations, fare-paying steam returned to London Underground on four weekends in August. The trips celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Hammersmith & City Railway and the 125th of the Chesham branch. Robin Jones was on board to savour another landmark for London’s transport heritage.

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EXCLUSIVE

GNR C1 No. 251 from Bachmann.

Platform

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Up & Running

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Where your views matter most.

Museums and heritage lines.

The Month Ahead

Upcoming galas and events.

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CONTENTS: LNER B1 4-6-0 No. 61264 running as No. 61034 Chiru heads the first train out of the NYMR’s new second platform at Whitby on August 13. PHILIP BENHAM COVER: Now resident on the North Norfolk Railway, LNER B1 4-6-0 No. 61306 Mayflower departs from Hellifield with a main line proving run from Carnforth on May 2, 2013. BRIAN SHARPE

EXCLUSIVE

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The Golden Hour

Duchess Demise

The sky lightens in the east to lift the gloom of night and signal a new day as the sun slowly peeps above the horizon, lighting up the scene with glorious rays of light, helping to create pictures of pure gold. Robert Falconer presents his impressions of steam in the golden hour.

In September 1964 one of Britain’s favourite classes of express steam engine was suddenly rendered extinct with the withdrawal of all 19 survivors. J Crosse recounts the history of the LMS Princess Coronation Pacifics.

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UK-built Garratt taking Oz by storm Beyer-Garratt 4-8-4+4-8-4 No. 6029 has returned to the main line after a seven-year restoration project and 33 years after it was last steamed. Geoff Courtney looks into the story of a major railway preservation achievement that ranks with the best.

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Inspired in no small part by Ivo Peters’ wonderful book on narrow gauge quarry railways entitled The Narrow Gauge Charm of Yesteryear, Martin Creese recounts how he set out to recreate the atmosphere of these long-defunct lines.

WIN

A HIGHSPEED TRAIN CAB RIDE 76

in conjunction with the Heritage Railway-backed Derby 175 Etches Park open day on September 13.

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NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL

CAPITAL STEAM

SUPREME! Following in the wake of last year’s national award-winning Metropolitan Railway 150 celebrations, fare-paying steam returned to London Underground on four weekends in August, again it was a resounding success. The trips celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Hammersmith & City Railway and the 125th of the Chesham branch, Robin Jones was on board.

I

n early August, a linesider posted a photograph of Metropolitan Railway E class 0-4-4T No. 1 at the head of a rake of teak stock resplendent in the morning sunshine against a background of modern office buildings on the Hammersmith & City Line, on our www.facebook.com/ heritagerailway site.

His caption summed it up in a few words.

That’s why London Transport Museum and London Underground won the Heritage Railway Association’s 2013 Peter Manisty Award for Excellence, he wrote. No more needed to be said.

Following the rip-roaring success of the Metropolitan Railway 150 year of celebrations, which began with public steam trains beneath the streets of the capital in January last year, Steam on the Underground had returned with a vengeance.

Again, its phenomenal success – packed trains, all running to time and without a hitch, was largely due to the meticulous planning of London Underground’s heritage trains manager Andy Barr and his team. They were aided by a superbly professional footplate crew from Bill Parker’s Flour Mill workshops at Bream in the Forest of Dean, which owns one – and serviced both – of the locomotives in operation, backed by the splendid organisational team at the Covent Garden museum.

Coming in the wake of the success of Met 150, which received widespread international acclaim, the question is inevitably asked – how many other subway systems are capable of running revenue-earning heritage steam trains in between standard electric services in the middle of the day? It appears that turning back the clock for a few days only serves to reinforce

the status of London Underground as not only the most advanced system of its kind in the world but far and away the most versatile.

London was a very different place when the Hammersmith & City Railway opened on June 13, 1864, coming a year after the first trains ran on the Metropolitan Railway.

It was constructed on a viaduct on what were then mainly open fields. You would not have guessed today.

The GWR ran the initial services from Faringdon to Hammersmith. The Met ran the trains to Hammersmith from 1865, and in 1867 both companies took joint control of the line.

The Hammersmith & City was extended east of Faringdon to a new terminus at Aldgate on November 18, 1876. It was electrified in 1906.

This year’s programme of steam runs held to mark the 150th anniversary of the line were staged on Saturdays, August 2 and 9.

Each day, the first journey ran steam hauled between Northfields and Moorgate, behind Metropolitan No. 1.

The next three journeys ran from Moorgate to Hammersmith behind vintage Metropolitan Railway Bo-Bo electric No. 12 Sarah Siddons, returning to Moorgate behind No. 1. The last run of each day saw Sarah Siddons haul the train from Moorgate to Northfields with No. 1 on the back of the train.

As with the Met 150 celebrations, the train comprised Metropolitan milk van No. 5, the Bluebell Railway’s four-coach Chesham set and the beautifully restored Metropolitan Jubilee carriage No. 353. At Moorgate, reenactors and a brass band greeted passengers.

The train ran non-stop, but at every station, a platoon of photographers was ready to savour the moment to the full as it passed.

Above: Metropolitan Railway 0-4-4T No. 1 pauses at Baker Street during a late-night test run on July 29 before the first Hammersmith & City Line specials.

JOHN TITLOW Opposite: No. 1 emerges from Clerkenwell tunnel into the sunshine approaching Faringdon on August 9.

BRIAN SHARPE

“This year’s programme of steam runs held to mark the 150th anniversary.”

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BR Standard 4MT 2-6-4T No. 80080 passes the flooded fields at Burrs on the East Lancashire Railway on January 19, 2014.

Above: LSWR M7 0-4-4T No. 53 approaches Quorn & Woodhouse on the Great Central Railway on February 5, 2012.

BR Standard 4MT 2-6-4T No. 80080 passes Summerseat on the East Lancashire Railway on December 1, 2012.

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The crew of LMS Ivatt mogul No. 46521 at Swanwick Junction on March 1, 2013.

An alternative is to go abroad where there can be much more reliable settled conditions. South Africa was renowned for its golden light, and many photographers went back again and again to capture its magical light on the many specialist photography tours that went there.

China with its working steam operates 24 hours a day and can give some great opportunities for golden hour moments.

In 2013 I made my first visit to Sandaoling and my first day there was just after the workers had gone back to work from their Chinese New Year holidays. It was very busy with coal train after coal train leaving the opencast pit, getting production back on track.

I had been able to get many pictures from different vantage points before the shadows lengthened and the sun vanished. My tour guide shouted me to hurry back to the bus. I thought I may have to be at the hotel for a certain time to check in but after a great first day I did not mind. The guide, though, had

other ideas and took us to a spot high above the pit where you could see the line on an Sbend with the rails glinting pure gold. I could also see another coal train on its way. It was so direct into the light there was a great amount of lens flare. I had to hold my left arm at full stretch to try to shield the camera. As the train came round the corner I started taking pictures.

Many shots were later deleted, but I had managed to capture my favourites of the entire nine-day trip. As we had arrived at the very end of winter the days became warmer and I never had the exhaust or the clear quality of light during the rest of the trip in the late afternoons. My guide’s local knowledge had proved invaluable.

When your hard work does finally pay off and you get that bit of luck, it really does make up for the past failures. At that point, be sure to remember those volunteers who sacrifice so much to keep steam alive.

The sun sets on LNER A1 Pacific No. 60163 Tornado at Didcot on April 4, 2014.

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NARROW GAUGE

Graham Lee’s newly restored Erie steam shovel loads tippler wagons with Statfold ready to take them away.

THRELKELD

NOSTALGIA

Inspired in no small part by Ivo Peters’ wonderful book on narrow gauge quarry railways entitled The Narrow Gauge Charm of Yesteryear, Martin Creese recounts how he set out to re-create the atmosphere of these long-defunct lines.

T

he challenge is how does a firmly diesel era person get anywhere close to seeing and experiencing something with echoes of the slate quarries of North Wales, Dinorwic and Penrhyn or even the ironstone quarries of the Midlands, all now sadly closed.

There is however, a little preservation gem which offers a ray of light. Nestling in the foothills of the Lake District and with the delightful name of Threlkeld, and offers a rare opportunity to see narrow gauge steam in a quarry environment. It is actually a granite quarry opened in the 1870s, finally closing in 1982. Products from the quarry included railway ballast, road chippings, flagstones among many.

Quintessential

Now disused it has become a remarkable museum, not just for the quarry but an amazing array of quarry equipment and a narrow gauge railway line. The line is also home to a Bagnall 0-4-0ST – Sir Tom which lives in a quintessential stone engine shed near the entrance.

From the station the line climbs its way around the edge of the quarry, past a newer shed and workshop which is full of amazing quarry equipment before climbing past two levels to the quarry face. Here a run round

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loop and sidings complete the scene. A reasonable walk takes you up to the top where you can appreciate the scale of the old workings and how diminutive the two foot gauge locos and stock look, something rather akin to a 009 gauge railway layout. It is also fascinating to watch a train making its way along the line.

The last few years have seen a gala event with a photo charter paying for the movement costs. David Tillotson has done a superb job and for 2014 has kindly passed the baton on to my ‘30742 Charters’ banner. The line up this year was Sir Tom and six visiting engines.

Montalbahn – an Orenstein & Koppel from the West Lancashire Light Railway. The fabulous Corpet Minas De Aller from Statfold Barn along with new build Quarry Hunslet Statfold. Keeping the new build theme we have Jennie the Kerr Stuart Wren class 0-4-0ST from Amerton along with freelance vertical boiler Paddy. Finally we had Chaloner the De Winton vertical boiler 0-4-0T from Leighton Buzzard.

Arriving on the Thursday evening it was good to see all the engines raising steam and see the line. Additional sidings had been laid at what is a rather nice quarry face. The real star of the visit was sat ready for the following day .

Graham Lee at Statfold Barn had brought his

newly overhauled Erie Steam Shovel. Built in Pennsylvania, it was rescued after a working life in Canada two years ago. Erie and Bucyrus merged in 1927 and eventually become part of Caterpillar in 2011. For the charter we had a suitable pile of quarry waste and the shovel ably driven by Graham himself was put to work loading up the tippler wagons which were removed. It is a wonderful piece of equipment, all noise and heat, fast movements with a mind boggling selection of levers to pull and push, to fill a bucket, rotate and then empty. The air conditioning was deployed with all the doors open to try and get a little air in. With the summer sun beating down and the heat radiating from the quarry face it was not a place you wanted to be for too long and perhaps showed why diesel powered machines soon overtook steam

Thanks

Through the event we tried to give all the engines a chance to star eventually concluding with an eight loco (including the Erie) line up at the quarry face. My thanks to Martyn Ashworth for all his work is sourcing the engines, Ian Hartland at the museum, and all the crews from the respective lines who came with their engines and finally and not least to Graham for bringing the steam shovel.

Looking almost like a 009 layout an overview of the track layout at the quarry face at Threlkeld with both Montalbahnand Statfold in view.

SirTompasses the engine shed at Threlkeld.

Statfold Barn’s Corpet MinasDeAller hauls skips up to the quarry face.

Three steam engines in the quarry at Threlkeld

Statfold Barn’s Corpet MinasDeAllerand Statfoldwork light engines up towards the quarry with Blencathra as the backdrop.

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