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ISSUE 218

July 28 – August 24, 2016

Scots Guardsman RESCUES DIESEL ON RAILTOUR! OLIVER CROMWELL IS BACK

Flying Scotsman Diners

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No. 218

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CONTENTS ISSUE 218

July 28 – August 24, 2016

News

Headline News

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Chinnor trains running into Princes Risborough; Flying Scotsman diners sell out within four hours; Scots Guardsman rescues diesel – and Pacific chases its own train; Oliver Cromwell back and Swordfish steams again after half-century.

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News

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Swanage Railway’s Wareham extension date announced; Leadhills & Wanlockhead runs ‘real’ bus replacement service; travel agent Thomas Cook’s first trip restaged on Great Central; West Coast fined £200K for Wootton Bassett SPAD; Leighton Buzzard’s Pedemoura hauls first passenger train in 92 years; Henleyin-Arden footbridge rises again at Broadway; Fletcher Jennings reunion concludes Talyllyn 150; new Foyle Valley occupants may restart heritage line; two more to steam soon at the Severn Valley and listed historical items pulled from railwayana sale.

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Regulars Railwayana

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Geoff Courtney’s regular column.

Centre 54 Oliver Cromwell back in action at the GCR by Paul Biggs Mainline Itinerary 62 Main Line News

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Steam Dreams plans three-day trip to mark end of Southern steam half centenary; Borders and Fife Flying Scotsman gauging fiasco report and Royal Scot’s improved performance after coal change.

With Full Regulator

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Don Benn reports on recent runs by the Bulleid Pacific currently running as No. 34052 Lord Dowding.

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Steam and heritage diesel railtours.

Off the Shelf

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Platform

90

Up & Running

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Latest book and DVD releases.

Where your views matter most.

Guide to railways running in August.

The Month Ahead

Features Flour Mill ‘greats’ back in the Forest!

Bill Parker’s Flour Mill workshop celebrated its 20th anniversary with a gala at the nearby Dean Forest Railway. The event saw three of its best ‘customers’ return to thrill the crowds, writes Robin Jones.

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CONTENTS: LMS 4-6-0 No. 46100 Royal Scot departs from Bath with the first ‘Torbay Express’ of the season, from Bristol to Kingswear on July 3. SAM BILNER COVER: LMS Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45699 Galatea departs from Worcester with RTC's ‘Cotswold Venturer’ on July 2. ALAN WEAVER

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Firing an A3 into King’s Cross

In 1960, the LNER A3 Pacifics were already 35 years old but still working top express trains. Brian Bell describes what it was like to work on the Pacifics, one of which, Flying Scotsman can still be seen on the same route occasionally, no less than 56 years later.

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Main line steam is following a different pattern to that of recent summers. Brian Sharpe reports on a programme which has already seen a Royal Scot to Kingswear and a Jubilee to Weymouth.

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84 In ‘The Middy’ of a Revival

One of the first branch line closures

by BR, the Haughey to Laxfield branch lay dormant for 40 years until it became the subject of an unlikely revival. Peter Brown visited the MidSuffolk Light Railway.

Write to us: Heritage Railway, Mortons Media Ltd, PO Box 43, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ.

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NEWS

Red-letter day as Leadhills & Wanlockhead hits new high

Above: A pre-1923 postcard view of a Caledonian Railway passenger train at Wanlockhead. LWR Left: Former Eppleton Colliery diesel Clyde hauls one of the replacement bus services over the Leadhills & Wanlockhead Railway. MURDO MCLEOD/LWR

By Robin Jones ONCE the highest section of the UK national network, and currently the highest adhesion-worked heritage line, the Leadhills & Wanlockhead Railway spent a week in early July running‘real’ public services 77 years after the original Caledonian Railway branch line closed.

The 2ft gauge South Lanarkshire line responded to an official request to run a bus replacement service when the B797, the only road connecting the two villages, was closed for resurfacing, leaving villagers with a mile and a half walk to the local shop or a 50-mile detour by car.

The road closure cut off Wanlockhead from the area’s only shop and doctor’s surgery two miles away in neighbouring Leadhills, stopping tourists from reaching the Leadhills mining museum in Wanlockhead and blocking its lifeline bus routes.

In response, for the first time in its 30-year history, the diesel-operated line, which runs for about two-thirds of a mile between Leadhills and the Dumfries and Galloway county boundary in the Lowther hills, ran 18 services a day between its two stations, with seven trains timed carefully to meet buses in Leadhills running to and from Lanark, and that town’s scheduled rail

The courier company delivering mail at Glengonnar Halt. LWR

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connections to Glasgow.The timetable was drawn up by a member who works on the national network.

The railway started planning in May by asking for volunteers who would be available during the two weeks that the council had posted that the works would last. For the special public services, which ran for five days from July 4, ticket prices were cut from £4 to £1, and over-60s bus passes were honoured.

Steady stream of locals

Railway spokesman David Winpenny said:“We did this mainly to help the villagers as the doctor had cancelled his surgery in Wanlockhead for the week, and also some people in Leadhills work at the mining museum in Wanlockhead, so needed to commute on the train.

The local shop is in Leadhills so for small items again the communities needed to be able to get between the two villages.

“On the Monday at 8.30am we turned up and took the train round to the station.There was a steady stream of locals and also visitors that had heard the railway was open for the week and came to see us.

“In all we carried 32 adults and seven children on the first day. This was more than we had carried at the weekend.

On the Tuesday we had some firsts for the railway. It had been approximately

The Leadhills & Wanlockhead Railway carried its first bus pass passengers on July 5. LWR

77 years since the railway (as a standard gauge branch line) had carried post between the two villages, but Hermes, a courier company, needed to get three packages to Wanlockhead and get one in return. So they boarded the train and met a local representative at the other end.

“We also carried our first bus-pass passengers, as we had said we would honour the bus passes; two ladies from Leadhills going to Wanlockhead.

“Wednesday turned out to be another busy day with 43 adults and seven children, Thursday was the busiest day due to the media coverage that we had on the Tuesday and Wednesday, with 66 adults and nine children.

“On Friday the road was finished, the council contractors I suspect having been told to get the work done asap, so the visitor numbers were much less, but I would say that our roadreplacement rail service had been a great success.

“In all we carried 215 passengers over the Monday to Friday, as well as 60 passengers on the Sunday due to the publicity we had got during the week.

We are now back to our usual opening of weekends only, but it is to be hoped that we will have many more visitors this season.

“The publicity side was a revelation, when I had finished service on the Monday I returned to the Hopetoun Arms, where I was staying in the village, and there were all these emails and messages from TV, radio, and newspapers all wanting to do articles on the‘bus-replacement rail service’.

“It has been on the front page of the BBC website. It has been a great success in getting our name out to people.

We even had a report that one of our member’s sons in Australia had read the articles on the BBC website.

“It has also been brilliant that we have two new recruits from the village who will bolster our numbers in the

coming days. We also had others from Wanlockhead who came to help out on odd days in the shop so that the service would be able to run.

“It has been a fantastic response from both villages to solve the problem of the road closure. It really was a case of the communities working together, and I am glad that we could play our small part in this story to keep the communities connected.”

Spa-like health resort

The trains were hauled by blue-liveried Hunslet four-wheeled diesel hydraulic No. 6347 of 1975 Clyde, which was delivered new to the National Coal Board at Eppleton Colliery. In August 1986 it was moved to the South Tynedale Railway at Alston, Cumbria, where it was refurbished, painted yellow and known as‘The Peril.’ In January 1990, Clyde moved to Leadhills and was given new colours.

The Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway was built under the 1896 Light Railways Act to link mining settlements to the Caledonian Railway’s Carlisle to Carstairs main line. It was also hoped that a spa-like health resort could be established there.

The short branch, at 1498ft above sea level, was opened in 1901-02, and worked by the Caledonian. The rackand-pinion-worked Snowdon Mountain Railway is higher.

The dividends that speculators had hoped for never materialised. When the world lead price slumped in the 1920s, the line sustained heavy losses, the Wanlockhead Mining Company went into liquidation in 1936, and the branch was closed on January 2, 1939, the last passenger train running two days before.

Steam, however, makes a return to the line on July 30-31 in the form of Bagnall 0-4-0ST No. 2133 of 1924 Woto.

The former British Insulated Callender’s Cables Ltd locomotive, now based at Alan Keef Ltd’s works in Ross-on-Wye, will be making its first visit to Leadhills.

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RAILWAYANA

BY GEOFF COURTNEY

Business as usual on an unusual day at Sir William’s country home IN many ways it was an unusual day.The setting – the private railway museum at Sir William’s McAlpine’s country estate near Henley-on-Thames – was a unique location for a railwayana auction, parents and children who had doubtless never before experienced such an occasion were milling around, and a steam loco busied itself literally just a few feet away.

But in other respects the auction, on June 19, was business as usual. Many faces were familiar, groups huddled exchanging all the latest railwayana gossip, and nameplates emerged triumphant.

Going under the hammer of joint auctioneers Ian Wright and Mike Soden was the vast cast-iron and enamel signs collection of the late Stuart Furniss and his wife Kath, bolstered by other railwayana from the same collection and also from a number of other collectors, with no fewer than 17 main line steam nameplates headlining the 550 lots.

Seven of those nameplates sold for

five figures, headed by 222 Squadron with the squadron crest from SR Battle of Britain Pacific No. 34078, which went for £46,000, followed by Knight of the Grand Cross (GWR Star class No. 4018) at £29,000.The others were Loch Rannoch (LNER K2 No. 61788) at £23,000, The Cotswold with worksplate (LNER D49 No. 62760) at £17,000, Sir Martin Frobisher (SR Lord Nelson 4-6-0 No. 30864) at £15,000, and finally County of Berks from GWR No. 1002 (£14,000) and Saint Augustine from GWR No. 2914, which sold for £12,000.

Burghclere Grange with its cabside numberplate (GWR No. 6809) and Black Prince from Britannia Pacific No. 70008, just failed to reach five figures, selling for £9800 and £9500 respectively, and completing the category were Guild Hall and cabside (GWR No. 5927 at £9200), LNWR pair Sir Guy Calthrop (Claughton class No. 1093/LMS No. 5923) and Snipe (George the Fifth class No. 1730/LMS No. 5376), which sold for £8000 and £7800, Indore (LMS Jubilee No. 45592 – £7600), Watling Street (LNER A2 Pacific No. 60521 – £7000), Henley Hall and cabside (GWR No. 5983 – £6000), and Oxfordshire (D49 No. 62702), which

realised £5700.

A non-seller was Manorbier Castle (GWR No. 5005), although its cabside and smokebox numberplates did sell, for £4500 and £2000, while cabside numberplate 4018 went for £5200 to the buyer of the Star’s nameplate.Top smokebox was that from LNER A3 No. 60079 Bayardo (£4800), leading totem Harlech (£3200), and handlamps were headed by a Furness Railway example (£3100).

From LNER A4 No. 60022 Mallard came a plaque commemorating the Pacific’s 126mph world record (£6200), and a Kyle of Lochalsh running-in board went under the hammer for £6600, more than 16 times its top estimate.

A realisation of £5800 for a Pullman car lamp may have also raised a few eyebrows thanks to it being nearly 10 times its catalogue top valuation, but a clue is that it was from car Isle of Thanet, which was part of Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral train on January 30, 1965.

Other category winners included a signalbox nameboard from Newton Abbot West (£3400) and a 1911 Hudswell Clarke worksplate from GWR 0-6-2T No. 60 (£2600), while at the head of a huge selection of a cast-iron signs was a Fishguard & Rosslare Railways &

Harbours’trespass example (£2100).

At the end of a long, busy and demanding day, Mike Soden said: “Lots of strong bidding and lots of new people in attendance and buying.There were also some beautiful nameplates that sold exceptionally well.”

Golden Eagle takes off after half-time negotiations IT MAY not have established a nameplate record, and indeed for a few minutes was classified as a non-seller, but Golden Eagle from LNER A4 Pacific No. 60023 found itself a new home at GW Railwayana’s July 9 auction at Pershore.

As the final lot before the half-time lunch interval, the plate, considered by some to be one of the best A4 names and thus a potential threat to the £60,000 record for a nameplate, failed to sell under the hammer. Some speedy negotiations immediately followed between auctioneer Simon Turner and a collector in the hall, and Simon was able to announce that it had been sold for £31,000.

Other five-figure nameplate successes included £14,000 for Rougemont Castle (GWR No. 5007) and £10,500 for Woodbastwick Hall (LNER B17 No. 61613), while a set comprising nameplate, cabside numberplate, GWR crest and BR double-arrow logo from D407/50007 Sir Edward Elgar went to a telephone bidder for £12,400, which is believed to be a Class 50 record.

The leading non-nameplate realisations were £4100 for a 1934 LNER poster promoting the Norfolk Broads by Septimus E Scott, and £3500 for totem station sign Afon Wen. Prices exclude buyer’s premium of 10% (+ VAT). ➜ A full report of the auction will appear in next month’s railwayana column.

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MAIN LINE NEWS

COMPILED BY CEDRIC JOHNS

LMS Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45699 Galatea passes Lymington Junction with RTC’s ‘End of Southern Steam’ to Weymouth on July 9. ALAN HOLDING

LMS marks end of Southern steam SUCH is the shortage of steam – and Southern locomotives in particular – that the RailwayTouring Company’s ‘End of Southern Steam’excursion was worked by an LMS Jubilee on Saturday, July 9.

With 4-6-2 No. 34046 Braunton, running as No. 34052 Lord Dowding, in for a boiler washout at Southall – the only example of Southern motive power currently main line – Carnforth sent Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45699 Galatea to Southall to head RTC’s VictoriaWeymouth-Waterloo excursion.

Accompanied by West Coast Railways Class 33 No. 33207 Jim Martin, the impressively turned out red engine was observed approaching the Dorset

borders going well, some three minutes to the good despite a loading of approximately 400 tons.

Ever the optimist, RTC had originally advertised its train being worked by Bulleid 4-6-2 No. 34067 Tangmere and 4-6-2 No. 35018British India Line, whereas in reality both locomotives are still at Carnforth – No. 34067 for firebox repairs and No. 35018 the subject of a rebuild destined for main line certification, hopefully in the months ahead.

One of the two engines was booked to act as banker over the adverse gradients as far as Dorchester on the return leg.

In the event, the‘33’hauled the train backwards with Galatea at the rear for some 50 miles to Southampton

Redbridge where, now facing the right way, the Jubilee worked the train back to Waterloo via Romsey, the Laverstock loop and Basingstoke arriving Waterloo at a reported right time.

According to records No. 45699 was not the first Jubilee to work into Weymouth. Back in BR’s time, the early Sixties, at least four of the class visited the Dorset Coast on various duties.

No. 45560 Prince Edward Island, No. 45561 Saskatchewan, No. 45595 Southern Rhodesia and No. 45689 Gwalior were named as the engines seen on Southern and Great Western metals to Weymouth.

Galatea was expected to head RTC’s ‘Swanage Belle’on Thursday, July 14,

but apparently the 4-6-0 developed a fault and was towed back to Carnforth. Another 4-6-0 No. 46115 Scots Guardsman deputised (see story, headline news).

On Saturday, July 30, RTC is working in the opposite direction with its‘Cotswold Explorer’starting out of Poole destined for Oxford. In the past this train has been diesel-hauled as far as Westbury via Eastleigh and Salisbury before steam joins the action.

Back to Weymouth,‘The Dorset Coast Express’season began on July 27.The train runs on Wednesdays August 3, 10, 17 and 24 and September 7.

RTC has listed several possible engines for these trips.

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SEE P30 FOR DETAILS

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LMS 4-6-0 No. 46100 Royal Scot climbs away from Goodrington on the Dartmouth Steam Railway with the ‘Torbay Express’ from Bristol on July 3. COLIN WALLACE

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OFF THE SHELF

Stephenson’s Rocket 1829 onwards: Owners’ Workshop Manual

By Richard Gibbon OBE (hardback, Haynes Publishing, 156pp, £22.99, ISBN 978 1 78521 063 1).

YOU may not believe it nowadays, but there is a steam locomotive that may just about be slightly more famous than Flying Scotsman.

Stephenson’s Rocket did not run nonstop from King’s Cross to Edinburgh nor hit 100mph. However, the RainhillTrials winner of 1829 set the stall for everything that followed.

As this magnificent and hugely readable and informative colour volume states, Evening Star, the last steam locomotive built for British Railways in 1960, included all the original features of Rocket – the multi-tubular boiler, the blastpipe and the direct drive to the cylinders.

Basically, the blueprint for Rocket is the watershed between early and modern steam locomotives.

This volume, published in conjunction with the Science Museum, appears in the traditional Haynes‘motor manual’format, yet it

The Royal Arsenal Railways:The Rise and Fall of a Military Railway Network

By Mark Smithers (hardback, Pen & SwordTransport, 172pp, £30, ISBN 1473844002) HERITAGE Railway contributor Mark Smithers has here produced a detailed and definite account of one of London’s littleknown railway systems, that which served Woolwich Arsenal from the 19th century until 1967, with three separate gauges – 18in, 2ft and standard gauge.

An incredible amount of research has clearly gone into researching the vast amount of archive photographs, most of which have never been published before.

The railways had their origin in the founding of the gun factory, laboratory and carriage department at the arsenal from the 1820s onwards.The three separate lines were amalgamated on NewYear’s Day 1891, when they became the Royal Arsenal Railways.

The arsenal and its internal rail network played a major role in both

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does not invite you to get Rocket up on your garage ramps and fix it with your box of spanners next Sunday morning.

Written by the retired and widely-respected former head of engineering collections at the National Railway Museum, this is a complete biography of arguably the world’s most important steam locomotive.

The first chapters deal with the origin of Rocket and the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, and its life after it left the service of the world’s first inter-city railway, including its early years as a museum exhibit.

That is followed by a detailed description of all of the components of Rocket, and further chapters on driving and maintaining it.

A separate chapter is devoted to all of the Rocket replicas, from the first which was built at Crewe in 1881 to world wars, the author describing the ‘Great War‘ as the system’s finest hour.

Separate chapters deal with the beginnings of the system, railway experiments in mid-Victorian times (a particularly fascinating account which looks at attempts to build locomotives running on compressed air), the decline of the arsenal, the locomotives which are covered in extensive detail and rolling stock.

The surviving remains are described, not only the buildings but the locomotives and rolling stock that made it into preservation, including those which found their way to the Bicton Woodland Railway near Exmouth and – when that line was rebuilt in 2000 – ended up at the Royal Gunpowder Mills site at Waltham Abbey.

Overall, this is an absorbing account which lifts the lid on an oftenoverlooked corner of UK railway history and heritage.

VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY

Locomotive Portraits

By Jonathan Clay (hardback, Pen & SwordTransport, 172pp, £25, ISBN 1783463880).

EVERY page in this magnificent album from one of the world’s most prolific railway artists screams“Frame me!”

EDITOR’S CHOICE the 2010 model which was built at Bill Parker’s Flour Mill workshops.

The value of recreating early railway history using replicas and the RainhillTrials rematch at the Llangollen Railway in 2002 are discussed at length.

A final chapter looks at the engineering, industrial, social and cultural legacies of Rocket.

We cannot recall ever seeing a book that goes into such detail about this instantly-recognisable household name of a locomotive which has so much for the technical expert yet is accessible throughout for the general reader or occasional enthusiast.The text is enhanced by a splendid collection of essential pictures.

ESSENTIAL DEFINITIVE VOLUME out loudly.

Jonathan first began producing is Locomotive Portraits – watercolour line drawings with attitude and plenty of charisms – in 1999, and has never looked back.

Prints of his works adorn countless walls of homes across the world. Now, for the first time, a very generous selection of 150 appear in what is his first volume.

From Ffestiniog double Fairlie Merddin Emrys to the LMSTurbomotive No. 46202, a US Big Boy, County Donegal Railway Walker railcar No. 12, Scots Guardsman,‘Terrier’Stepney, Leander, Leek & Manfiold Valley Light Railway J.B. Earle, LNER Garratt No. 69999 andT9 No. 30120, it appears that few sectors of the industry have escaped his attention.

Every painting is accompanied by a brief history of the subject.

Superbly presented, this beautiful album will no doubt be finding its way to the space beneath many household fir trees in late December, and deservedly so.The contents will delight the recipient for days, maybe years!

MAGNIFICENT ARTISTIC OFFERING

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PLATFORM

READERS’ LETTERS AT THE HEART OF THE HERITAGE RAILWAY SCENE

STAR LETTER

Duck’s absence ‘demeans’ Sir Nigel Gresley’s statue MAY I, through Heritage Railway magazine that has been so supportive of the mallard campaign for Sir Nigel Gresley’s statue at King’s Cross station, thank the 3385 people who took the time and trouble to sign our petition, the railway artists, writers, and photographers who pledged their support and their work for us to use on our Facebook page, and the thousands of people from all over the world who supported us via social media.

There are, of course, differences of opinion as to whether the mallard – proposed by the statue’s sculptor Hazel Reeves, and originally approved by the Gresley Society council – was a good idea or not.

I am in no doubt that the mallard would have attracted attention to the statue and generated interest in Gresley and his work among the general public (which was the whole point). Support for this view has been overwhelming.

The decision of the Gresley Society council to bow to the objections of Gresley’s grandsons by removing the mallard from the statue design, was made without recourse to society members, or to donors to the statue fund appeal (which was in full swing by the time the decision was made).

A veto by the grandsons would be understandable if they were paying for the statue, but the lion’s share of the £95,000 has come mostly from society funds (contributions from the public all but dried up when the mallard’s omission was announced). Clearly, the grandsons’objections to the mallard created a difficult situation for the council, but not to consult members was ill-judged.

The council’s subsequent handling of the aftermath of the veto (which saw, incredibly, coverage in all the national newspapers, in the regional press, BBC national and local radio, and television) cannot have enhanced the

good reputation the Gresley Society previously enjoyed.

Portrayed as a‘row over Gresley’s duck’the coverage brought almost exclusively (pro-duck) comment and opinion from many quarters, including Michael Portillo, Sir William McAlpine, Lord Lindsay and many cornerstone people in the railway preservation world.

The statue has now been erected at King’s Cross, without the mallard.

Gresley Society members have recently been given the opportunity to make their views known to the council – but this is much too little, too late.

We will shortly close the petition and present it to council, for consideration alongside members’feedback.

Meanwhile, I gather that people are still placing their own tribute ducks

by Sir Nigel’s feet and the story of the missing mallard features on Wikipedia’s page about the great engineer – there for all to see, forever.

Gresley’s statue never seems to be without a duck for long nowadays.

Gresley’s grandsons insisted the mallard would demean the great man, but history will show it is in fact its absence that has diminished both his statue and the society that bears his name.

Dennis Butler, former Gresley Society publicity officer, email.

Happy holiday in a Cambrian coach AS a subscriber to Heritage Railway I’m writing to inform you how much I enjoyed reading the feature in issue 216 byTrevor Gregg relating to his experiences in 1966 as a trainspotter while staying in a camping coach.

It reminded me so much of my own adventures as a spotter in the 1960s on the Cambrian Coast at Borth.

LikeTrevor,I took my first railway picture with a Brownie 127 camera - a copy of the result is pictured right. It shows No. 7803 Barcote Manor at Borth station with the‘Cambrian Coast Express’making for Aberystwyth in August 1961.

Borth station was host to a camping coach for many years numbered 9983, but by 1961 it had been long removed.

Thanks for a great magazine.

Roger Hodson, Bournville, Birmingham.

The long and the short of locomotive names IN Ian Crowder’s article about Merchant Navy No. 35006 Peninsular & Oriental SN Co, he says that it is perhaps the longest name carried by a steam locomotive (at 29 characters, including spaces and punctuation).

However, Patriot 45505 The Royal Army Ordnance Corps also had 29 and Coronation No. 46256 Sir William A. Stanier, FRS had 30, Royal Scot No. 46131 The Royal Warwickshire Regiment had 31 characters and No. 46107 Argyll and Sutherland Highlander had 32.

V2 No. 60847 St Peter’s School, York, AD 627 had 34 and Royal Scot No. 46145 The Duke of Wellington’s Regt (West Riding) had 43 while Patriot No. 45516 The Bedfordshire and

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Hertfordshire Regiment had 44 and Castle No. 4016 The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s) had 45.

However, as far as I can determine, equal third place for the longest steam locomotive name is shared by Royal Scots No. 46121 Highland Light Infantry, City of Glasgow Regiment and No. 46137 The Prince of Wales’ Volunteers (South Lancashire) at 49 characters each with second going to V2 No. 60809 The Snapper, The East Yorkshire Regiment, The Duke of York’s Own with 64 . But the winner is V2 No. 60835 The Green Howard, Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment at 70.

So, with the exceptions of Nos. 46236 and 60847, all of the

top 10 longest locomotive names go to regiments with No. 5006 not even making it at equal 12th!

It is, nevertheless, the longest in preservation and thus the longest carried today – but certainly not ever.

On the topic of steam locomotive names, does anyone know the most popular one? Jubilee No. 45733 Novelty carried the same name as Ericsson and Braithwaite’s Rainhill Trials locomotive and, a little more recently, Stars Nos. 4031, 4036, 4047, 4048, 4050, 4053 shared royal names with Princess Royals No. 46201/4/5 and Princess Coronations Nos. 46222/3/4 . Castle No. 5043 and Plymouth, Devonport & SouthWestern Junction Railway

0-6-2T (later SR 3No. 0757) each carried Earl of Mount Edgecumbe while Lord Nelson No. 30854 and Jubilee No. 45670 were both named Howard of Effingham.

Castles Nos. 5071/2 Spitfire and Hurricane were duplicated in reverse order in Battle of Britains Nos. 34065/6. New-build A1 Tornado and Britannia No. 70022 share the same name as do Jubilee No. 45700 and Britannia No. 70000 and there were, of course, the 20 Southern Region Standard Class 5s that ultimately carried the names from scrapped King Arthur class locomotives. But I have been unable to find any name shared by more than two steam locomotives.

David Holt, Queensland, Australia.

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UP & RUNNING

On July 3, the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel & Wakes Colne staged an industrial steam gala for the first time, with three resident locomotives in steam, culminating in all three tripleheading the freight train: 0-4-0ST Jubilee (Bagnall 2542/1935) from Bowaters paper mills at Sittingbourne, 0-6-0ST formerly No. 54 at Corby but now modified as a Thomas lookalike (RSH 7031/1941) and 0-4-0ST No.11 from Storefield ironstone quarry (Barclay 1047/1905). GEOFFREY KING

BRIAN SHARPE’S FULL LISTING OF OPERATIONAL LINES AND MUSEUM VENUES SOUTH EAST Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre Narrow gauge, ¼ mile, Arundel, West Sussex.

Tel: 01798 831370.

Running: Daily.

Bluebell Railway

Standard gauge, 11 miles, footplate experience, wine and dine, Sheffield Park, East Sussex TN22 2QL. Tel: 01825 720800.

Engines: 263, 178, 323, 592, 847, 30541, 73082.

Running: Daily.

East Kent Railway

Standard gauge, two miles, Shepherdswell, Dover.

Tel: 01304 832042.

Running: Suns.

Eastleigh Lakeside Railway Narrow gauge, 1¼ miles, footplate experience.

Running: W/Es + sch hols.

Hastings Miniature Railway

Narrow gauge, 600 yards, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings, East Sussex.

Running: W/Es + sch hols.

Hayling Seaside Railway Narrow gauge, one mile, Hayling Island, Hants.

Running: W/Es, Weds + sch hols.

Isle of Wight Steam Railway Standard gauge, five miles, Havenstreet, Isle of Wight.

Tel: 01983 882204.

Engines: 8, 11, 24, 41298.

Running: Daily.

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Kempton Steam Railway

Narrow gauge, ½ mile, Hanworth.

Tel: 01932 765328.

Running: Suns.

Kent & East Sussex Railway

Standard gauge, 10½ miles, footplate experience, wine and dine, Tenterden, Kent. Tel: 01580 765155.

Engines: 32670, 30065, 1638.

Running: Daily.

Lavender Line

Standard gauge, one mile, footplate experience, wine and dine, Isfield, East Sussex. Tel: 01825 750515.

Running: Tues, Thurs, Suns.

Mid Hants Railway

Standard gauge, 10 miles, footplate experience, wine and dine, Alresford, Hants SO24 9JG. Tel: 01962 733810.

Engines: 925, 45379, 92212, 41312.

Running: Daily.

Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway

Narrow gauge, 13½ miles, footplate experience, New Romney, Kent.

Tel: 01797 362353.

Running: Daily.

Royal Victoria Railway

Tel: 01795 424899.

Running: Weds, Suns.

East Somerset Railway

Standard gauge, five miles, footplate experience, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Tel: 01892 537715.

Running: W/Es, Tues, Thurs + Aug 1, 5, 22.

Engine: 46447, 5637.

Standard gauge, two miles, Cranmore,

Spa Valley Railway

SOUTH WEST Avon Valley Railway

Standard gauge, three miles, footplate experience, wine and dine, Bitton, Bristol.

Tel: 0117 932 7296. Engine: L150.

Running: W/Es, Tues-Thurs.

Bodmin & Wenford Railway

Standard gauge, 6½ miles, footplate experience, wine and dine, Bodmin, Cornwall. Tel: 01208 73666.

Engines: 6435, 4612, 30587.

Running: Daily.

Dartmoor Railway

Standard gauge, seven miles, Okehampton, Devon.

Tel: 01837 55164.

Running: W/Es.

Dartmouth Steam Railway

Narrow gauge, one mile, Netley, Southampton.

Tel: 02380 456246.

Running: W/Es + Sch hols.

Standard gauge, seven miles, wine and dine, Paignton, Devon.

Tel: 01803 555872.

Engines: 7827, 7820, 5239, 4277, 5542.

Running: Daily.

Narrow gauge, 1¾ miles, Sittingbourne, Kent.

Narrow gauge, ½ mile, Bickleigh, Devon.

Tel: 01884 855671.

Running: Daily.

Sittingbourne & Kemsley Railway

Devon Railway Centre

The information in this list was correct at the time of going to press.

We strongly advise that you confirm details with the railway concerned.

Somerset. Tel: 01749 880417.

Running: W/Es, Weds, Thurs.

Helston Railway

Standard gauge, Helston, Cornwall.

Tel: 07875 481380.

Running: Thur, Suns.

Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Narrow gauge, one mile, Woody Bay, north Devon. Tel: 01598 763487.

Running: Daily.

Moors Valley Railway Narrow gauge, one mile, Ringwood, Hants.

Tel: 01425 471415.

Running: W/Es + sch hols.

Plym Valley Railway Standard gauge, 1½ miles, Marsh Mills, Plymouth.

Running: Suns + Aug 6, 20 (14, steam).

Seaton Tramway

Narrow gauge, three miles, Harbour Road, Seaton, Devon. 01297 20375.

Running: Daily.

South Devon Railway Standard gauge, seven miles, footplate experience, wine and dine, Buckfastleigh, Devon. Engines: 3205, 4612, 1369.

Running: Daily.

Swanage Railway Standard gauge, six miles, footplate experience, wine and dine, Swanage, Dorset. Tel: 01929 425800.

Engines: 30053, 31806, 34070, 30120.

Running: Daily.

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