Heritage Railway Issue 264

SPECIAL REPORT: HOW SUSTAINABLE ARE HERITAGE RAILWAYS?

ISSUE 264

February 14 – March 12, 2020

DARTMOUTH’S

DAZZLING

HONOUR HONOU TOP AWARDS FOR VOLKS, BALA LAKE, WEST LANCS AND 9F

APRIL FAREWELL TO UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA

MANCHESTER LOCO EMERGES FROM RIVER AFTER 93 YEARS

MOORS SELLS A

‘BLACK

FIVE’

■ SOUTHWOLD LAYS 3FT GAUGE RUNNING LINE ■ WIGHT STEAM AND ELECTRIC LINES MAY JOIN ■ HOSKING BID FOR SPRINGBURN WORKS REJECTED ■ THE DIESEL THAT STARRED IN THE GREAT CENTRAL BIG STEAM SHOW!

CONTENTS ISSUE 264

February 14, 2020 – March 12, 2020

News

6

Headline News

CONTENTS: LMS ‘Black Five’ No. 45305 Alderman A. E. Draper leads BR 5MT No. 73129 at Loughborough during the Great Central Railway’s winter steam gala on January 25. ALAN WEAVER COVER: LNER A4 Pacific No. 60009 Union of South Africa is seen storming away from Ramsbottom with the first service of the day at the East Lancashire Railway on January 19. BRADLEY LANGTON

6

■ Sector success showcased at

Heritage Railway Association awards ■ Moorsline sells a ‘Black Five’ No. 44806 to benefactor Peter Best ■ The Pacer revolution gathers pace as further examples are preserved ■ Clwyd South MP Simon Baynes supports Corwen extension ■ Colin Hall appointed new chairman of LMS-Patriot

10

News

10

■ A4 No. 60009 Union of South Africa

steams into retirement at East Lancs ■ Manchester-built locomotive lifted from New Zealand river 93 years on ■ WR Castle hulk No. 7027 Thornbury Castle to be restored at Great Central ■ Great Western Society marks anniversary with Didcot upgrade ■ Welsh Highland Garratt to emerge in South African Railways livery ■ New connection between Wight steam and electric lines proposed ■ Fleetwood revivalists may see Whitehall reopen their line instead ■ Pioneer diesel project’s £30k plea for ‘essential’ parts

57

Main Line News

■ Triple changes at the top for

56

Tyseley’s Vintage Trains ■ Steam Dreams switches to Victoria as surviving B1s prepare for season ■ September target as steel solution cranks up Duke of Gloucester

With Full Regulator

64

Don Benn reports on the performances of Tornado, Clan Line, Bahamas and Flying Scotsman

4 Heritagerailway.co.uk

Regulars

Features

Subscribe Today Railwayana

30 50

Geoff Courtney’s regular column

Centre

WR 4-6-0 No. 6989 Wightwick Hall is seen after dark at Shackerstone during a 30742 photo charter

54 Main Line Itinerary

62

Off the Shelf

92

Platform

94

Up & Running

96

Steam and heritage diesel railtours

The latest book and DVD releases Where your views matter most

Guide to railways running in February and March

The Month Ahead

106

Just how sustainable are heritage railways?

In 2021 it will be 70 years since the world’s first volunteer-run railway was established on the Cambrian coast. Now steam trains criss-cross the United Kingdom on a multitude of lines which, if combined, would stretch from London to Glasgow. Oliver Edwards asks – is this really sustainable in the long term?

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80

Models

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See page 30 When a diesel stole the big steam show

Ten locomotives in steam had already laid the foundations for a successful Great Central Railway winter gala. However, a last-minute addition to the roster added a surprise ‘wow’ factor to the delight of visitors, reports Robin Jones.

Relics of a ‘living museum’ closed 50 years ago

ELR50 marks the anniversary of the closure of much of the East Lincolnshire network with a major exhibition and other commemorative events. Mike Fowler looks at the history and range of railwayana saved from the system.

Returning rails to Southwold

The coming season is set to bring the opportunity for visitors to enjoy a ride on the 3ft gauge railway in Suffolk after a 90-year absence, thanks to the efforts of volunteers at the Southwold Railway Trust.

Nicola Fox reports.

Heritage Modeller News

72

Product announcements from Bachmann, Peco and Planet Industrials – and much more.

88

Find the latest news, images and discussion online only at:

Running shed ideas

76

Llanfair Caereinion running shed provides prototype inspiration in model form, writes Gareth Evans

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WR 4-6-0 No. 6989 Wightwick Hall starred in a 30742 photographic charter on January 11, at the Battlefield Line. It is seen simmering at the delightful restored Shackerstone station in this atmospheric after-dark scene. Emerging from Swindon Works on March 25, 1948, it was the penultimate locomotive to be ordered by the GWR – and it became the 150th ex-Barry scrapyard engine to steam when it moved under its own power on December 11, 2018.

The Modified Hall hauled its first passenger train since 1964 on March 2, 2019 and it was relaunched to the public the following day at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, where it is based. KENNY FELSTEAD

NEWS

New Zealand Railways V 2-6-2 No. 127 safe back on dry land after 93 years, and publicly displayed in the Lumsden railway station precinct. LUMBSDEN HERITAGE TRUST

Manchester loco lifted from New Zealand river 93 years on

By Robin Jones A LOCOMOTIVE built in Manchester in 1885 has been lifted out of the bottom of a river where it had lain for 93 years.

In an operation costing £80,000 on Wednesday, January 29, New Zealand Railways (NZR) 2ft 6in gauge V class 2-6-2 No. 127 was hauled out of a tributary of the Oreti River near Lumsden in the country’s Southland

region of South Island in an operation that had been planned for six years. Its tender had been raised from the river the day before.

Survivors

The Lumsden HeritageTrust had also hoped to recover sister locomotive No. 126, but the operation proved too difficult on the day, and members had to leave it for a future retrieval bid.The

pair are believed to be the last survivors of the class.

Both locomotives were part of a class of 13 built by Nasmyth, Wilson and Company as an enlarged version of NZR’s K class 2-4-2s which had appeared in 1877. They were ordered in response to a heavy increase in passenger traffic in the 1880s, but it took the Manchester builder seven years to deliver them, and they were

then found to be too heavy for the routes on which they were to operate.

By the time they had been modified with their weight reduced, the V class had been superseded by the similar US-built N class.

Withdrawals of the V class began in 1925. Nos. 126 and 127 as substantially complete hulks were tipped into the river at Mararoa Junction for use as flood defence measures, because scrap metal prices remained low following the First World War. The disposal of scrap locomotives for use as flood defence barriers was commonplace in the country at the time.

Restoration

Workers blast 93 years of silt from No. 127 before craning it out of the riverbed mud. LUMBSDEN HERITAGE TRUST

16 Heritagerailway.co.uk

Several tons of silt were removed from the locomotive before it was hauled out using a 110-ton crane. Workers used water jets to blast the mud and silt from it and then used a hoe to hack through willow roots which had grown around it.

Trust chairman John Titter said that when No. 127 was first lifted, its wheels turned, and also the running boards were still intact.“It was a mammoth task,” he said.

The 32-ton locomotive and its tender are now sitting on their wheels and bogies on a specially-built siding at the Lumsden railway station precinct in what was the locomotive’s original home town, where a crowd gathered to watch its arrival.

No. 127 is set to be restored as a static exhibit. There are no plans to try to rebuild it as a working locomotive, as has happened with similarlydumped locomotives elsewhere in the world.

Find us on www.facebook.com/heritagerailway

Manchester-built New Zealand Railways V 2-6-2 No. 127 in its running days.

LUMBSDEN HERITAGE TRUST

One of the V class locomotives being dumped in the Oreti River in 1927.

LUMBSDEN HERITAGE TRUST

No. 127 finally rises from the mud. LUMBSDEN HERITAGE TRUST

Airborne at last: No. 127 being craned out of the river and on to a low-loader.

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

Heritagerailway.co.uk 17

INDUSTRY ISSUES What it’s all about: an immaculately restored steam locomotive at the head of a smart rake of heritage carriages in beautiful scenery on a lovely line. Oliver Edwards began volunteering at the Keighley & Worth Valley as a young member aged 13 through what he calls ‘a particularly well managed young members group’. BR 2MT 2-6-0 No. 78022 approaches Oakworth with the 12.30pm Keighley to Oxenhope service on Saturday, January 18. BRIAN DOBBS

JUST HOW

SUSTAINABLE ARE HERITAGE RAILWAYS?

In 2021, it will be 70 years since the world’s first volunteerrun railway was established on the Cambrian coast.

Now, steam trains criss-cross the United Kingdom on a multitude of lines which, if combined, would stretch from London to Glasgow. But is this really sustainable in the long term, asks Oliver Edwards.

E

arly last year, I began writing a comprehensive study about the sustainability of heritage railways in the UK. I have been involved in the sector for seven years, across a wide range of projects and organisations, and steam traction is a huge part of ‘who I am’. Therefore, it’s fair to say I had a vested interest in uncovering the underlying issues which may cause trouble in years to come.

The study culminated in a 9000-word research paper, using over 30 pieces of reference material and including interviews with senior managers within our sector. This article will probe the challenges I found in bite-sized chunks. There are, of course, many exceptions to the ‘rules’ laid out, but heritage railway volunteers and managers should objectively reflect on whether any suggestions in this article would be of benefit to their organisation.

Where are we today?

IT’S worth remembering that in the 70 years since the opening of the Talyllyn, heritage railways have grown into distinct sectors of the UK tourism and heritage conservation arenas. There are approximately 140 sites, running lines and museums in Great Britain themed around railway history, generating an estimated £400 million for the economy each year, giving pleasure to 22,000 volunteers and providing income to 4000 members of staff.

For a group which, in the vast majority of cases, does not receive any local authority or government subsidy to run day-to-day, that is pretty impressive. While these figures are pleasing, can we carry on in eternal growth and expansion, as has been the case up to now?

Locomotives, carriages, stations and track are not cheap assets to maintain, particularly to increasingly stringent legal standards. Paid staff, who are often essential because of the volume of work now involved in both the safe management and fierce promotion of heritage railways, have wages to be paid each month, and a raft of other costs are continually eating into revenues.

One thorny issue in the sphere of finances are the level of donations needed to sustain our railways. Some lines have been particularly successful in their fundraising efforts, notably for locomotive overhauls. These are attractive to donors, who are excited by the prospect of a ‘fan-favourite’ back on the line, are easy to explain to the ‘joe public’ visitor and can free up cash for investment in less glamorous essentials like trackwork.

The legacy of legacies

IT is unlikely that a railway which currently relies on legacies, for example, will be able to sustain these donations when the end of steam in the 1960s has been largely erased from living memory. Sad and blunt as this may sound, we have to ready our commercial operations to bear a greater strain of our ever-increasing costs.

An area in which finances may be better managed is in reducing the number of train services we operate. Many readers will be familiar with half- or near-empty trains, particularly at the start or end of the day. To run an additional two services on a 10-mile railway each day is likely to require the use of another steam locomotive. If this is done over 20 days or more a year, it might be considered wise to overhaul another steam locomotive

“While the trains run may generate a seemingly reasonable revenue stream, do they come anywhere near meeting their true cost? It is fair to say that if our railways made great swathes of cash that they would not have closed, but most of our visitors would happily come an hour later or earlier to catch a train if that was what was offered.

For many railways, the savings these changes would bring about could be the difference between survival or closure.”

Heritagerailway.co.uk 45

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