Our first stop off on our WSR gala trip was at Washford station. This station is quite exposed with quite a lot of the things to look out being outside, it was this time, naturally, then, that it absolutely tiddled it down. Washford is the base of restoration for the S&D trust. There were some…
Last weekend I attended another Spring Steam gala, lucky me! This time it was to the West Somerset Railway, for their gala themed around “Steam in South Wales”. It was an excellent event and I took lots of photos, but rather than look at it loco by loco I thought I’d just go through my…
Good Friday sees the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway reopen for the 2015 Season. Trains will be running every day this long bank holiday weekend with steam locomotive ‘Superb’ starting the season off.
Given the recent blog posts on LNER A4 class locomotives, I thought there was room for another! A link to the above video was recently shared by Rowan Jackson on the UKHH’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ukheritagehub/.) It really captures the essence of the job that the A4 class and its crews did whilst in service, with…
Industry was the driving force behind the creation of railways. It’s importance can not be underestimated, but in modern Great Britain we live in largely de-industrialised times and so it can be easy to forget. It is therefore very satisfying to see concerted efforts to celebrate industrial steam traction.
Today marks 50 years since the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill. On 30th January 1965, Bulleid Battle of Britain class 34051 had the honour of hauling the deceased Sir Winston Churchill on his last journey from London Waterloo to the famous statesman’s final resting place in Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire. The locomotive wore disc codes in…
Locoyard seems to be suffering a bit of a railway modelling drought at the moment, apart from Simon’s excellent exhibition articles, with lots of posts on the big railways. Mr Locoyard himself is still dithering about what to do ;-), so I thought I’d post a bit about a diorama I made to keep me…
This locomotive and coach combination is one of the most iconic in the history of western region steam. The autotrain is the last of the visitors to be covered here, of the Watercress Line’s Autumn Spring Steam Gala. Although the last it wasn’t the least for me, although the little tank engine was certainly the…
Being one of Swindon’s finest express locomotive’s, this locomotive was arguably the headliner of the Watercress Line’s Autumn Spring Steam Gala. 5029 Nunney Castle was a prestigious visitor of the event. The castle class is a classic Great Western express machine. Although superceded in power by the later King class, it’s greater route availability kept…
When it is a Modified Hall of course! Hawksworth’s Great Western Railway Modified Hall at first glance is similar to Collett’s Hall, but interestingly in some respects it was rather radical and broke the railway’s usual practice of design for two cylinder locomotives.
Loco Yard 