NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: Steam, Network Rail and the future
Steam on the main line - there is no hidden agenda at Network Rail. Very encouraging and positive words from a Network Rail business manager with specific responsibility for ‘special trains.’ Stephen Cornish talked to Keith Langston about the challenges which heritage traction will face in the coming years.

WHAT’S LEFT OF...THE SOUTH EASTERN & CHATHAM RAILWAY
With some of the most distinctive locomotives, carrying particularly ornate liveries, the SECR is well known, but no significant length of line has been preserved. Several surviving engines are Bluebell stalwarts, and a disproportionate number of SECR coaches still exist. Brian Sharpe looks deeper into the heritage of the system which served the garden of England, and also visits a viariety of prime locations from Charing Cross to the Kent & East Sussex Railway.

SPARKING CENTENARY!
Railfest 2004 marks the bicentenary of the world’s first railway locomotive - but the writing was on the wall for steam just a century later. In the same year as GWR Churchward 4-4-0 City of Truro reportedly topped the 100mph mark on Wellington Bank with the ‘Ocean Mails special’, Britain launched its first main line electric railway. Fred Kerr provides a concise guide to the history of UK electric railways and explains their geographical anomalies.

NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: The Ffantastic Ffiftieth!
This year, the Ffestiniog Railway, widely regarded as one of the finest heritage lines in the world, celebrates 50 years of volunteer-led operation. John Stretton looks back over a truly momentous half-century which saw fresh ground for the preservation movement repeatedly broken by pioneers on the slopes of Snowdonia with many exciting developments in store for future years..

ADVERTISING FEATURE: Great Railway tours of the world
Our guide to top-class rail tours both at home and overseas.

THE CHANGEOVER YEARS: Steam twilight in the West Riding
Robert Anderson, who was born and bred in the old West Riding of Yorkshire recounts his memories of the transition from steam to modern traction in this fascinating part of Britain with the aid of a superbly atmospheric selection of photographs from his own archive.

HEADLINE NEWS
After months of uncertainty the announcement that the whole preservation world has been awaiting Flying Scotsman is now officially for sale; another winner for Tyseley as Pitchford Hall resteams after more than 40 years; Network Rail gives the Bluebell Railway enough track to build the East Grinstead extension, and numberplate from exiled A4 Pacific Dwight D. Eisenhower stolen from US national museum.

NEWS
Caprotti ‘Five’ steaming imminent at Butterley; Llangollen ‘art deco’ DMU takes star billing at Heritage Railway Association awards; Wessex Trains supremo Brian Pickett dies following illness; ELR steam gala special report; Foremarke Hall moves to Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway; Oliver Cromwell to be restored for Great Central Railway and main line; Weardale steam revival gets £1m Euro boost; steam engines banned in Trevithick’s birthplace! first production 4CEP moves to East Kent Railway; driver charged over triple fatality steam crash; double boost for Swanage Railway narrow gauge revival; world’s first public railway may get Brunel goods shed; L&B engine joins Railfest 2004 line up; ‘too heavy’ Port Line set for sale; ‘youngest’ Talyllyn pioneer dies at 81; A1 Tornado project passes £1m mark and an invitation to join the Churnet Valley special photo charter all feature in preservation’s most intensive news coverage.

SUBSCRIPTIONS
Ian Allan’s annual Railways Restored is the preservation movement’s ‘bible’ and if you take out a direct debit subscription, the new 2004 edition is yours FREE!

SHOWCASE sponsored by London Camera Exchange
Paul Stratford’s Swithland view of immaculately-presented LMS ‘Black Five’ No. 45305 takes centre stage.

MAIN LINE NEWS compiled by Cedric Johns
Green Arrow: five more years and that’s it! first City of Truro trips announced; Tangmere braced for day trip to Skegness; Virgin offers free travel for May Day Shap steam and three GWR 4-6-0s lined up for summer ’Torbay Express’.

MAIN LINE TOUR ITINERARY
Brian Sharpe’s guide to steam and modern traction tours.

SCALE HERITAGE RAILWAY
Paul Appleton’s latest news about releases from Hornby and Bachmann.

DAVID MORGAN MBE - the man you can’t ignore
Lines which fail to provide information to statutory bodies run the risk of spoiling it for everyone else.

RAILWAYANA
The latest Kidlington auction results.

UP AND RUNNING
Brian Sharpe’s list of operational standard, narrow and minimum gauge lines with dates of special events, driver training courses and locomotives runnings.

OFF THE SHELF
Latest book and DVD/video releases.

HERITAGE NET
TPO coverage on the internet.