FEATURES

NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: A CURTAIN UP ON CENTURY THREE!
Steam traction entered its third century over the 2005 New Year Weekend, and it was the North Norfolk Railway that marked the event in a most spectacular style, as Brian Sharpe reports in words and pictures.

CHANGEOVER YEARS NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: EASTLEIGH: THE END IS NIGH
Another of Britain's great railway works will close at the end of 2005, its shocked staff were told in December. For it has been decreed that Eastleigh, once the beating heart of the London & South Western Railway system, has no place in the modern network, and its demise is set to deal a major blow to the town which grew up around it. Robin Jones and Cedric Johns look back at the illustrious history of Eastleigh Works, from where some of the finest Southern Railway locomotives and stock were turned out, from Lord Nelson to 'Thumper' DEMUs.

HERITAGE RAILWAY EVENTS GUIDE 2005
Our 16-page indispensable pull-out guide to all the big events at Britain's heritage lines and museums during 2005. It's oozing from start to finish with essential dates covering everything from steam galas to Thomas the Tank Engine events. Plan your weekends and holidays around it, keep it in your glove compartment can you afford to be without it?

NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: STEAMING BACK INTO SWINDON
While arguments rage about the need to install a live steam running line at Swindon's loss-making STEAM museum, one is being laid on the outskirts of the town. After 26 years of concentrating on its core infrastructure, the Swindon & Cricklade Railway is now pushing towards the hub of the GWR empire with a vengeance, with three-quarters-of-a-mile of its southern extension now laid. In the second of two special reports highlighting railway heritage at Brunel's great railway town, Geoff Courtney looks at the revived section of the Midland & South Western Junction Railway.

NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: SCOTSMAN: SHAREHOLDERS IN THE DARK
Flying Scotsman the engine was sold to the National Railway Museum for £2.31-million last year, but the company which was floated on the OFEX junior stock exchange to give the ordinary man in the street a share in the world's most famous steam locomotive still exists. Many of those shareholders are now asking whether their holdings still have any value, and if they will receive anything back from the sale of the company's assets. Yet the silence from the company is all-but-deafening, reports Geoff Courtney.

REVIVING THE WELSH HIGHLAND: 40 YEARS ON
It was in 1964 that a band of narrow-gauge revivalists set about starting the tackle 'the big one than will never be done' the reinstatement of the Welsh Highland Railway. Although their efforts were to be eclipsed by the Ffestiniog Railway's headline-grabbing restoration of the great trans-Snowdonia route, it will be the successors to the 1964 Company, as they were known, who may well hold the key to the heritage heart of what is set to become one of the world's greatest steam journeys of the 21st century, writes John Stretton.

STEAM CENTRE BEWDLEY PART 1: RETRACING THE ORIGINAL SEVERN VALLEY LINE
In the first of two special articles to mark the 40th anniversary of the Severn Valley Railway's formative meeting, John Crosse explores what nowadays remains of the lines that once spread out from the great country junction station that was Bewdley, starting with the Kidderminster-Shrewsbury route.


REGULARS

HEADLINE NEWS
John Bunch and Ian Riley buying Tangmere majority shareholding; Weardale goes broke after just five months: 36 staff laid off; Lottery boost for Bluebell's £3.9m museum plans; ban on 'asbestos' coach sales lifted with 10 days to go, and how Britain's heritage railways rally round to aid victims of the Asian tsunami and what may be the world's worst train disaster.

NEWS: THE WIDEST COVERAGE OF THE UK PRESERVATION SCENE
Heritage lines break all records in 2004; Barry 10: last hurdle cleared for new-build projects to start; EM2 Electra may run again; campaign launched to restore Welsh Highland flagship Russell to steam; Ribble Steam Railway runs first public passenger trips; Moseley Trust to build new Potteries line; Cholsey special in road crossing near-miss; tributes for 'twice over' Beattie driver Roy Wilce; help return Royal Scot and Port Line to the main line; Severn-Lamb trading again after voluntary liquidation; Ffestiniog builds a boat train; LNER teak train to run in routine service on North Yorkshire Moors Railway; VIP spring launch for Fire Fly; Minehead prepares for 'best ever' GWR gala; Dean Forest pannier tank bought for Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway; the rack railway which launched its own ski slopes, and don't cry for Argentina help restore it to running order!

MAIN LINE NEWS compiled by Cedric Johns
Fragonset and Merlin merge into FM Rail; Duke of Gloucester back north after big end problem solved; North Yorkshire Moors Railway set to return steam to Whitby; Kingfisher Railtours double-header for Settle-Carlisle and end of the road for Mid-Hants 'Green Five'?

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

PLATFORM
Views from the beating heart of the preservation scene.

DAVID MORGAN MBE - the man you can't ignore
In the month that Prince Harry is berated for wearing a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party, the Heritage Railway Association chairman tables a motion to remove them from wartime re-enactments on heritage lines.

SCALE HERITAGE RAILWAY
The new Hornby A4s are out in time for the Gresley centenary celebrations.

CARRIAGE & WAGON NEWS
Lance Adlam reports on the newly-restored LNWR/LMS cinema coach at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, while coaches used by two European dictators are now open to the public again.

HERITAGE RAILWAY 2004 DVD AND VIDEO
Non-stop action in our annual offering presented from the Great Central Railway.

UP AND RUNNING
Brian Sharpe's listing of operational standard, narrow and minimum gauge lines with details of driver training courses and locomotives in operation.

YOUNGER VIEW: YOUNGSTERS BLAZED THE TRAIL AGAIN!
Gareth Evans presents a round-up of what the next generation of young volunteers and paid staff achieved at heritage venues in 2004 and the best groups for teenage enthusiasts to join.

HERITAGE NET
Roger Melton looks at sites which deal with boilers and their maintenance.