FEATURES

CARRIAGE & WAGON NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: GRESLEY’S TEAKS
This spring, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway is marking one of the landmark dates in British railway history - the appointment of Nigel Gresley to the Great Northern Railway. Most popularly associated with the likes of world-beaters Flying Scotsman and Mallard in the minds of the public, Gresley made his name in the carriage department, and his teak stock eventually made up almost the entire fleet of the LNER. Robin Jones, Brian Sharpe and Roger Melton look at the history of Gresley teak stock and its place in preservation.

NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: AGAINST ALL ODDS
The heritage railway sector has been shocked to learn of the sudden departure of Great Central Railway chief executive Graham Oliver from the line, more than 36 years after he became involved with the revival group that established it. Robin Jones looks back at his role in the ground-breaking development of an average saddle tank-and-two-coaches outfit into Britain’s only double-track standard gauge heritage main line since that time.

NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: BIRCH GROVE THE BLACK SWAN!
The reincarnation in British Railways livery of London Brighton & South Coast Railway E4 0-6-2T No 473 Birch Grove after 43 years presented the commercial department of the Bluebell Railway with the perfect ‘home-grown’ locomotive as the star of its Branch Line Weekend over 26-27 February and subsequent events. One of the ‘E4 conspirators’, photo charter organiser Geoff Silcock, tells the inside story of the return of No 32473 in words and pictures.

RAILWAYANA NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: HAS THE RAILWAYANA BUBBLE BURST?
In Heritage Railway issue 69, we reported the purchase by London multi-millionaire enthusiast and steam locomotive owner Jeremy Hosking of a nameplate from LNER A4 Pacific No 4495 Golden Fleece for a world record £60,000. Yet there are signs that the railwayana market, one of the most profitable forms of investment in recent years, might have peaked, and that prices are falling, reports Geoff Courtney.

NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: GARRATTS - A GREAT BRITISH INVENTION!
History is again being made on the Welsh Highland Railway. On 19 March, the world’s first articulated Garratt steam locomotive, K1, was scheduled to haul its first passenger trains from Caernarfon to Rhyd Ddu. Sadly, all of Britain’s main line Garratts had been scrapped by 1958, but the prototype of a type which was once to be seen in action across the globe is now flying the flag for one of our finest heritage lines, as Robin Jones reports.

THE CHANGEOVER YEARS: HAWKSWORTH’S SHIRE HORSES - THE PATHWAY TO A GWR PACIFIC?
In their day Hawksworth’s Counties were never regarded as the best of Swindon’s 4-6-0s, yet on the routes for which they were designed, they were more-than-capable of stunning performances. In the second part of a feature on the Great Western Society’s plans to recreate No 1014 County of Glamorgan, for which a £500,000 appeal was publicly launched in Heritage Railway last month, project leader David Bradshaw outlines the background to the class and explains why history might have misjudged them - and why now is the time to put the record straight by building a new one!

WHAT’S LEFT OF... THE MIDLAND & GREAT NORTHERN JOINT RAILWAY
When most of the M&GNJR closed in 1959, it was the first system in the country to do so. There was no precedent to follow and, while the track was lifted quickly, everything else was simply left, and a surprisingly large amount of the company’s heritage still survives today, quite apart from the well-known section on the North Norfolk Railway from Sheringham to Holt. Brian Sharpe investigates further.

REGULARS

HEADLINE NEWS
Duchess of Sutherland back in Royal Train action - with Prince Charles as fireman; Graham Oliver and John East out at Great Central Railway in boardroom ‘coup’, and more than £50,000 donated in four weeks as Didcot’s new-build Hawksworth County project grips the public’s imagination.

NEWS: THE WIDEST COVERAGE OF THE UK PRESERVATION SCENE
Broad gauge Fire Fly runs for the first time; East Lancashire Barry ‘Jinty’ makes debut run; arrests likely after foxhunters’ stand in front of North Yorkshire Moors Railway steam train; Waterman Trust may be given Midland ‘half cab’; narrow gauge line to be laid for Crewe’s Great Gathering; creditors give Weardale Railway a breathing-space; picture specials on Keighley & Worth Valley Railway gala and final day at Britain’s last standard gauge quarry railway; West Somerset Railway protest over council plan ‘biggest turnout since the Beatles’; new Quarry Hunslet boilers to be built at Tyseley; Butler-Henderson moves to Barrow Hill; Holden F5 group unveils first pattern; Highways Agency still blocking Oswestry branch revival; Severn Valley new-build Standard 3 tank group given wheelset; new carriage shed planned by Loughborough restoration group; Bo’ness may send steam to Co Donegal; a steam-hauled Royal Train for Prince Andrew, too - in a brake van - and the rare sight of a blizzard on the Kent beaches, with the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway in deep midwinter!

MAIN LINE NEWS compiled by Cedric Johns
West Coast Railway company named as partner in Esk Valley community rail project, and announces 35 steam trains to Whitby; full coverage of special train for Bernard Staite’s retirement; track maintenance devastates railtour programme; black boxes to be fitted to engines by end of 2005; and why steam is more reliable than modern traction.

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

PLATFORM
The place where your views matter the most!

HERITAGE NET
New Generation lines must try harder with their websites, says Roger Melton.

INDUSTRIAL SCENE
Geoff Courtney looks at developments on York’s ‘other’ heritage railway attraction, the Derwent Valley Light Railway.

SCALE HERITAGE RAILWAY
Latest Hornby releases including the magnificent Class 31, and a now-unique Rutland Railway Museum shunter!

DAVID MORGAN MBE - the man you can't ignore
The Heritage Railway Association chairman pays tributes to two major figures who have just stood down from the preservation scene.

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