Latest news with #locomotive
BBC News
7 days ago
- BBC News
All aboard Flying Scotsman as Severn Valley heritage line reopens
It's all aboard at Severn Valley Railway as the Flying Scotsman arrived on Wednesday ahead of the first trips following a famous locomotive will celebrate its full reopening on 25 July, running the 16-mile route between Bridgnorth and Dunster, the managing director at the Severn Valley, said he was excited to see hundreds of people visit the beloved train and have their "imagination captured"."It's been a year of ups and downs for us this year, because the landslide in January really set us back, but now it's all finished and we're getting ready to open next week. We wanted to do it in a really high-profile way," he said. The northern part of the track in Shropshire had to close in January due to a landslide, which meant trains could go no further than Hampton Loade while the repairs were carried Flying Scotsman first entered service in broke records by hauling the first non-stop London to Edinburgh service in 1928 and became the UK's first locomotive to officially reach a speed of 100mph six years Dunster said although train enthusiasts will come in droves, he looked forward to younger generations learning about it."Many people won't be enthusiasts but just be general members of the public and youngsters whose imaginations have been captured."We knew it would be popular, and we optimistically hoped it would sell out very quickly, which it did," he to travel onboard the train sold out in three minutes, which prompted extra tickets to be released. They include options for on-train dining."We really want to encourage people from wider demographics to come and experience heritage railways and all the different things that we can do."Getting the next generations to come through is critical to railways on this, being here in another 60 years," he Flying Scotsman is due to visit the heritage line on 25, 26 and 27 July. It will only stop at Bridgnorth and Kidderminster on the 16-mile route. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
14-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Steam locomotive starts new journey in Sheringham
An industrial steam engine found in a convent has started a new chapter on the 1929 locomotive, called "Newstead", was found in a Carmelite convent near Ware, Hertfordshire, in re-entered service at the North Norfolk Railway in Sheringham on Saturday after a nine-year Alder, the owner of the locomotive, said: "After nine years of efforts, for the very first time ever she pulled passenger trains. It was absolutely incredible." Newstead rolled off the production line of the Hunslet Engine Company in Leeds in 1929, North Norfolk Railway 96-year-old locomotive was withdrawn from service by the National Coal Board in was purchased in the late 1970s by vintage vehicle collector Malcolm Saul, who built a shed around the engine to help protect it from the Mr Saul died in 2015, people had thought the engine was lost but was later found next to the nunnery. Mr Alder said discovering the engine was like hearing "of a mythical Egyptian tomb". "I fully never expected to be driven down a Hertfordshire country lane, following a wild tip off about a lost engine. "I could never have imagined taking tea and biscuits with [a] mother superior at a convent, and hearing of 'Malcolm's engine'."But there it was in this convent in Hertfordshire, 39 tons of miracle," he Alder said it cost him about £200,000 to restore the locomotive, taking a team of volunteers about nine years to overhaul. North Norfolk Railway said it will use the engine to pull passenger carriages from Sheringham to Holt. Graham Hukins, the general manager of North Norfolk Railway, said it was "absolutely wonderful" to see the engine running in Sheringham. "The engine that was stuck in a nunnery, lost for years, everyone thought it had been scrapped."This weekend is the very first time it has been paired with passenger carriages, and it is an absolute delight to have it join our working fleet."He said "to be part of that tale and to see her back in working order" was special as they celebrated 50-years of running trains at North Norfolk Railway. Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks or BBC Norfolk.
New York Times
13-07-2025
- General
- New York Times
Corrections: July 13, 2025
An article this weekend on Page 6 about New Jersey Transit's locomotive 4207, the oldest in regular passenger service in the entire country, misstated the name of the N.J. Transit maintenance site. It is the Meadows Maintenance Complex, not the Meadowlands Maintenance Complex. Errors are corrected during the press run whenever possible, so some errors noted here may not have appeared in all editions. To contact the newsroom regarding correction requests, please email nytnews@ To share feedback, please visit Comments on opinion articles may be emailed to letters@ For newspaper delivery questions: 1-800-NYTIMES (1-800-698-4637) or email customercare@
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Historic locomotive's visit to Cumbria was its first in 11 years
TRAIN enthusiasts caught a rare glimpse of an historic locomotive as it passed through the Eden Valley for the first time in more than a decade. Built in 1963 at Swindon Works, D1015 Western Champion is a former British Rail diesel, with hydraulic transmission. It had not been seen in Cumbria for 11 years. However, it graced the Cumbrian tracks earlier this month as it led the Western Mountaineer rail tour train, for fare-paying passengers, from Birmingham New Street to Carlisle; travelling up the challenging Shap incline before returning south via the famous Settle to Carlisle line. It is a class 52 locomotive. Seventy-four of these were built in total, between 1961 and 1964, to replace the iconic Great Western Railway steam locomotives on express trains which ran from London Paddington to Bristol, Penzance, Birmingham and South Wales. On January 30, 1965, Western Champion was rostered for the return working of Sir Winston Churchill's funeral train, returning mourners from Handborough station, near Oxford, to Paddington. Class 52s were deemed non-standard by British Rail in the early 1970s. The first of the class went for scrap in 1973. But after the Western Champion was withdrawn from traffic in 1976, it was bought by the Diesel Traction Group four years later, securing its preservation. Seven locomotives, including Western Champion, survive in preservation, another of which is D1023 Western Fusilier, at the National Railway Museum in York. D1015 is the only Western certified to run on British railways.
New York Times
09-07-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
Locomotive 4207, on the Rails for 60 Years and Still Hauling Commuters
When New Jersey Transit's locomotive 4207 rolled off the assembly line, the Beatles were still touring, Johnny Carson was just three years into hosting 'The Tonight Show' and America had yet to see its first Super Bowl or eat its first Dorito. Sixty years later, 4207 is still hauling New Jersey commuters where they need to go — making it not just the oldest locomotive on NJ Transit's roster but the oldest in regular passenger service in the entire country. It may be an anomaly in American railroading, but not at NJ Transit. The commuter rail agency, the nation's third busiest, operates more than 20 similar GP40 diesel engines — also called 'Geeps' — the oldest of which were originally built as freight locomotives for the New York Central Railroad in 1965. The trains are almost two decades older than NJ Transit itself, yet there is no retirement party on the horizon. 'No matter what, you're always going to have a GP40 around here,' said Fred Chidester, the agency's recently retired deputy general manager of equipment. 'They are the backbone of our operations.' Compared with NJ Transit's streamlined electric locomotives, the boxy Geeps look and sound a world apart. Their utilitarian design features plenty of right angles, and you can hear the howl of a Geep engine a mile away. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
