Metropolitan Railway 465 will be used on KWVR Vintage Train Sundays, for 6 successive Sundays from 9 June 2019.
Bellerophon appeared at Foxfield on 22 July 2018, for a last fling, before the next overhaul. Stephen Bottrill was there to record the event. Note the message on the smokebox!
VCT Metropolitan Carriages and the Chatham, in its new livery, will be used during the KWVR Anniversary Gala week.
Heritage Railway Magazine contains a five page article about VCT, by Rodney Towers, in the latest edition. KWVR also features, with an article celebrating the 50th anniversary of the reopening of the line.
The museum has received a third TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence. Now in its eighth year, the achievement celebrates businesses that have earned great traveller reviews on TripAdvisor over the past year. Certificate of Excellence recipients include attractions, restaurants and accomodations located all over the world that have continually delivered a quality customer experience.
An impressive 82% of TripAdvisor travellers have awarded a Five-Star rating to the museum, with 18% awarding Four-Stars.
The Certificate of Excellence accounts for the quality, quantity and recency of reviews submitted by travellers on TripAdvisor over a 12-month period. To qualify, a business must maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four out of five, have a minimum number of reviews and must have been listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months.
On the 26 March, Metropolitan Railway 465 returned from long-term loan at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. At the same time, Bulleid 1469S departed for long-tern loan to the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway.
We are sorry to hear that B1 No 1264 can’t make the SVR Gala this weekend, but our veteran well-tank “BELLEROPHON” has arrived and will be hauling a small train between Kidderminster and Bewdley each day. Come and see the old lady strutting her stuff on the Severn Valley this weekend!
Photo: Severn Valley Railway
The KWVR Spring Gala will make use of two of our carriages on Vintage Trains. ON SATURDAY ONLY, Bulleid 1469 and Chatham 3554 will be in action on the Ingrow Shuttle. This will be the last time that the two will appear together in Carmine and Cream livery. After the gala, the Chatham will be repainted into the South Eastern and Chatham maroon which it carried in 1968, ready for the KWVR 50th anniversary gala in June 2018. After that gala, it will be repainted into Southern Malachite green, which it will carry for the foreseeable future.
Following body repairs in the VCT workshop, OLIVe returned to the Middleton Railway on Monday 29 January. The owning group (The EM2 Locomotive Society) will now undertake the interior restoration at Moor Road. In the photo below, courtesy The EM2 Locomotive Society, OLIVe is shunted ready for loading by Mersey Docks and Harbour Board 32.
The Middleton Railway is pleased to announce that it is working with the Vintage Carriages Trust to restore Manning Wardle contractor’s locomotive “Sir Berkeley” to its original “Logan and Hemingway” livery. When back in service in 2020, this locomotive will be the only working example of a Manning Wardle contractor's locomotive - the type of locomotive which helped build much of this country's infrastructure, including such great Victorian enterprises as the Great Central Railway and the Manchester Ship Canal.
VCT Chairman Trevor England commented, “We are delighted to be working with our partners at Middleton Railway to restore our historic locomotive to its original appearance as far as it is possible. The loco will become a great ambassador for both organisations in its new livery. Visitors seeing this engine at work will notice the contrast between the very elaborate multi-coloured livery, showing the pride Logan and Hemingway took in their locomotives, and the spartan conditions provided for the crew - no cab, just a simple weatherboard (and sou' westers!).
MRT Chairman Charles Milner said, “ Middleton Railway is also delighted to be restoring this great example of Leeds-built engineering. On a personal note, the engine was involved in the construction of Nottingham Victoria station and, for me, brings back many childhood memories of catching trains from that most atmospheric of railway stations. We look forward to seeing SIR BERKELEY hauling trains at Middleton in the not too distant future.”
