On the 19th January 1965 Manning Wardle 0-6-0 saddle tank, ‘Sir Berkeley’ was delivered by road to Haworth, to be followed by the first two coaches for the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. These two vehicles, the MS&L and the Chatham, arrived at Keighley by rail and were stored at Keighley Station.
All three are now part of the Vintage Carriages Trust’s collection and will be in action on Saturday 10th January 2015 with 3 members’ shuttles between Ingrow and Keighley in celebration of these arrivals and the resultant founding of the Vintage Carriages Trust. The first train will depart from Ingrow Station at 12 noon and will be limited to VCT Members and invited guests. As the seating capacity is only 78, if as a VCT Member you would like to travel on this train please contact VCT Chairman, Trevor England at chairman@vintagecarriagestrust.org
The train will run two further trips at 1.30 and at 3.00pm. These will be open to members of the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society and associated organisations as well as VCT members.
Sir Berkeley returned to Ingrow on 26 November, and is now in the workshop.
Sir B will be pulling VCT's 50th anniversary train on Saturday 10th January 2015.
Trailer can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKt_G23eUJc
Testament of Youth is the film adaptation of Vera Brittain’s powerful WW1 memoir. VCT carriages were used in the production.
Testament of Youth is the film adaptation of Vera Brittain’s powerful WW1 memoir. VCT carriages were used in this production.
This year we were fortunate to be able to offer rides in our Great Northern 6 wheel carriage, within Ingrow yard, pulled by the Coal Tank 1054. Lord Mayor was also brought out of the museum, for a breath of air. Click on a photo to enlarge.
We are grateful to our friends at Bahamas Locomotive Society for the use of the Coal Tank.
And to Ian Smith and David Kay for the photos.
The Vintage Carriages Trust has begun work to extend the award-winning Carriage Works Museum rearwards, in the Keighley direction.
This will once again allow the entire VCT collection of carriages to be housed entirely indoors on the same site and also give more engineering space for workshop activities. Work has already started on site clearance and it is hoped that the foundations and floor of the new extension will be completed by Spring 2015.
An appeal has been opened for funding towards the cost of the new extension and donations towards this aim will be gratefully accepted.
Added link to Testament of Youth - Official Trailer on Film and Television Credits page.
On Thursday 7th August our historic locomotive “BELLEROPHON” hauled the two North Staffordshire Railway coaches 61 and 127 at the Foxfield Railway, on their official first run. The event was well organised and involved BELLROPHON hauling the two coaches into Blyth Bridge and thence to Dilhorne Park.
The inaugural train was flagged off by Sir William Cash, Tory MP for North Staffordshire. In his speech he mentioned that his family were accountants to the NSR and also to George Hudson and amused the audience by pointing out that Hudson’s financial peccadillos were somewhat worse than anything done by members of parliament recently!!
The two coaches looked superb and rode extremely well on their journey to and from Dilhorne park. It was announced during the event a at least two more NSR coaches, including a much-needed brake, had been found at Rudyard Lake and were being salvaged for rebuilding in due course, to make a complete NSR period train. This is great news and I am sure our members wish the Knotty Trust all the best with this project.
Our historic 0-6-0WT BELLEROPHON is working at The Welland Valley Traction Engine Rally, near Upton on Severn this weekend, hauling a GWR brake van, as illustrated.
VCT hope many people will take the opportunity to ride behind the engine. See article below for details.
The Chatham has recently returned to the workshop and is currently receiving new brake blocks.
