Railways Illustrated

The best coverage of today's railway scene. Each issue of Railways Illustrated offers a comprehensive round-up of the latest news and topical events from the UK across the present-day railway, including heritage traction in operation on the main lines. Railways Illustrated reflects the energy and vitality of the present-day railway scene.

Welcome

Railways Illustrated

WCR, Colas and Class 50 Alliance help clear the snow

DB Cargo sells 25 Class 66s to Romanian operator GFR

455s hang on in traffic into January

IN BRIEF

Another Swietelsky UK 37 revived

Colas confirms ECML Thunderbird contract gain

Porterbrook buys WMR’s Corelink Class 196s and 730s

Better Class 60s in line for Land Recovery?

GBRf stands down Class 60s – but buys them back!

Bo’ness gala doubles up as a ‘Grid farewell’

DRS stages Cumbria charity event

HSTs head for scrap

Class 07 to move to the SVR

More 99s on the way

Rotherham scrap merchant Booth enters administration

Class 27 sold to Harry Needle

The rumour mill

And the news you probably haven’t heard yet…

Coaching Stock News

Shunter News

Liveries

Unit News

Unit Focus

Wagon News

Names

W&M Railbus 79962 to for Llangollen to Berwyn shuttle

Scrap WSR Class 108 moved to donate parts

Retro Intercity look for Devon HST

IN BRIEF

Work to reinstate railway to Redmire continues

Alycidon moves for first time with overhauled engine

GWR Class 26 for Chinnor event

Lancs starts gala season

Great turn-out for Severn Valley’s winter events

Take a hike! • Walking the trackbeds of closed railways is a rewarding experience which can be educational and thought-inspiring – and it keeps you healthy. Pip Dunn looks at some of his walks and gives tips on how to make the best of a day… and what to look out for!

What’s happening to… • Our monthly round up of restoration projects around the country, compiled by Pip Dunn

A new-look Newquay • The latest branch in Cornwall to benefit from infrastructure upgrades for the Cornish Metro is the 20-mile Par to Newquay line. Craig Munday highlights the changes.

LIVING LIFE IN THE PAST LANE • In 1978, 40106 was the last Class 40 in BR green, and when it was overhauled that year, it somehow avoided a repaint into corporate BR blue, and thus its survival was, essentially, guaranteed.

PICTORIAL

Pathfinder 2.0 comes from a well-known source…

The locos that broke barriers • January marks 40 years since the first four General Motors Class 59s landed in the UK, the first American diesel locos and the first privately owned locos to run on BR. The fleet later expanded to 15 locos of three different sub-classes. Pip Dunn looks back at why they came about, why they were so successful, and what legacy they created.

When green was king • We make no excuses for delving into the SiCol collection once again for another stunning selection of images of trains in the BR green era of the 1960s – longlost traction, lines, and operations are all included. Captions by Pip Dunn.

10 PICTURES • In each issue of Railways Illustrated, we ask a photographer to select their 10 favourite railrelated images and tell us the reasons why they believe these photos stand out from the crowd.

NEW YEAR SALE

Euro 66 heads GM return • A new batch of Class 66s has been released in OO gauge by Accurascale, this including fresh liveries and revised tooling to allow the ex-European GB Railfreight examples to be faithfully portrayed. Simon Bendall takes a look.

Preserving Diesel Hydraulic Locomotives 1977-82

Railways of the North East 1975-1995

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