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 relents and agrees to fit CDL to its Mk. 1s

More guests in the pipeline for the Severn Valley

LSL’s green Class 20s rescue stuck Pendolino…

…and save the day on WCML charter

IN BRIEF

Could spare Class 68s be set for Welsh Marches?

TfW Stadler units visit Holyhead for tyre turning

GBRf CEO John Smith to step down ‘within a year’

Birmingham RailCar Workgroup Class 104 leaves Llangollen

Shunter fans have a field day on two railtours

GBRf wins china clay contract from DB Cargo

Newcastle welcomes Class 91s after five year hiatus

Hope for Waverley reopening

GB Railfreight 60 recovered from Wensleydale

Nightmare journeys for East Coast passengers

Grand Central’s Hitachi TMMUs will be Class 820s

Hastings DEMU heads to Inverness

Another regeared GBRf Class 66/6

Belmond’s BE starts for 2026

Arlington repaints LSL 37/5 in ‘Blackberry’ black

Foster Yeoman livery revived on Heavy Haul Rail 59

Police investigate possible fraud on 40012 sale

ACMU announces launch of three new initiatives

GWR suffers a minor landslip

DB Cargo fits digital signalling kit to 66 at Toton

DBC sends first of 25 Class 66s to Romania

The rumour mill

And the news you probably haven’t heard yet…

Because they could • The Branch Line Society, GB Railfreight, Eastern Rail Services and Europhoenix Rail joined forces to deliver five days of Class 37 haulage from March 19-23 on the BLS’s ‘Because we can 4’ charter. RI presents a selection of images from the trip…

Coaching Stock News

Liveries

Shunter News

Wagon News

Unit Focus

Names

Unit News

CFPS’s Class 40 suffers traction motor setback

Engine rebuild target for Class 28 reached

McLaren Rail buys Les Emery’s Class 31 and 37

D9015 misses out on GCR gala workings

Chinnor Class 37 changes hands and may move on

Red letter day for 08

Weardale 31 returns to action at Shackerstone

‘Slug’ and ‘Rods’ star at Twin Peaks events

225 Group to assist with Class 91

26 for Swanage, 50 for Norfolk

Classic EMU goes back into BR blue

RES 47 heads to Keighley

Class 07 SVR-bound after successful fundraising

Class 26 the star at Chinnor gala

Locos leave Loughborough for repairs

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

Just get rid of it…! • Not every loco met its end at a big BR loco works or a well-established scrapyard. Some were cut up onsite where they ‘fell’, or were even thrown in a hole or binned where their planned conversion to a restaurant fell through! Over two parts, Pip Dunn looks at some of the more unusual disposals of diesel and electric locos over the years.

PICTORIAL

So you want to improve your photography? • Do you ever look at a picture in RI and think, “I wish I could take an image that good?” Pip Dunn offers just a few basic tips in equipment and technique to get that bit better at photography

Charters shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg….

English Electric ‘Roarers’…. Alive in Poland • English Electric had great success exporting diesel and electric locos to many nations in the middle of the last century, and in Poland, its derivate of...