LNER preservationists share top HRA award

Joint winners of the Heritage Railway Association’s Annual Award (Large Groups) for 2016 were the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group and the North Norfolk Railway. NELPG was recognised for 50 years of preservation activity since its formation in 1966, and the ‘Poppy Line’ for extending its services over Network Rail metals to Cromer. John Hunt, chairman of NELPG, told Steam Railway: “This award is on behalf of our 600 members, not only present, but past, including those sadly no longer with us, and all who have been part of the team over the past 50 years.” NNR Managing Director Hugh Harkett said: “I am delighted to have received this award and am obviously pleased with the way the Cromer trains came together, after we worked for two years to get there. We will be operating there again from July onwards in 2017, and we are still working on the idea of destinations further afield. In 2017 we will also have two steam engines, with ‘4MT’ No. 76084 and the Gresley ‘N2’ hauling these trains.” The former’s owner, the 76084 Locomotive Company, won the John Coiley Locomotive Award for its restoration of the ex-Barry Riddles 2-6-0, while the Annual Award (Small Groups) was won by the Leadhills & Wanlockhead Railway, for providing public transport when the nearby main road was closed. Taking the Peter Manisty Award for Excellence was the Leighton Buzzard Railway, for its new station building at Pages Park, while Vintage Trains won the Special Award for a Meritorious Project, for its new locomotive workshop. Steam Railway’s award went jointly to the West Somerset Railway and the Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust at Midsomer Norton, for their commemorative events marking the 50th anniversary of the S&D’s closure in 2016. The Railway Magazine’s Preservationist of the Year Award was won by Tom Tighe, Great Central Railway Carriage & Wagon superintendent and chairman of the 5305 Locomotive Association, custodians of Steam Railway appeal ‘Britannia’ No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell. Totnes Riverside station, on the South Devon Railway, won an Interpretation Award. Recently retired deputy chief inspector of the Office of Rail and Road, David Keay, was also given a special vote of thanks by the HRA for his two decades of service to the industry.