Swanage ‘T3’ 563 a double winner at HRA awards
NEWLY RESTORED LSWR ‘T3’ No. 563 was a double winner at the 2024 Heritage Railway Association awards, picking up two gongs.
The first was the Steam Railway magazine readers’ award; over 3,100 people voted for this year’s award, with the Adams 4-4-0 picking up 31% of the vote. The award – the only such magazine award decided by readers – was presented by deputy editor Thomas Bright to the Swanage Railway Trust 563 Locomotive Group and Bill Parker from The Flour Mill at the HRA awards ceremony in Brighton on February 10, featuring guest speaker Francis Bourgeois.
The restoration of the 1893-built locomotive also won the coveted HRA Chairman’s Special Award; this particular award is not given every year, and is only awarded to the most deserving of projects.
Another big winner was the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways, with its new-build double Fairlie James Spooner picking up the Coiley Award for Steam Locomotive Engineering, and marketing lead Osian Hughes taking home the Rising Star Award. Narrow gauge railways did well at the awards, with the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway winning the award for Marketing & Communications, the Talyllyn Railway’s Tracksiders being recognised as the Team of the Year, Seaton Tramway winning the Environmental Innovation award for its Natural Seaton Festival, and, highly appropriately considering the venue for the ceremony, the Volks Electric Railway winning the coveted Railway of the Year award.
Elsewhere, the Severn Valley Railway’s events celebrating 50 years of diesel preservation won the Award for Diesel & Electric Locomotion; the National Wagon Preservation Group won the Morgan Award for Rolling Stock Preservation for its merry-go-round wagon project, and Jonathan King of the Downpatrick & County Down Railway won the Lord Faulkner Young Volunteer Award.
The Llangollen & Corwen Railway’s new station at Corwen won the Infrastructure Award, and the Keith & Dufftown Railway’s conversion of a redundant DMU trailer car into the ‘Dram Tram’ took the award for Innovation in Business & Customer Experience.