SINGLE LINES

■ FFESTINIOG & Welsh Highland Railway’s (Ff&WHR) Boston Lodge Works took delivery of a large consignment of wood on November 9, which will be employed in construction of three new bogie carriages for the Talyllyn Railway. Financed with the aid of a £300,000 Coastal Communities Fund grant (RM, June 2021) Ff&WHR subsequently won the contract to build the vehicles (RM, September).

■ DESPITE only reopening in May due to Covid-19 restrictions and limits on the number of people on trains due to social distancing,

2021 Talyllyn Railway visitor numbers have been so healthy the railway is close to matching 2019 revenue figures. 2019 was itself a record-breaking year.

■ AMERTON Railway was presented with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service by The Lord Lieutenant for Staffordshire, Ian Dudson CBE KStJ, on November 6. The award is recognised as the highest available for volunteer organisations in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.

■ JOHN Rowlands’ Kerr, Stuart 0-4-2ST Stanhope visited West Lancashire Light Railway to participate in running the line’s Santa trains and will remain for the early part of the 2022 season. Stanhope, normally based at Apedale Valley Light Railway, last visited the West Lancashire line in 2017.

NEWBUILD 2ft gauge Bagnall ‘Sipat’ 0-4-0ST Big Dave left North Bay Railway Engineering (NBRE) in Darlington on November 23, arriving on West of Fife Munitions Railway metals the following day. Test steaming and shakedown runs followed at the beginning of December with NBRE staff assisting on-site.

The addition of steam to the 2ft gauge line is a game changer for the Shed 47 Railway Restoration Group, which also anticipates the introduction of steam on the standard gauge line at the Lothalmond site. Formerly known as Lothalmond

Royal Naval Stores Depot, the site is also home to the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum.

Big Dave brings resident operational steam to a Scottish narrow gauge line for the first time in many years, it is thought since Christmas 2003 when Fowler 0-4-2T (13355/14) Saccharine last steamed at the Alford Valley Railway before being sold in 2004 and relocated to England. The Leadhills & Wanlockhead Railway has periodically entertained visiting steam, the last occasion being Nick Williams’ Andrew Barclay 0-4-0T Jack in July 2017.

HUMPHREYS/NBRE DAVID Small in size, large in name and importance. New-build 0-4-0ST Big Dave pictured on December 1 steaming on the 2ft gauge West of Fife Munitions Railway during post-delivery testing.

GREGORY MAPE Blue waters, autumnal green hillsides and a colourful Llanberis Lake Railway train behind exDinorwic ‘Quarry Hunslet’ 0-4-0ST Elidir approaching Gilfach Ddu on October 30, makes for a very attractive scene.