SINGLE LINES
■ DR David Rhys Gwyn received an OBE for services to archaeology and history in Wales in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours. He is an academic teacher and lecturer with published works including The Royal Commission’s publication ‘Welsh Slate: Archaeology and History of an Industry’. He is a Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway trustee and chairman of the Bala Lake Railway.
■ LINCOLNSHIRE Coast Light Railway’s (LCLR) ex-Nocton ‘Queen Mary’ coach entered service following restoration on June 2, during a weekend of Platinum Jubilee operating. LCLR became so busy a third carriage had to be added to the train, the first time since the line was revived at Skegness Water Leisure Park in 2009 that a three-coach passenger train had been operated.
■ GRAHAM Morris’ Kerr Stuart 0-4-0ST ‘Wren’ Peter Pan will visit Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum’s August 29 Railway Gala, the first time a steam locomotive has operated on the museum’s 2ft gauge running line.
■ STEEPLE Grange Light Railway (SGLR) fully reopened on May 14, when passengers were carried to Middleton Station for the first time since 2019. The 18in gauge line initially closed in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and was then set back from resuming operations by a rockfall, followed by flooding when a water main above the line burst.
■ BRIGHTON’S Volks Electric Railway returned to operating over its full length between Aquarium and Black Rock on May 28. During the initial part of the season the railway had been restricted to operating between Aquarium and Halfway while contractors undertook extensive landscaping, involving a boardwalk and new level crossings over the 2ft 8.5in gauge electric line, on the Black Rock section.
■ GROUDLE Glen Railway’s replica Bagnall 0-4-2T Annie has gone to John Fowler Engineering at Old Hall Farm in Bouth, Cumbria, for major overhaul. The loco, completed by Richard Booth in 1998, was recently gifted to Groudle Glen Railway’s Locomotives Trust.
■ THE boiler for Perrygrove Railway’s new-build 0-6-0ST has been completed and hydraulically tested. In early May the boiler was trial fitted in the frames.