Headline News
Nottingham station damaged in arson attack, Mallaig
line blocked by landslide at Glenfinnan, GWR‘County’
4-4-0 replica to be built at Gloucs-Warks, Thameslink
contract ‘not value for money’, NR moves quickly after
Carillion collapse, TfN strategic plan unveiled

On the cover

COVER: Former
Midland Railway
‘4F’0-6-0No. 43924
climbs away from
Keighley on
January7with a
KWVR service to
Oxenhope.The
loco was the first
to leave Barry 50
years ago, destined
for theYorkshire
branch line,which
also marks the 50th
anniversary of
re-opening this year.
ANDREWBELL

Track Record The Railway Magazine’s monthly news digest

66 Steam & Heritage
S&D‘7F’ to move to North Norfolk, Dunrobin needs new
driving wheels, two‘Modified Halls’ for West Somerset
gala, new middle cylinder cast for ‘A2’ Blue Peter.
71 Industrial
72 Steam Portfolio
75 Irish
76 Narrow Gauge
78 Heritage Trams
80 Metro

82 Network
Huge Christmas and new year engineering works
delivered successfully, Grayling backs mid-Cheshire
reopening, Ashford International modified for e320s.

84 Railtours
88 Classic Traction
92 World
95 Freight
96 Traction & Stock
First Mk5 overnight stock arrives in Scotland, DRS sells
more Class 20s, Class 88s on nuclear traffic.
99 Stock Update
100 Traction Portfolio
103 Operations

 Regulars
Track Record The Railway Magazine’s monthly news digest

12 Multiple Aspects
With Lord Berkeley.

12 Railways in Parliament

20 Subscription Offer
Subscribe today to receive your monthly copies of
The Railway Magazine from only £20.

58 Readers’Platform

60 Panorama
Our regular gallery of the best railway photography.

64 From The RM Archives
Find out what The RM was reporting 20, 50 and 100
years ago.

108 Meetings

 Features

14 Re-creating the Rough Rider
As a new group takes on the project to build
a replica GWR‘County’ 4-4-0, Gary Boyd-Hope
explains how they plan to achieve their goal and
bring back another long-lost class.

22 Ro-Railers: Ahead of their time?
Vehicles capable of working on both rail and road
were tested prior to the Second World War, but
didn’t catch on. Alan Dale wonders if the idea
was too advanced for the technology of the time.

28 From Ukraine With Love
Risking detention and a possible international
incident, Mark Darby visited eastern Europe in
2017 to photograph powerful ex-Soviet diesels.
Find out how he and his companions fared.

34 From Shanghai to Shenfield
John Heaton draws together a diverse collection
of Practice & Performance logs, embracing the
Shanghai Maglev, Class 345s and a recent main
line outing with a ‘Deltic’.

42 Crossrail Update
With the core tunnels under central London
due to open in December, Keith Fender visits
Crossrail for an update on how construction of
the £14.8billion railway is progressing.

46 From Upminster to Upcycled
Ben Jones discovers howVivarail is transforming
redundant District Line trains into ‘upcycled’new
trains for the main line - and testing new forms of
propulsion to replace polluting diesels.

 110  Heritage Diary
Details of when Britain’s unique collection of heritage
railways and railway museums are open.

122 Crossword &Where Is It?