The Railway Magazine

The Railway Magazine has been published since 1897 and is now the UK's best-selling general interest rail title. Every month, The RM provides enthusiasts and professionals with authoritative and informed news coverage of the following: - Network Rail and the train operating companies - Locomotives, multiple units, carriages and wagons - Steam, heritage and the preservation world, inc narrow gauge- Metro and underground systems - In addition, the magazine carries frequent items of overseas interest.

The Railway Magazine is also renowned for its wide-ranging and innovative feature coverage, encompassing up-to-the-minute developments as well as historical, nostalgic and foreign subjects. The magazine is also renowned for its award-winning photographic content.

The Railway Magazine

50 years of Drax

Drax marks Golden Jubilee in style • Originally coal-fired, now fuelled by biomass, the North Yorkshire power station started generating electricity in 1974.

Government closes RYR fund • Restoring Your Railway money offered a pathway to line reopenings.

EAST WEST LINE HANDED OVER

GWR expected to take on Class 175s

ScotRail reintroduces peak fares after trial scheme ends

NEW‘LOK’ AT TIDAL

SIDELINES

CLASS 897 FOR LNER

ASLEF union recommends Government pay offer • Drivers offered a‘no strings’pay deal.

SIDELINES

‘BADGER’ON THE MOVE

All-Island Rail Review aims high • €37 billion joint plan for the whole of Ireland includes new lines, track doubling, and more electrification.

Alstom to carry out £60m ‘Voyager’ refurbishment at Derby Works • New seats, tables, carpets and exterior repaint for CrossCountry’s Class 220 and 221 fleets.

Railways in Parliament

‘Complex’ 18-month bridge build completed • Created to take HS2 under the A452 near Balsall Common in the West Midlands, 7200 tonnes of concrete and 1800 tonnes of steel have been used in its construction.

Cantilever swings into action

SIDELINES

BRIDGE POSITIONED

From rails to road • Nick Pigott visits a former Great Central Railway tunnel that has been repurposed as the world’s longest indoor vehicle test track.

‘Evero’ the optimist • John Heaton FCILT investigates how Avanti's new ‘Evero’ units perform on the West Coast Main Line.

Postwar Talyllyn in colour • Dan Quine presents a remarkable set of colour images, taken in 1949, of the original Talyllyn Railway, two years before it was reborn as the world’s first volunteer-run heritage railway.

Feeding Drax • As overall winner in the 2024 RCTS/Mortons Media Photographic Competition, Eddie Holden was given a day’s cab ride on the Drax biomass circuit courtesy of DB Cargo, as Paul Chancellor reports.

‘Super D’ stripe mystery • A long-withdrawn ‘Super D’ was seen at Derby in September 1964 with a ‘not south of Crewe’ cab stripe – but how, and why?

Readers’ Platform • Send your letters to: The Railway Magazine, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR. Email: railway@mortons.co.uk

MEETINGS

From the archive • Subscribe and read previous issues at www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/archive

The RCTS: then and now

PANORAMA • A showcase for the best in railway photography

Lottery grant to boost volunteers’ heritage skills • Toddington-based No. 2874 to be used as a training platform to preserve vital engineering knowledge.

Beachy Head handed over • Now Bluebell Railway Trust appeals to return flagship‘P’No. 323 to action.

Inaugural digital TWAO? • Mid-Suffolk Light Railway makes application for legal powers under streamlimed electronic process.

New lease of life for old wagons • Chasewater...