Features:

DOWN TO THE SEA IN STEAM - Two-train timetabled steam services on Network Raila€ s Esk Valley have landed the North Yorkshire Moors Railway with the coveted Heritage Railway Association Annual Award 2007. Robin Jones meets general manager Philip Benham to discuss what went so very right - and what the plans are to develop the Heartbeat line even further.

KENNEL SOUGHT FOR a€~GREYHOUNDa€ - Following the decision of the Bluebell Railway to give up its loan of LSWR T9 4-4-0 No 120, with no prospect of it being restored on the horizon, custodians the National Railway Museum have asked Heritage Railway to help find it a new permanent home. Robin Jones looks back at the history of this magnificent flat racer, the sole surviving example of Dugald Drummonda€ s finest class.

LNER HEAVEN: BARROW HILL RECORD BREAKER - Four decades after steam haulage ended in the north-east, Barrow Hill and its roundhouse staged a major celebration of the LNER - with eight locomotives representing the Big Four company in attendance - and hour-long queues of visitors waiting to get in, such was the demand for the event, reports Fred Kerr.

HEAVY GOODS - THE WD 2-8-0S - One of the most successful and best-known heavy goods engine class in Britain, the WD 2-8-0s disappeared quite suddenly just before the end of steam. The heritage railway movement just was not complete without one, but the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway has now put things right. John Whiteley illustrates what the a€~Dub-Deesa€ were all about.

CAKE & CALEY - Ita€ s not every day you are invited to attend a 100th birthday party - especially one for a steam locomotive. During the weekend of 13-14 October, the Boa€ ness & Kinneil Railway celebrated the 100th birthday of its Caledonian Railway 439 class 0-4-4T No 419, which first entered service on 28 November 1907.

THE LAST PLANDAMPF - PLANDAMPF - the practice of assigning steam to scheduled passenger and freight diagrams, has lured countless British enthusiasts to Germany since 1990. But now the Plandampf adventure is over. David Wilcock was there to witness the finale.

BLUEBELL BULLEID BONANZA - Three BR-liveried unrebuilt Bulleid Pacifics in steam together for the first time since the end of Southern steam was just one of the highlights of the Bluebell Railwaya€ s big autumn event.


Regulars:

OPINION
HEADLINE NEWS - Heritage Railway Association awards for North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Flour Mill colliery team and LNER Beavertail saloon; blue asbestos scandal as coach refurbished for British line and the appeal to raise Ã