Trains Illustrated Magazine, Issue 48

THIS issue features various initiatives in railway preservation — the building of the replica Pen-y-darren locomotive, the imaginative main line tours on 5ft 3m gauge run by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland and projects undertaken by a school in South Wales. The keynote of all is imaginative thinking by people who have set out to do something positive, in a way that brings together individuals to produce something creative. Quite the best spirit in railway preservation, or perhaps restoration is the" operative word, has come from those who have asked 'why don't we do ...' rather than 'why doesn't someone ...' It's all too easy to leave it to somepne else, and even easier to criticise the detail of something that has been achieved. Very often, railway-restorers have found that more critical momment has derived from the colours in which locomotives or items of rolling stock are painted than there is admiration that the thing has been made to work in the first place. We well remember participating in a well-run main line steam tour, during which the patrons were treated to some excellent running, only to be at the receiving end of vehement criticism that the booked motive power had not been provided, and so the excursion was a complete waste of time. Can some of the onlookers (and non-contributing onlookers, in particular) give praise where it's due, and marvel that the show gets on the rails in the first place?

Where should railway preservation be going?
Martin Bairstow considers a realistic strategy for railway preservation schemes during the 1980s, and outlines some of the problems of running a sizeable business, as he describes it.