TALKABOUT STEAM TRAINS Full steam ahead Long before railway innovation and effi ciency moved from Britain to Japan, France and China, speed records were set in the British countryside by trains with names such as Flying Scotsman. From the Midlands to Devon, steam train enthusiasts are trying to bring back those days of locomotive engineering grandeur. WORDS CHRIS WRIGHT Steam locomotive 38021, Llangollen Railway, Wales PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID WILCOCK DAVID PHOTOGRAPHY: JUNE 2015 QANTAS 127 Launceston Steam Railway Severn Valley Railway on the River Severn Carrog Station, Llangollen Railway ON MODEST SECTIONS of reconditioned track in the British countryside, original stream engines and carriages chug between stations rebuilt with painstaking accuracy to refl ect the way they looked in the golden era of steam trains, the fi rst four decades of the 20th century. Most are staffed by volunteers, from engine drivers to ticket collectors to those who maintain stations and tracks. and whose staff are handing out minced pies and mulled wine. This devotion only adds to the appeal. And, mostly, any revenue is Llangollen is a town on the River Dee, a stone bridge built in 1345 ploughed back into preservation. spanning its torrents. The water is livid and foaming as it vaults a weir. Steam trains attract all ages, but there’s a certain dynamic seen A famous pub restaurant, the Corn Mill, is on the bank of the river time and again: those who can remember, keen to convey to their opposite the station, with a waterwheel spinning and some of the descendants the wonders of the steam age. Older men, especially, go drinking area jutting out over the river itself. misty-eyed at the sight of a steam gauge or a footplate, sigh at the The railway runs seven miles upstream alongside the Dee to a sight of the Great Western Railway’s strident GWR emblem, and know village called Carrog (where Santa is waiting). Enthusiasts have been instinctively that a varnished teak exterior means London & North at work on this line longer than most. The old main line closed in 1968 Eastern or that London Midland & Scottish carriages are presented and much of the track was stripped, but by 1975, people aware of its in a tidy railway maroon. scenic heritage were trying to restore it. The restoration continues, There is a generation to whom these railways represent something with a further 4km extension underway to Corwen, a small town further incalculable, and it is through the skill of these reconstructions that up the River Dee in Denbighshire. this ardour is being passed to new generations. The following are three There’s plenty to distinguish the Llangollen line from its peers: the exceptional places in which to let off a bit of steam. Berwyn Tunnel (obey the conductor’s instructions to shut the windows or get a faceful of smoke and ash); the views across the Dee Valley; and the joy of listening to visitors trying to pronounce Glyndyfrdwy LLANGOLLEN llangollen-railway.co.uk Station. Cap the visit with a short hike from the Carrog station to The t is a freezing snow-swept Boxing Day at the Llangollen Railway Grouse Inn and its beer garden. in North Wales, but there’s something strangely festive about Wales is full of these steam train lines, from Porthmadog harbour Iboarding a steam train whose carriages are bedecked with tinsel in the north to the Brecon Beacons in the south, and even up = GETTY IMAGES SEVERN VALLEY: ALAMY.COM; PHOTOGRAPHY: & LAUNCESTON CARROG 128 QANTAS JUNE 2015 STEAM TRAINS TALKABOUT Highley Signal Box, Severn Valley Railway (above); steam locomotive Foxcote Manor 7822, built in 1950, on the Llangollen Railway (left) Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. The eff ort and expense of At Highley station, about halfway up the line, there is a museum maintaining such lines is considerable: buying and developing track, called The Engine House, fi lled with immaculately restored coal-fi red making sure it is maintained and supported, fi nding and reporting steam engines. They gleam so brightly, visitors can admire their rolling stock, bringing stations back to their former character. But refl ections in the chrome. For the purist, there are eight full-size steam there is a sense that the outlook for this almost-lost way of life is better locomotives here as well as a royal carriage used by King George VI than ever. People cannot bear the thought of the trains disappearing. and several other vehicles. Perhaps the grandest of them is WD2-10-0 Austerity No 600, known as Gordon to his friends, a jet-black and red broad-gauge steam SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAY svr.co.uk locomotive in the livery of LMR (London Midland Railway). he most famous of Britain’s steam railways, the Severn Valley There’s another museum at Kidderminster, surrounded by more Railway in the Midlands not far from the Welsh border posters in keeping with the time. One strident wartime example reads: T(a two to three-hour drive from London, or by regular train to “Housewives! Please fi nish travelling by 4 O’Clock and leave the Kidderminster from London Euston, with a couple of changes) excels buses, trams and trains free for war workers”. in every area. Unlike some railways, it covers a decent distance, with It’s also possible, if you book in advance, to do a footplate course, slightly more than an hour required to travel from its Kidderminster where you learn to stoke a coal fi re, regulate steam and propel one of starting point to its conclusion at Bridgnorth. It has an impressive these serene beasts up the track. There are several levels, from taster fl eet of engines and carriages, with excellent information on the stock through introductory, intermediate, supreme and ultimate. Taster and and the line. The six stations along the line (plus two request stops) intermediate take a morning or afternoon, intermediate and supreme have been restored. are a full day, and ultimate is two days. Prices vary from £100 ($192) On top of that, the scenery in the upper stretches of England’s for taster to £1495 ($2870) for ultimate. In ultimate, you will drive longest river is beautiful, and many of the towns are rewarding and fi re the locomotive for 64 miles (103km), using two diff erent destinations in their own right. The line goes past the West Midland locomotives, can bring fi ve guests to travel in the train with you, and Safari Park, bringing the unexpected bonus of spotting rhinos out of are put up for two nights in a local four-star hotel. the window of an ancient train in Worcestershire. Also to be found in this part of the world is the Gloucestershire Vintage advertising adorns the walls of stations and alongside the Warwickshire Railway, set in the rolling Cotswold countryside, which track, taking travellers back a century: “Smoke Superfine Shag!”, can be reached easily by car in about an hour. By issuing bonds in “Golders Green: A Place of Delightful Prospects”, “Breed More Pigs: exchange for lifetime access to the line, funds have been raised to Use Thorley’s Food”, “Devon, For Sunshine”, “Insist Upon Having repair damaged and derelict bridges and thus extend the current 19km, Colman’s Starch Sold in Cardboard Boxes”. And so on. fi ve-station line from Cheltenham Racecourse to Laverton. ALAMY.COM PHOTOGRAPHY: 130 QANTAS JUNE 2015 1369 locomotive (1934) at Totnes Littlehempston on the South Devon Railway; on the footplate stoking the boiler (below) B For airfares and holiday packages to the UK call Qantas Holidays on 1300 339 543 or visit qantas.com/holidaysaustralianway THE SOUTH-WEST southdevonrailway.co.uk; lynton-rail.co.uk; 3205 locomotive (1946) approaches launcestonsr.co.uk Buckfastleigh, South Devon Railway hree steam trains can be found fairly close to one another in Devon and Cornwall. Their charm and Tappeal lies in their surroundings as much as in the trains period signage: “To dress extravagantly in wartime is more than bad themselves. The most developed (in that it has the longest track length form. It is unpatriotic”. Pea-soup fog is not unusual in Dartmoor, but and a range of available rolling stock, plus a museum) runs from even without a clear view of the scenery it is atmospheric. Dartmoor Buckfastleigh, on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park, to Totnes, is known for its moody scenery – empty moors, low scrubby heather, further up the River Dart valley. It use a GWR branch line built in 1872. stone tors, bogs and wetlands. Buckfastleigh, where the trains start out, has a museum, telling the The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway goes to neither Lynton nor story not only of the Ashburton branch, the line active today, but also Barnstaple, but covers a journey of a single mile (and back) midway of all British steam railways – their arrival, the appearance of broad- between the two on a narrow-gauge railway built in 1898. The location, gauge trains and track, the mighty railway companies such as Great where the hills of the Exmoor national park reach the sea, is beautiful. Western, and their decline and eventual revival as heritage pieces. It’s part of the 21-Mile-Drive tourist circuit, which combines wilderness There are old timetables, photographs, and a strange vertical-boilered and delightful Devon harbour towns such as Lynton, where 400-year- locomotive called Tiny, dating from 1868. The museum also features old pubs rub shoulders with catch-of-the-day fi sh-and-chip shops. a train that resembles Thomas The Tank Engine, whose closest real-life The Launceston Steam Railway is just across the county line in design is an E2 Class steam locomotive (1913-1916).