Winter 2010/2011

Push and Pull's Winter 2010/2011 edition explains the way the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society is changing itself into a company limited by guarantee, which will have charitable status. May sound dry as dust stuff, but it isn't – it's fundamental to the ability of our Railway to survive and develop, to attract grants and tax benefits – and to limit liability on the membership for the financial implications of a major incident.

The hard and skilled physical work of running the Railway shows in John Hoyle's report on two “Civil Weeks” – showing how track is replaced, new ballast and rails laid and the line renewed – not as easy (or as dull) as you might think.

And in the Locomotive Notes, Steve Harris show dramatically the effect of poor coal on our historic steam engines – explaining with photos how the fire grate of the WD 2-8-0 No. 90733 was badly damaged, when poor coal clinkered, then melted vital components.

There's look at the warm sunny days of Autumn and the Steam Gala, with locos 41241, 957, 80002, visitor 73129 and Bellerophon steaming across the centre-spread.

Some thought provoking comments on how the Railway could up its game with involvement in the Race The Train event, in which cyclists raise money for Manorlands Hospice by racing against a KWVR diesel service: on the Puffing Billy Railway in Australia, thousands run near Melbourne to try to beat the 2-6-2Ts on the 2'6” line into the Dandenongs. Ideas for development?

And a “Blast From The Past” from eBay trader “Nettletea” – who saves negatives and old pictures of the KWVR which come his way and passes them to us for the magazine and Archives. A fine selection grace this issue.

There's an intriguing set of mysteries for readers to unravel following the passing of early member and author of books on the subject of “Railway Ghosts”, Barry Herbert. Members are asked to identify a strange looking LNER Pacific, a BBC wartime radio play about “Junction X” and offer an explanationfor BR's peculiar ticketing of a Louth to Oxenhope excursion train from 1980 (10 years after the line to Louth closed to regular services). The article has provoked more interest among the readership than any other published in recent years.