LMS 4-6-0 No. 46100 Royal Scot, which owes its survival in 1962 to holiday camp magnate Sir Billy Butlin, is returning to the East Coast resort of Skegness next autumn after a 48-year absence – and for the first time in steam.
The engine is making a special railtour visit on September 26, close to the finale of a newly announced two-month festival to mark the 50th anniversary of the devastating closure of much of Lincolnshire’s railway network on October 3-4, 1970.
The axe fell on more than 100 miles of former Great Northern Railway line from Peterborough to Grimsby via Boston and Spalding, as well as the branches from Firsby to Lincoln, Willoughby to Mablethorpe and Woodhall Junction to Horncastle (freight).
The Railway Magazine and Mortons Media – which also publishes Heritage Railway and Rail Express – are supporting ELR50, as the festival will be known.
It has been set up to raise funds for the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway’s four-mile push towards the market town of Louth.
The LWR will be operating steam-hauled services most weekends between Ludborough and North Thoresby, hopefully with a visiting ex-BR main line locomotive.
ELR50 will include the largest-known exhibition of Lincolnshire railway relics, which will be assembled in the classic setting of Bateman’s Brewery in Wainfleet.
An ELR50 spokesman said: “Other major ELR50 events are at the planning stage, and will be announced in The RM in the coming months.”
One confirmed highlight is a special Talisman railwayana auction at Wainfleet on September 19. Owners Roger and Sandra Phipps have spent the last two years accumulating more than 200 Lincolnshire items, which normally command good prices.
Read more News and Features in the December 2019 issue of The Railway Magazine –on sale now!
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