Private Kingfisher Line in rare opening

摘要

The Kingfisher Line, a private standard gauge railway in Herefordshire, was opened to the public on September 27 in an event that marked 50 years of closure of the Kington to Leominster line. Titley Junction station is today owned by Bob and Lesley Hunt, who also own and occasionally operate almost a mile of preserved track to Bullocks Mill, using their 1928-built Peckett 0-4-0ST No. 1738. The ex-Hams Hall power station loco gave rides to locals on the former GWR Welsh Marches route, almost exactly 50 years after Collett 14XX No. 1420 (now preserved at the South Devon Railway) hauled the last goods train over the route on September 24,1964. Passenger services on the line had already ceased in 1955. Guests on the 2014 commemoration included the four Backhouse brothers -Roger, Ian, Martin and Andrew -and Alan Heywood, who, as schoolboys, rode on the last goods train half a century earlier.