Rail enthusiasts brave windy weather for whistle-up

Heritage rail enthusiasts braved windy weather on New Year's Day to mark the start of a landmark anniversary year for railways.

Hundreds turned out across the south of England for the "whistle-up" to mark 200 years of passenger rail travel.

The co-ordinated event involved locomotives across the UK and beyond sounding their whistles and horns at noon.

Swanage Railway, North Dorset Railway, Isle of Wight Steam Railway and Didcot Rail Centre were among those taking part.

Swanage Railway Trust's T3 class steam locomotive No. 563 blew its whistle as it left Swanage station, driven by Billy Johnson from Swanage and fireman Aidan Strand from Hamworthy.

Mr Johnson, who has volunteered for the railway for 15 years, described it as "an honour and a privilege".

"There is so much to celebrate in terms of what the railways have contributed to the prosperity and development of the country, as well as the Isle of Purbeck, over the past 200 years," he said.

Swanage Railway Company chairman Gavin Johns said: "Two-hundred years ago passenger train services started on the Liverpool and Manchester railway and it was a true game changer, not only in Britain but across the world, because railway technology was rapidly exported."

Organised by the Heritage Railway Association, the whistle-up involved locos as far afield as Holland, South Africa and Sierra Leone.

In Oxfordshire, Didcot Railway Centre marked the occasion with its GWR Prairie 4144.

On the Isle of Wight, special new year trains joined in at Havenstreet, as did North Dorset Railway at Shillingstone.

The Watercress Line in Hampshire marked the start of the anniversary year with a whistle-up at midnight.

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