Railways - preservation and heritage

This page, and those listed below, are now regarded as archived. No further updates to them will be made. (page last updated 5th April 2021)

From the earliest days of the Society the SLS has been involved in the preservation of the railway heritage of both this country and, albeit to a lesser extent, worldwide.  The largest item saved was/is the locomotive Gladstone but railway heritage encompasses more than just locomotives.  We hold many artefacts of significance including historic nameplates and works plates.  Within our extensive library of reference material we hold many unique records of what made the railways work and how they were operated.  

Therefore as within the long history of the SLS preservation of many aspects of our railway heritage and the associated artefacts has been an integral aspect this page is provided as an overview and gateway link to the other sections with railway information on our site.  To get the best out of the site however the page needs to be used in conjunction with the Search and A to Z list page.

Early railway development -

This has a separate sub-section accessed from the Early Railways menu page

Locomotive development

Development of the early steam locomotive is covered here.

Significant material about locomotive development has been covered in back issues of The Journal

Additional material is also published in the Members Only section of Yahoo Groups.

Locomotives Associated with the SLS

Several locomotives have been associated with the SLS over the years from the preservation of Gladstone, as outlined in the next section. to the 21st Century and the naming of a class 67 Freightliner diesel in our honour. 

Full details of these locomotives can be found in this section.  - Locomotives named Stephenson

Railway preservation and heritage

Locomotives

	Preservation of Gladstone - In 1927 the Society purchased L.B.S.C.R. 0-4-2 Gladstone and thus became the first private locomotive preservation group. Subsequently Gladstone became part of the national collection at the National Railway Museum in York. For a history of Gladstone in preservation click LB&SC "Gladstone" No. 214
	Edwardian survivor - Orion:  The only surviving Webb Compound is our historic miniature locomotive Orion. Over 100 years old this historic machine is featured, with others, on the Locomotives Associated with the SLS page or click here (Orion) for our specific Orion page.

Nameplates. our special train headboards etc.

As shown by the section about Gladstone above the SLS has been associated with preservation and heritage from our earliest days. The Society's unique collection of locomotive works plates and nameplates are on display to the public at various museums around the country and further details of our nameplate collection can be found here. - The nameplates page

A page about some of the SLS Special train headboards can be found here.  

The most recent activity with regard to nameplates is the transfer of several plates on loan to the NRM Locomotion Museum at Shildon.  As several of these locomotives were called Stephenson we have created a new section covering "Locomotives named Stephenson".

Right to left   Alan Clothier Brian Lewis (Partly obscured) Phil Ball Andy Scott..   Photo by J New and copyright J New/SLS  Additional photos of the event are available

On the day a locomotive was named in our honour we also had a second newsworthy ceremony at Locomotion whilst everyone was present.  The Society holds many historic locomotive nameplates carrying the Stephenson name and until recently some of these have been on loan to the Robert Stephenson trust.  Following closure of their (RST) museum in Newcastle the SLS have loaned the plates for display at NRM Locomotion.    During a short hand over speech Alan Clothier (SLS) and Hon. Curator Robert Stephenson trust handed them to Phil Ball of Sedgefield DC (Director of Leisure) as SDC were involved in development of the Locomotion Museum project.  Andy Scott Curator of the National Rly Museum then also gave a vote of thanks to Sedgefield DC for all their assistance with the Locomotion project over the last ten years.