The show also featured two new award categories. Most Innovative Fundraising Idea reflected the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its impact on heritage rail. Diesel Locomotion acknowledged the importance of diesel power in railway history.
The HRA Awards recognise a wide range of achievements and distinctions across the entire heritage railway industry, and the awards acknowledge individuals and institutions as well as railways, tramways and cliff railways. In spite of the overwhelming impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, several categories saw a record number of submissions and shortlisted entrants.
The Lord Faulkner Award for the Young Volunteer of the Year recognises the crucial importance of succession generations in securing the future of heritage rail, and acknowledges a distinguished contribution made by one or more young volunteers, under the age of 26. The winner was Oliver Edwards, of the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway. Runners-up were the Severn
Campaign to save historic carriages at Swanage Railway dorsetecho.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dorsetecho.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
An appeal has been launched so that work can resume on building a £240,000 shed where carriages at Dorset s heritage railway can be stored and protected from the weather. Swanage Railway volunteers hoped to have the remaining £65,000 raised by the end of June so that the steel structure of the building can be ordered before being delivered to the site and constructed in November. Work on the structure – on the outskirts of Swanage near Herston Halt – began in January last year but had to stop at the end of March when the country went into lockdown. A big sum had already been raised towards the cost.
ENTERPRISING members of the Swanage Railway finance team are staging festive ‘Steam and Lights’ trains hamper raffles to raise money for the popular heritage line’s Coronavirus survival appeal fund. The large festive hampers have been put together thanks to kind donations of items and money from Swanage Railway supporters, members of the Swanage and District Chamber of Trade as well as the public – with proceeds from the raffles going to the Swanage Railway’s ‘Save Our Service’ Appeal. Raffle tickets are sold from a festively decorated booth on the platform at Swanage station before the departure of the two ‘Steam and Lights’ trains - with the hampers being presented to the winners on the return of the trains to Swanage.