Features

The advent of digital photography provided many advantages for photographers over what had gone before and continued technical advances are creating new opportunities. John Titlow presents a selection of recent images recorded long after the sun had gone down. O Winston Link has to be the pioneer of nocturnal railway photography, how difficult it must…

Continue reading »

An early use of narrow gauge steam locomotives was as works shunters. Mark Smithers reports on a new-build project for an LNWR locomotive design which will be the first 18 inch gauge non-miniature steam locomotive completed in the UK since 1927. ALTHOUGH many enthusiasts associate the early history of specialist narrow gauge locomotive design with…

Continue reading »

Many villages have heritage centres, often sited at their long-closed railway stations. Hugh Dougherty visits a village heritage centre that demonstrates how it should be done. Village heritage centres can be a mixed bag, when it comes to portraying local railway history, and much depends on funding, who’s involved, how much prominence local railway heritage…

Continue reading »

By Don Benn It’s a quiet time on the main line just now so I am going to catch up with some more from ‘The Border Raider’ in September 2017, plus a run behind BR Standard 4MT 4-6-0 No. 75069 and a couple of previously unreported runs with Tangmere plus, finally, a superb over speeding…

Continue reading »

The Great Central Railway’s January 26-28 winter steam gala proved a resounding success, thanks to the appearance of two guests in ‘Big Four’ colours – B12 No. 8572 in LNER apple green and LMS ‘Crab’ No. 13065 in crimson lake, writes Robin Jones. Bumper crowds packed the Great Central Railway for what is widely considered…

Continue reading »

Brian Sharpe recounts the story of steam’s return to one of Britain’s most popular tourist areas 50 years after BR retired its last six steam engines in the area, with 1968 photography by Maurice Burns. At the end of 1967, the Carlisle sheds had closed to steam, and steam power became concentrated almost entirely in…

Continue reading »