Features

Britannia Pacific finale

by

Sam Hewitt

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11th December 2017

Fifty years ago the last Britannia Pacifics were concentrated at Carlisle Kingmoor shed, which was due for closure on December 31, 1967. Once the pride of Norwich and elsewhere, the Britannias were now filthy and had been stripped of nameplates and numberplates… but were still doing a day’s work. Maurice Burns recalls the Britannias at…
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Banbury ‘box closed

by

Sam Hewitt

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20th November 2017

Friday, July 29 saw the passing of another piece of history on Network Rail. Martin Creese reports on the closure of the two former Great Western Railway signalboxes at Banbury. The last mechanical signalling on the former GWR and now Chiltern Trains main line from Birmingham to Marylebone; the two Banbury ‘boxes had been as…
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A Lincolnshire Phoenix

by

Sam Hewitt

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14th November 2017

It seems inconceivable that a steam-worked narrow gauge railway would be built in the 1960s to fulfil a real passenger transport need. It lasted remarkably well but as Mark Smithers reports, its new incarnation at the opposite end of the Lincolnshire coast is now more orientated towards preservation. Britain’s preservation-era steam railway history has seen…
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Going behind the scenes

by

Sam Hewitt

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14th November 2017

Most visitors to heritage lines see only their train, the buffet, shop and toilets, but there’s far more to see on an organised tour behind the scenes. Peter Brown enjoyed such an experience on the Kent & East Sussex Railway. At the start of the year I passed a certain milestone in my life. It…
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Steam over the fells farewell

by

Sam Hewitt

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14th November 2017

As the clock ticked down to the end of BR steam, operations were now concentrated in the North West. The northern-most outpost was Carlisle Kingmoor, which still supplied steam to work over Shap summit. Maurice Burns reflects on his early adventures to Shap and the countdown to the closure of Carlisle Kingmoor, Workington and Tebay…
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The last beasts of man – Craig Merthyr: Sadder, with other tales to tell…

by

Sam Hewitt

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13th November 2017

The National Coal Board railway in the Dulais Valley was unique. Geoff Silcock recounts some of the incidents that punctuated the line’s last few years, including an encounter with a then unknown journalist… into the 1970s two NCB Austerity 0-6-0STs; Hunslet-built Norma and a Bagnall dubbed locally ‘The Flying Dutchman’ regularly lugged 200-300 tons of…
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With full regulator: LOCOMOTIVE PERFORMANCE THEN AND NOW

by

Sam Hewitt

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9th November 2017

By Don Benn I make no apologies for returning to the work of No. 35028 Clan Line again, for this engine just seems to get better and better. There are now two Merchant Navy Pacifics on the main line although as I write I have just heard the sad news that No. 35018 British India…
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Real steam days: The cold north wind

by

Sam Hewitt

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9th November 2017

The autumn of 1967 saw the end of steam on the Eastern Region and at the great railway centre of Crewe. BR also introduced a ban on privately-owned steam engines. Brian Sharpe recounts not only how BR’s steam operations rapidly contracted as the final curtain approached but also how many now-famous locomotives were being saved.…
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Glorious sunrise for P&O at its official launch

by

Sam Hewitt

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6th November 2017

By Ian Crowder THERE were jokes a-plenty about the weather as some 500 people gathered at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s Toddington station to witness what many thought that they might never see. The joke is that on its first steaming last August, and subsequently, it always seemed to rain but no-one could complain about what…
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Scotsman the Brave

by

Sam Hewitt

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31st October 2017

It’s no secret – Flying Scotsman is back with a vengeance, and similar to when it snatched the official 100mph steam speed record in 1934, is again making global headlines, and deservedly so. Tens of thousands of people turned out to watch its inaugural run from King’s Cross to York along its East Coast Main…
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