Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i Steam Days

Steam Days|November 2022

TRAINS of thought

It was with great sadness that we recently learnt about the death of our queen, Elizabeth II, at the grand old age of 96. She was truly a wonderful lady who served the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth for a period of 70 years, guiding our nation through both good times and bad, carrying out her duties to the very end. She will never be forgotten by thousands of loyal subjects around the world, as seen from the newsreel footage on our television sets where reporters were interviewing people outside Buckingham Palace, at Windsor, and in Scotland. There will never be another reigning monarch, I am sure, to command so much love and respect wherever she has been seen, including on visits to her many Commonwealth countrie. She will be…

3 min

Steam Days|November 2022

Christmas Gifts that last all year!

If you enjoyedthis issue, subscribe or renew for 12 ISSUES from just £44 and claim your free gift Visit www.classicmagazines.co.uk/xmassd or call 01507 529529 and quote XMASSD TERMS & CONDITIONS: Rates are based on UK orders only – for overseas please visit: www.classicmagazines.co.uk/sd-overseas Subscriptions will start with the issue selected at the basket. Offer closes 31/01/2023. 12-issue subscription gifts are available whilst stocks last. Full terms and conditions can be found at www.classicmagazines.co.uk/terms Any gifts are for UK orders only and will not be mailed out until December 2022. Get your gift subscription today Try one of our other great titles too! Get 6 issues of one of these mags for just £20 The best rail news, features and images covering the UK’s preservation movement. Your guide to buying, running and…

2 min

Steam Days|November 2022

Tail Lamp

Oxley’s ‘Britannia’ Pacifics Sir: In the April issue of Steam Days, Steve Bartlett’s excellent article on Oxley’s ‘Britannia’ Pacifics brought back more than distant memories from 1965. For in August of that year my brother and I were returning from a family summer holiday up in Scotland, which resulted in an overnight rail journey from Arisaig on the West Highland line to Bristol. Well, overnight yes, but in fact the trip home began with the early morning train from Mallaig to Fort William and on to Glasgow where, after a change of Glasgow termini from Queen Street over to Central station we then boarded an early evening train onwards to Carlisle and Crewe. At Crewe we had another change of trains and we caught a 0140hrs overnight working, 1V73 Manchester…

8 min

Steam Days|November 2022

The ‘G5’ class tank engines and the rebirth of an ideal heritage locomotive

The finest compliment that the Fat Controller could give to Thomas the Tank Engine, or any of his fellow locomotives, was to describe them as a ‘really useful engine’, and this can be applied easily to the versatile ‘G5’ (North Eastern Railway ‘O’) class. This robust and reliable 0-4-4 tank engine design was both economical to run and maintain. It had high route availability, with a low axle weight and was able to take tight corners. It was the perfect branch line locomotive, with a range of up to 60 miles because of its water and coal capacity, and was used extensively, especially in the Hull and Sunderland areas. It was also capable of pulling semi-fast express services at speed, such as the Middlesbrough to Newcastle stopping trains. Designed by…

20 min

Steam Days|November 2022

Birmingham (New Street) to Lichfield Station by station

When opened from Rugby on 9 April 1838 the London & Birmingham Railway (L&BR) concluded at Birmingham’s Curzon Street terminus – through passengers for the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) north from there were conveyed to that company’s nearby Vauxhall terminus by omnibus for the first few weeks of operation. However, it soon became apparent that Curzon Street station was ‘utterly inadequate for the accumulating traffic of the many railways that converged on such a central point as Birmingham’ and to rectify this deficiency it was decided that a ‘Grand Central Railway Station’ would be constructed at New Street. Parliamentary consent was obtained in 1846, and the new station opened on 1 June 1854. Used by Midland Railway as well as London & North Western Railway workings (the L&BR and GJR…

33 min

Steam Days|November 2022

West of England Rail Rover 1960 Meandering via Callington to Launceston (SR)

This day’s trip included three ‘awkward’ lines – the Callington, Bude and Launceston branches, this article covering the first two and concluding at Launceston, just before Western Region metals were gained. These three lines, together with the Kingsbridge branch, proved very difficult to fit in with other lines, and indeed we had to be content with travelling only as far as Holsworthy on the Bude line in order to get the others in. We considered them to be more important insofar as they are more likely to close! In order to avoid a wait of several hours at Callington, we had to make a very early start. A choice of two trains was on offer from Plymouth, either the 7.26am or 7.49am departure, although the latter only left us two…

21 min

Steam Days|November 2022

The allocation of passenger carrying rolling stock to the Scottish Region

In the early spring of 1961 I became a member of the Coaching Rolling Stock Section (more often referred to as the ‘Coaching Plant’) of Glasgow North District Operating Superintendent’s Office. One of the documents, or rather working papers, that I inherited was the listing of Scottish Region passenger carrying stock. This was compiled in 1953 from a task that commenced in 1951 to give specific allocation of such stock whereby all vehicles became prefixed ‘SC’, with a suffix of ‘E’ or ‘M’ to denote former LNER and LMS respectively; the introduction of British Railways Mk I stock then making its appearance would have the necessary prefix only. Before detailing exactly all that these listings showed, it is perhaps apposite that I refer to records and journals that I have…

35 min