Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2021 i Steam World

This magnificent picture really stopped me in my tracks when I stumbled across it. I was drawn inexorably and immediately into the compelling detail discernible on this top-quality image. It‘s a superb, beautifully clear vista of north London’s sprawling, industrial, commercial and railway landscape in 1947, just two years after victory in Europe in the Second World War, following six harrowing years of bloody conflict. The Blitz unleashed by Hitler’s Luftwaffe in 1941 had left its mark at King’s Cross: the ‘bomb gap’ in the western office block, left of the trainshed (1) is very clear. Directly alongside is the light-coloured repaired trainshed roof (2). On Saturday/Sunday May 10/11 1941, a pair of 1,000Ib German bombs exploded on what was then Platform 10 (now Platform 8) alongside the western wall…

send your letters to Steam World, 4 Milnyard Square, Orton South gate, Peterborough PE2 6GX or steamworld@choicemag.co.uk A lone LNWR 0-8-0 at Willesden I have a regular order for Steam World and in October’s issue I noticed a letter from a Mr. Bernard that spoke of the lonely spectacle of former LNWR Bowen-Cooke 0-8-0 No.49413. I photographed this on July 8 1961 and attach a copy of the photograph as this may be of interest for future issues. I would add that I often wondered what the wooden devices were for and at long last I now know thanks to the article. D Cashen by e-mail Do look down from the towering ironwork of the Crumlin Viaduct! As Crumlin Viaduct was mentioned in the October issue of Steam World, I…

As soon as I saw the RCTS ‘East Midlander No. 5’ railtour advertised in early 1962, it was obviously one that was to be very special and one that was not to be missed. It had everything going for it: it started at Nottingham and took an unusual route to Darlington; there was a works and shed visit and then it returned via the East Coast Main Line; a lengthy stay at York allowed time to visit the shed and then it continued on the ECML as far as Newark and then over the Joint line to Bottesford North and West Junctions, where it joined the line from Grantham to Nottingham Victoria. The real icing on the cake was that the train would be double-headed by two 4-4-0s: LMS class…

Time was brief for celebrating the success from our exertions to conquer Shap from the north. One fight had been won but another still lay ahead – we were in bad shape and no mistake – so not for us a downhill coast under whispering steam. Our only concession was a backwards turn on the reverser to 15% and then, as the ballast began to fly, back again to 8%-but that regulator handle was still high in the roof. Both injectors were now on full bore as the barely visible water level before the summit had disappeared altogether into the bottom nut as we started the four-miles descent at 1 in 75 towards the Lune Gorge and there were some apprehensive and frequent examinations of the gauge glasses until after…

(Just the thing for Christmas….!) • Gavin Morrison Steam Photographer – My Favourite Pictures From The BR Era - £35 (including p&p). Be the first to get a copy by pre-ordering now, we’re taking advance orders via the Steam World website, go to www.steamworldmag.co.uk. All pre-publication orders will be delivered post-free in bespoke cardboard protective packaging. Orders will be despatched week commencing November 22.…

It was, I’m sure, just coincidence that I began writing this text and amassing a selection of illustrations in September 2021. Or was it? The Midland & South Western Junction Railway has been a strange fascination for me ever since my brother and I first ‘discovered’ it in 1964, three years after it had closed. That closure took place in September 1961, 60 years ago. At the risk of heresy as a railway writer, I’ll confess that I’m not a big fan of the Somerset & Dorset. The Bath-Bournemouth railway through the western heartlands of the Great Western was a long way from where I lived on the Middlesex/ Surrey border. Though it was undoubtedly attractive from an enthusiast viewpoint, with its gradients, difficult working conditions and great scenery, its…

There are many speedy stretches in Britain where train timers have enjoyed timing steam at high speeds. There are those stretches of track over fairly long distances that provide the timer with plenty to write home about. During steam days a host of trains were timed at more than 60mph over long distances. Among the fastest were famous expresses like ‘The Bristolian’, ‘The Caledonian’, ‘Atlantic Coast Express’ and ‘The Talisman’, to mention a few. There were many stretches that steam crews relished where, if not 60mph, average start-to-stop times were not far short of it. We have records of the thoroughbreds of the East Coast Main Line racing down Stoke Bank, as well as pacing on the fine stretch between Hitchen and Huntingdon and, of course, not forgetting speeding across…

September and starting secondary school alongside Downfield Crossing halt on the Gloucester line couldn’t come quickly enough for me. In the summer holidays my parents, Welsh grandmother and I had been to London for a few days for a holiday and I had visited many large stations and been introduced to classes of locomotives that I had only seen in magazines and the books published by Ian Allan. We had travelled up to London on the Monday morning ‘Cheltenham Spa Express’, halled by ‘Castle’ No. 5071 Spitfire, with help up Sapperton bank on this occasion from No. 5907 Marble Hall, which was detached at Kemble. For the whole journey I stood in the corridor glued to the window, notebook in hand and feverishly recording as many numbers as I could…