Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i Steam World

Years ago, the Bluebell Railway produced a series of award-winning posters as a marketing campaign for the Sheffield Park-Horsted Keynes railway. They were designed to be displayed ‘off’ the railway itself, on main line stations and on other preserved railways. The headline of each poster was a play on words. I remember two, particularly, ‘Warm and Tender’ and ‘Atmospheric Railway’. The first was, naturally, about steam locomotives. The second was not about Brunel’s expensive disaster on the South Devon Railway, but about the perfect atmosphere of the Bluebell’s rural stations. In the years since that advertisement campaign, the Bluebell’s success in creating that atmosphere has been proven time and again in TV shows and feature films, not least Downton Abbey, in which Horsted Keynes station relocates from the South East…

PETER FITTON WRITES: Frank Dean (1911-91) was born in a terraced house close to Frodsham railway viaduct in Cheshire, but lived most of his life in St. Annes, on Lancashire’s Fylde Coast. He took his first photograph at the age of 12 and carried on shooting into the late 1980s, never losing his enthusiasm for trains and local history. Very knowledgeable and genial, Frank was always helping younger enthusiasts with information about railways in the area and the best places to see the vast array of steam locomotive types then in use. After War service driving army lorries (and teaching others how to do the job) he worked for electricity company NORWEB in Blackpool, where the offices just happened to overlook Central Station! (see page 20) His numerous pictures taken…

By the age of nine I was what I suppose you might call a ‘partly-fledged’ trainspotter, with a regular lineside routine and an Abc Combined Volume (still unfortunately underlined in freehand, but care and precision would come with age). My knowledge of railways, their variety, shedcodes and the imminent arrival of diesels continued to grow, yet to become a ‘real’ trainspotter I would need to travel further afield. The older lads proudly displayed their well-kept Combines boasting of visits to Crewe, Leeds and Doncaster and, of course we younger ones were filled with envy. Truth to tell I wasn’t a particularly adventurous child, having a strong sense of danger, but also keenly aware of not getting on the wrong side of my father whose word, in typical 1950s fashion, was…

send your letters to Steam World, 4 Milnyard Square, Orton Southgate, Peterborough PE2 6GX or steamworld@choicmag.co.uk ‘Westerns’ and pies Your article ‘Where it all began for me’ (Part 3 Steam World June 2022) brought back memories of my spotting days, which were principally at Wolverhampton Low level, and other locations usually involving holidays. You mentioned the Lyons Individual Fruit Pie, which I purchased from time to time, but there was also a Gala equivalent, which was also a Lyons product, but it appeared to be very similar. Perhaps other readers have opinions in this respect? I was impressed with the amount of information that was recorded in your notebook, as I entered the bare minimum, i.e. just the number. However, in hindsight, I wish that a more comprehensive record had…

On Sunday July 8 1962, together with three friends, I made an early start from Morecambe to get to Hatton bank near Warwick as soon as possible. It was quite a challenge! My friends were Noel Machell, Mike Checkett and Eddie Crawshaw, the owner and driver of our transport for the next week, in his 1938 933cc Ford 8. Noel was in charge of the maps and instructed Eddie on how to drive around the major towns and cities on our route. There were, of course, no motorways to help us achieve our objective and it was a long drive. We arrived at Hatton and found a suitable over-bridge from which to take photographs. Shortly after our arrival we heard the approach of a steam-hauled train on the down line…

In 1960 my parents and I moved from Charlton Kings to Cleeve Hill, so my local line became that from Cheltenham to Stratford-upon-Avon. This route was infinitely more scenic than the Midland line through Cheltenham to Birmingham and photographs were much more rewarding in consequence. The most scenic section was from Cheltenham to Toddington nearly all of which is happily now a heritage line, the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway, which currently terminates at Broadway at its northern limit. As is well known the route, completed in the early 20th century, includes a substantial tunnel and viaduct. By the early 1960s the expresses to and from South Wales had been turned over to diesel multiple units except in summer and on some bank holidays, but the ‘Cornishman’ from Wolverhampton to the…

Chris Leigh continues his tour, in words and pictures, of some of the Western Region’s most picturesque and much loved secondary routes and branch lines. This time, he takes a day trip over the Gloucester-Ross-on-Wye-Hereford ‘Wye Valley line’ just a few weeks before it closed in October 1964. With four tunnels, four crossings of the river Wye and 11 stations in 30 picturesque miles, it is surely one of Britain’s best-loved lost lines. THERE’S LOTS MORE, PLUS OUR REGULARS, INCLUDING Comment, Great Shot! Call Attention, and Crossword October 2022 issue on sale September 16, price £5.45 RE-LIVE THE GLORIOUS DAYS OF BRITISH STEAM WITH STEAM WORLD Britain’s biggest-selling historical railway magazine.…

The slipping of a coach (or coaches) by detaching from a moving train began in the late 19th century. It was practised by a number of UK railways but abandoned by all but the Great Western, in the early years of the 20th century. The GWR went on performing slips for 12 years into the BR era, ending in 1960. A slip coach enabled a fast service to an intermediate station without the extra time imposed by stopping the whole train at the platform. This offered great advantages to passengers, both those who had a fast journey to a station that was not a main stopping point and for those on the main train who were not delayed by intermediate stops. The down-side of slip coaches was that their passengers…

There can’t be many railway enthusiasts who haven’t seen Snowdrift at Bleath Gill, the celebrated documentary from 1955 which details when BR Standard ‘2MT 2-6-0 No. 78018 got stuck in a snowdrift whilst heading over Stainmore on a minerals train. The weather was so bad that the rescue train did not arrive until five days later, although fortunately for us, it arrived with a film crew also on board. No. 78018’s crew clearly had a rough few days, though the weather was bad everywhere; it was around that time that the morning Ramsey to Douglas train on the Isle of Man Railway (the Isle of Man!) took nine hours to reach its destination! Not many years after the iconic Bleath Gill film was completed, another harsh winter (that of 1963)…

Want to see more of Gavin’s pics? Turn to the special book offer on page 63…