Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i Steam World

When we look at the travelling public's general view of today's trains, the comments are almost universally negative and relate to three main criticisms–cancellations, poor timekeeping and inadequate seating. It's fair to say that if you ask ‘Joe Public’ for his or her views on any topic they are likely to be at best, critical, and at worst downright scathing. But wasn't it always like that? If it wasn't, then how did the S&D become the ‘Slow and Dirty’, the GWR ‘the Great Way Round’ and the LNER ‘Late and Never Early? Railway equipment has a history of being well made and lasting in service for a long time. Recently, I have watched incredulously as enthusiasts pay good money for the flamecut numbers off the sides of HST cars. I've…

One of the great things about Steam World is that we are a very small team and everyone enjoys their involvement in producing a top-notch magazine. So I was delighted to receive an envelope of prints from our Office Manager, Caroline Kingdom. It seems her Grandad was a fan of Welsh narrow gauge and he visited both the Talyllyn and Vale of Rheidol railways in the early 1950s. As a test of how they scan (the prints are quite small) I chose this view of VoR No. 7 un-named in early BR unlined green with crimson and cream coaches. Don't you just love a picture of a train in the street? More will follow in due course. Cover correction Paul Chancellor of Colour-Rail has told of a glitch whereby SW456's…

My interest in railways has been governed by a degree of compulsion. I must go there. I must see that. It has been so since my teenage years and it is usually because a picture, an image in a book or magazine, has captivated me. As a railway modeller, the compulsion is compounded by the desire to have a model of whatever it is that has caught my eye. That was how my first significant model railway (as distinct from a trainset oval of track) came to be the Tetbury branch and, the next, Much Wenlock. I credit television with firing my interest in autotrains and prompting one of only two visits to the ‘Golden Valley’ between Chalford and Gloucester. In the early 1960s, the BBC bought a lot of…

It's surprising just what gems are lurking in the Steam World archive. The four photographs you'll find overleaf were in an envelope with a few notes scribbled on it. Intriguingly, one read ‘From Peter Handford’. Could it be that Peter Handford? Accompanying the prints was a letter from Mr R.T. Coope, dated February 14 1958. There's no clue as to the recipient but Mr Coope writes: “I am enclosing four shots of the SLS special on the Abergavenny-Merthyr run for you to return, they are not outstanding but no doubt will bring back pleasant memories of this line on its last day.” The letter continues: “So glad to hear your recordings have turned out well and trust it will not be long before the record is available as I am…

The two-mile Lickey Incline from Bromsgrove to Blackwell on the main line between Gloucester and Birmingham was a wonderful place to see steam locomotives working hard. To provide locomotives to assist trains up the 1-in-37.7 justified a depot at Bromsgrove, with its own allocation of locomotives and crews. My first experience of the Lickey was on September 5 1952. At this time, Bromsgrove's allocation included the 0-10-0 No. 58100, built in 1919 for the Lickey and some of the robust Fowler 0-6-0Ts, known as ‘Jinties’. The workings at Bromsgrove were completely different to the incline that I was more familiar with, the ½mile 1-in-37 from Exeter Central to Exeter St David's. Here, the locomotives assisting in rear did not open up until clear of Central station. At Bromsgrove, all northbound…

August 11 1968: as teenagers, it was difficult to conceive that the sights and sounds of British Railways steam, which had bewitched us all our lives, were to be no more. Dick and I were pupils at Whitley Bay Grammar School in Northumberland but we met on a school trip to Venice and Switzerland when we noticed each other taking numbers on the train down to King's Cross. We then spent many Saturdays spotting at Newcastle Central station, with occasional forays to bunk 52A Gateshead. But the realisation that the steam era was coming to an end meant that we laid our notebooks aside and photography became our main pursuit. It was sometime in 1967 when we joined the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group, undoubtedly its youngest members. Meetings were…

send your letters to Stream World, 4 Milnyard Square, Orton South gate, Peterborough PE2 6GX or steamworld@choicemag.co.uk Sunday papers from start to finish. I was a fireman at Normanton MPD in 1965. One Saturday, I was booked for the Newcastle papers from Manchester to York. We relieved York men at the south end of Normanton station and worked a parcels train all stations to Manchester. At about 11pm, we reversed onto our train. We got the ‘right-away’ just after midnight, non-stop to York, where we were relieved by North Eastern men and rode home on the cushions. Fast forward to the mid-1970s. I am now married, living outside Newcastle, and have just started work as a parcels porter at Newcastle Central station. My first time on night shift, my roster was…

At first glance, this is a photograph of just another ‘8F’. Or is it? This is No. 48774, one of three former War Department ‘8Fs’ that BR bought in 1957. Given that the photograph was taken at Eastleigh and the locomotive is spotless, this photograph must have been taken just after the overhaul it underwent shortly after being purchased. Nos. 48773 and 48775 were overhauled at the same time and the oil firing equipment, used at the Longmoor Military Railway, was removed. Someone, somewhere, got a little confused about these engines and wrongly assumed that they were ‘WD’ 2-8-0s rather than ‘8Fs’ and allocated them numbers 90733-735. No. 48774 even emerged from the works carrying the number No. 90734 – which it had for about three days! The error was…

I've never really found Richard Maunsell's last design, the ‘Q’ 0-6-0s attractive but, boy, were they difficult to cop. I didn't see my first until I went by train – steam-hauled from Woking no less! – down to Wareham for a week's summer camp at Lulworth Cove with 4th Weybridge Scouts. A number of us were number crunching en route to the South Coast and while we waited at Bournemouth Central, I copped my first ‘Q’. It was No. 30539, then based at Bournemouth. I never saw one work through Weybridge but, in my travels, added Nos. 30530/535/538-542/545/547-548 to my collection. If I am honest, I found the class rather elusive though I did see Nos. 30535 30541 & 30542 during later visits to Guildford station. (I copped only No.…

The sun was shining on June 1 1968 and BR steam had little over two months to go. For those photographers and enthusiasts out on June 1, there was the reward of seeing ‘8F’ No. 48257 working a parcels train on the line between Darwen and Bolton. No. 48257 looked like any other ‘8F’ at the time, filthy and streaked with rust. But No. 48257 wasn't like all the other ‘8Fs’. It had been purchased by British Railways in 1948 and entered service in September 1949. That's because it had originally been built as War Department No. 321 by North British in August 1940 and was shipped to Persia a year later. This dirty old ‘8F’ was yet another old soldier, with incredible war stories to tell. And it wasn't…

WIN A PRIZE WORTH £70! This month we will be giving away a special prize worth £70! A copy of Steam Photographer by Gavin Morrison along with a copy of An Illustrated History of Her Majeysty's Railway Inspectorate from 1840 by Ian Prosser & David Keay will be sent to the sender of the first correct answer opened on July 18, 2025. Answers (with your name and address) to SW457 Crossword, Steam World,4 Milnyard Square, Orton Southgate, Peterborough PE2 6GX. Photocopies welcome, but please do not enclose correspondence. Crossword compiled by Alan Frost. Clues Across 1 Stately Hall [WR 5985] in Flintshire (6) 4 Ian, publisher of train-spotters’ essential books (5) 9 Remote but much-admired station in the Scottish Highlands (7) 10 Murray of, dedicatee of ER B1 no. 61245 (7) 11 Additional, carriage…