Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Steam World

Using the Varsity Line for work I was interested to see a letter regarding the Varsity Line in SW462. I worked for United Counties Omnbus Co., which was charged with the provision of the ‘replacement’ bus service between Bletchley and Oxford. I have put the word replacement in inverted commas deliberately as it was, in reality, nothing of the sort. The journey by train averaged out at around 40 minutes as compared with a bus service that took a minute short of 2 hours. At the time, there were a number of people in Bletchley who worked in Oxford and my neighbour was one of them. He had been in his job for nearly 15 years when the railway services were withdrawn and, as he didn’t have a driving licence,…

The first 40 ‘Castles’ were built at Swindon between August 1923 and July 1927 (Nos. 4073-5012). Five (Nos. 111, 4009, 4016, 4032 and 4037) were rebuilt from ‘Stars’/The Great Bear in the same period. The only new ‘Castle’ built between 1927 and 1932 was the rebuilt No. 4000 North Star. New ‘Castles’ entered service every year, aside from the war years, from 1932 until 1950. But those early ‘Castles’ – ignoring the rebuilds – remained largely unaltered until their demise between January 1959 (No. 4091) and May 1964 (No. 4079). Just 12 of the first 40 had the front end of their frames renewed in the 1950s (Nos. 4076/78/89/94-95, 5000/02-04/06-07/12), plus former ‘Star’ No. 4037. They were withdrawn between March 1962 and October 1964. Of those, ten were fitted with…

Two priorities dominated 1961: studying for my A Levels and learning to drive. But there was still time for a railway adventure! I’d bashed the Eastern and North Eastern Region sheds in 1960 using a Railrover ticket (Steam World Nos. 443-445). I wanted to explore another region during the Easter holiday. The London Midland Region was too big to do in a week, the Southern was too small and the Scottish Region was too far away. The Western Region was the obvious choice. My Western experience was limited. I’d visited the ‘81’ area sheds (81A-81F, the London Division) either on organised tours or with friends and I’d had a couple of days spotting at Paddington and a day at Reading. My visit to Swindon Works was the only time I’d…

As Keith Widdowson mentioned in his article on ‘The Beeching Massacre of 1965’ in the October issue, by 1964 diesel multiple units had taken over the working of the Lyme Regis branch line. This, indeed, was also the case for the nearby Seaton branch. However, for a few weeks in February 1965, due to a short-term reduced availability of DMUs, both these branches reverted to steam haulage. It was a photographic opportunity not to be missed.…

1957 does not necessarily stand out as a landmark year. But, in the era of Harold Macmillan, there were a few momentous events. Perhaps the most significant, was the USSR’s launch of Sputnik as the first orbiting satellite. The UK had a near-miss when a fire at Windscale was extinguished before causing a nuclear meltdown that would have had catastrophic results. And then running behind this was a major Asian flu epidemic – an event that has particular resonance today – and the third biggest epidemic of the 20th century. British Railways was not even ten years old as an organisation and, just two years previously, had announced the £1.5bn Modernisation Plan. Yet the railway was very much as you would have found it before the Second World War, although…

British Railways came into being on January 1 1948 but there was no change in working practices. We worked the same diagrams, only now we had red badges on our caps with ‘Midland’ written on them. Canklow, a suburb of Rotherham, was part of the London Midland Region, but I think it was in 1952 that we were moved into the Eastern Region. Now the cap badge was blue. I know that we were in the Eastern Region because I played football for Rotherham Railwaymen and we won the Eastern Region Cup in 1952. I still have the medal. I was made a Registered Fireman in 1948. An Inspector rode with me one day, watching how I performed and asking questions, some on rules and regulations and some on the…

Designed by George Jackson Churchward to include a ‘factory’ for light repairs and opened on March 17 1906, (120 years ago) Old Oak Common was the prototype for a standardised major motive power depot. The main covered accommodation contained four turntables, each with radiating tracks providing a total of 112 storage roads with four access roads from outside. The Factory, as it was known, had 12 repair roads, 11 of which were accessed by means of a traverser immediately outside the building. Another, with three sheds was built at Wolverhampton Stafford Road but after that, the idea seems to have stalled and straight sheds remained. The structures at Old Oak were typical of GWR architecture of the period, being constructed of red brick embellished with round-nosed engineers blues and roofed…