Innehållsförteckning för January 2023 från Steam Days

The 62 mile-long Southampton & Dorchester Railway opened on 1 May 1847 but took a rather circuitous route at the insistence of the verderers in the New Forest and the need to best capitalise on what business there was in the area. Bournemouth did not really exist at this time, and the company chose to serve the market towns of Ringwood and Wimborne at the expense of Christchurch and Poole, although the latter was served by a short branch from Poole Junction (now Hamworthy) opened on 1 June 1847 to a spot in Lower Hamworthy on the opposite side of the outlet from Holes Bay, and then over a rickety wooden passenger bridge to the town itself. This less than ideal situation perpetuated until a direct branch to Poole from…

Going to school could sometimes be quite exhilarating. If I could see two plumes of smoke advancing across the fields I would pedal furiously on my bike to try to reach the bridge by the school in time to catch sight of a freight train just before it disappeared into the murky depths of Upholland tunnel on the former Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway main line from Wigan to Liverpool. The second column of smoke came from the banking engine, which dropped back at this point having reached the summit of the line. I didn’t always win the race, but no matter, I could still see the line from school across the playing fields and at least I got to school early. So for seven years I was able to keep…

As appropriate, in the opening article of our six part work on GNSR engine sheds and their locomotives we covered the first section of the company’s own main line, from Aberdeen to Huntly, which opened in September 1854. This was followed by extensions to Aberdeen Harbour as ‘Waterloo’ (24 September 1855) and from Huntly to Keith (10 October 1856). Later expansion of the network was largely through absorbing locally promoted railways, with two of these actually pre-dating opening of the first section of the GNSR. The Morayshire Railway’s engine shed story was covered in ‘Great North of Scotland Railway engine sheds: Smaller facilities west of Dyce’ in the July 2022 issue of Steam Days, but before we embark of the other pioneer, the Deeside Railway to the south of Aberdeen,…

For many railwaymen and rail enthusiasts the traditional singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ is not the sound that occupies the memory as 1947 became 1948, as the moment was taken at railway locations across the nation to whistle in the birth of British Railways. Buying out the ‘Big Four’ railway companies meant that the railway network would be owned by the people of Britain, and some saw that as cause for celebration, while others viewed it as simply a necessity for both the railways and the country. In the December 2022 issue of Steam Days I offered an overview of the circumstances that led to the Grouping of the railways by Act of 1921, and to an extent there is a good deal of common ground in regard to the…