Innehållsförteckning för March 2023 från Steam World

12:00 hours, March 27 1963. A significant date and time because that was the moment at which The Reshaping of British Railways was allowed to ‘go public.’ The ‘Beeching Report’ was available to the press and others before that date but it was the subject of an embargo (a legal ban on publication of any sort that’s generally not understood by modern generations) until that moment. In today’s world of the internet, instant information, and people who take pride in leaking all manner of highly confidential information, it would not have stayed under wraps for long! It may be difficult for younger readers to understand why information about a business plan for a nationalised industry would be embargoed. As I write this we are dealing with disruption of our lives…

‘In fog and falling snow’ – the BR rule book is threaded with a set of instructions about the winter which ruled the lives of those working the railway. Keeping everyone safe in the season of frost, snow and ice has never been easy. Overcoming friction is, after all, why trains exist, so anything that increases the chance of trains not stopping where they should, had to (and still has to) be taken very seriously. Steam locomotives struggling up a gradient with frequent bouts of slipping may have made for spectacular images (and on some lines, still do) but these occasions were not fun for the crews involved. Even if you did make the top of the hill without having to split the train, or hand sand from the ground,…

From 1958 until about 1961 every penny of pocket money was saved and Darlington was visited about every five weeks, thus giving plenty of time for the Works to turn over a new batch of locomotives. We would travel down by train on Sunday morning to Darlington Bank Top, get the bus along to the Works and we’d first visit the scrap yard. Darlington scrap yard was a wonderfully atmospheric place just outside the old North Road Station on the Shildon line. It was basically a field with railway lines, some basic earthwork ‘platforms’, and very easy to access (I believe it was originally used to unload livestock). During our visits many of the old NER locomotives awaited their fate here ‘A8s’, ‘B16s’, ‘D20s’, ‘G5s’, ‘NIOs’, ‘J21/25/26/27s, J71/72/77s’, Tls’, as…

Last month I described the background to the appointment of Ernest Marples as Transport Minister and his selection of Dr. Richard Beeching as a Chairman who could bring major changes to British Railways. Bringing the railways’ finances under control meant making some unpalatable and controversial decisions, particularly with regard to the size of the railway network. Closures of stations and rail routes were inevitable and it is worth looking at a couple of them in more detail. The ‘Waverley route’, as most readers will be aware, was a much-valued asset to people living in the Scottish Borders. Not only was it their prime way of connecting with Edinburgh and Carlisle (and thence South to London) it was also the steel thread that held the isolated Border communities together. Moreover, during…

Anyway, getting back to the 250 trips test for passed cleaners. At one time during the latter days of the war, manpower was short. Also, I suspect the 250 turns rule was being circumvented. We were working on the 2.28pm stopping train to Sheffield one day, when Inspector Charlie Timms climbed onto the engine. Charlie was a former driver, a very pleasant chap and a realist. The first thing he said was to take the flame scoop (baffle plate) out of the firedoor of the GNR ‘Atlantic’ we were working and put it in the corner. Then he told me to go in the first brake van and make sure a fireman in there knew his rules before we reached Cottam, where the lad would change over with the one…

Even back in the days when we had had superb railway routes a-plenty, there were same lines which stood out, way above the rest. Everyone had heard of the Settle & Carlisle (S&C) line long before the tussle over its future through the 1970s/80s. The Somerset & Dorset (S&D) was another that was on everyone’s minds and continues its legend-like status despite the fact that Beeching closed it in 1966. These were railways which did more than just provide a transport link from one place to another. They had ‘something special’ and usually it was an unrivalled and unspoiled view of the countryside through which they ran, and a challenging gradient profile for steam locomotive crews to master. That: was certainly true of both the S&C and the S&D. One…

It was my spotter’s year, too! It was very interesting to read the third part of Bruce Laws’ ‘1962: A Spotter’s Year’ (Steam World, January) particularly the London visit of Sunday November 4, to Willesden, Old Oak Common and Cricklewood. A couple of weeks before his visit I also made this trip but had to bunk the same three sheds (plus Kentish Town), as we had no permits - just a lot of nerve! I went with two school friends, Keith Page and Trevor Galvin, from Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead. As 15-year-olds, we thought nothing of cycling into London for these visits. We must have seen the same locomotives, especially 2-6-2T No. 40080 at Willsden at Old Oak Common awaiting scrapping. I think we were more interested in climbing into…

As part of a huge redevelopment scheme in the area around Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh the original up side turntable of St Margaret’s Motive Power Depot has been uncovered and excavated back to the brickwork by a team of Archaeologists working for Edinburgh City Council. It is hoped the turntable base will become part of the development which is to include a sports centre, shops, GP surgery and 675 affordable, eco-friendly new homes. The area will be transformed from one of the most polluted parts in the city up to the mid-1960s to one of the greenest areas of the city in the 2020s. From black to green! St. Margaret’s got its name from the St. Margaret’s Holy Well which was once a place of pilgrimage due to its medicinal…