Innehållsförteckning för March 2025 från Steam World

My recent items in ‘Call Attention’ relating to bridge bashing seem to have struck a chord with readers. Though my comments related to over-height vehicles hitting the low bridge over the A320 road at Staines, when I think about it, bridges are perhaps as important to my railway interest as the locomotives I spotted. I suspect many readers will have a favourite bridge linked to their own ‘railway story’. Although my railway interest began in the garden of my home beside the line, with no nearby bridge, there was certainly one on the way to school. There was a footbridge beside the level crossing in Thorpe Lane. The line to Feltham yard and Waterloo was busy, so the gates were frequently closed, and that meant walking up the stairs and…

The glamour sheds – Nine Elms, Kings Cross ‘Top Shed’, Willesden and Old Oak Common – may have had the cream of ‘Top Link’ express power but there was always a degree of pride among us spotters in knowing that it was engines based at our local one on which the railway depended. Our local South London shed had nothing but goods engines on its books. It had been built explicitly for that purpose, to cut down wasteful light engine working between sheds and the nearby marshalling yards. Of the 46 engines allocated there on the eve of Nationalisation, only six were post-Grouping builds and one of those only byamere whisker. In fact, the shed was younger than any of the engines it housed. The fleet mainly comprised ex-London Brighton…

Thompson ‘A2’ memories I think I have seen most of the Thompson ‘Pacifics’ (SW452) mentioned when we used to go train spotting at Dukeries Junction, sitting opposite the signalbox. We always used to have a natter with the signalman when he was free, which was not very often. I am afraid I only took one photograph while we were there and that was a lovely photo of Trimbush passing the signalbox. On a Sunday morning, we would often see 30 ‘Pacifics’ go by. We used to go on regular trips from Fledborough station (as our farm was only a mile from there) to Skegness, Mablethorpe and Cleethorpes so I have written an article for Steam World about some of our experiences on our trips. I am just trying to find…

FACTFILE: NO. 45698 MARS To traffic: April 1936 (new to Newton Heath) Transferred to Bank Hall: October 12 1946* Withdrawn: October 23 1965 *It had spent time away from Bank Hall but returned in September 1948 FACTFILE: NO. 45717 DAUNTLESS To traffic: July 21 1936 (new to Blackpool shed) Transferred to Bank Hall: October 30 1948 Withdrawn: October 26 1963 Bank Hall shed Bank Hall shed was situated in the crook of the junction where the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway’s Southport diverged, just before Kirkdale station, from the line that would split again, just beyond the station, to Ormskirk and Wigan. When BR came into being, the depot comprised an eight-road dead-end shed built by the LYR in 1875 andafour-road shed, as modified by the LMS in 1935 when it squeezed a mechanised coaling plant…

If you want to understand why GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer Charles Collett never deviated from the principles set down by George Jackson Churchward, you only have to look at the ‘56XX’ 0-6-2T. They were the GWR’s first all-new locomotives built with inside cylinders since the turn of the century and the Swindon design team got it wrong. No. 5600 failed on its first test steaming in August 1924. The problem was diagnosed as an unsupported valve spindle and quickly fixed. The modified drawings had the date of issue amended and afterwards Collett never deviated – wheel diameters and such like aside – from Churchward’s (and Dean’s) teachings. These 0-6-2Ts were never as well photographed as, say, the ‘Small Prairies’ because they rarely worked in holiday areas, such as the West…

The aim of my adventure in October 1960 was to travel over the railways along the coasts of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire which were totally unfamiliar to me. I started by overnighting in Derby, a town with which I was becoming familiar through attending courses at the former Railway Engineering School there. In the morning of October 17, armed with my Eastern Region lineside pass, I ventured over to Derby Friargate station, intending to sample the former Great Northern Railway cross-country route to Grantham. It was not a good start. Fog had descended overnight and Friargate and its surroundings were almost invisible. Undaunted, I walked to the western end of the island platform to watch my train come in from the carriage sidings. Despite the fog, I pointed my camera at…

When you get to my age, you’re supposed to have clearer memories of events long ago than you do of more recent happenings. It doesn’t really work for me. For instance, I can’t now remember how I first got interested in the rickety railway empire of Holman F Stephens and, in particular, the Kent & East Sussex Railway. For a while I was even a member of the preservation society. (A check of my records shows that I still am!) I would have had to keep that quiet when I worked for Ian Allan Ltd. ‘IA’ was heavily involved in the bid to preserve the Ashburton branch in Devon and staff having any interest in other preservation schemes was frowned upon. Nevertheless, I made visits to Kent at the behest…

Ibegan work with British Railways’ Southern Region in 1952, at Bricklayers Arms depot, near New Cross in London. Initially, this was not to be my chosen career for when I left school at 14, I worked on a farm. My mother did not want me to be a farm labourer. She spoke to my uncle, Albert Longhurst, a driver at Bricklayers Arms. Uncle Albert spoke to the Shed Master, who secured me a five year apprenticeship as a boiler smith… if the interview was a success. My first three years was at Bricklayers Arms, with one year at Ashford Works (1954). My time at Ashford was divided into three month periods, working with the following gangs: boiler shop, plate and pressing forming, plating shop, gas welding section and general boiler…