Innehållsförteckning för August 2025 från Steam World

Since I first came to Steam World, 33 years ago this month, I’ve written a lot of features and editorial ‘Comments’, many of them about my favourite subject, Great Western Railway country stations. In his recent ‘All Things Considered’, Bob Gwynne prompted us all to think about our favourite railway bridges and I mentioned mine, back in the June ‘Comment’. However, what about the broader railway scene? What about favourite stations or favourite rail routes? About a year ago, I gave my colleague Richard Foster a list of features that I could write and suggested that he tell me the order in which he would like them. For last month, the choice was the Swindon-Gloucester line and I certainly enjoyed writing about it as I realised that this was probably…

1968 was a remarkable year for steam for so many reasons. This tale takes place in June 1968, when BR’s only operating steam sheds could be found in Greater Manchester and along the north-west coast to Carnforth. BR staff were ploughing their way through arrangements to dispose of everything from Ivatt ‘4MTs’ to the last ‘9Fs’… not to mention a little Victorian 0-6-0. Across the Pennines from the last ‘Black Fives’ and ‘8Fs’, in the North East of England, BR still owned the last surviving Worsdell ‘J21’ 0-6-0s. No. 65033 had been withdrawn on April 23 1962, the last of a class of 190 engines. But no one had taken the engine away and so BR started to make arrangements to get rid of it, once and for all. Maybe…

Having grown up in Surbiton, my main interest at the time was the Southern Region. I think my favourite viaduct has to be Langstone, the wooden trestle viaduct which connected the mainland to Hayling Island. My picture illustrates well Bob Gwynne’s comment ‘with a ‘Terrier’ gamely hurrying across’. It is being blissfully ignored by two anglers who have trespassed onto the viaduct, with possibly a reproachful glance by one of the engine crew. The shot was taken shortly before closure of the branch. I also enclose two pictures taken on the last day of regular service, Saturday November 2 1963. I, along with a number of other photographers, was standing on the relatively new road bridge which provided an excellent vantage point for what turned out to be a spectacular…

The ‘Princess Royals’ have always held a fascination for me but there are only six of them underlined in my Ian Allan Abc Combined Volumes. In fact, I didn’t add Nos. 6201 Princess Elizabeth and 46203 Princess Margaret Rose until the 1970s when my interest in steam was renewed. My very first sighting of the class was on a Summer Sunday afternoon when, with school chums Ian, Nick and Roger, we paid our first visit to Willesden (1A). We also took in Old Oak Common that day too. I can still remember our entry into the roundhouse at 1A as if it were just yesterday. How I wish I’d taken a camera! While the first numbers we wrote down were 10000 and 10001 (the two LMS diesels), we soon forgot…

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 August 15, 2025. Answers (with your name and address) to SW458 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 7&18 Down: WR ‘Castle’ Class 5090 for religious incumbents (5,5) 8 Country associated with ‘Jubilee’ Class 45572 (7) 10 SR Bulleid ‘Pacific’ numbered 34096 (7) 11 River associated with ‘Coronation’ Class 46254 (5) 12 Stockton & Darlington No.…

It’s 9.55am on June 27 1955 and the Western Region’s new, premier service has steamed out of Paddington for the first time. This is the ‘South Wales Pullman’ but the lure was not summertime holidaymakers heading for the South Devon coast or the Cornish Riviera. This time, the commercially alert WR marketing officers had focussed on tapping a potentially new source of income – expense-account passengers with buckets of money. The Eastern Region was basking in the successful patronage harvested from its ‘Tyne-Tees Pullman’ and ‘Yorkshire Pullman’ express trains. A regular clientele had been established from a sector of society whose travel expenses, including the Pullman supplementary fare, were likely to be reclaimed from the finance department. As if fuelled by this knowledge, the WR opted for something similar –…

The Isle of Wight boasts some of the southernmost, albeit small, seaside resorts in England. It was popularised by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert when they bought the Osborne House estate as their summer home in 1845. In due course, the island would boast a 55-mile network of railways promoted by three separate companies. The first to open was Cowes to Newport in 1862, followed by the Isle of Wight Railway’s Ryde-Shanklin line in 1864, extending to Ventnor two years later. Ryde-Newport opened in 1875 and the Ryde Pier Tramway was extended to connect with the Isle of Wight Railway in 1871. In due course, the LSWR and LBSCR were jointly allowed to extend Ryde pier and the rail connection and the pier tramway was cut back to just the…

It’s Sunday August 27 1961, the day that Stirling Moss, driving a Climax-engined Lotus, won the first ever Danish Grand Prix at the Roskilde Ring and our group was off to London for another ‘bash’. Our permits authorised us to visit three London sheds. Diesels brought us to Liverpool Street and it seemed like it might be a diesel day. We found nothing but diesels at King’s Cross and, just after we entered Camden, we saw 14 diesels. But then I copped another eight steam engines, which was not bad considering the number of times I’d done Camden shed. But Camden alone had made the trip worthwhile. Then we headed back to Euston, caught a train out to Willesden Junction, where we exited the station by its approach road and…