Innehållsförteckning för September 2025 från Steam World

Isn't this a superb photograph of Stockton & Darlington Railway 0-6-0 Derwent steaming gaily along on June 21 1925? It was taken during the preparations for the LNER's centenary cavalcade on July 2 1925 and while the precise location is unrecorded, the cavalcade took place on the Eaglescliffe-Darlington line, as you'll see on p8. Derwent was built by W&A Kitching in Darlington for the Stockton & Darlington in 1845, to a design by Timothy Hackworth. It was withdrawn in 1868, sold into industry and was formally presented to the North Eastern Railway in 1898. Most Steam World readers will probably remember it from its time on display at Darlington station (see ‘Comment’, Steam World April 2025). It's been in the museum at Darlington North Road station, now part of Hopetown…

Camera-shy locomotives After more than 50 years perusing various railway magazines, I've become convinced that certain locomotives were camera-shy. Three of my favourites are ‘A1’ 4-6-2 No. 60135 Madge Wildfire, which I've only seen photographed once, at King's Cross; ‘Jubilee’ 4-6-0 No. 45619 Nigeria, also once only (a superb George Heiron shot at nightfall at Bristol Temple Meads); and ‘Battle of Britain’ 4-6-2 No. 34079 141 Squadron, on the Lickey incline of all places. Were they camera-shy – or am I just imagining this? Do any readers have similar experiences? Hugh Morton, St Andrews, Scotland Everyone's agreed! Thanks to everyone who contacted us to say that the mystery station in SW458's Call Attention was Pantyffynon. Here are some of the fascinating comments we received - Ed I remember calling there…

Factfile: No. 70044 Earl Haig To traffic: June 13 1953 (new to Norwich Thorpe) Transferred to Leeds Holbeck: 4 weeks ending December 27 1958 Transferred away from Leeds Holbeck: 4 weeks ending September 8 1962 (to Crewe North) Withdrawn: W/e October 29 1966 Factfile: No. 70053 Moray Firth To traffic: September 3 1954 (new to Polmadie) Transferred to Leeds Holbeck: Four weeks ending November 29 1958 Transferred away from Leeds Holbeck: Four weeks ending September 8 1962 (to Crewe North) Withdrawn: W/e April 15 1967 Factfile: No. 70054 Dornoch Firth To traffic: September 3 1954 (new to Polmadie) Transferred to Leeds Holbeck: Four weeks ending November 29 1958 Transferred away from Leeds Holbeck: Four weeks ending September 8 1962 (to Crewe North) Withdrawn: W/e April 15 1967…

I'd been brought up in a strictly Great Western household but I was interested in anything with a steam whistle. In 1965, I had a ringside seat for watching steam… thanks to my blossoming career. I was studying Civil Engineering at the newly formed Aston University in Birmingham. Ours was a ‘sandwich course’, meaning that we alternated between six months at university and then six months at work, over a four year period. It was an excellent way of learning on the job. My first posting was as a Site Engineer, working on the construction of the M1 motorway west of Nottingham. The first section of the M1 had opened between Watford and Rugby in 1959. Work on extending it north, towards Leeds, started in 1965. An Engineer's main role…

The ‘mob’ would arrive at Sir Richards Bridge, over the South Western main line near Walton-on-Thames, at approximately 8.15am en route to Walton Boys School. If we wanted to see the Down ‘Atlantic Coast Express’, we needed a weekend or school holidays as the time it passed would cut into lesson time. Or, if we waited late into the afternoon, we could catch the ‘Royal Wessex’ at 4.50pm and face the wrath of being late home. Meanwhile, we could lineside at any time of the week in the holidays and be guaranteed a number of Bulleid ‘Light Pacifics’. Most elusive were those based at Brighton, which included Nos. 34019 Bideford, 34055 Fighter Pilot, 34057 Biggin Hill, 34097 Holsworthy and 34098 Templecombe. Happily, they were amongst all 140 of the Bulleid…

Southern Locomotives Ltd re-named its Bulleid ‘Pacific’ No. 34053 303 Squadron on September 4 2024 in order to celebrate the Polish airmen that fought in the Battle of Britain. It's a worthwhile gesture that brought a lot of good will to SLL and turned the spotlight on to an easily forgotten part of the Second World War. It does, however, lead to the question: what do you call the locomotive if you have photographed it in this guise? The Steam World editorial team often come across great photographs with scant caption detail. Imagine that some future editor wants to use a picture of No. 34053 and 303 Squadron is the only name mentioned… ‘BB’ Sir Keith Park could very well go down in history as its short-lived alter-ego. Re-naming a…

The events programme for the 2025 ‘Railway 200’ celebrations was looking interesting but perhaps a little thin until Alstom announced that it was hosting the ‘Greatest Gathering’. This was what was missing – a big event featuring a, well, gathering of rolling stock representing the different ages of rail travel. It's great that there's still appetite for such an event. It is reported that 60,000 people tried to book tickets to get to the former Midland Railway carriage works at Litchurch Lane, Derby, on August 1-3, bringing the ticket booking website crashing down. It's probably because 1975 and the cavalcade along the Shildon-Darlington line is still strong in many peoples’ minds. That marked 150 years since the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened. It's funny how times change, isn't it? Shildon…

Working in railway publishing brought me into contact with the great band of enthusiasts whom we call ‘contributors’. For me, in my editorial role at Ian Allan Ltd in the 1980s, most of those contributors provided photographs. This was the post-Gifford era, when photographers of main line steam and modern traction would submit their photographic contributions at the beginning of every week and there was a wealth of material to go through. Some of those photographers also produced photograph albums for the book publishing section, others would provide prints on request when one was searching for a particular subject. Some names stood out as they were willing to bring in prints to meet urgent deadlines and among those were Brian Morrison and Mike Esau. I remember Mike, first and foremost,…

My grandad bought a farm in north Nottinghamshire called Ragnall Hall. He had saved his money to buy the 422 acres and, when my brother Phil and I were young, we would spend a lot of time there. Quite often, I'd go with Grandad to Fledborough station, on the old Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway line to Lincoln, to collect 200 or so hired sacks to fill on threshing days. My uncle Dick and I had to sit cross legged on the kitchen floor darning these sacks as they were full of rat holes. I was about seven years old at the time so that was how we spent at least one of our evenings. The stack of sacks was about 3ft high and when we had finished those,…

The ‘Thursby Collection’ is shrouded in mystery. It comprises 49 black and white 7in by 5in glass photographic plates of railway subjects taken in the pre-Grouping era. They are exceptional in that they all depict trains in action and must have been taken on a high quality camera. One can only speculate what this camera might have been but it would have to be one with a 1/500th second shutter speed. So, how did I end up with it? Wind the clock back to 1989. I was working in the City of London and regularly visited the Christies, Sotheby's and Phillips auction rooms in my lunchtime, whenever they were auctioning railway-related material, such as models, books or railwayana. In November that year, among the varied lots at Christies, South Kensington,…