Innehållsförteckning för February 2026 från Steam World

I've been Editor of Steam World, on and off, for more than 30 years and I've been a railway enthusiast for more than 70 years, yet I've never stopped learning about the subject. The thousands of fellow enthusiasts and the vast numbers of books and photographs continue to throw up new things to discover and new topics to write about and discuss… or sometimes to discuss and write about. It just depends on which order they come in. This picture set me thinking. I stumbled across it while consulting Colour-Rail's archive for pictures of BR Standard ‘2MT’ 2-6-0s (see page 26). The picture shows No. 78028 at Tonge & Breedon with ‘The ‘Bosworth’ railtour on April 10 1965. As a ‘southerner’, I had no idea where Tonge & Breedon was,…

Across the past several years of Steam World, I've featured branch lines and by-ways of the Western and Southern Regions of BR with which I had some fleeting connection back in my youth. Starting this month I am turning my attention to favourite locomotive classes. As a teenager in the 1960s and prompted very much by my younger brother, I would listen avidly to the music chart shows on a Sunday afternoon and the countdown to the week's No. 1. I shall treat my locomotive Top Ten in the same way, starting this month with No. 10, the BR Standard ‘2MT’ 2-6-0. Several of my choices will be based on personal association and the ‘2MT’ is one of those, resulting from one particular incident which was absolutely routine for that…

The fully-fitted Bristol-York van train (SW463) was a plum job but the majority of our workings to York were loaded ironstone trains, bound for the steel works around Middlesbrough. They were mainly worked by Stanier ‘8F’ or the Garratts and when they arrived at Masbrough, always late, they needed some attention. This mainly involved getting rid of clinker, so out came the long paddle. With a Garratt, you could drop the square yard of grate and push the clinker into the ashpan. You needed a clean fire, especially if you had John Cook or Fred Willis driving. Train speed of 35mph meant nothing to them. By the time you got to Moorthorpe, about halfway between Swinton and Pontefract, you'd be doing about 50mph. When I first started to go to…

We might not get the thick coverings of yesteryear but snow is still a big problem for the railway. Network Rail maintains a fleet of 22 snowploughs plus two snow blowers. Those ‘ploughs have an interesting parentage: there are 12 independent snowploughs, tall and dramatic looking in their black livery. Visually, they hark back to the North Eastern Railway's, which look like the inverted bow of a ship. These are built on LNER 4,200gal Group Standard tenders. Equally fascinating are the ten Beilhack ‘ploughs. They were built between 1984 and 1990 using redundant Class 40 and Class 45 bogies. But we're turning our attention to 1950 when the London Midland Region introduced “three new types of fabricated all-steel snow ploughs”, possibly in response to the particularly harsh winter of 1946-47.…

Admiral ‘Jubilees’ remembered My late father, George Frazer, had a life-time on the footplate at Saltley, with a final short spell at Tyseley, at the DMU service depot. Favourite was not a word he would frequently use, especially for a steam locomotive… except, in the case of Rooke perhaps. When, as a regular express driver, Rooke was a familiar locomotive on the Bristol/Birmingham-Leeds expresses. George recalled more than once a trip on Rooke which was going really well at speed before reaching Tamworth. Not long out of the works, Rooke really was running freely, with little effort, so he opened up. Rooke responded immediately, almost to 80mph, before easing for Burton-on-Trent. I'm not sure if that was anything like a maximum for a ‘Jubilee’, but it was with a heavy…

I've always wanted to write about these engines as No. 53808 was, until 2020, based at the West Somerset Railway, near where I live. I've even had a cab ride, where, when running tender first, I acted as a windbreak for the driver. Indeed, one of my final turns as Blue Anchor signalman was signalling No. 53808 and No. 53809, the final two survivors, along with ‘4F’ No. 44422, which, aside from a few months in late 1959/early 1960, was an S&D engine from 1946 until 1964. The Midland and London & South Western Railways took over the lease on the Somerset & Dorset Railway on July 13 1876. The MR was responsible for providing motive power and, by the early 20th Century, MR 0-6-0s were really struggling with the…

It's Sunday, April 9 1961 and I'm about to start the fourth day of my first tour of the further reaches of the Western Region, using a Railrover ticket. We ended the first part with me at Gobowen at 10.35pm, about to catch 8.55pm Birkenhead-Paddington. Overnight trains offered an inexpensive bed for the night. Around 2.10am, I alighted at Banbury to return northwards on the 12.05am Paddington-Birkenhead. It was due to depart at 2.50am but it arrived a few minutes late, departing at 3.03am. At its head was No. 4086 Builth Castle, which handed over to No. 1017 County of Hereford at Shrewsbury. I left the train at Wrexham and made my way to the first shed of the day. Almost the first locomotive I saw at Croes Newydd (89B)…

Clues Across 7 Iron one preceded the steam railway (5) 8 Native of State of ‘Jubilee’ No. 45577 (7) 10 Force back ‘Jubilee’ No. 45725 (7) 11 Designer of LMS 2-6-0s beginning No. 46400 (5) 12 ER Gresley designed A3 Pacific No. 60049 (6,4) 16 City of ‘Schools’ Class No. 30933 (10) 20 Nature of chap on ER A2 4-6-2 No. 60537 (5) 21 Capital city of No. 45613 country (7) 23 Punish severely or a curse (7) 24 ‘7200’ Class and force produce metallic noise! (5) Clues Down 1 Name of Castle to whom WR No. 5025 dedicated (5) 2 Short journeys like days-out (5) 3 In good health in SR shed 75F (4) 4 Not ‘Ad Sum’ in No. 30900 institution (6) 5 Skilled artisan on LMS No. 46109 (8) 6 WR No. 6873 named after this Prince (7) 9 Goes according to…