Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Steam World

Peter Townend’s remarkable railway career ran for more than 40 years from 1941, starting at Doncaster when he was a premium apprentice and taking him through the drawing office and various motive power depots before he landed at 34A. There, he oversaw 19 ‘A4s’ – including the locomotives for the non-stop ‘Elizabethan’. Born on August 13 1925, ‘PNT’ (the ‘N’ standing for Norman) was a life-long enthusiast. He remembered, for example, watching with his father the 1935 inaugural trip of the ‘Silver Jubilee’ with Silver Link run through Doncaster. “It was an incredible moment,” he later said, in the first instalment of a series about his career for Steam World. This epic series charting his remarkable railway career would ultimately run for nearly a year. Of that day in 1935,…

Chris Leigh recalls his memories of working closely with George Heiron next issue.…

Part 1 of this feature appeared in SW438 (December 2023) Did you know? From Broughton, the line climbed at 1-in-49 and, between Woodland and Torver, reached 345ft above sea level, the highest point on the Furness Railway network. BEHEADED… THE CONISTON BRANCH Can you imagine a tourist honeypot with more potential for rail traffic than Coniston? The rushing waters of Church and Yewdale Becks flow amidst the town’s stone buildings and contrast with the tranquility of Coniston Water. And behind, the profile of the famous ‘Old Man’, standing 2,633ft above sea level. However, it was the lure of copper, not tourists, that led to a railway being built here. It was a decision that would forever hamper this branch line. Broughton was once the terminus of the Furness Railway. However,…

I noted how Arthur Cadlick Pain, in a feature about the Hemyock branch back in the January 2022 Steam World, had promoted the concept of light railways, built along river valleys, as a way to improve the fortunes of rural folk. Light railways provided relatively cheap access where transport links were poor and towns and villages were hemmed in by hills or mountains with, perhaps only one difficult road in and out. These places suffered from the difficulty of getting their produce out and the high cost of bringing materials in. Railways came late to much of North Staffordshire. It was rugged country much like the neighbouring Derbyshire Peak District. The unusual operating methods of the Cromford& High Peak, with its ropeworked inclines and tight curves, were a graphic demonstration…

The North Pennine range that separates the once industrial North East and County Durham from Lakeland is a remote and beautiful wilderness of moorland and high Pennine fell. What marks out this part of England more than anything else is the huge shelf of land mass above 1,500ft that creates a formidable natural barrier and, in the era of the Railway Mania of the 1840s, a seemingly impassable one to a railway. This geological fact didn’t deter a myriad proposals in that period as a host of companies tried to work out how to fill the 70 mile gap in east-west connectivity. The driver of such intense activity was, firstly, the rapidly developing iron and steel industry in the North East. This drove a huge demand for Cumberland ore from…

The sun sets – both literally and figuratively – on the Hayling Island branch. ‘A1X’ No. 32670, now based on the Kent & East Sussex Railway, crosses the famous Langstone bridge with the 4.35pm Havant-Hayling Island on the last day of passenger services, November 2 1963. It was the weight restriction on this 1100ft long, timber bridge over Langstone harbour – with its 30ft swinging section to allow boats to pass – that kept the small fleet of ‘Terriers’ in regular passenger service. Although summer holiday traffic was still heavy, BR closed the Hayling Island branch citing expensive repairs to the Langstone bridge. A new concrete road bridge over Langstone harbour opened in 1956, which now provides a vantage point to see the remains of the old railway bridge.…

'Merchant Navy’ No. 35020 Bibby Line dips its nose over the summit after a long slog up from Axminster and the crew breathe a sigh of relief, enjoying the respite of a few downhill miles at 1-in-80. It’s April 24 1953 and passengers aboard the 4.30pm Exeter-Waterloo have no idea about what’s going to unfold. Deep within Bibby Line, a fracture has been developing in the crank axle. As the train approaches Crewkerne, that fracture lets go while the locomotive is touching 70mph. Parts start to fly off the locomotive as it passes through the station. The crew reacts quickly, safely bringing Bibby Line under control. Luckily, while flying bits of ‘Merchant Navy’ have damaged Crewkerne station, no one was injured. Southern Region management are worried. Could the other 29…