Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2024 i Steam World

COMMENT Spring is on its way, although as I write this ona dismal late afternoon in March, there’s not much sign of it yet. It is the time of year, however, when thoughts start to turn to sun, sea, holidays and getting away from it all… whatever ‘it all’ might be. What do you look for ina holiday? Comfort? Or economy? Economy was important for most families in the 20th century and the railways quickly latched onto this. For example, the Great Western established a week of works holidays when staff from Swindon works could take their family to the seaside under advantageous arrangements. I was never a fan of camping. Proper camping, under canvas, not this ‘glamping’ nonsense. We never did it as kids because my father had done…

The Stephenson Locomotive Society organised a special train for May 12 1962 that would bring a touch of excitement to the youthful enthusiasts of Callander. The train would run from Glasgow Central to Oban via Ardlui and the link between the West Highland and the Callander& Oban at Crianlarich. It would then return to Glasgow via the C&O. The motive power that day was appropriate to both legs. Ex-North British Railway ‘K’ 4-4-0 No. 256 Glen Douglas had been a regular on the West Highland while, although nominally independent until 1923, the C&O had relied on the Caledonian Railway to provide its motive power. Therefore, the use of the famous ‘Caley single’, No. 123, on that day was particularly symbolic, too. I was then 14 years old and living in…

It was back in the 1990s when I was Iprivileged to borrow some negatives from the widow of photographer Carl Stratmann. I had this sequence of prints showing the preparation of a GWR ‘Castle’ 4-6-0 at Reading depot produced at the time butI don’t think they were ever published in Steam World. Readers are unlikely to be familiar with the name. Stratmann was a German who came to the UK after the Second World War and who worked in scientific research. In that profession, it was customary to publish the results of one’s work and Stratmann did that under his own name. However, it was not the done thing to publish work in other fields, so Stratmann published his railway photographs under a much more ‘English’ pen-name, H.G. Forsythe. He…

Barry’s former docks area has been Btransformed in recent years. New houses line the water front. There are green spaces. Barry Island’s Pleasure Park has been completely restored and is now a thriving tourist attraction. There’s even a solar farm nearby. It’s not so long ago that, where there is now clean brindle block paving, an unimaginable amount of coal was exported. As for those rows of redundant steam locomotives, you could almost be forgiven for thinking that you had imagined it. But you didn’t. Woodham Brothers, which emerged from Woodham& Sons in 1953, would go on to buy nearly 300 locomotives, scrapping fewer than 90 of them. Given the sheer number of locomotives saved from Woodham Brothers’ – Dai’s brother Billy apparently died quite young – the scrapdealer and…

My story is probably similar to that of many other photographers after the end of BR standard gauge steam in 1968. There was still plenty of steam in Britain after August 11 but you had to go further to find it as it was no longer passing through your local station. It was working in factories, coal mines and on docksides. I went to Nottingham University in 1970 and, during the holidays in 1973, decided to go down to South Wales to see what I could find. I’d photographed industrial steam in Scotland, the North East and in Yorkshire. So I decided that it was time to go further south. That first visit to the National Coal Board lines around Mountain Ash in 1973 whetted the appetite and I made…

It is one of my regrets that I didn’t experience rural branch lines in steam days. I grew up in 1950s East London and by the time that I was old enough – and had enough money to travel further afield – Beeching’s axe had fallen and steam was almost gone. From the age of eight or nine, I began to explore my locality with my friends. If we had no money, we would walk to Carter Road bridge, about ¼ mile east of Upton Park station, where we could stand on a bomb site next to the London Tilbury & Southend and District lines. Both had two tracks and were quite busy. The District Line had six-car sets of red Q or R Stock, including a few silver R…

I took upa technical post at the Mechanical & Electrical Engineer’s office at Brighton in the summer of 1960.I had moved there from the technical development office at Eastleigh Carriage Works. During my time at Eastleigh,I had been able to keep abreast of some unusual events. For example, on 12 May 1960,I was able to nip across to the depot to photograph Stroudley ‘A1X’ No. 32655. It had been purchased by the newly formed Bluebell Railway and Eastleigh Works had given it a coat of gloss black, lined in red. It had been given its original London Brighton & South Coast number- 55. Someone had also stripped the paint offthe chimney top and polished it to bare metal. It would arrive at its new home in sparkling condition. By early…

UPWELL DEPOT: NOW UPWELL DEPOT: THEN DIAL HOUSE FARM: THEN DIAL HOUSE FARM: NOW OUTWELL: THEN OUTWELL: NOW OUTWELL BASIN DEPOT: THEN OUTWELL BASIN DEPOT: NOW OUTWELL BASIN DEPOT: NOW OUTWELL VILLAGE DEPOT: THEN OUTWELL VILLAGE DEPOT: NOW OUTWELL VILLAGE DEPOT: THEN OUTWELL VILLAGE DEPOT: NOW…