Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Steam World

For anyone who cares about transport history – and I do – 2025 will be a year of very mixed feelings. Over a couple of weeks in late February/early March I watched, with dismay, hundreds of Facebook postings about the fate of the SS United States. The last and fastest of the great trans-Atlantic liners, designed by a famous marine architect, William Francis Gibbs, she was the final Blue Riband holder. As a teenager I had watched this beautiful ship come up Southampton water to be docked at the former Southern Railway’s Ocean Terminal. She was the maritime equivalent of the De Havilland Comet or the Jaguar E-type, that is, in a class of her own. Withdrawn from service in 1969, 30 years of mismanagement and neglect in Philadelphia, PA,…

It was about 6am on the morning of Saturday July 17 1948 and the 7.50pm sleeping car express from Edinburgh Waverley was approaching New Southgate, some 6½ miles north of King’s Cross. It was running at slightly over 60mph and more or less on time. In charge of the 11 coaches was ‘A2/1’ No. 60508 Duke of Rothesay. At the regulator was none other than Bill Hoole and alongside him, fireman Albert Young. As the train passed through Barnet Tunnel, just to the north of New Southgate station, No. 60508’s trailing bogie wheels had hit a slightly high rail joint and left the rails. The leading bogie wheels also became derailed when the train reached the ‘V’ crossing in a facing point a few hundred yards further on. No. 60508’s…

The Rhymney Railway was not one of the largest railways in South Wales From Cardiff Docks, it headed north to Caerphilly, where there was a westbound branch to the Taff Vale Railway at Walnut Tree Junction. The Rhymney continued north to Bargoed, where its route diverged again: one line went to the left, where it would make a connection with the Brecon & Merthyr; the other continued to its namesake (Rhymney) and a connection with the London & North Western Railway. Total route mileage was 23. The RR started work on its workshops in Caerphilly in 1899 and it finally opened December 1901. The whole nine acre site included a carriage works and a locomotive workshop. The locomotive side of the works featured a large, 17 bay, erecting shop. Two…

1975. That’s not a year you might expect to see in Britain’s biggest selling historical railway magazine but, remarkably, it’s now half a century ago. That means that it’s 50 years since British Rail organised the huge display and cavalcade at Shildon to mark 150 years since the Stockton & Darlington Railway opened. There are events planned around the country to mark the 200th anniversary this year. Much has changed in the last half century. But perhaps not so much as the change that took place within BR between 1968 and 1975. In 1968, BR couldn’t get rid of steam fast enough. Then, just seven years later, it wanted steam to lead the S&D150 celebrations. That’s some turnaround. If one locomotive symbolises this change of attitude, it’s ‘Black Five’ No.…

Sir Henry Fowler once remarked that he had never designed a steam locomotive in his life. However, history will credit many locomotives to this unassuming man, who rose to become Midland Railway Chief Mechanical Engineer (1909-1923) and London Midland & Scottish Railway CME (1925-1931). The penultimate design assigned to Fowler was the 2-6-2T of 1930, classified ‘3P’. It was far from the best locomotive designed at Derby but its story starts where most do – the need for bigger locomotive to cope with increased demand. In this case, it was a need to replace four-coupled tank locomotives that had been the choice for commuter trains or local passenger duties. Perhaps the natural development with greater power and endurance was the 0-6-2T, which was successfully working heavy commuter trains out of…

Location identified I am replying to your call for help in SW453. Here is a copy of the GER bridge book (right) from 1911. As you can see, the bridge in question is No. 1260. The bridge is easily identified on Google maps satellite view. It is about 100yd east of the East Suffolk junction and 150yd from Oulton Broad North station. Dave Hamilton, Maldon, Essex The ordinary at Betchworth Many thanks for yet another excellent edition of Steam World (SW453). I look forward to it every month. In the interesting article ‘The Ordinary and The Mundane’ the big picture spread of a ‘C2X’ 0-6-0 running light engine is said to be near Betchwood on the Redhill to Guildford line. This should read Betchworth, the next stop out from Reigate.…

I was born in Walton-on-Thames and lived within walking distance of ‘London’s river’ (at Egham, Staines and Windsor) for 46 years. In the 1950s, Staines boasted three bridges over the Thames, but the location had been a crossing point on the river since Roman times and there had been a couple of post-Norman road bridges that were long gone. The three bridges of my youth were the main road bridge, designed by George Rennie and opened in 1832, an adjacent Bailey bridge erected during the Second World War and removed around 1960, and the railway bridge, dating from 1856. I know a little about the Staines railway bridge (see panel, page 23) but I realised, when offering to write about Thames bridges, that I knew very little about any others.…

It was in the March and April 2024 issues of Steam World where I talked about my many summer Saturday visits to the London area of the West Coast Main Line in 1963. However, I didn’t entirely abandon my first love, the South Western Main Line, that summer. Despite the withdrawal of the classic prewar classes – the ‘Schools’, the ‘Lord Nelsons’ and the ‘King Arthurs’ – at the end of 1962, there was still lots of variety on this line in 1963. You could see rebuilt ‘Merchant Navies’, ‘Light Pacifics’, both in original and rebuilt condition, BR ‘5MTs’, ‘4MTs’ (4-6-0s, 2-6-0s and even 2-6-4Ts), as well as Maunsell ‘N’ and ‘U’ 2-6-0s. You could also see ‘Q1’ 0-6-0s on passenger workings as well as ‘S15s’ – both Maunsell and…

We lived in Doncaster where my father worked as a carriage bodymaker at the ‘Plant’. We invariably holidayed on the Yorkshire coast. There was nothing wrong with Scarborough, but as avid trainspotters my brother and I were desperate to fill the big gaps in our Abcs. Dad would loan us his Kodak Brownie 127 The Brownie 127 was somewhat primitive by today’s standards with a fixed lens and shutter. Nonetheless, with a reasonable amount of light and provided the subject was stationery or not moving very fast, it was possible to get some presentable results. June 18-June 25 1960 1960 proved the watershed. The Doncaster Works holidays comprised two weeks per year, with one in June. This year we were going to the Isle of Wight. We left Doncaster for…