Steam World

Being born in 1944 of a railway family living in Eastleigh, close enough while lying in bed at night to hear goods trains (not ‘freight’ in those far-off days!) chuffing through, no doubt inspired my interest in railways. My first train journey – exc

Drive it like you stole it’ was the advice a driver gave to his colleague before the recent attempt to beat the London to Glasgow end-to-end timing record on a Class 390 ‘Pendolino’. The words read just like you would imagine the banter between drive

The British Empire Exhibition of 1924 became the focal point of one of the most important stories in British steam locomotive development. The exhibition itself was organised to galvanise the Empire in the wake of the Great War as Britain’s standing

send your letters to Steam World, 4 Milnyard Square, Orton South gate, Peterborough PE2 6GX or steamworld@choicemag.co.uk Further to my recent communication on Bridlington, I can add another interesting survivor from the steam age. Platform 1 at Brid

I started my induction course in the first week of January 1957 and, to be honest, cannot remember much about it other than that I was offered a job in the Chief Commercial Manager’s office at Waterloo – but politely declined as I wanted more experie

Having been collecting railway books for well-nigh 50 years (where did THAT go?!) I’m really selective (ok...finicky!) these days about the books I add to the many shelves around the house, carrying my railway library. Over the years, I’ve been lucky

So says Old Dan, in The Titfield Thunderbolt, after the line’s regular ‘14XX’ 0-4-2TNo. 1401, and Wisbech & Upwell carriage, have been wrecked by the rival bus operators. He and co-conspirator Mr. Valentine (played by Stanley Holloway) set out to ste

Evidence of the impending move away from steam was everywhere by 1960. Diesel sets had actually appeared as long ago as 1958 on local workings in West Hampshire, although by 1967 diesel would fall victim to all-conquering electric, just as much as st

Slough might not have been my home town but until I moved to Northamptonshire in 1992, for the first 45 years of my life, home was never far from Slough, so I got to know the station area quite well, though sadly not in steam days. However, most of t

The LNER’s 62nd ‘B17’ 4-6-0 was delivered from the company’s own Darlington workshops at the end of June 1936. This was the final locomotive of the sixth batch of ‘B17s’; it was numbered 2861 and named Sheffield Wednesday, continuing the policy of na