Backtrack

An editorial holiday this month! Instead we have a classic photograph by John Spencer Gilks which looks forward to our ‘Pendragon Archive’ feature on JSG’s travels on ‘Southern Lines’ but also harks back to our ‘Island Odyssey’ article in September’s

The Snow Hill station which I knew was everything that New Street was not elegant, spacious and, as far as was possible during the ‘Golden Age of Steam’, clean. Furthermore, since it was built as recently as 1906-1912, it was designed with the benefi

When Richard Maunsell took up the appointment of Chief Mechanical Engineer of the South Eastern & Chatham Railways Managing Committee, his first task was to reorganise Ashford Works whose efficiency had fallen right away following the transfer of sta

The construction of HS2, the high speed railway line between London and Birmingham, has involved the boring of tunnels, the preparation of cuttings, the destruction of historic sites and ancient woodland, the deployment of aerial photography and the

The 0-6-2 tank had become well established on the South Wales railway companies by the time of the grouping and the Great Western Railway persevered with this type with its ‘56XX’ Class which it introduced in 1924. 200 of this class were built up to

“On the morning of October 8th 1952, the 7.31am local passenger train from Tring to Euston crossed from the up slow to the up fast line at Harrow & Wealdstone Station and came to a stand at the up fast platform ” And so begins the relatively brief na

Almost as traditional as excursions to Blackpool, but on a smaller scale, were those to Southport, and particularly for the annual Flower Show. This article concentrates on the special traffic run for that event during the last years of steam. Althou

Following nationalisation, it was proposed that Bidston shed should be included in the Western Division of the British Railways Eastern Region and coded 45D with Gorton as its main district depot. However, this proposal was overturned and it was deci

While all this scientifically based modernisation was happening on the London & North Eastern Railway, what was the London Midland & Scottish Railway doing? The ‘Claughton’ Class four-cylinder 4-6-0s had been the pinnacle of express locomotive design