Backtrack

The North British Locomotive Company, formed in Glasgow in 1903 by an amalgamation of three well-established manufacturers, built steam locomotives for this country and all over the world but by the late 1950s the time had come for it to enter the co

Historically one of the periods that has always fascinated the author is the transition period between steam and diesel on the British Railways network. In this sense I have confined the era to the one of main line dieselisation between 1958-1968 alt

It says much that the Craven Herald weekly newspaper, based in the Yorkshire market town of Skipton, devoted a whole page to a 2023 event taking place in Colne in Lancashire. There have been tensions between the two settlements throughout recorded hi

Once the railway had reached Aberdeen from the south in 1850, the tentacles of what would become the Great North of Scotland Railway system were soon spreading across the North East. The first branch line, from Aberdeen seventeen miles west to Bancho

“It has often occurred to me that something should be undertaken to perpetuate the memory of so many of our gallant friends and colleagues from the N.E.R. who have made the great sacrifice for freedom… 1,745 is the sad total shown in the current issu

In the old West Riding of Yorkshire, Shipley gained a station on the Leeds & Bradford Railway (later Midland Railway) which developed into a rare triangular layout (the only other remaining one being at Earlestown). Separate platforms served trains f

In a magnificent mountain setting in the heart of the USA state of Utah lies a graveyard. In the heart of the graveyard lies a grave, its headstone depicting Robert Stephenson's 1829-built locomotive, Rocket. Why is it there and in whose memory was i

One of my interests from the 1960s to the 1990s was observing and recording operations at busy centres on summer Saturdays, when the regular timetable was augmented by seasonal trains to and from holiday destinations. Many happy hours were spent at t

The history of this long-lived South Eastern class has been written many times, so the notes that follow are mainly my own recollections and comments from colleagues and friends. It is well known that the Southern Railway of the 1920s and '30s concen

The diagram in question post-1965 was never on a regular basis graced by what is termed 'glamour' motive power as that much loved commodity on the London Midland Region, except for the 'Britannias', was on its last legs. Except for 1P33 (diesel from

On an unknown date around the year 1906, the wife of an Inverkeithing Minister gave birth to her second child, a baby boy who came to be called Ranald D. Stephen. His father, the Rev. Dr. William Stephen, looked after a parish which included many rai