Steam World

Steam World is Britain's best selling historical railway magazine. Covering the magical times when steam railways were the lifeblood of the country. It features first-hand accounts from drivers, firemen, BR managers and enthusiasts alike. Featuring magnificent photography from the fifties and sixties, it will bring back wonderful memories coupled with inside information of what it was really like to work, travel and play on the world's best railway.

Steam World

SOME YOU WIN…

CALL ATTENTION • Chris Leigh reflects on some recent finds, and mailbag comments

UNITED IN CLAG • Browsing Geoff Plumb’s photographic archive can take you down rabbit hole after rabbit hole, such is its breadth. Geoff not only pointed his lens at the main line scene but at other, more esoteric subjects. And his website also hosts images from other photographers. We dip into Geoff’s varied collection here… what links these images together is impressive exhaust

STAINES BRANCH MEMORIES • Opened between West Drayton and Colnbrook in 1884, the remains of the Staines & West Drayton Railway marked their 140th anniversary in 2024 and in March 2025 will pass the 60th anniversary of closure. Chris Leigh remembers…

FOOTBALL AND SPOTTING • Preston North End away matches provided Robin Bamber and his friends the opportunity to visit sheds away from their usual patch

All Things Considered • Bob Gwynne considers what makes a locomotive running on a particular stretch of railway ‘right’. Is it a symbol, sentiment… or something else?

GREAT SHOT!

SHAP - THE LAST TIME • Inspired by a Derek Cross photo feature, Geoff Eaton made four visits to Shap but April 19 1967 was his last

TRIBUTE TO THE ‘4MT’ 2-6-0s • Richard Derry celebrates the life and times of this somewhat overlooked BR design by offering some personal recollections, selecting four to look at in more detail and summing up their work on that most-famous of cross-country routes, the Somerset & Dorset

‘4MTs’ ON THE S&D • Richard Derry identifies some of the ‘4MT’ 2-6-0s that worked between Bath and Bournemouth

AN AMPUTEE ON THE FOOTPLATE • Front line footplate crews had to be able-bodied men. But, as Ray Bullock explains, there were exceptions

PLATFORM • send your letters to Steam World, 4 Milnyard Square, Orton South gate, Peterborough PE2 6GX or steamworld@choicemag.co.uk

STEAM WORLD CROSSWORD

STRANGER IN NORTHERN IRELAND • It’s July 1956 and Colin Boocock has just left the shores of Great Britain for the first time. His destination? Northern Ireland

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