Three years ago we published an article about Maunsell’s ill-fated K (or River) class. The K class were a 2-6-4T design that were later converted into 2-6-0 U class tender locomotives as a result of a safety review after a number of derailments. Very little goes to waste on railways and so this was not the…
Yesterday, on Monday 16th May 2016 35006 P&O made her triumphant return to steam after over 30 years of painstaking restoration by volunteers at Toddington on the GWSR. Thanks to the generosity (and slight disorganisation 😉 ) of my co-bloggers (thanks again chaps!), I went along to the shareholders’ and supporters’ launch ceremony. When I…
Tonight we are looking at a rather interesting piece by Graham Muz. As regular readers of my blog will I know I often assist a number of the model manufacturers and commissioners with support, advice and research in conjunction to models that they are in the process of developing. This post is a ‘comment piece’…
Good evening, When I visited the Isle of Wight railway in May 2014 the biggest disappointment for me was my camera died before I could get any photographs of the lines brilliant freight train. What made this freight train extra special was that the train was operated with a historically-representative single brake van during the morning.…
Good evening, Yesterday rebuilt Bulleid Light Pacific locomotive no 34046 Braunton hauled the Solent and Sacrum railtour out of London Waterloo heading for Salisbury, on the return trip she travelled down the south coast to Fareham before thundering up the Portsmouth direct to London Waterloo. Itis quite rare that a steam service is allowed up this…
Rather remarkably, somehow I managed to skip this this beautiful locomotive when reporting about my visit to the Bluebell Line (click here to read more.) This was probably because I only saw it briefly as it pulled away with the line’s Wealden Rambler. It had been many years since I had seen this locomotive in…
No visit to the Bluebell Railway is complete without a peak inside the engine shed, which is home to the largest collection of locomotives of (UK) Southern origin. The Bluebell Line has another remarkable claim to fame to add to this – it has the largest collection of BR Standard Classes. Indeed, this collection is…
This beautifully finished locomotive is no stranger to this blog! All being well, the links to blog posts featuring this locomotive will appear automatically at the bottom of this post. 592 was built by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) in 1902 at Longhedge Works to a design by Chief Mechanical Engineer Harry Wainwright. …
On Easter Monday I had the pleasure of visiting and traveling on the Swanage Railway in Dorset with Mrs Locoyard. Two locomotives were in steam, including BR lined black liveried M7 tank engine 30053 (the other being 34028 Eddystone). This characterful 0-4-4T locomotive has featured several times on this blog, but despite seeing it several…
Having picked up another Southern Railway postcard at Medstead and Four Marks (click here to see previous blog post on the LBSCR K class), I decided again to look into the locomotive type illustrated on it – yet another locomotive from a now extinct class. The picture shows Southern railway no A781, an example of…
Loco Yard 