Steam Days

Steam Days is a monthly magazine dedicated to all steam railway enthusiasts. Each issue covers the six regions of British Railways: Western, Southern, London, Midland, Eastern, and Scottish, with the occasional article on Irish railways and the industrial scene. These well illustrated articles in the magazine cover the history of the railways of Britain from the early days of the 1800s through to the end of steam on British Railways in August 1968.

Steam Days

TRAINS of thought

Deal operations in the 1950s • Situated on the Kent coast between Ramsgate and Dover, Swedebasher offers a pre-electrification account of services through Deal, including the ‘Round the Houses’ duties from Charing Cross and Victoria, and the Deal-Minster trains.

From Swift & Delightful … to Sadness & Despair • With a circular tour ticket in hand, Robert Darlaston discovered the northern half of the Somerset & Dorset system in 1961, including the Highbridge branch, and then in 1963 returned to travel over the entire main line route between Bournemouth (West) and Bath (Green Park) and so witnessed a former joint railway split across two BR regions and with its future ebbing away. All photographs by the author.

STEAM DAYS In Colour 226: Stockton-on-Tees and Port Clarence • BR steam era views on Teesside, including activities on two of the earliest public railways in Britain, the Stockton & Darlington Railway to the south side of the Tees and the rival Port Clarence Railway, the latter company’s line passing through Norton at a triangle of lines (nominally the West Hartlepool and Stockton branches of the North Eastern Railway) and reaching the north side of the Tees at Port Clarence. These two railways were built to transport coal to the Tees for onward shipment, and as the expansionist company of the area it was the NER that ultimately prevailed, Clarence Railway and S&DR assets all being under its ownership from 1863 and were thereafter at the heart of a singular cohesive and busy network.

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‘Super Tanks’ – Britain’s nearly 100 ton tank locomotives • The Edwardian era saw the creation of heavyweight tank engine designs of 95 tons or more – Philip Atkins tracks the various ‘Super Tanks’ of Britain, and considers some significant 100+ ton continental classes too.

Strolling westwards along the sea wall • Countless travellers regard the four mile section of railway from Dawlish Warren through to Teignmouth as the most beautiful stretch of main line in Britain, but on countless occasions the force of nature here has battered the permanent way and its neighbouring sea wall path, Peter Kerslake offering this photographic appreciation.

Tail Lamp • Readers’ Letters