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

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TRAINS of thought

Beachy Head Putting a wrong, right • With the new-build ‘Beachy Head’ now in steam at the Bluebell Railway, Andrew Britton offers the back-story to the ‘Brighton Atlantics’, largely concentrating on their post-war work and recalling the sad loss of No 32424 ‘Beachy Head’ as the last of the type, its official withdrawal coming on 3 May 1958 after 1,090,661 miles of service across a 47 year working life.

New faces on the Highland lines • The ‘Big Four’ and British Railways eras saw former Highland Railway metals enjoy a surprising variety of motive power–John Roake offers an overview of ‘foreign’ types drafted in, regular visitors, and new classes of LMS and BR origin.

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Danger, high voltage! • Sixty years after the yellow ‘not south of Crewe’ warning stripe was introduced to bar over-height steam locomotives from passing beneath 25kV energised overhead lines, Andrew Kennedy considers the earlier warnings, the stricter restrictions of 1 September 1964 and the fleet of locomotives duly adorned with the cab-side warning.

Changes on Chester’s main lines • His home for six years, Chris Forrest looks at the changing scene at this former GWR/LMS/LNER frontier from the mid-1950s, many brought about by BR regional boundary changes.

From Wotton Tramway to Brill branch Quainton Road to Brill: 1871-1909 • Built with economy in mind, Bruce Laws tracks this rural tramway from its inception, from opening and into everyday use, through hopes of extension and upgrade as the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad, and concluding in pre-war days with the passing of railway luminary Ralph Augustus Jones and with the line now operating as the Brill branch of the Metropolitan Railway.

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