last days at rose grove and copy pit - Thirty-five years after photographing a steam-hauled coal train in the North West, coincidence presented Mike Taylor with an opportunity to repeat a similar picture and stir his memories of the last months of Rose Grove MPD's locomotives.
unravelling the engine allocations maze...The date that a locomotive was transferred from one depot to another should be an 'open-and-shut' case. But delve a little deeper and you'll find that many books - including 'definitive works' - containing such information are riddled with errors, which are then copied and repeated by others. Steam World's Historical Consultant, Richard Strange goes in search of the truth.
life and times at colwick - Most enthusiasts ignored the Nottinghamshire depot of Colwick which many associated with filthy 'WD' and '04' 2-8-Os. However as former employee John Meredith recalls it was far from mundane with a wide variety of locomotive classes.
bristol temple meads from the air in '54 - Our bird's eye view of Bristol Temple Meads, looking from the south was taken in 1954 by Aerofilms
comment = Editor Mel Holley argues why we should celebrate the often ignored 0-6-0 design.
call attention - More quirks, requests and oddities from the world of steam are uncovered this month.
fortune favour's the bold. - In the case of railway photography this saying could have little relevance, however as Ian Krause discovered on May 20 1967, he was the favoured one...
platform - Debate and discussion on a wide variety of topics across the entire steam scene..
the back-alley route to swindon - The obvious way to reach the GWR's engineering headquarters town of Swindon was via the company's London-Bristol main line. However, for more than 70 years a 'backdoor' route via the MSW)R was an alternative. John Stretton who has just published a book on the subject provides a taste of the line, deep in 'enemy' territory.
great shot! - Tony Butcher provides a bird's-eye view of Brighton shed in April 1958 during the visit of the RCT8' 'Last Atlantic' tour. Being a Sunday there are riches aplenty
recollections of A 'canklow crow' - Continuing his riveting account of his footplate career at Canklow shed, Mick Hayes remembers two 'bad trips' with the same rebuilt 'Patriot' 4-6-0.
tales of A barrow (road) boy! - In the third part of his series on his footplate career at the former Midland Barrow Road shed in Bristol, Brian Redwood describes his highly demanding debut firing 'The Devonian' on the 227-mile trek to Leeds.
the fastline files - In the last of the present series of superb black and white images from the infrastructure archive of Fastline Photographic Ltd, Andrew Dow takes a nostalgic look at Huddersfield, Leeds and Newcastle stations.
all things considered - Controversial columnist Andrew Dow serves a slice of opinion about how railways used to run.
reviews - We look at new books and videos that should delight and entertain you.
postcards from the southern - Rummaging through a box of family holiday postcards sparked memories of railway holidays in Devon, which Jeffrey Grayer shares with us.
next issue - Don't miss our peek at next month's timetable, to find out what's going to arrive in the November issue of Britain's top-selling historical railway magazine.