rains of Thought Ferryhill to Wingate a€ The GNECHJR - Colin Ryder relates the history and workings of a workaday and little-known branch line in the heart of the industrial north-east of England. A short railway with a long name, The Great North of England, Clarence & Hartlepool Junction Railway was yet another speculative venture to do with carrying coals to the East Coast for export. Charismatic 'Castle' Conversions - John Hodge takes a detailed look at the five Great Western 'Star' class locomotives and the GWR's only Pacific locomotive, The Great Bear, all of which were converted to 'Castles' between 1924 and 1929, and comments on the conversions, with details on each individual engine. Steam Days at Ramsgate - Stanley Jenkins. in another article in the long-running series looking at specific rail centres in the days of steam, this month takes a look at the Kent Coast resort of Ramsgate, where electric trains eventually kept company with steam-hauled services to and from London. By 'Starlight' to London - A. A. (Sandy) Maclean recalls those 'Starlight Specials' which, in the 1950s and early 1960s, brought visitors to London from Scottish cities for a one-week or two-week holiday in the south on cheap overnight trains and also took visitors to Scotland from the south. The L&NWR and LMS in Oxford - Laurence Waters takes a look at the L&NWR/LMS side of Oxford, and the trains which regularly worked between the Rewley Road terminus station at Oxford, and Bicester, Bletchley, and Cambridge. Tail Lamp a€" Readers' Letters Cover: This month we take a look at Ramsgate in the days of steam-hauled trains. Many resorts in the near vicinity of Ramsgate were popular with holiday-makers and day-trippers, and none more than Margate where we see Hither Green-based 'N' class 2-6-0 No 31861 with an Ashford train on 28 March 1959.