Trains of Thought The LNER Thompson 'L1' 2-6-4TS - A Case Study into Performance - Andrew James takes a fresh look at the ability of these often-maligned tank engines, reviewing their main-line operations from King's Cross, as well as their hard-graft on the stopping services between Whitby and Scarborough. An Old Acquaintance Revisited - Recalling the Fowey Branch and 2-8-OT No 4247 - Treasured late 1940s and 1950s childhood memories of Fowey flooded back for Peter Julian thanks to the work of R.C. Riley. Then preservation came to the fore with the right Churchward tank and country station friendliness. STEAM DAYS in Colour - 102: The Scottish Shed Scene in the Days of Steam - Many railway enthusiasts preferred visiting sheds to number-taking at stations, and the Scottish sheds were rich with variety, from contrasting Pacifies through to small and even vast classes of pre-Grouping engines. Duty 237: 'A Nice Little Turn' to Swanage - Former Branksome footplateman Peter Smith is no stranger on the Swanage Railway, but, as Mike Arlett reveals, it is nearly sixty years since Peter first fired a train over the branch while 'on loan' to Bournemouth engine shed. STEAM DAYS at Carnforth - The meeting point of three pre-Grouping companies, the L&NWR, Furness, and Midland, Stanley Jenkins gives an insight into Carnforth's rich railway history - steam locomotives have been present here for more than 166 years! Tail Lamp - Readers' Letters Cover - The ubiquitous Stanier 'Black Five' class 4-6-0 was without doubt one of the most successful steam locomotive designs ever to operate in Britain, so it was perhaps appropriate that the class played a large role in the last rites of British Railways steam during the memorable summer of 1968. This evocative nocturnal scene on Carnforth shed in June 1968 captures three of the class at rest, Nos 44809, 45025 and 45231, and thus memories of gently wafting steam, the unique aroma of a steam shed and the overnight warmth of rows of engines are reawakened - was it really 45 years ago?