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

1955 and all that BR steam’s life expectancy – new plans for the new decade • Five years on from the Modernisation Plan of 1955, Philip Atkins reveals how 1960 saw established long-term steam plans reviewed and the demise of steam on British Railways foreshortened.

Huddersfield-Penistone line operations • Opened on July 1, 1850 to link Huddersfield with the MS&LR’s Woodhead route at Penistone, and concurrently giving rise to the Holmfirth branch, within 20 years this Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway route also gained branches to Meltham and Clayton West. Swedebasher offers a BR steam era overview.

GET ONE YEAR OF STEAM DAYS FOR JUST £53.99

STEAM DAYS In Colour 240: Rail tours on the Midland & South Western Junction line

LNER racehorses: the chosen and the dark horses • The choice of racehorse names for some of the fastest locomotives of the East Coast main line is more than appropriate – Gresley A1s and A3s, and Thompson A2/3s – but with names plucked from across the 1857 to 1947 period and the racing theme ongoing with the BR built Peppercorn A2s and A1s, there is much to know about the selection, as Jim Lindsay reveals.

In search of steam in the west of Scotland: 1961 • Well aware of diminishing steam passenger work in much of Scotland 65 years ago, in August 1961 Ian Turnbull set out from Surbiton with two objectives – to enjoy nonstop Anglo-Scottish steam on The Elizabethan and to visit as many Scottish steam sheds as possible in six days, by steam-haulage wherever possible.

Tail Lamp • Readers Letters