Features

STEAM, the museum of the Great Western Railway, has produced an A4 spiral-bound calendar for 2017 to mark the 90th anniversary of the construction of loco No. 6000 King George V. Each page features a superb unpublished photograph of a GWR locomotive taken by Richard Bell, ranging from the Railmotor to a ‘King’ 4-6-0. All will…

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The link between railways and music is extremely strong, as our best-selling souvenir issue on the subject revealed three years ago. Now, British folk singer Billy Bragg has produced an album of popular railroad songs with a difference – they were recorded not in a studio, but on trains and stations during a 2,728-mile journey…

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For more than 80 years, ExxonMobil and its predecessors used rail to move oil products from the Fawley refinery, but all traffic ceased in September. Nick Lera charts the history of this Hampshire industrial site. Born of the oil industry and now discarded by it, the 9½-mile Hampshire branch from Totton to Fawley has stopped carrying…

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Every year, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) publishes data showing the number of entries and exits for each UK station. While London stations generally make up most of the top 10 busiest, spare a thought for the stations at the bottom of the list that see very few passengers. The RM has compiled…

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Robin Stewart-Smith concludes his historical review of Tuxford, a town that once had a railway works and three railway stations. On New Year’s Day 1907, the LD & ECR was absorbed by the Great Central Railway. Negotiations had begun with the GCR some two years earlier after talks with the GNR failed. The LD &…

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In the 50th anniversary year since the closure of the Somerset & Dorset railway, Keith Farr concludes his performance analysis by looking at the Bulleid and BR Standard classes that worked the route to its final day. PART one of this article (RM September) focused on ‘2P’, ‘7F’ and ‘Black Five’ performance over the Somerset…

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It is close to 65 years since an order for North American-built diesel locomotives was placed by East Pakistan. Richard Gennis takes a brief look at the Bangladesh Railways EMD ‘B12’ diesel class that is still working today. Back in 1952 when East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) decided it was going down the diesel route, I…

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