Keeping steam going throughout over half of the 20th century. . . . . . . There was a mix of longevity and novelty towards the end of...

The 1924/1925 Empire Exhibition. . . . . . On 23rd April 1924 (Saint George’s Day) King George V opened the British Empire Exhibition at...

The Great Western Railway’s last Chief Mechanical Engineer. . . . . . . . Frederick William Hawksworth was born in Swindon, Wiltshire on...

Railways and rifles. . . . . . . Historically, you wouldn’t normally associate operating railways with the use of firearms, although...

The legacy of GWR CME Charles Collett. . . . . . . . Looking at the locomotive designs of Charles Collett, it’s amazing how many of them...

A structure that saw many changes. . . . . . . . . Venice has its famous “Bridge of Sighs”, built in 1603, connecting the interrogation...

Trainspotting Nostalgia. . . . . . . If you were around in August, 1968, you may recall a pop group called ‘Cupid’s Inspiration’ and...

The attraction of locomotives to younger generations inside and outside a museum. . . . . . After a morning in the Search Engine at the...

A locomotive with 95 years of work to her credit. . . . . . . 1857 was a significant year for pioneering locomotives now in the National...

How some historic locomotives escaped scrapping while others survived as replicas alongside the originals. . . . . . . . . In January...

Recovering and reclaiming signalling equipment for heritage railways. . . . . . . Most of us have familiarity with the heritage railway...

Summary: Questions of restoration policy for locomotives, includes a reference to Berlin Technical Museum. . . . . . No doubt readers...

Summary: Heritage branding of locomotives citing SR Q1 class in the National Collection. . . . . . . Recently, I was reading something...

The value of the disused Great Central route. . . . . . . Last week’s post on this site discussed the story of the Great Central Railway...

Sixty years ago, I had the experience of riding the “Tivvy Bumper”. This was the nickname given by locals to the 4¾ mile branch line from...

Railway art featuring some famous artists. . . . . . . Sitting having a coffee and a biscuit at the catering stop in the Great Hall of...

The “Saint” class 4-6-0 passenger locomotives on the Great Western Railway (GWR) passed forever when the last of the class of 77, number...

125 reasons to grieve. . . . . . . . The last InterCity 125 trains are to be withdrawn from service on the East Midlands Railway next...

Understanding ‘Rocket’ and ‘object centred analysis’. . . . . . . Museum curators sometimes talk about ‘object centred analysis’. In its...

Different railway sounds and their use in museums. . . . . . . . English Electric Type 4 1Co-Co1 D255 is seen approaching Dunchurch with...