EWS FOCUS SPECIAL: Steam, Network Rail and the future
Steam on the main line - there is no hidden agenda at Network Rail. Very encouraging and positive words from a Network Rail business manager with specific responsibility for a€~special trains.a€ Stephen Cornish talked to Keith Langston about the challenges which heritage traction will face in the coming years.

WHATa€ S LEFT OF...THE SOUTH EASTERN & CHATHAM RAILWAY
With some of the most distinctive locomotives, carrying particularly ornate liveries, the SECR is well known, but no significant length of line has been preserved. Several surviving engines are Bluebell stalwarts, and a disproportionate number of SECR coaches still exist. Brian Sharpe looks deeper into the heritage of the system which served the garden of England, and also visits a viariety of prime locations from Charing Cross to the Kent & East Sussex Railway.

SPARKING CENTENARY!
Railfest 2004 marks the bicentenary of the worlda€ s first railway locomotive a€ but the writing was on the wall for steam just a century later. In the same year as GWR Churchward 4-4-0 City of Truro reportedly topped the 100mph mark on Wellington Bank with the a€~Ocean Mails speciala€ , Britain launched its first main line electric railway. Fred Kerr provides a concise guide to the history of UK electric railways and explains their geographical anomalies.

NEWS FOCUS SPECIAL: The Ffantastic Ffiftieth!
This year, the Ffestiniog Railway, widely regarded as one of the finest heritage lines in the world, celebrates 50 years of volunteer-led operation. John Stretton looks back over a truly momentous half-century which saw fresh ground for the preservation movement repeatedly broken by pioneers on the slopes of Snowdonia with many exciting developments in store for future years..

ADVERTISING FEATURE: Great Railway tours of the world
Our guide to top-class rail tours both at home and overseas.

THE CHANGEOVER YEARS: Steam twilight in the West Riding
Robert Anderson, who was born and bred in the old West Riding of Yorkshire recounts his memories of the transition from steam to modern traction in this fascinating part of Britain with the aid of a superbly atmospheric selection of photographs from his own archive.

HEADLINE NEWS
After months of uncertainty the announcement that the whole preservation world has been awaiting Flying Scotsman is now officially for sale; another winner for Tyseley as Pitchford Hall resteams after more than 40 years; Network Rail gives the Bluebell Railway enough track to build the East Grinstead extension, and numberplate from exiled A4 Pacific Dwight D. Eisenhower stolen from US national museum.

NEWS
Caprotti a€~Fivea€ steaming imminent at Butterley; Llangollen a€~art decoa€ DMU takes star billing at Heritage Railway Association awards; Wessex Trains supremo Brian Pickett dies following illness; ELR steam gala special report; Foremarke Hall moves to Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway; Oliver Cromwell to be restored for Great Central Railway and main line; Weardale steam revival gets Ã