28 INDUSTRIAL SCENE:Blue skies and steel dreams - As abysmal weather and foot and mouth disease kept photographers away from Britain's preserved lines, Workington's Corus Rail steelworks was the setting for a four-engine steam spectacular. Taking the former British Steelworks plant and its sprawling rail network back to the steam era, heritage traction took over the day - and beneath azure blue skies more in keeping with the Mediterranean than the icy blasts of the Solway Firth, hauled a consignment of finished rails to the nearby port for shipping to Ireland. Robin Jones reports in words and pictures with help from Geoff Lee.

36 REBIRTH OF A GWR PROTOTYPE - While new-build projects like the A1 Tornado and Clan Hengist have grabbed attention in recent years as revivalists attempt to fill missing gaps in preservation, there are still many classics among the Barry hulks waiting to be restored. Pride of place here must surely go to GWR No. 7200, which in 1934 became the prototype of its class, the biggest tank engines ever built by the company. After 18 years in the scrapyard and another 18 at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre waiting its turn in the queue, work on No. 7200 is sprinting ahead. Sean Dunne looks back at the class and outlines the project to restore the first of three surviving examples to running order.

56 THE DREAM THAT STAYED AFTER DAWN: 25 years of the Great Central Railway as a limited company. This year the GCR carried off the Heritage Railway Association Annual Award after becoming the first double track preserved line in Britain and probably the world. Yet in the 1970s it was a typical 'New Generation' line, using industrial saddle tanks and a foreign locomotive to haul lits service trains. As the revival scheme enters its next major phase with the purchase by the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) of the East Leake freight branch, Robin Jones presents a unique year-by-year photographic celebration of Loughborough's quarter century of preservation.

64 VIETNAM: A DESTINATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY - To the Western world, the name Vietnam instantly conjures up horrific images of the ultimately purposeless war fought by the United States in the 1960s and 70s. However, globetrotting John Titlow joined the groundbreaking Locomotive Club of Great Britain-organised charter in March to follow the sunset of Indo-Chinese steam - and came away not only with a fresh and highly positive view of the one-time conflict-decimated country today - and and a file of striking images not to be missed!

78 ON THE LOST ROUTE TO A LOST SEA - Unlike other resorts in Britain, the railway did not desert the seaside town of Parkgate - the sea did! However, one of the stations on the joint GWR/LNWR branch, Hadlow Road, has been restored as a time capsule and one of preservation's pocket gems hidden away in the Wirral Peninsula. C. Ian Simpson reports.