NEWS: North Norfolk Railway's B12 travels to what a mere few months ago was Communist East Germany! Main line steam returns to Cambridgeshire's overgrown St.lves branch; Swanage Railway reboilers its ex-Yugoslav USA Tank; Plus; are our readers aware they are probably ill? A leading psychiatrist believes most locospotters and collectors of railwayana are suffering from autism! All this and more in the steamiest news pages.
DEATH BY UNNATURAL CAUSES: If you ever wondered why odd engines were missing from otherwise complete class lists in the loco number books of yester-year, this article is for you. Philip Atkins looks into the strange case of locos that met a violent end.
THE SECOND COMING: 'The picture, not the train'. Laurie Manns is one of that rare but growing breed of photographers who cares not if a locomotive is running bunker first or its identity is open to conjecture. Here he shares some of his personal favourites.
HARBOUR MASTERS: There have been few 'pectacles like it in the history of main line steam. Two consecutive days, some dozen return journeys, a Pacific, a banker and a gradient of no less than l-in-30. Throw in some of the most spectacular panoramic views and lots of sunshine and you have the perfect recipe. As one wag pointed out, a bomb dropped on Folkestone on September 13 would have wiped out almost every steam photographer and railway journalist in the country!
THE GLORIOUS YEARS: Oddly enough, this month's guest photographer Dennis Tebbutt became interested in railways after seeing a loco he didn't much care for a€Ã