Vol 35 No 10 - October 2021

Backtrack

Britain's Leading Historical Railway Journal

Backtrack4 min read
Editorial
Railways have been transforming their sphere of activities for as long as they’ve been around – a couple of months ago we told of how the pioneer Liverpool & Manchester Railway promoted its new and revolutionary form of passenger transport by offerin
Backtrack1 min read
Back Track
Publisher and Editor MICHAEL BLAKEMORE • E-Mail pendragonpublishing@btinternet.com • Tel 01347 824397 [Mon.-Fri. 9.00am-5.00pm] All Subscription Enquiries 01778 392024 (see inside back cover for details) • Trade Account Manager Ann Williams Design +
Backtrack17 min read
At Risk On The Permanent Way 1890-1922
The author was prompted to put pen to paper on reading the sad news of the deaths of two permanent way workers near Port Talbot, South Wales (July 2019). Both men were wearing ear-defenders and did not hear the approach of the 9.29am service from Swa
Backtrack16 min read
Br Motorail Trains Formations And Finances Part Two
Combination of car sleeper and car carrier vehicles produced a hybrid set. Basically, one or more corridor coaches, usually first class, replaced a similar number of sleeping cars in a car sleeper set, or vice versa in a car-carrier set. This gave tw
Backtrack20 min read
Cruising By Train And Circular Tours
In the nineteenth century, and indeed well into the twentieth, holidays such as we have become accustomed to taking nowadays were not something normally available to those of limited means and so it would have been a rare treat indeed to be able to i
Backtrack1 min read
The Lner L1 2-6-4 Tanks
Although the London Midland & Scottish Railway had extensively provided itself with 2-6-4 tank locomotives for shorter-distance passenger work, the London & North Eastern Railway only had a small number, inherited from the Great Central and Metropoli
Backtrack17 min read
From The Mersey Railway To Merseyrail: How Liverpool Got Its Modern Metro
Today’s metro serving the Liverpool city region is centred on an underground section below the city, largely built in the 1970s. As in other similar systems this now links with older surface railways. Its progress was crucially aided by the existence
Backtrack1 min read
Wight Summers
The Isle of Wight, a holiday haunt of long standing, once had a railway system of just over 55 miles, though some of the branches fell to closures in the 1950s. The remainder lasted with pre-grouping steam locomotives and carriages until 1966 when th
Backtrack19 min read
The Flockton Waggonway
In the Pennine foothills between Huddersfield and Wakefield lie the substantial remains of a waggonway viaduct and Grade 2 listed colliery railway tunnel. These structures, built by the 1790s, were part of the Flockton colliery waggonway, carrying hi
Backtrack20 min read
A Great Western Tenancy Part Two 1937-40
In Part One of this story last month we left the Great Western Railway on the threshold of 1937, the one season before the war in which the company made no increase in its stock of available coaches for rental, in contrast to the London & North Easte
Backtrack15 min read
Battling Beeching In The High Peak Part Two The Campaign To Retail Buxton’s Rail Service
The Transport Users Consultative Committee’s hearing into the proposed withdrawal of passenger train services between Manchester and Buxton took place on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th May 1964 at the Pavilion Gardens, Buxton, starting at 10.30am.
Backtrack2 min read
BookReviews
|★★★★★ Excellent|★★★★ Very Good|★★★ Good|★★ Fair|★ Poor| The Hythe & Sandgate Branch Line & Tramway By Peter A. Harding, published by the author, softback, 32 pages priced £4.50. ISBN 978 1 5272 8683 2. Your reviewer holds his hands up in apology to
Backtrack13 min read
Readers’ Forum
Letters intended for publication should ideally add extra detail to our articles (or offer corrections of course!) and not be too long, consistent with the detail they offer. As always, we are sorry that space and time prevent us from printing them a

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