Backtrackの Volume 39 No 7 - July 2025 の目次

This month's front cover looks the way it does for two different reasons: firstly, it acknowledges the achievement of my football team in achieving promotion and winning a minor league championship into the bargain, so our club colours are to the fore; secondly, it draws attention to the fact that the motive power transformation effected by the electrification at 25kV overhead of the West Coast Main Line in the 1960s is the subject of an article coming up within these pages. My first acquaintances with the world of electric trains were of quite a different sort from the 25kV brave new world unleashed on the West Coast route, being of the sedater, but no less revolutionary in its day, third rail system of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway on its…

In Parts One and Two of ‘A Manx Odyssey’ (September and October 2024), chronicling Geoff Sheldon's 1963 exploration of the Isle of Man, the focus was on the steam-operated Isle of Man Railway. In this final instalment we look at the other lines then in operation on the island: the Douglas Bay Tramway, the Manx Electric Railway, the Snaefell Mountain Railway, and the Queen's Pier Tramway at Ramsey. A truly eclectic mix for so small a territory and largely still with us today. Nevertheless, a visit in earlier years would have found even more to see, including the standard gauge Douglas Southern Electric Tramway (1896-1939), whose open-top tramcars negotiated a hair-raising clifftop route from Douglas Head to Port Soderick (with funiculars at either end), the 3ft gauge Upper Douglas Tramway…

Once it had been decided to locate the Royal Navy's new Naval Base at Rosyth, on the Firth of Forth, it was necessary to provide all the back-up facilities that such a site needs including storage for all the myriad items that help a ship to maintain its readiness for sea duty and for war. A storage facility was also required for all the explosive materials and it was considered essential that it should be railserved. Land adjacent to the North British Railway's (NBR) branch line to Charlestown was the most suitable, being roughly three miles upstream from Rosyth and, as the Crombie Estate had a river frontage, this was purchased in its entirety. This article endeavours to relate how the railway connection came about together with various incidents which…

Passenger The first phase of the West Coast Main Line electrification opened between Manchester Piccadilly and Crewe on 12th September 1960 and in January 1962 electric hauled services also began running, via Runcorn, from Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street. Thereafter, the overhead catenary was gradually extended south from Crewe, eventually reaching London Euston in October 1965, with full electric services inaugurated the following April. Also electrified during this phase of the project were the lines from Cheadle Hulme to Colwich Junction and from Stone to Norton Bridge, as well as the route from Stafford to Rugby via Wolverhampton and Coventry, along with the Northampton loop. To haul services over the newly electrified lines an initial fleet of 100 3,300hp Bo-Bo 25kV ac locomotives were ordered, the build being shared between…

Background John George Robinson, born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 30th July 1856, the second son of Matthew Robinson, a locomotive engineer, joined the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1872 as an engineering apprentice at Swindon under the guidance of Joseph Armstrong who was at that time the company's Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent. In 1878 he moved to Bristol to work under his father. Robinson Junior left the GWR in 1884 and took up the position of an Assistant Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent in Ireland at the Waterford & Limerick Railway (W&LR). The W&LR became the Waterford, Limerick & Western Railway (WLMR) in 1896 and Robinson was promoted to Locomotive Carriage and Wagon Superintendent shortly after that. He is credited during his sixteen years in Ireland with responsibility…

The story of this line starts with a completely different route altogether: that of the railway from Ambergate, north of Derby, to Rowsley, Buxton and beyond. It was the Midland Railway's ambition to reach Manchester and its rivalry with the London & North Western Railway fuelled the fire of competition in this part of Derbyshire. The modern-day Matlock branch, a shadow of its former importance, is the stub of the Midland Railway main line to Manchester via Rowsley, Buxton and Millers Dale. This route to Manchester was opened in stages. The first section opened on 4th June 1849 between a junction with the Midland Railway's Chesterfield line at Ambergate and Rowsley village. It was built by the rather grandly named Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midland Junction Railway. This railway was…

I have a fascination for bookshops that stock ‘Remainders’, sometimes admiring the optimism of publishers over issuing the dustier of these volumes. More than 40-odd years ago I picked up one such book in just such a shop close to South Kensington underground station, a book so interesting and informative I still wonder why it found its way there. The price on the flyleaf is quoted as ‘55s, £2.75’, just post-decimal then. But a single swift sweep of a pen – a proper ink one – deletes them both and ‘25/-‘ is writ large and defiantly in their place. The book is a facsimile published by Ian Allan of the London & South Western Railway Summer 1909 Working Timetables and appears to be at least the seventh in a series.…

The euphoria which followed allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918 was short lived. The myriad deaths and wounds left scarcely a family untouched, whilst the sudden extinction of three former European Empires ushered in an uncertain and troubling world. Where would revolution end? What did the future hold? What role for Great Britain and her Empire? Disruption of established markets, financial instability and signs of separatism from the British Dominions, not to mention in India, showed that the pre-war world, with its comforting deference towards the ‘Mother Country’, was gone. It was in such a context that the idea of a great Imperial exhibition and showcase, first considered before the War, was revived and took shape. Wembley Park, which the Metropolitan Railway had purchased in 1890, was selected…