Steam Picture of the Week

Picture of the Week: Austrian 97-208 0-6-2 Rack Tank

Alan Ledger December 24, 2015

This is a very cold Austria and we are a few thousand feet up! A volcanic exhaust and tremendous noise is being produced by 97-208 0-6-2 Rack tank as it climbs very slowly to Prabichl through spectacular scenery with empty iron ore wagons from Vordernberg to the iron ore mountain at Ertzberg for re loading on a freezing cold day, another engine brings up the rear out of sight working just as hard. We must have been mad venturing out

Picture of the Week: 7802 KIDDERMINSTER

Alan Ledger December 17, 2015

I took this picture at Kidderminster of Great Western 4-6-0 7802 “Bradley Manor” during our last very heavy snow fall in the Midlands during December 2010. The Santa Specials on the Severn Valley railway valiantly continued to run but not many of those that had booked were able to turn up. Tomorrow is the same date as five years ago and the temperature is expected to be 12.C, not much prospect of snow then. We only got there with our

Picture of the Week: (EAST) GERMANY

Alan Ledger December 3, 2015

An East German light Pacific 003-2001 Runs along side the river Saal at Dornburg. This was running with a large number of other preserved engines during a German enthusiasts 4 day plan Damph (steam festival) that a group of us went over to see. They were allowed to work normal timetabled trains in place of German State Railway Diesels, could you imagine that happening in Britain? So here is the 11.49 Camberg to Saalfeld. Up above on the escarpment some

Picture of the Week: 01 1010

Alan Ledger November 19, 2015

3 cylinder East German Pacific 03-1010 with a full brake application taking place, the smoke off the brake blocks was tremendous on this hot summers evening (which drivers amongst you remembers them from old? happy days, can’t be done now though! TPWS won’t let you) as she storms into Naumberg for the booked stop working the 18.01 Halle to Saalfeld D express. Thick smoke trails behind the engine giving the neds hanging out the windows something to remember. No cinders

Picture of the Week: Ponferada Spain

Alan Ledger October 29, 2015

Ponferada and Villablino Railway 2-6-0 number 6 has just crossed the bridge over the reservoir at Santa Marina in the remote area of northern west Spain and is entering a tunnel cut through the hills as it comes down from the mines at Villablino with coal for the power station at Ponferada. Snow still lies high up on the northern Pyrenees mountains. This was a busy line and there were about 15 to 20 engines of different types working out

Picture of the Week: 15F1998

Alan Ledger October 15, 2015

Here we have a South African 4-8-2. 15F 1998 seen south of Ficksburg working the 08.55 Bethlehem to Bloemfontain with 14 coaches in tow. There were 257 of these engines built by various company’s, this one being constructed by the North British Locomotive works, Glasgow, and they were found all over the S.A. main line system. This engine was from the depot at Beaufort West and was a bit out of its area for some reason, probably borrowed by Bloemfontain.

Picture of the Week: 7820 from Dartmouth

Alan Ledger October 7, 2015

Something a bit different. Went to Dartmouth 3 weeks ago and got this distant shot of 7820 Dinmore Manor coming from Paignton going to Kingswear. As I stood on the quay side I could see a gap in the boats to get the picture of the train, which you can hardly see! and as it got there just by luck the local water taxi came scuttling across in front, unnoticed, and took me completely by surprise but was timed to

Picture of the Week: 003 131

Alan Ledger September 25, 2015

On one of our first trips to West Germany we managed to sneak round the steam workshops at Linen, closed for the weekend, on the Rhine Emden line in the north of the country and were surprised to see this engine undergoing overhaul and a long way from it’s home depot. We believed at the time they had all finished working in the west, 298 were built in the 1930s. This is a 2 cylinder light Pacific 003-131 which we

Picture of the Week: QJ 2911

Alan Ledger September 10, 2015

Here is a Chinese QJ class 2-10-2 2911 heading south away from Zhengzhou at Walibou crossing, you won’t find it on any map! on the main line to Wuhan with a long coal train during a storm that was blowing the dry soil off the surrounding fields and filling the air. If you look into the distance beyond the front of the engine the visibility is beginning to deteriorate. It became much worse as the morning wore on and made

Picture of the Week: Portugal

Alan Ledger August 27, 2015

This is one of my favourite pictures I took in Portugal. Although I have a colour photo as well this one in black and white is perfect for the scene, the light was just right, taken in the early evening with long shadows the train is almost silhouetted against the river after the hot day time glare had gone, perfect! Here is Henschel oil burning 4-6-0 number 282 heading for Regua working the afternoon postal train from Barca de Alva

35005 AT BOURNEMOUTH

Alan Ledger August 13, 2015

A great black and white shot of Merchant Navy 4-6-2 35005 “Canadian Pacific” with that fantastic signal gantry at the platform end, and the road is clear for it to leave Bournemouth Central with an up express for Waterloo. The Weymouth portion will have been attached at the rear. We were drawn here right up to the last days of steam on the Southern Region to see it all end. 35023 “Holland Africa Line” was the very last Pacific to

Picture of the week: 043-574 Lathen, West Germany

Alan Ledger July 23, 2015

A West German class 43 2-10-0 3 cylinder oil burner 043-574 with that deep distinctive 3 cylinder beat they had heads north for Emden docks with a train of loaded coal hoppers, these were big heavy trains and this one is seen between Haren and Lathen on the busy Munster, Rheine, Emden, Norddiech main line. Double heading was quite frequent on these trains. It was relatively flat in this area with very sandy soil, fir trees along with Oak and

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