Steam Picture of the Week

Hi all, Here’s a picture I took from my trusty machine at a steam gala on the Gloucester and Warwickshire Railway some three years ago I believe, of Great Western 2-8-0 tank engine 4270 in magnificent condition entering Toddington station with a short freight train from Cheltenham. These engines were built for a specific job which was to haul coal and steel up and down the South Wales valleys all their lives and very few ventured any where else and

 Hi all, Night time at the junction town of Bebra on the East West German border and like many railway main lines the trains run all through the night. East German Pacific oil burner 01-0523 had just arrived in the station with an express from the east and now stands waiting to be turned on the depot turntable before returning later with a train to Leipzig. All the trains working across the border into the east were manned by

Hi all, Night time at Wernigerode, all the engines that are here have been disposed, fires and smoke boxes cleaned and are now at rest until the morning service. There were probably 7 or 8 of these 2-10-2 tank engines at rest here at Wernigrode in the Hartz mountain region of what used to be East Germany. What a great railway it was and still is to this day to visit I managed to get there on 5 occasions. These

Hi all, Looking down from the footbridge at Bewdley on the Severn Valley Railway in the late summer as people relax and watch a Kidderminster Bridgnorth train headed by Stanier Black 5 45110 prepare to leave. The fireman looks back to get the green flag from to the guard before they can leave. Some nice hanging baskets adorn the lamp posts. I may have sent this a long time ago but I like the summer scene so here it is

Hi all, Three pictures this week of the same engine, a Chinese QJ class 2-10-2. We had moved on overnight by train from Xian to Zenghzang and a visit to the depot there where they had done us proud, their pride and joy was on view. There were about 40 odd engines including this beautifully kept engine. Even the engines in-service were really well kept and clean. It transpired that we were to go out into the countryside to do

Hi all, Chinese class RM Pacific 1251 backs off the turntable at the depot in Xian. This was one of 40 of this class allocated here, engines were being changed in the station opposite to the depot all day long including the use of other depots engines working in and out. It was indeed a Mecca for RM Pacific’s. We saw and traveled on trains of 15 50 ton coaches by these engines, they weren’t built for speed just pulling

Hi all, 52 221 2-10-0 ex krieg loco Working the 14.34 Linz to Summerau near Lastberg St Oswald, Austria, climbing through some of the most beautiful countryside you could wish to see, teaming with wildlife. You could walk for miles and not find any fences to impede your progress, as you can see even the railway is unfenced. This was a very busy line, mainly freight and all steam hauled. Some trains were so heavy they needed two engines 29/04/1974.

Hi all, I ventured out on my trusty wheel chair early last Saturday to take a picture of 7029 “Clun Castle” climbing out of Birmingham New Street and passing through Five Ways station with 1Z40 the 08.00 Birmingham New Street to Bishops Lydeyard, near Taunton for a trip down the West Somerset Railway onward to Minehead. Here are two pictures, one of it leaving the last of 4 tunnels,(at one time I could remember their names but time has caught

Hi all, Here are a couple of really nice shots taken on my fifth visit to Austria. Almost all of the standard gauge steam had now finished in the country and so I was now concentrating here on the Garsten narrow gauge line which would almost certainly be closed by the OBB Austrian state railway, which it eventually was. But the section between Styer and Grunburg has now become a 17 km steam operated museum railway. 298-53 by the river