Backtrack  |  April 2023
BACKTRACK Vol.37 No.4 - APRIL 2023
‘RCR’ on the Midland - the colour pages of the great photographer Dick Riley’s travels on London Midland Region lines.
When a Station Roof Collapses - Jeffrey Wells recounts four unfortunate incidents at Leicester, Huddersfield, Nottingham and Crewe.
The Liverpool Spring Meeting : John C. Hughes takes stock of how the railway companies dealt with race traffic to the Grand National.
‘Rocket’ and its Kin: Part One - Anthony Dawson reflects on the Rainhill Trials and what happened to ‘Rocket’ afterwards.
Engine and Brake Van to Shirebrook: Part Two - M. G. Sadler concludes his look at the life of a freight guard in the 1970s.
Exercising their Powers - Photographs of the mighty British Railways 9F 2-10-0s by Gavin Morrison.
Steam at Brighton - four pages of colour at this south coast railway centre.
North Wales Byways - archive photographs of stations from Anglesey to the Vale of Rheidol line.
Bert Spencer: Gresley’s Master Engineer - Tim Hillier-Graves introduces one of the most influential 'behind the scenes' locomotive engineers on the London & North Eastern Railway during the years of Sir Nigel Gresley and beyond.
CIE - Modern and Ancient - a colour spread of historic Irish diesel and steam.
The Railways of Halifax - David Joy describes how this West Riding of Yorkshire town struggled to establish itself on the railway map.
Sixes and Sevens - some thoughts by Ray Fisher on the background to the ‘Railway Grouping’ 100 years ago.
read more
read less
The specialist magazine was first published in 1986 for the purpose of ‘recording the history of Britain’s railway’ - the magazine’s strapline - and it is now published by Pendragon Publishing. Dropping every month, Backtrack magazine is your monthly dose of railway nostalgia and historical insight.
35 years later and Backtrack has firmly established itself as the authority on topics such as the history of Britain and Ireland’s train stations, railway bridges, signalling, biographies, train services and staff recollections - all of which regularly appear in the magazine. Backtrack's contributors include many of today's leading railway history writers and the magazine has a reputation for being of the highest quality.
With a multitude of unmissable monthly features, every issue aims to chronicle and record part of the history of Britain’s railway system. Every issue contains a dozen or so large articles that focus on a particular line or area in British railway history.
Whether you’re into early railway history from the 'pre-Stephenson' era, steam, diesel or electric locomotive you’ll find every era covered in minute detail - from railway company history, railway carriages and wagons, railway stations, railway ships, hotels and road vehicles, railway economic and social history and railway publicity and advertising.
A Backtrack digital magazine subscription is your go-to for railway history:
- Britain's leading historical railway magazine
- Delving into the era of horse-drawn tramroads up to locomotives and rolling stock
- History of lines, the social, political, financial, engineering and labour aspects of the railway
- Archive black and white quality images and historical colour coverage of the railway scene
- The history of train stations, railway bridges, signalling, biographies and train services
- Contributors include many of today's leading railway history writers
- Delivered directly to your device every week
You'll receive 12 issues during a 1 year Backtrack magazine subscription.
Note: Digital editions do not include the covermount items or supplements you would find with printed copies.
Articles in this issue
Below is a selection of articles in Backtrack April 2023.