Backtrack | August 2013
Polkemmet Colliery - a double spread of industrial steam at this site in Lanarkshire.
The Closed Stations of Wirral's Passenger Railways - surveyed by Rowan Patel.
The Bodmin Branch - a local history by Alan Bennett.
The Great Western Railway '56XX' Tanks- three pages of colour photos.
Changing Times on the Chesham Branch- Michael J. Smith presents a brief history up to the changeover from steam to electric traction.
Was the LMS too big? - Peter Tatlow discusses an alternative scenario.
Meanwhile, Back at Carlisle - five more pages of colour from the Border City.
An 'Oglo' at Helsby - Tony Robinson describes the moving of an out of gauge load, a nuclear power station transformer, to Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1961.
Baltic Mysteries - Philip Atkins describes the genesis of the ill-starred Tilbury 4-6-4 tanks.
The 'Juice' comes South - Jeffery Grayer relates the story of the 'Portsmouth No.2' electrification scheme to Littlehampton, Bognor and Worthing.
Seeing Double (or more!) - David Cable's colour shots of two or three trains passing each other on the GW main line.
Progress and Problems on the North British Railway 1845-6 - Jeffrey Wells goes back to the beginnings of the East Coast Main Line from Edinburgh.
Grime Time at New Street - four colour shots of steam at the old Birmingham station in 1955.
Cheshire Lines - four pages of archive photos on the Cheshire Lines Committee system.
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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.
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Articles in this issue
Below is a selection of articles in Backtrack August 2013.