Backtrack | May 2025
Shap Seasons - three pages of colour shots of steam on the famous climb to Shap Summit on the West Coast Main Line Bridport Remembered - Martin Yard reflects on 50 years since Dorset lost its last branch line.
Delight and despair at Dumfries in 1965 - Douglas McNaught charts the demise of Dumfries as a railway centre.
Lake’s Chief Mechanical Engineers: Sir Henry Fowler - Malcolm Cowan focuses on Fowler of the Midland and later LMS Railways.
The Bishop’s Waltham Branch: Part One - Bruce Laws looks at the building of this Hampshire byway.
Facing their Waterloo - two colour photographs of life on the platforms concourse at this London terminus in the 1960s.
Going to Oban and back - four colour pages by Gavin Morrison of the scenic Caledonian line to Oban with a glance at the Ballachulish branch.
The ‘Claughtons’ - archive photographs of these LNWR 4-6-0 locomotives.
Speedlink - the Rise and Fall of a Railfreight brand: Part Two - M. G. Sadler takes the story forward through its operations to its demise in 1991.
A Toton Portfolion - Roderick H. Fowkes looks at the work of this Nottingham depot and particularly the career of Driver William Webb.
Decline and Fall in South Wales - a spread of telling photographs from the Colour-Rail Collection.
Painswick: The railway that never happened - Mike Fenton chronicles the four-decade frustrations of a Cotswold town which never made it on to the railway map.
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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.
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 May 2025.