Backtrack | April 2025
BACKTRACK Vol.39 No.4 - APRIL 2025
More recently at Carlisle - colour photographs by Keith Dungate at Carlisle station in the late 1980s.
‘The Hub of the System’ - Jeffrey Wells presents a study of five aspects of Crewe 1867-1913.
Speedlink: Part One - M.G. Sadler charts the Rise and Fall of a Railfreight Brand.
Britain’s Railways and the Boer War 1899-1902 - Part One by a study by Berenice Baynham.
The Birkenhead Joint Line: Part Two - Stan Yates concludes his history of the Hooton to West Kirby branch.
The LNER in Colour - five pages recording the LNER both pre- and post-war from the Colour-Rail Collection.
Souvenirs of the South Western - archive photos of London & South Western Railway locomotives.
The Failure of Post-War Reconstruction and the Railways Act 1921 - Gary Bonsall describes the political and practical machinations which culminated in the Grouping in 1923.
Past Signs - Geoffrey Skelsey’s colour photographs of railway station signs from nationalisation onwards.
An accident while dismantling a railway - Alistair F. Nisbet describes a misfortune on the wartime branch serving the Lenabo Airship Base in Aberdeenshire.
The Scottish Quartet - Gavin Morrison’s colour spread featuring the four pre-grouping Scottish locomotives operated by BR in the late 1950s/early 1960s.
The Decades of Stage and Mail Coach ‘Piggy-Backing’ - Tom Nicholls reflects on when stagecoaches completed parts of their journey ‘on the railway’.
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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 April 2025.