Editor's Intro
Water – the new oil (and food!)
17 May 2012
DESPITE a drought order in much of the UK – announced just before we got the wettest April on record – it did make me wonder about the future of water and how important it will become in all aspects of life.
Welcome... May 2012
16 April 2012.
WHEN I was just seven years old, on May 1, 1968, I sat myself down in front of the black and white telly with my trusty audio cassette recorder to capture the sounds of Flying Scotsman making its 40th anniversary non-stop King’s Cross to Edinburgh run. The loco had made the first such run when it was just five years old, could it do it again?
Comment... April 2012
15 March 2012.
JUST after we went to press with the last issue, we heard that an eminent engineer’s former house in Scotland was being threatened with demolition and that there would be a campaign to respond to an email petition to the local council to oppose such an act.
Comment... March 2012
16 February 2012.
I am writing this in early February and winter has just arrived in Lincolnshire with four inches of snow (our Canadian readers may be permitted to emit a loud snort at this point) and there’s definitely a feeling that not a lot is happening outside, or indeed anywhere at all.
London 2012 New Year’s Day Parade
19 January 2012.
Happy new year! I hope that your Christmas break allowed you to get a whiff of steam somewhere.
Comment... January 2012
15 December 2011.
As we approach another year end and time to drain down the engines and protect the pipes from frost there will no doubt be a few hardy souls that will be out and about at Christmas markets/fairs between Christmas and New Year – roading with their engines to the pub if the weather stays mild enough.
Doing the ‘green’ thing
17 November 2011.
Following on from my last month’s mutterings on metal thefts and the less than scrupilous types that will sacrifice the gamble of being frazzled alive to nick copper signalling cable, readers have mentioned to me that ‘scrappies’ are now a regular feature at vintage auctions, whereby the ‘nod’ is not just to the auctioneer but to another gang of scrappies in order to ‘div up’ the spoils and thereby whose turn it is for the next lot.
Paying a high price
20 October 2011.
The famous Great Train Robbery of 1963 netted £2.6 million in used banknotes – but there’s an even bigger train robbery going on right now, for, in the first three months of this financial year, Network Rail has seen nearly 300 cable theft crimes which have caused nearly 2000 hours of delay to passengers and has cost £4.3 million in compensation costs alone.
Comment... October 2011
15 September 2011.
Money and water don’t mix... Of all the various steam and vintage items that preservationists have saved, restored and operated over the last 50 years or so, there can be no sector that is such a seemingly thankless task as keeping an historic vessel fit for purpose; i.e. ‘in the water’ and keeping it in the water.
Comment... September 2011
18 August 2011.
YOU know it’s the height of the rally season when you need a scythe to find your front door – the garden’s looking a little neglected and any window of opportunity to do something about it gets scuppered by the fact it’s just too wet, due to the great summer we’re having.
Current Issue: June 2012
• FOURTEEN PORTABLES ‘COME HOME’ FROM CHILE
• BEAMISH HOME FLEET
• BRYAN STEAM TRACTOR
• SS BADGER
A protected species?
• MINIATURE ENGINES
• A BUYERS’ GUIDE
• FREE POSTER INSIDE!
PLUS:
• Next issue on sale: 21 June 2012
