We’ve all heard of gun runners, drug runners, booze runners, ciggy runners, and so on. A friend of mine even told me of his tee-total, staunch Methodist, aged great uncle whose weekly ‘running’ consisted of taking a bottle of Irish Whiskey to his equally aged, though...
Douglas Earle Marshall, Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon Superintendent of the London Brighton & South Coast Railway was on a roll. The company was pleased with the success of his I3 class 4-4-2 tank engines, so much so that Douglas was given free reign to design...
In this case the last loco was not some last of its class high-performance main line express engine that once grabbed the headlines but a lowly tank locomotive that attracted little attention. On week ending 16 February 1952, British Railways officially withdrew...
The September 1939 mass evacuations of UK towns and cities under Operation Pied Piper is well known. However, Benito Mussolini’s decision on 10 June 1940 to take Italy into the war on the side of Nazi Germany, led to evacuations of a different type. By taking Italy...
On 17 November 1994, around 22 million people sat glued to their television sets as Noel Edmunds hosted the extravaganza heralding the first National Lottery draw. It was left to 18-year-old Deborah Walsh to press the button that set the balls tumbling round. First...
When Basford Gasworks, Nottingham, opened in the 1840s, railway wagons were moved around by means of capstans and wagon turntables. However, during the 1890s the works was extended to meet to growing demand for gas. As a result, the works railway system was...