Chugging and chuffing their way around heritage lines across the country, steam locomotives continue to capture our imagination, says Octavia Pollock

RAIL Columnist

Happy New Year and welcome to the latest Railways Illustrated. I hope you all had a great festive period. I assume when you look back at 2025, it was a good year; at least we didn’t have a pandemic, b

Although born in Doncaster during the Second World War, Peter Fitton was brought up in the Fylde, hence his interest in the L&Y – his bedroom in St Annes overlooked the then main line to Blackpool Cen

As 2025 draws to a conclusion, it’s time to look back at another varied year on Britain’s railways, and, as ever, there have been many developments, not all for the better, but plenty of good news as

August 2, 1980 – the day I saw my first High Speed Train. I can well recall that day, three months after I’d started spotting. We were on our way to Newquay for a family holiday. We didn’t have a car