AS hotel names go, this one’s a little unusual. Across Church Street, where I’m standing in the Welsh Border town of Chirk, is the Hand Hotel. Parts of it date back to 1610, during the reign of James

GET IN TOUCH Steam Railway, Media House, Lynchwood, ...

In the first 15 years of its life as a heritage line, steam on the West Somerset Railway underwent a remarkable transformation, from humble industrials to stars from the National Collection.

Overhauls, restorations and running notes

Sixty years ago this month, on March 6 1966, the Western Region achieved two major goals with the end of both steam power and the Somerset & Dorset route – bringing a mighty era to a rather grubby end.

When I had last spent time in the area in August 1963, most passenger services and just a few longer distance freight trains had started to be diesel-hauled, with local freight trip working still a st