Steam Days Magazine - February 2026

In this issue

The Caledonian Railway’s Magnificent Seven
David Anderson details the history of the seven McIntosh-designed 4-6-0s of the Sir James Thompson and Cardean locomotive classes, which became Scottish railway icons in the Edwardian era.

Spotlight on Saltford station
A home station while staying away with his aunt, not only did Chris Gordon Watford start many a photographic journey at this ex-GWR premises between Bath and Bristol, but during 1954 he also recorded this now long lost Avon valley stopping place.

The Fawley branch
Although a railway with passenger aspirations, Stanley C Jenkins and Roger Smith tell of how these would never come to much and instead it was goods and block freight trains that proved to be enduring enough to see this route through to modern times.

Metro-land steam operations
Swedebasher looks at the curious oddity of the Met & GC Joint line and its shared British Railways and London Transport use, analysing the mid to late 1950s period but also briefly considering the changes that came as the next decade began.