Western Times - Issue 16 Autumn 2026

In this issue we have details of the rescue for preservation of a locomotive directly from Swindon, in this case diesel-hydraulic No. D1062 Western Courier. Another author contribution describes what it was like working for BR Western Region in a busy Bristol area signal box. There are short pieces about Paddington’s horse power, and oddities in proposed locomotive re-numbering following Nationalisation. There is a photographic look at steamy Summer Saturdays at Exeter St Davids, and an account of the early developmental stages of Automatic Train Control. There is also a description of one of the Dean ‘Single’ 4-2-2s and of personal associations with the locomotive in question. All the regulars are here –the Riley archives, book review, the latest Great Western Trust Bulletin, and the latest instalment of ‘The Pannier Story’. For those readers with a taste for mystery, there is an investigation into the strangest standard gauge GWR locomotive, one that Swindon often pretended had never existed at all.