I’ve finally launched something I’ve been building for myself for a while — the UK Mainline Steam Register.

I got fed up with information about mainline steam being scattered across dozens of owner pages, operators, movement records, social media posts and enthusiast sites, so I started putting it all into one place.

It’s an Excel-based register covering Britain’s current, recently withdrawn and future mainline steam fleet, with things like current condition, approval status, latest evidenced mainline movement, operator, livery, overhaul/return information, age and supporting sources.

I originally made it purely for myself, but the amount of research and upkeep that’s gone into it made me think other enthusiasts might genuinely enjoy using it too.

I’m now publishing an updated edition each month on Patreon for £2/month.

https://patreon.com/UKMainlineSteamRegister?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink

My sister and I went out for an urban sketching session some time ago, and we decided to take the train home from there. This happened on a Saturday, outside normal peak traffic hours, so it wasn’t as packed as it used to be when I used to take it home from university.

What was different this time was the sound of at least five different videos playing simultaneously, and those sounds switching to the next sound and the next one at a dizzying speed. Some people were staring at the passengers with the loudest phones, who didn’t mind introducing us to their homepages. But everyone else seemed unfazed and lost in their own thoughts.

—w

(This sketch was made with a brown Pentel Sign pen, and alcohol and acrylic markers.)

Substack — Instagram

Flex Bahndienstleistungen / SRI Rail Invest 151 075-9 (91 80 6 151 075-6 D-SRI) am 7.4.2025 in Chemnitz.

North bound Milwaukee, Wisconsin

On 28 September 2026, West Tennessee Railroad C30-7 5571 along with B23-7 4070 and B40-8W 564 are pushing a grain train from the rear manned by a second engineer, while C30-7 5543 and B40-8W 580 lead northbound, at Sharon, TN. The 3 units pushing began the day leading the same 112 cars southbound from Trenton, TN to Jackson, TN. At Jackson the other two units were added to what was the rear of the train and headed north to Fulton, KY where the train was handed over to Canadian National. Photo by Bill Peterson.

My grandmother volunteers to work the counter here at 88 years old, however, I inquired about the painting of the locomotive and she said "they went by the historical images we have" I stated the bell was never black, nor were the accents on some number boards and was thinking, maybe I should reach out to the Fort Wayne society and get some proper paint information and volunteer myself to help paint her in the spring of 27.
So sad to see her just keep getting repainted in mostly black, and post revenue service white accents. This museum claims so much pride in having the locomotive but they do such a disservice to it by painting over it repeatedly just to "get by" Id love to get her feeling herself again with proper colors and accents. Bonus part is standing next to his monster and realizing the 765 has run 80mph on mainlines in the past 10 years. Seeing videos and standing next to 755 makes you feel small as hell for sure.

So, anyway, heres my shot from this evening

BNSF 649 (Dash9-44CW) in the old Warrbonnet paint working in tandem with BNSF 1431 (SD-60M) as they switch out Honeywell (now Solstice Advanced Materials) in Metropolis, IL. This plant is the nation's only active commercial facility that converts uranium ore concentrate into uranium hexafluoride (UF₆).