Tornado out-whistles, but Tangmere smokes it through Maidenhead.

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• published: 09 Mar 2013
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LNER A1 Class 4-6-2 no 60163 Tornado, dukes it out with SR Light Pacific Battle of Britain Class no 34067 Tangmere, through Maidenhead on 9th March 2013, Tornado winning the whistling contest, and Tangmere winning the smoking contest. Call that an honourable draw then. Its a cracking start to a hiatus of steam down the GWR, lots of services crammed in over the next few months before Reading becomes a no-go area. Tornado is pulling a unique service today (hopefully more of that later) with the Steam Dreams Cathedrals Express service Paddington/Plymouth/Paddington, and Tangmere is heading the Railway Touring Company Cotswold Venturer, Euston/Worcester/Paddington. This is only my second visit to Maidenhead Station, so deserves some words. The statue on the bench in the station, is the man dubbed the "British Schindler" for his work saving Jewish children from Nazi invasion. Sir Nicholas Winton was 29 when he smuggled 669 boys and girls, destined for concentration camps, out of Czechoslovakia in 1939. Still alive today at 103, he celebrated his 100th birthday flying over the nearby White Waltham Airfield in a microlight piloted by Judy Leden, the daughter of one of the boys he saved. Maidenhead is a town and unparished area within the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It lies on the River Thames and is situated 25.7 miles (41.4 km) west of Charing Cross in London. Maidenhead's name, strictly speaking, refers to the busy riverside area where the "New wharf" or "Maiden Hythe" was built, perhaps as early as Saxon times. It has been suggested that the nearby Great Hill of Taplow was called the "Mai Dun" by the Iron Age Brythons. The area of the town centre was originally known as "South Ellington" and is recorded in the Domesday Book as Ellington in the hundred of Beynhurst In 1280, a bridge was erected across the river to replace a ferry in what was then the hamlet of South Ellington. The Great West Road to Reading, Gloucester and Bristol was diverted over the new bridge - previously it kept to the north bank crossed the Thames by ford at Cookham—and mediaeval Maidenhead grew up around it. Within a few years a wharf was constructed next to the bridge and the South Ellington name was dropped with the area becoming known as Maidenhythe (literally meaning "new wharf"). The earliest record of this name change is in the Bray Court manorial rolls of 1296. The bridge led to the growth of Maidenhead: a stopping point for coaches on the journeys between London and Bath and the High Street became populated with inns. The current Maidenhead Bridge, a local landmark, dates from 1777 and was built at a cost of £19,000. King Charles I met his children for the last time before his execution in 1649 at the Greyhound Inn on the High Street, the site of which is now a branch of the NatWest Bank. A plaque commemorates their meeting. When the Great Western Railway came to the town, it began to expand. Muddy roads were replaced and public services were installed. The High Street began to change again and substantial Victorian red brick architecture began to appear throughout the town. Maidenhead became its own entity in 1894, being split from the civil parishes of both Bray and Cookham. By Edwardian times, Boulter's Lock nearby became a favoured resort especially on Ascot Sunday, and the Skindles hotel developed a reputation for illicit liaisons On 12 July 1901, Maidenhead entered the UK Weather Records with the Highest 60-min total rainfall at 92 mm. As of April 2011, this record remains. The (Brunel-built) Great Western Main Line passes through the town, calling at Maidenhead railway station and offering links to London and stations towards Bristol. It passes over Brunel's Maidenhead Railway Bridge (known locally as the Sounding Arch and painted by J W Turner), famous for its flat brick arches. Maidenhead Station is the beginning of the Marlow Branch Line from Maidenhead to Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and is one of the proposed termini for the London Crossrail scheme. Currently, rail services are provided by First Great Western who took over the Thames Trains franchise in 2003/4. Local bus services are provided by First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, Arriva the Shires and Essex and Courtney Coaches. The A4 runs through the town and crosses the Thames over Maidenhead Bridge. The town lies adjacent to junction 8/9 on the M4 motorway (accessed via the A404(M) and A308(M)). The M4 and M40 are linked by the A404(M)/ A404 which skirts the western side of Maidenhead. The River Thames runs half a mile to the east of the town centre, and York Stream, which runs through the town centre, connects to the Thames via a system of disused waterways. A renewal scheme is in progress (October 2007) to reopen these waterways. The Jubilee River, part of the flood defence scheme, begins above Boulter's Lock nearby.