steamindex.com is a directory...
It's a personal interpretation of the railways of Britain and overseas: the businesses, the people - and the enthusiasms - that have developed around this core industry.
Founding editor: Kevin P. Jones (KPJ).
Click the titles to open/close. Click logo on each page to return here.
The Wayback Machine has been taking regular snapshots of steamindex.com since 2002. You can view the site as it was at many points-in-time by following the Wayback Machine link.
The site's founding editor - Kevin Jones, often referred to in the text as KPJ - maintained the site, selecting the topics covered, writing much of the content in precis form, and injecting many of his personal thoughts into the text. The style originated in the early days of the Worldwide Web when "portals" like steamindex.com emerged to guide the user towards relevant websites, and page design remained rooted the early noughties. Search engines have gone on to replace the portal concept, but KPJ's directory was still widely used by railway historians for its curated summaries.
KPJ retired from running the site in July 2023 and passed it on for digital posterity. KPJ's copyright on the text was assigned to a new editor, but he is still credited as the author. The aim is to retain KPJ's work as much as possible whilst making some essential changes. The Home page is now stripped of its variable content, but you can still view KPJ's final home page (opens in a new tab). It is unlikely that significant new content will be added to steamindex.com but the new Home page will continue to evolve as we uncover more of KPJ's work. Broken links abound and will be fixed where possible, but in some cases the material has been lost. Some universal layout changes have been applied to improve rendering on diverse screen sizes.
Note: Any opionions expressed herein are those of KPJ and are not necessarily endorsed by the current editor.
steamindex.com has been preserved for digital posterity. We assert copyright on the text authored by Kevin Jones (KPJ) but the website may include non-original material that was not KPJ's to assign. If you feel your rights are being unfairly impinged, please contact the site by email to give us a chance to remediate the issue.
Researchers: Please remember to credit Kevin Jones and steamindex.com in your publications. Websites: Please support the continuation of steamindex.com by linking to us.
© Matthew Shaw 2025