GWR 5600 class 0-6-2T 5643
Swanwick Junction, 1 May 2010
15 years ago today Great Western Railway (GWR) 5600 class 0-6-2T 5643 (b.1925, Swindon) was on hire to the Midland Railway-Butterley (from the Ribble Steam Railway if memory serves…) and is seen here taking on water at Swanwick Junction between workings.
LNER class D49 4-4-0 62712 MORAYSHIRE
Sheringham, 6 March 2015
London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) class D49 4-4-0 62712 MORAYSHIRE (b.1928, Darlington) runs around train 2M30, the 13.45 service from Sheringham to Holt on 6 March 2015 during the North Norfolk Railway’s Spring Steam Gala. 62712 was visiting the NNR from the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway in Scotland.
Also visible is Sheringham East signal box, a Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR) structure dating from 1906 and beautifully restored by NNR volunteers.
Thomas Hill (Rotherham) Ltd 0-6-0DHF Tommy (works no.246V of 1973)
Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, 27 February 2010
Photographed on a murky Saturday afternoon 15 years ago were this pair of Thomas Hill (Rotherham) Ltd 0-6-0DMF locomotives at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway (EVR) in Derbyshire.
Both locomotives were supplied new to BP’s Llandarcy Refinery in South Wales and arrived at the EVR in February 2009.
No.246V has since been rebuilt by LH Group/Hunslet Engine Co Ltd (as works no.9377) and is currently to be found at Trostre Steelworks in Carmarthenshire.
Thomas Hill (Rotherham) Ltd 0-6-0DHF Hydra (works no.194V of 1968)
Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, 27 February 2010
No.194V was also sold to LH Group/Hunslet Engine Co Ltd but ended up being scrapped in June 2017 at EMR, Kingsbury.
GWR 4900 class 4-6-0 4965 ROOD ASHTON HALL
Stratford-upon-Avon, 18 July 2004
Twenty years ago today I took a trip on The Shakespeare Express from Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham Snow Hill.
Great Western Railway ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 4965 ROOD ASHTON HALL (built in 1929 at Swindon Works) was in charge of the eight coach train and I remember enjoying the journey in spite of the torrential rain!
ROOD ASHTON HALL nameplate
Birmingham Snow Hill, 18 July 2004
66781 Ratcliffe Power Station
Shipley Gate, 28 June 2024
Today saw the final delivery of coal to the UK’s last coal-fired power station.
GB Railfreight’s 66781 (the former 66016) was in charge of train 6M61, the 08.25 from Doncaster Down Decoy Yard to Ratcliffe Power Station in Nottinghamshire, its new Ratcliffe Power Station nameplates already uncovered ahead of a low-key naming ceremony at the power station which is due to close in September.
69006
Beeston, 7 March 2024
Spotted my first Class 69 yesterday whilst waiting for a train at Beeston, Nottinghamshire…
69006 Pathfinder Railtours Peter Watts 50 years service 1973-2023 (the former 56128) passed through the station with train 6X49, the 06.13 departmental (IFA points & crossing carriers) from Toton North Yard to Beeston Sidings.
43087 leads ‘The Royal Duchy’ past Truro signal box
4 August 2014
In the early hours of this morning Truro signal box (formerly Truro East) signalled its last train. The semaphore signals will be removed and control of the section will be handed to a panel in Exeter power box.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) type 7a structure dates from 1899 and is fitted with a 54-lever frame that came from Bristol East Depot Main Line signal box in 1971.
43087 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment Royal Logistic Corps and 43042 were in charge of train 1C81, the 12.06 First Great Western service, ‘The Royal Duchy’ from London Paddington to Penzance on the 4 August 2014 and although 43087 was scrapped in December 2022, 43042 (now named Tregenna Castle) can still be found working in Cornwall.
91111 For the Fallen
London King’s Cross, 7 January 2015
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
Poem by Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)
91111 For the Fallen
London King’s Cross, 7 January 2015
My (so far, only) visit to the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway has featured here before but this vehicle is something I’d pretty much forgotten about.
19001
Bo’ness, 2 November 2018
Previously used on West Coast Main Line (WCML) services this Mk.3b Driving Van Trailer, number 82113, was being used by Artemis Intelligent Power to test the viability of using hydrostatic transmission to reduce engine emissions and had been fitted with two JCB diesel engines and…
19001
Bo’ness, 2 November 2018
A second driving cab.
Following conversion 82113 was renumbered as a diesel locomotive and allocated the TOPS number 19001. Since my visit it’s changed hands and is being/has been used to carry out magnetic wheel adhesion testing by Lenz Labs of Edinburgh.
Class 25/3 D7659 (25309)
Rowsley South, Peak Rail, 7 April 2023
D7659 was the final Class 25 locomotive built by Beyer, Peacock & Co Ltd (in 1966) and had a fairly uneventful pre-preservation career.
Renumbered 25309 under British Rail’s TOPS system in April 1974 and again (to 25909) in December 1985, withdrawal beckoned in September 1986. After asbestos removal the locomotive left Vic Berry’s scrapyard in Leicester on 2 June 1988 for display at Coalville Open Day on 4 June before moving into preservation at the East Lancashire Railway (ELR).
Now owned by pop impresario Pete Waterman, D7659 is based at Peak Rail in Derbyshire and today hauled three return trips between Rowsley South and Matlock, the above pic is of the 13.00 departure from Rowsley South.
Railway Miscellany 