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.
507025
Waterloo (Merseyside), 24 April 2010
15 years ago today I spent half an hour or so at Waterloo station… Waterloo (Merseyside) that is!
Merseyrail’s 507025 was in charge of train 2U30, the 12.58 Every Week Day (EWD) service from Southport to Hunts Cross.
I think this is my only pic of a Class 507 electric multiple unit but I am looking forward to seeing preserved 507001 at The Greatest Gathering in August.
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.
British Railways Mk.1 Sleeper First (SLF) E2080
Peak Rail, 11 January 2014
While British Railways Mk.1 passenger carriages are incredibly commonplace on heritage railways, Mk.1 sleeping carriages are definitely a rarity with (as far as I’m aware) only six still in existence.
Most were built with asbestos insulation, which was expensive to remove professionally and so were sold for scrap but a few were bought by preservation societies for use as volunteer accommodation.
E2080 was built in 1959 by Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage & Wagon Co Ltd and was preserved in 1983, initially on the Dart Valley Railway (now the South Devon Railway) before moving to Peak Rail in the late 1980s.
When I visited Peak Rail in April last year it was still undergoing restoration.
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
Railway Miscellany 