Alan Drury's photos with the keyword: Mallaig

MV Lord of the Isles is one of the larger Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited ferries, run by Caledonian MacBrayne and largely operating from Mallaig on the west of Scotland. Built in Port Glasgow, she is the most-travelled vessel in today's fleet. MV Lord of the Isles, affectionately known as LOTI, was launched on the 7 March 1989 at Ferguson Shipbuilders, Port Glasgow. Although based at Oban for most of her life, she is able to berth and load traffic all over the Clyde and Hebridean Isles network. At 85m long MV Lord of the Isles is one of the biggest ships in the fleet. Broadly similar to MV Isle of Mull at the forward end, while her aft end resembles that of MV Hebridean Isles. The car deck, open at the stern, is capable of holding up to 56 cars. She has a vehicle hoist to allow loading at the older piers. The passenger accommodation provides space for a maximum certificate complement of 506. It consists of lounges, cafeteria, bar and shop on one deck, with an aft observation lounge on the deck above.She is the last vessel in the fleet to have sleeping accommodation for the longer passages. Entering service in 1989 on the Coll / Tiree and Barra / South Uist routes from Oban, LOTI combined two previous timetables. This freed up both Columba (1964) and Claymore (1978) and allowed a cascade to take place within the fleet. She remained at Oban for nine years, occasionally switching places with MV Isle of Mull on the Craignure crossing and relieving at Uig and Ardrossan. In 1998 she was replaced by MV Clansman and transferred to Mallaig to replace the veteran MV Iona on the seasonal Skye service. During the winter months she returned to Oban in a relief role. From 2003 to 2016, LOTI returned to Oban, alongside Isle of Mull and Clansman, providing additional sailings on a wide range of routes. With seven islands appearing regularly in her routine, she is easily the most-travelled vessel in today's fleet. She served on the Ardrossan - Brodick route in 2012, while Caledonian Isles went for overhaul. LOTI was used to commence a trial winter service between Mallaig and Lochboisdale from 2013. Over half of the scheduled trial sailings were cancelled due to adverse weather and tidal conditions.[citation needed] Despite the apparent lack of success, it was announced in September 2015 that she would commence daily return sailings on the route from summer timetable 2016. For the first time, this means that LOTI is now based around Mallaig, not Oban. Lochboisdale no longer has a direct link to Oban, apart from two days a week in Winter, with Mallaig becoming the mainland port. "LOTI" also carries out extra sailings on the Mallaig - Armadale route[citation needed] alongside the 2016 season vessels MV Lochinvar and MV Loch Bhrusda, which had replaced MV Coruisk. This vessel reshuffling has been criticised for the reduced capacity and inadequate passenger accommodation of Lochinvar, with calls for Coruisk to return to Mallaig alongside Lord of the Isles. During the winter 2016/2017 period, she started serving Oban from Lochboisdale two days a week, alongside her thrice-weekly sailings to Mallaig. From March 2017, LOTI will be partnered on the Mallaig - Armadale crossing by MV Loch Fyne, the previous smaller vessels being cascaded elsewhere in the CalMac network until the new ferries for Arran and Uig are due in service in 2019.

The London Midland and Scottish Railway Class 5 4-6-0, almost universally known as the Black Five, is a class of steam locomotive. It was introduced by William Stanier in 1934 and 842 were built between then and 1951. Members of the class survived to the last day of steam on British Railways in 1968, and eighteen are preserved. This class of locomotive was often a favourite amongst drivers and railway fans. The Black Fives were a mixed traffic locomotive, a "do-anything go-anywhere" type, designed by Stanier, who had previously been with the GWR. In his early LMS days, he designed his Stanier Mogul 2-6-0 in which he experimented with the GWR school of thought on locomotive design. A number of details in this design he would never use again realising the superiority of details not used on the GWR. Stanier realised that there was a need for larger locomotives. These were to be the LMS version of the GWR Halls but not a copy, as the Hall was too wide to run most places in Britain. They shared similar cylinder arrangement (two outside), internal boiler design and size and 6 foot driving wheel diameters. In their early days the locomotives were known as the "Black Staniers" from their black livery, in contrast to Stanier's other class of 4-6-0, the LMS Stanier Jubilee Class, which were painted crimson (and known until April 1935 as the "Red Staniers"). Later on, the nickname of the former became "Black Five", the number referring to the power classification. This was originally 5P5F, but from 1940 was shown on cabsides as the simple figure 5 There were a number of detail variations in the locomotives and they did not all remain in the same condition as built. Some locomotives built under British Railways administration were used as test beds for various design modifications with a view to incorporating the successful modifications in the Standard Classes of locomotives built from 1951 onwards. These modifications included outside Caprotti valve gear, roller bearings (both Timken and Skefco types) on the coupled and tender axles in varying combinations, and an experimental steel firebox. Other locomotives had modified draughting to "self clean" the smokebox (thereby reducing turn-around and disposal times and eliminating or mitigating one of the most unpopular jobs). Only five Black Fives received names during their mainline working lives, a small percentage of the total produced, although seven more have been named in preservation (see below). All of those named in mainline service were named after Scottish regiments. Locomotive 5155 carried the name The Queen's Edinburgh for only two years during the Second World War. Some sources have noted that no photographic confirmation of this naming is extant, although this is neither unique to the class, nor unexpected given restrictions on photography during wartime. The evidence for the naming of the locomotive is set out in full in various sources. LMS No. BR No. Name Date named Name removed 5154 45154 Lanarkshire Yeomanry 1937 1966 (withdrawal from service) 5155 45155 The Queen's Edinburgh 1942 1944 (remained in service until 1964) 5156 45156 Ayrshire Yeomanry 1936 1968 (withdrawal from service) 5157 45157 The Glasgow Highlander 1936 1962 (withdrawal from service) 5158 45158 Glasgow Yeomanry 1936 1964 (withdrawal from service) Eighteen black 5's have been preserved with twelve of them being purchased directly from BR for preservation, the remaining six being rescued from Barry Scrapyard. Of the eighteen to be preserved fourteen have operated in preservation, the class members that haven't yet run being: 44901, 45163, 45293 & 45491. Twelve black fives have also been operated on the mainline in preservation: 44767, 44871, 44932, 45000, 45025, 45110, 45212, 45231, 45305, 45337, 45407 & 45428. Of these 44871, 45212, 45231, 45305 & 45407 have mainline certificates. 45212 went out on Fri 3 March for its light and loaded test runs, 45428 is to be re-certified for mainline use following the completion of an overhaul at Grosmont, 45428 will however only be certified for use between Grosmont and Whitby with Battersby occasionally visited & 44806 is to be mainline certified for use between Grosmont, Whitby & Battersby following her next overhaul.