Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: British

It takes years of real neglect to get as filthy as this unidentified Stanier Black 5. The cleaners (if there were still such things at Newton Heath loco shed in 1968) hadn't been near the cylinder and wheels of this example & no doubt it went to its grave with the accumulated grease & grime. The scrap men (and look away if you're sensitive) would set fire to the grease before cutting the engines up. This would burn away everything first so that their torches didn't start fires while they worked.

Lit by the glow through the firehole door British Railways Standard 2 2-6-0 78019 approaches the north end of Greet Tunnel near Winchcombe with the 10.00 train from Cheltenham to Broadway.

British Railways Standard 5 4-6-0 73156 takes the 12.50 service to Leicester North from platform 1 at Loughborough. HFF & have a great weekend.

A view looking west across the Rocky Mountain Trench along which the Columbia River flows northwards (to the right). I'm not 100% sure which peaks are seen but they are in the Dogtooth Range at the northern end of the Purcell Mountains west of Golden. The trench is cut into Cambro-Ordovician McKay Slates and is bounded on this side by the Purcell Thrust dipping west under the Dogtooth Range. The mountain range consists of a series of folds and thrust plates involving Proterozoic and Lower Cambrian rocks. Obviously it's not the main point of interest in this scene but there is a fence (& a railway!!) in there.... HFF & have a great weekend.

On the first weekend after lockdown was partially lifted British Railways Standard 9F 2-10-0 92214 arrives at Quorn & Woodhouse station with the empty stock of the 10.00 Quorn-Quorn Covid service. It's carrying a wreath on the smokebox door in memory of ex-BR and GCR Driver Don Palmer who sadly died last week. RIP.

Lostock Hall engine shed near Preston three days before the end of British Railways steam in August 1968. This is the view from Watkin Lane over the allotment fence. On the steam locomotive dump the engines on view are mainly Stanier Black 5s but the nearest is an Ivatt 4 2-6-0. The coaling plant dominates the centre with the water tank to its right & the engine shed itself to the right of that. HFF & have a great weekend.

Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 44971 taking water at the platform end of Preston station early on a Sunday morning near the end of BR steam. Myself & a friend had arrived at Preston station at approx. 05.00 in the morning after trying & failing to sleep on the footplate of a Black 5 at Lostock Hall shed, on a park bench in Leyland & at the cop shop in Leyland. We didn't really sleep in the waiting room at Preston either because this engine was pottering about. Later that morning we took the train to Carnforth to check out the shed before returning to Sheffield in the evening. An everyday scene about to disappear for ever.

There's a fence in there - really. HFF! British Railways Standard 5MT 4-6-0 73156 has just come off its train in platform 1 in order to run round. Fireman Pete is clearly enjoying himself on this fine engine.

Manchester Victoria station and Black 5 4-6-0 45076 stands on the banker's road waiting to give a push to the next freight train up the I in 47 max. gradient to Miles Platting. The atmosphere of a large UK city station with steam was still a daily reality back in early June 1968 but by the end of June the last Manchester sheds at Newton Heath & Patricroft were closed to steam.

We weren’t alone in Southall steam shed. British Railways Standard pacific 70013 Oliver Cromwell stands ready for her fitness to run exam prior to working a main line special from London Victoria to Hastings the following day while Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 45212 was cooling down after her main line run earlier that week.

The Beast from the East(ern Region)! Before we left for Southall shed British Railways Standard 4-6-2 70013 Oliver Cromwell had to endure a blizzard in the siding at Norwich Thorpe. In fact we were off 90 mins late because that DB Schenker freight train on the left was blocking us in. Despite that we arrived on Southall shed only 60 minutes late. The weather hardly effected us except to make us bleeding cold of course!

Ex-Nuneaton engine shed one and all. Driver Fred and Fireman John were both firemen at Nuneaton in the early 1960s and British Railways Standard 2 2-6-0 78018 spent a short period on the shed (albeit never actually steaming!) in 1966. Here they are all taking a breather at the platform end at Rothley with the mid-week GCR train back to Loughborough.

Back on the Great Central and two trains passing. British Railways 9F 2-10-0 92214 on the left is actually stationary behind the red Outer Home while visiting ex-Somerset & Dorset Railway 7F 2-8-0 53808 enters the section to Quorn & Woodhouse with a passenger train.