Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: 1968

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.

A reworked & re-cropped version of an earlier post. Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 43106 darkens the skies over Lancashire while filling its tender from the archaic looking water column. Her blower is hard on to lift the smoke & get up steam ready to depart the shed for the Severn Valley Railway at Bridgnorth and a new life in preservation. Stanier 8F Class No 48476 had its day of fame on 4th August double-heading 1L50, the RCTS 'End of Steam' tour with Standard 5 73069.

It's near the end for Newton Heath steam shed in Manchester. Stanier 8F 2-8-0 48529 catches the light streaming through the holes in the roof into the gloom of the shed interior. This image was used on the cover of "Steam's Last Apprentice" by Victor Penketh published by Wibble Publishing in 2013. An excellent read about Victor's life on the railway from 1959 to the end of steam in 1968 .

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.

As well as the Caprotti-valved BR Standard 5 4-6-0s Patricroft also ran the Walschaerts versions of the Standard 5. This example, 73010, captures the sun in the entrance to the 1885 London & North Western Railway Old shed flanked by two Stanier 8Fs, 48374 on the left. My visit was well timed because the shed closed at the end of June 1968 and these engines went for scrap.

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.

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.

Totally rebuilt since this view Manchester Victoria station was an impressive place in 1968. British Railways steam finished in the Manchester area at the end of June 1968 and Black 5 4-6-0 45076, seen here in the banker's road, was sent to the scrapyard.

British Railways Standard Caprotti 5MT 4-6-0 73143 and Stanier 8F 2-8-0s 48749 & 48553 deep inside Manchester Patricroft New Shed.

Preston station & the signals are pulled off for Black 5 4-6-0 45212 heading north with a very short freight train. A gaggle of people on the platform are, myself included, taking in a sight very soon to disappear forever on British Railways. 45212 went on to pull BR's penultimate passenger train three days later from Preston to Liverpool & following the end of steam on British Railways was preserved on the Keighley & Worth Railway later working on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. In February 2016 it was in the last stages of a full overhaul at Riley's in Bury.

Southern S15 4-6-0 30841 is seen in the right background while Great Western Hall Class 4-6-0 4979 Wooton Hall is at a lower level back-to-back with another Hall 4942 Maindy Hall. A rail-mounted crane is behind the S15. 4979 was built at Swindon in 1930 and withdrawn by British Railways from Oxford shed in 1963. It had been at Woodham's for 4 years when I took this and stayed a further 18 years before purchase into preservation. Still not restored it is currently located at the Ribble Steam Railway in Preston.

Deep inside Newton Heath steam shed 8F 48529 simmers in the shadows.

Bolton steam shed, Stanier 8F 48652, 8th June 1968. The engine is fitted with a small buffer beam snow plough. Two Drewry diesel shunters including D2234 alongside. The signals on the far left are on the Manchester to Bolton line.

Burnley Rose Grove, Lancashire outside the steam shed. Stanier 8F 2-8-0 48348 is on a coal train heading west, 1st August 1968. Note the gaggle of enthusiasts on the cutting side in the background enjoying the view before the final end of steam on BR 3 days later when Rose Grove shed (one of the last 3 steam depots - out of sight to the right) closed. Rosebay willowherb is forever associated with August 1968 in my mind and its alternative name of fireweed is very appropriate.

Burnley Rose Grove shed. Various Stanier 8F and Black 5 steam engines including 48237 & 45110 near the pits in front of the shed building, 1st August 1968. A gaggle of spotters observe a white-shirted, and hence not a railwayman, cleaner working on 45110 - now preserved at the SVR - while other engines move about the yard near the shed entrance. The road bridge in the distance spans the Rose Grove station platforms. Only three more days to go before the end of working BR steam but all the atmosphere of a large shed was still there. The motorway now runs through this scene. See where this picture was taken. [?]

The End of Steam on British Railways. A few days before the end at Copy Pit signal box , between Burnley and Todmorden. LMS Stanier 8F 2-8-0 48519 had just banked a diesel hauled freight westwards from Todmorden. There is only one Brownie b/w photo of its progress because my 35mm film had run out. This shot is taken at the summit of the climb after the freight had dropped away down to Burnley off to the right. The mountainous nature of this part of the Pennines is obvious in the background. I had taken a day off from working in the labour pool at Lysaughts steelworks in Scunthorpe, borrowed my dad's car & drove for hours from South Yorkshire over the Pennines - no M62 in those days - & caught this banker before visiting Rose grove and Lostock Hall sheds. A reboot of an early posting to celebrate Happy Fence Friday while we can't upload any new images! Have a great weekend and stay safe.

Sidings just east of Guide Bridge station on the Great Central Woodhead Route from Manchester to Sheffield in May 1968. EM1 electric E26014 waits to leave the up sidings. A line of at least 3 stabled electrics can be seen behind. This photo was taken from the footplate of British Railways 9F 92118 (curve of the tender bottom left-thought about cropping it but would have excluded other locos) while en route from Heaton Mersey shed in Stockport to Newton Heath steam shed in north Manchester. Our train was made up of the 9F and 2 Stanier 8Fs.

Manchester Victoria station Platform 17, Stanier LMS Black 5 45202 on a parcels train 4th May 1968. Today the overall roof has gone, this platform is underneath the Manchester Evening News arena and steam a memory! And what is that archaic wheeled contraption on the left? 45202 has a very clean smokebox door compared with the rest of the engine. Maybe some enthusiast got busy with an oily rag because by this late in the steam day cleaners were very thin on the ground. See where this picture was taken. [?]