Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: mpd

South African Railways Class 19D 4-8-2 2756 simmers away on shed at Grahamstown, Eastern Cape. 235 members of this class were produced between 1937 & 1951. Pre-war they were built by mainly German manufacturers but 2756 was one of the 50 19Ds built for SAR by Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns (RSH) of Darlington in 1945.

GCR Loughborough USATC 2-8-0 S160 5197 in steam on shed. It was on loan from the Churnet Valley Railway for the summer. From early 1943 up until D-Day in 1944 many S160s, although not 5197, worked on the LNER and some were shedded at Woodford Halse so would have hauled freight trains through Loughborough. No. 5197 was built in 1945 by Lima & was originally shipped from the US to China in 1945. It was purchased from the Chinese coal industry and imported into the UK in November 1995. I was still a cleaner when I fired this beast in 2003 but it was an interesting experience. It has excellent injectors & the mechanism is very easy. First a slight pull to get the water flowing and then a longer pull for the steam. Picked up first time everytime - none of the messing about with the water valve you tend to get with most of the UK locos. The firebox is pretty wide & needs a good back but the butterfly firehole doors give you plenty of space to swing - essential for a novice fireman! I never got a chance to prepare/dispose of it but that smokebox door looks very fiddly although I expect the firebox will have a rocking grate.

British Railways Standard 2MT 2-6-0 78019 is brand new & just out of its box being in steam for the first time in Loughborough yard. Alongside is GCR 8K LNER O4 2-8-0 63601.

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. [?]

Carnforth shed, Lancashire. British Railways Britannia Class 4-6-2 70013 Oliver Cromwell & an unidentified Stanier Black 5 in light steam at the north end of the shed blacken the late afternoon atmosphere as they await their next duties. I visited the shed in the evening en route back to Manchester Victoria on a Northern Railfans trip. The tall concrete building is the ash lift, an efficient way to clear away the piles of ash & char from engine disposals which could quickly accumulate in a large shed like Carnforth. Small tubs were filled by hand and then hoist up the tower & tipped into waiting 16 ton wagons for onward disposal. The much larger concrete coaling tower is just out of shot. 70013 has now (May 2008) been restored at the Great Central Railway at Loughborough after spending most of the time since August 1968 at Bressingham in Norfolk. The plan is to run-in the loco on the Great Central ready for main line train duty in 2008 to commemorate 40 years since the end of steam on BR.

German Railways Bingen steam shed. A Deutsche Bundesbahn Class 52 2-10-0 Kriegslok simmers with several other locomotives around the turntable of this modern semicircular shed in the summer heat. Although I knew that steam was still in service in this area I saw the smoke drifting across by chance alongside the road while hitch-hiking along the western side of the Rhein Valley. The eastern slopes of the valley can be seen in the background.

Locoshed atmosphere on the Great Central Railway at Loughborough. After lighting up Nick is pumping axle lubricating oil for his driver, who is under the engine in the inspection pit, as they prepare British Railways Standard 9F 2-10-0 92212 for the Steam Gala. Framed by Empress Road bridge, BR Caprotti 5 73129, GWR Large Prairie 4141 & LNER O4 63601 are also being prepared in the background, the latter by myself.

Cabside number Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 44845, built at Crewe in 1944. I am contemplating the last day of steam at Newton Heath & the fact that the filthy cab won't ever be cleaned again. I don't think that left hand window has ever been cleaned! This engine still had 50psi of steam in its boiler but by the end of the day would be cold & ready for its last journey to the scrapyard.

GCR Loughborough shed. LNER O4 2-8-0 63601 footplate from the tender while getting steam up. I am trimming the coal forward before going off shed to pull our service train. The cab layout is simplicity itself & the engine steams on a candle. An excellent engine in many ways but perhaps not first choice for cold, wet winter days. Then again in 1912 when the locomotive was built designers didn't really care too much about the welfare of crews. Note the sheet in the tender - hooked onto the cab roof it's our only protection against the weather when running tender-first. She will be running her last trains for a while this coming weekend, 23rd-24th June 2012, as her boiler certificate runs out then. She did make it to 100 years old in steam though so come to the GCR to ride her for one last time.

The view from British Railways Standard Caprotti 5 4-6-0 73129's tender in Loughborough shed yard with Empress Road bridge crossing the scene. Southern N15 4-6-0 777 on left & 8F 48305 boiler on right.

SAR Class 25NC 4-8-4 3492 departs north from De Aar station.

SAR Class 25NC 4-8-4 3492 departs north from De Aar station.

SAR Class 25NC 4-8-4s 3509 & 3491 come on De Aar shed adding their smoke to the overall atmosphere.