Saturday morning saw a steam locomotive at work in York. This charter service was running from Liverpool to Scarborough, by a rather long and circuitous route.
This locomotive is one of 842 simular locomotives built between 1934 and 1951 for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) with production continuing during the early years of the railways being nationalised.
This particular locomotive was built in 1945 and worked until 1968 when the last steam locomotives on British Railways were taken out of use. This locomotive was one of those used on the very last day of service.
It was moved to a steam centre at Carnforth for preservation where it spent quite a few years. Following the death of her owner in 2006, 44871 was purchased by Ian Riley and was taken to Bury for an overhaul to mainline standards. She returned to steam in 2009 and later undertook light and loaded test runs on the mainline before pulling numerous special trains. She is one of eighteen locomotives of this type which have been preserved.
44871 is currently based at the East Lancashire Railway alongside sibling No. 45407 The Lancashire Fusilier, both of which are mainline certified and regularly used for West Coast Railways Jacobite services along the West Highland Line between Fort William and Mallaig.
In this shot 44871 is pulling away from platform 5 at York on the last section of its journey to Scarborough.
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
There is something quite magical about seeing a steam locomotive at work. This locomotive has features which identify it as having spent time working in Scotland. The front number plate with the blue surround used to be typical of locomotives based in Scotland. Below the number is a plate with a depot code - 65A was the code for the huge steam depot that once existed in Eastfield, Glasgow.
Ian
September 24th, 2024
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Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
There is something quite magical about seeing a steam locomotive at work. This locomotive has features which identify it as having spent time working in Scotland. The front number plate with the blue surround used to be typical of locomotives based in Scotland. Below the number is a plate with a depot code - 65A was the code for the huge steam depot that once existed in Eastfield, Glasgow.
Ian