One of the features missing from our project over the summer has been shots of steam locomotives at work, so to make up for that this shot is of the 'Scarborough Spa Express' approaching York railway station before it continues to Scarborough.
The service starts from Carnforth in Lancashire pulled by vintage diesel locomotives. It arrives at Holgate sidings in York where the vintage diesels are replaced by a steam locomotive, which is here pulling the coaches from the sidings, under Holgate Bridge towards the railway station.
The locomotive pulling this service is 35018 'British India Line', a preserved Merchant Navy Class steam locomotive built by the Southern Railway in 1945.
British India Line was one of the first batch of twenty completed at Eastleigh Works in May 1945, all named after merchant shipping lines. In that month it was based at Nine Elms depot, south London, where it was to remain for most of its career, under both the Southern Railway and British Railways.
35018 was withdrawn from service in August 1964 and sold on to Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales where it arrived in December of the same year. It stood neglected for many years before it was rescued from the scrapyard in November 1979, but work to restore the locomotive began only in 2012 and British India Line ran again under its own steam on the mainline in May 2017.
Sadly this was the last Scarborough Spa Express of 2021, but it wasn't the last steam locomotive at work in York yesterday. More in our post tomorrow.
Nicely captured and even somebody waving! Our two boys had a favourite train book when they were small, which we read over and over again. It contained large pictures and details of the engine and wheels. I must say it became a bit much after reading it so often, but they never tired of it!
Remarkably Margaret, it is many years since I last travelled on the Scarborough Spa Express. I tend to prefer travelling on preserved railways like the North York Moors Railway, when I'm not busy with my camera!
It is amazing how children still love stories about railways. Last year Katharine and I did recordings of ourselves reading the Rev W Awdry railway stories for our grandaughter, as a way of sharing her bedtime routine even though we couldn't visit her.
fav
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
It was pleasing to see that the train was quite full of passengers, good news for the organisers after recent Covid-19 problems.
Ian
Remarkably Margaret, it is many years since I last travelled on the Scarborough Spa Express. I tend to prefer travelling on preserved railways like the North York Moors Railway, when I'm not busy with my camera!
Ian
It is amazing how children still love stories about railways. Last year Katharine and I did recordings of ourselves reading the Rev W Awdry railway stories for our grandaughter, as a way of sharing her bedtime routine even though we couldn't visit her.
Ian
I don't think it was me they saw Kathy. I was using a great deal of zoom for this shot and the train would have been almost 1/4 mile from me!
Ian
Thank you Vesna. During the summer it runs every week, so I like to go and see it when I can.
Ian