11 Images released on Friday 30/04/2021

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NRM Shildon: Among the many glamorous exhibits in the NRM at Shildon this narrow gauge mine locomotive, still in workaday condition, is perhaps passed unnoticed by many visitors but is a representative of thousands of similar machines that were such an essential part of the UK coal industry. Many probably still lie deep underground in the closed off workings. Reference to the Locomotion website shows it to be a product of Hudswell Clarke (a common supplier to the NCB) with buck eye couplers and 3ft gauge which was unusual - most were between 2'0' and 2'6' but this loco worked at Ellington (and has therefore worked over six miles out under the North Sea). Although Ellington used modern locomotives, including some Bo-Bo designs, it was also the last mine in the country to use ponies, which lasted until the pit's first closure in 1994. My thanks to Malcolm Chattwood for additional NCB information.

National Railway Museum
Mark Bartlett [27/11/2012]


Leicester Midland: Class 20, 50, and 56 locomotives stored at Leicester in April 2016.

Midland Counties Railway
Ken Strachan [23/04/2016]


Colinton Tunnel: Mural of Robert Louis Stevenson, one of many artworks on the walls of the now fully restored Colinton Tunnel.

Balerno Branch (Caledonian Railway)
John Yellowlees [03/04/2021]


Farington Junction: DRS 88007 hauls the 4S44 Daventry to Mossend intermodal service on 3 April 2021. The train is seen to the north of Farington Junction, approaching the site of Farington station (behind the camera) which closed in March 1960. Over a hundred years before that there had been a north facing junction (to the left of the loco) providing a connection to the East Lancs line but this was closed after the East Lancs Railway built its own line into Preston via Todd Lane Junction.

North Union Railway
John McIntyre [03/04/2021]


Seafield Junction [CR]: A stroll east along the former Caledonian route from South Leith towards Seafield Junction in September 2016. The replacement pedestrian bridge crosses the entrance to Seafield Crematorium, with another just ahead spanning what appears to be a disused secondary entrance. Seafield Road runs past lower left on its way to Portobello, while the old trackbed starts to curve away south towards the junction.

Leith New Lines (Caledonian Railway)
John Furnevel [07/09/2016]


Scottish Industrial Railway Centre [1st]: N.C.B Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST 'No.10 Ayrshire Area' giving short brake van rides at a Scottish Industrial Railway Centre open day in 1989.

Dalmellington Iron Company
Gordon Steel [24/08/1989]


Carron Water Bridge [West Carmont]: April 2021 close up view of the new access stairs, and new drainage works, at the site of the 2020 Carmont derailment.

Aberdeen Railway
Duncan Ross [25/04/2021]


Newcastle Central: 67008 at the rear of a UK Railtours excursion just arrived at Newcastle after a visit to the former Blyth and Tyne Railway on 7th April 2018. The tour went to the North Blyth freight branch but not, alas, to Ashington but the line there is at long last to be reopened to passengers with stations at Northumberland Park, an interchange with the Tyne & Wear Metro, Seaton Delavel, Newsham, Bebside, Bedlington and Ashington.

Newcastle and Berwick Railway
David Bosher [07/04/2018]


Haymarket: We are so used now to seeing near-deserted stations (or pictures of them) that one wonders whether they will ever be busy again. A Glenrothes service goes through the motions at Haymarket on 22 March 2021, photographed from outside the station.

Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
David Panton [22/03/2021]


Rannoch: Plasser DX 68503 at Rannoch in 1987.

West Highland Railway
Bill Roberton [//1987]


Balornock Shed: A4 60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' about to head north light engine from Balornock (St Rollox) engine shed, probably returning to the home depot of Ferryhill on 3rd November 1965. The morning three-hour express from Aberdeen was at first thought to have been the reason for the loco to be in Glasgow, but the train had in fact been brought in that day by a BRCW Type 2, so the cause of the distinguished A4's presence remained a mystery.

Buchanan Street Extension (Caledonian Railway)
Robin McGregor [03/11/1965]