From the guard's van

For those who like their locos to be red there were a couple of LMS contributions to the show. 'Duchess of Hamilton' looked good in the sunshine after only seeing her in the gloom of the Great Hall at NRM York. The newly restored 'Galatea' shared the museum yard with her. Duchess of Hamilton in the sunshine. The small tram engine in the foreground was named "Tubby". 45699 Galatea stands alongside the Duchess. Beautifully restored from being a total wreck when recovered from Barry after standing in the yard there for 15 years. The loco was moved the Carnforth in 1980 but restoration did not start until 2000/ 2002.

I am not a great fan of steam days and open days but I recently went to the annual Steam Gala at NRM Shildon. The London and North Western Railway Society (of which I am a member) was celebrating its 40th anniversary at the museum and the staff there had brought two of their LNWR locos out into the sunshine for us. The Coal Tank, owned by the National Trust, was present as a visitor. We had an introductory talk from Anthony Coulls, senior Curator of Vehicles at the NRM followed by a tour of the LNWR Dining Car (which is usually closed to the publisc). The dining car is described as a semi-Royal vehicle which was built in 1900 and which served in the Royal Train from1903 until 1956. It has a clerestory roof and is on six wheel bogies. The main dining area of the coach is seen here with its long central table. This area takes up about half of the coach length. The rest of the dining area is made up of normal first class seating as seen here, Then the kitchen takes up a