More from the archives.... class 40s

As you may gather, I have been scanning old transparencies from my archive. After looking at the Deltics I thought it would be appropriate to look at the other mainline locos of the late 50s and early 60s, the class 40s (as they became after TOPS).

A class 40 with the later single head code with a down tank train at Drem Junction east of Edinburgh. Dated before the line was electrified in the late 1980s

With original disc head codes this class 40 arrives in York station with an up train in the 1960s.

An up train approaching Bescot junction on the Wolverhampton line with a passenger train. The overhead steelwork has been erected but no wires appear to be in place so we are looking at the early 1960s. It is passing the premises of Edward Elwell. The company was taken over by Spear and Jackson the tool manufacturers. The site is now cleared and the siding into the works has long since disappeared. 

D383 wends its way through the pointwork at the back of Bescot Junction station. The fuel tanks at the diesel depot can be seen in the background. 

D339 passes the steel framework of the new diesel depot at Bescot Junction as it approaches the station. Judging by the state of the OHL this is nearer the mid 1960s. 

During the bad winter of 1962 an unknown class 40 approaches Bescot Junction station on the down main. The yard rebuilding had not started at this stage so we are looking at the original LMS (even LNWR) yard with its many signal boxes.

This shot is blown up from the middle of a transparency. It gives a good view of the LNWR station before development of the area swept away the station buildings, footbridge, signals and gas lamps... in fact almost everything in the picture. Of course the class 40s have long since left us too.