From the guard's van

When I left school (many moons ago) I looked at a number of engineering companies with a view to applying for an engineering apprenticeship, Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. was one of them. Their class 26, 27 and 33 locos, built between 1958 and 1962, were used successfully in Scotland and in the south of England. This class 27 is seen heading east from Arisaig station on the West Highland Line sometime in the mid 1960s. Here another loco enters Morar station from the south with a Mallaig train about the same time as the above picture.  While the class 33s were designed specifically for the Southern Region, in later life they operated trains through Crewe into Wales. This is one such southbound train in Crewe station. This 33 is heading north near Winchester with a fitted freight, probably in 1975. While this freight heads south through Winchester station in the same year. 

A recent trip to the museum's workshop found progress being made on the LNER class A4 -   "SIR NIGEL GRESLEY".  The centre cylinder has been re-fitted. A sketch from the Doncaster Works Drawing Office collection of the front end of a class A4. One of the locos in the works would fit on the bench. Boiler from the "ROCKET" replica undergoing repair alongside the A4. I would paint it if I could get the lid off this tin!!! This looks like one of those which got away. Another sketch from the Doncaster collection showing the outline of an A4 overlaid onto what appears to be an A3 with a long smokebox??