From the guard's van

The work on A4 Sir Nigel Gresley progresses well in the workshop at the National Railway Museum. The boiler was last seen on a wagon outside in the yard but the clean driving wheels are inside next to the frames and cab. These are the front and back wheels and... ... these are the centre wheels with the big end for the middle cylinder.

While I was in Buxton photographing the DMUs and freight activity, some of which features in past blog entries, I also went to the Peak Rail site which was then next to the station. Among all the "yet to be preserved" material on the site were these tank engines. I wonder where they are now... and in what condition. Any information about their present whereabouts or condition would be welcome. Subsequent research shows that this was built by Peckett & sons at Bristol in 1949, works no. 2111. It was preserved privately at Lytham St Annes before it was moved to Peak Rail. Then in 1990 it went to the Midland Railway, Butterley. It is being restored again and is located in the workshops of The Princess Royal Locomotive Trust in the West Shed.  It originally worked at Blackpool gasworks. See www.midlandrailway-butterley.co.uk. This vertical boilered locomotive was built  by Societe Anonyme John Cockerill, Seraing, Belgium. The company built more...

A Class 101 DMU arrives in Buxton station with a train from Manchester. The loco depot next to the station was full of freight locos used for the limestone traffic from the nearby quarries.

The first two shots are of a two car class 114 DMU at Hednesford station on the Walsall to Rugeley line. The DTSL is nearest to the camera. The station now has a down platform as well as the up platform shown. Now we move back to the CLC line and the service from Manchester Piccadilly to Chester. It is seen here approaching Mobberley station. These two shots at Mobberley are of  a class 108 DMU. A class 104 DMU at Mobberley with a Chester to Manchester train. . A class 117 DMU leaving Derby for the north. These two final shots in Derby station show a class 114. This one shows the cab of the DMBS Many thanks to those who have helped to identify the various DMU classes especially thanks to Richard O.

We are still in the late 1980s with these views of some of the freight activity observed during a short stay at Derby station.  Rather a short train for two locos. Class 56 on a coal train. Light engine activity. Class 20s as they usually appeared... in twos. Two views of a ballast train with what appears to be a red class 47. An empty steel train goes North.

"The return, empty working of refuse containers for Greater Manchester's Northenden Depot was derailed in Knutsford station on the late afternoon of 2nd May (1990). The last two wagons came to grief in the station itself, and another bogie further along the train also came off the tracks. The line was closed for 24 hours after which the services began using only the down (Chester bound) platform." Quoted from 'The Railway Magazine' July 1990 page 464   This picture was printed with the article in the Railway Magazine. An enquiry made to the Railway Observer about the cause of the accident resulted in this explanation: "One of the M&EE 'on-call" engineers who attended this incident writes that the cause was the buckling of the track beneath the train. He remembers that the weather had been unusually warm for several days. The derailment occurred in the afternoon, in the cutting south of the station, at a point so...

A recent trip to Shildon found a number of the locos festooned with flags and portraits of the queen (to celebrate her 90th birthday). This meant that photography was mostly limited to details shots of valve gear etc.  Detail of the crosshead and parts of the valve gear of Sierra Leone Railway no. 85, a 2-6-2 tank built in 1954 by the Hunslett Engine Co. Leeds. It was aquired by the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway in 1975 and became the W&LLR no 14. Two shots of the huge single driving wheels and splashers of the L&NWR 2-2-2 CORNWALL. Crosshead of the GNR Atlantic no. 251... ..... and the big end of the same loco.