Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: 2004

GCR/LNER O4 63601 departs Loughborough station on a "Windcutter" minerals train Photo Charter - I worked the morning firing turn on the same charter & after handing over to the relief crew took the opportunity to take some photos myself.

I was firing LNER B1 4-6-0 61264 for only the second time & this was the first time I had fired any engine on the TPO at the Winter Steam Gala. We had been held at the Advanced Starter but by this time we were cracking along. The photo obviously was not taken by me.

LNER Thompson B1 4-6-0 61264 on the TPO special at the Winter Steam Gala. The engine is at Rothley Brook after the TPO coaches seen in distance had been pulled back into the station by another engine. This was the first time I had fired the Mail train & it was a real treat. We are blowing off because I had built a huge fire for the race to Quorn & the mail bag pick-up/drop-off & then we just cruised to Rothley. In fact I didn't really need such a big fire as long as the grate was covered. Built in 1947 & withdrawn in 1965 it survived as a Deparmental Loco until 1968 and was sent for scrap to Woodham's in Barry, the only LNER engine to go there. 61264 was restored on the GCR but has moved on & has spent many years on the main line on, among others, Maillaig-Fort William trains on the West Highland Line in Scotland.

Great Central Railway. In Loughborough shed yard prior to firing Pete Waterman's Great Western Railway 2-6-2 Small Prairie 5553 on 7th April 2004. This was the last steam engine to leave Barry scrap yard & was on short term loan to the GCR to cover an engine shortage. This was the only time I fired this engine but it was a dream to work because it was just out of the works, steamed on nothing & the bunker was still filled with coal from somewhere else. This coal burned without clouds of black smoke and didn't clinker unlike the junk we were using at the time. On the left is the boiler from 30777 Sir Lamiel & on the right that anaemic flesh coloured vehicle is the steam crane. It is currently under restoration again (2007) & will be painted a more railway-like black when finished. I recently spent a couple of days undercoating the jib.

GCR/LNER O4 63601 departs Loughborough station on a "Windcutter" minerals train Photo Charter - I worked the morning firing turn on the same charter & after handing over to the relief crew took the opportunity to take some photos myself. This is a faithful reproduction of the train & the engine that would have passed through my home town, Thorne in South Yorkshire, when I was a child. 63601 was allocated to Frodingham shed in Scunthorpe in the 50s & early 60s and pulled endless coal trains on the GCR line between Doncaster & Scunthorpe The engine belongs to the National Railway Museum & is on loan to the Great Central Railway, the only survivor in the UK of hundreds built before & during the First World War..

Loughborough station, Leicestershire & LMS Black 5 4-6-0 45231 is brewing up ready to depart. The signal had not been pulled off yet so I still had time to drop down onto the Down side to take this photo, prior to firing 45231 on the service train to Leicester.