Wednesday wasn't a bad day although any sunshine was at a premium. To ram home the point the temperature managed double figures again although we did have a shower mid morning and again late into the evening adding another 0.4mm of rain to our monthly total.
We decided on a visit to the National Railway’s sister museum at Shildon in County Durham. For this week only, the six surviving A4 steam locomotives designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, and sister locomotives to Mallard the world’s fastest ever steam locomotive, are together at the museum. More than likely this is the last time all six locomotives will be seen together as 4496 Dwight D Eisenhower will be heading back to Wisconsin, America and Dominion of Canada back to Montreal. They were repatriated especially for the 75th anniversary of Mallard setting this world record.
Although the six steam locomotives are on display all week that didn’t stop thousands visiting the museum on Wednesday to see them.
It was almost impossible to photograph the locomotives with so many visitors milling around. The picture above shows 4489 Dominion of Canada which has been “cosmetically” restored for the event sandwiched between two locomotives still capable of hauling passenger trains on main line excursions. Indeed 4464 Bittern on the right has recently been hauling charter trains at speeds of up to 90mph. On the left is 60009 Union of South Africa also a regular main line performer.
As nice as it is to see these six famous locomotives together this is how I prefer to see them in steam and working rather than displayed as just a hunk of preserved metal. The picture above shows 60009 Union of South Africa with a main line charter train crossing Dent Head Viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle Railway in March 2013.
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Beautiful old things.... these locomotives. And the crowd is massive..!!
ReplyDeleteStill looking good at 76 years old.
DeleteSounds like a real treat seeing these six amazing locomotives together. The picture of the train and viaduct is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteWe will have do some exploring in the Yorkshire Dales this year to see if we can find some other photogenic locations.
DeleteAmazing photos of locomotives! Never seen them before!
ReplyDeleteThese six were all saved from the scrapyard in the late 1960's.
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