Following

the demise of main line steam, BR initially forbade the use of its livery and emblems on preserved locomotives. Thus, the late 1960s and 1970s were awash with colourful – albeit sometimes spurious – ‘Big Four’ and pre-Grouping liveries, as evidenced here by a pair of double-chimney LMS 4-6-0s: ‘Jubilee’ No. 5596 Bahamas and rebuilt ‘Royal Scot’ No. 6115 Scots Guardsman, pictured at the fledgling Dinting Railway Museum on March 3 1970.

Dinting was established by the Bahamas Locomotive Society in August 1968, initially as a home for its eponymous engine but, like so many other contemporary steam centres, the collection rapidly grew as more locomotives entered preservation. Dinting would eventually host, at one time or another, Leander, Bittern, Blue Peter,

Cheltenham, Hardwicke, Lion, Midland ‘Compound’ No. 1000, GCR ‘Improved Director’ No. 506 Butler-Henderson, ‘O4’ No. 63601, ‘7F’ No. 13809 and a plethora of industrials. Alas, following a dispute with the landlord, the BLS had to leave Dinting in 1990 and relocated to Ingrow on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, after which Dinting closed its doors forever.

With all sign of its BR ownership having been erased, Bahamas was one of the first locomotives permitted to run on the main line following the lifting of BR’s steam ban, just two years after this photo was taken.