D1944 Craftsman powers away from Hellifield on June 24, 2020.

Hellifield is a time warp of a location and you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a heritage line, given the excellent display of semaphore signals and period features around the station.

Haw Lane is just around the corner from the station and a personal favourite shot of mine is the solitary semaphore signal set against the fields and drystone walls.

I remember this being a particularly hot June afternoon, with wall-to-wall sunshine all day, coinciding with D1944 running on route learning trips between Hellifield and Skipton for the ‘Staycation Express’. A two-tone green Class 47 and semaphore signals – I just had to capture it to give a feel of the 1960s. Apart from a couple of details, such as the headlight and plated headcode panel, it’s an almost timeless image.