MIDLAND MEMORIES

Peter Zabek’s best London Midland Region re-creations

Of all the BR regions’ tank engines represented in preservation, those operated by the London Midland were particularly eclectic. Throw into that pot the former LMS-owned locomotives that made up the Scottish Region and you have a wonderful array of differing shapes and sizes, with designs dating from the 1870s until the late 1940s.

It offers us a chance to look through rose-tinted spectacles to a post-war era when these locomotives, created on the drawing boards of Crewe, Horwich, St Rollox and Derby, all fell under the same nationalised umbrella.

For while a ‘Caley’ tank in fully lined blue, or the ‘Coal Tank’ in as-built LNWR condition may be how many preservationists want to see them, the appeal of such antiquated machines can often only be properly appreciated in their relatively restrained British Railways liveries, because of the relative scarcity of suitable pre-Grouping or LMS-era stock to match them.

And regardless of where your allegiances may lie, only the hardest of hearts wouldn’t be melted by the sight of an adorable Lancashire & Yorkshire ‘Pug’ – even in ‘plain’ BR black – a locomotive that is, arguably, more attractive than its namesake breed of dog. Or the Midland ‘Half Cab’ – a small yet chunky engine that oozes charisma and history – complete with a smokebox numberplate that contrasts with its bulbous face.

Several decades of locomotive development engineered out much of that character, to the benefit of ergonomics and efficiencies, and thus created a successful template for many of the BR Standard designs that immediately followed.

The result you see on these pages is an interesting mix of physiognomies – all that have, in some shape or form, helped to reprise classic branch line or goods yard scenes of the 1950s.

Some are already historic scenes themselves, like the ‘Caley’ in its five-digit guise – now blue – or (for the time being at least) Ivatt 2-6-2T No. 41241 in BR condition, which is currently running in 1968 ‘Worth Valley’ red.

But others are here to stay: the lined black Fairburn twins at Lakeside, or a ‘Jinty’ toying with wagons around a yard in Leicestershire… Almost everyday scenes from a departed era, brilliantly, and readily, recreated.

The clatter of buffers… ‘Jinty’ No. 47406 shunts wagons at Swithland Sidings on the Great Central Railway during a Timeline Events photocharter on April 4 2016.

Bottom middle: For a brief spell after its latest overhaul, Webb ‘Coal Tank’ 0‑6‑2TNo. 1054 was presented in modified BR condition as No. 58926; a move that included the temporary replacement of its smokebox door wheel handle with the later clock‑face style. On February 21 2012, the stout LNWR engine approaches Oakworth on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway with a Steam Recreations organised freight.

McIntosh’s ‘439’ almost looks like a different class of engine in its BR lined black livery when compared to its newly adopted Perth blue. Turned out in its 1950s condition as Polmadie’s No. 55189, the 0‑4‑4T skirts the Firth of Forth at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway.

A very rare view of the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway’s Fairburn 2‑6‑4T No. 42085 facing the opposite way round to usual, arranged by charter organiser Peter van Campenhout in March 2005 – enabling this dramatic scene of the Brighton‑built engine arriving at the line’s southerly terminus.

Former Lancashire & Yorkshire ‘Pug’ No. 51218 may seem out of place against a backdrop of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, but the dinky 0‑4‑0ST spent more than three years of its BR career allocated to Bristol Barrow Road. This March 1 1998 scene at the Bristol Harbour Railway (Princes Wharf) is less than a mile from where No. 51218 would have shunted Avonside Wharf between September 1959 and December 1962.

Ivatt ‘2MT’ No. 41241 rolls into Keighley with a pair of suburban Mk 1s. Russ Hillier ran this event having arranged for the ‘Worth Valley’ 2‑6‑2T to be turned to face downhill. The landscape in this picture has changed significantly following the construction of houses on the hill behind around 20 years ago.

Former Staveley Iron Works ‘1F’ 0‑6‑0TNo. 41708 looks quite at home at the Dean Forest Railway, masquerading as former Gloucester shed ‘Half Cab’ No. 41748. The 1880 Midland Railway veteran bustles away from Whitecroft crossing on July 21 1994 in a delightful rural scene, devised by Sentimental Journeys.