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Locomotive Spotting North West

@locospottingnw.bsky.social

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Class 66s are starting to get boring now, aren't they? Trainspotting across the northwest and beyond. Military historian by education. On-board host, views and comments my own. Also includes heritage buses! Ace and trans, but not much good at either. 🏳️‍⚧

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Dec 20

So, with twelve days left of 2024, let's do a year in review! With railways, January was a month of farewells for me - I chased a couple of endanger classes, paid a visit to the then-open Hatton's store, and rounded the month off with a brief stop at Leeming Bar in the aftermath of a funeral. (1/24)

Since-withdrawn Merseyrail 507001 stands at Bootle Oriel Road. The unit is currently awaiting a trip to Newport Sims, from where it will be preserved.

GBRf's London Transport Museum-liveried 66718 'Peter, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill' shunts container wagons past 66705 'Golden Jubilee' at the site of the derelict Ditton railway station, a short distance from the since-closed Hattons model shop.

The writing is also on the wall for ScotRail Class 43s, as 163 stands at Edinburgh Waverley on 28 January this year. 179 was on the other end of the formation.

A selection of rolling stock parked idle in the platform at Leeming Bar on the Wensleydale Railway. This was a favourite location of my late grandad, and I visited the railway with him on several occasions.

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · 2d

I couldn't let this World Mental Health Day pass without comment. I know how hard it is to talk, to reach out, I really do, but... support systems are there, and anything has to beat the alternative.
#ItsOkayNotToBeOkay

67010 leads HD07 out of Crewe on Thursday 2 October 2025.

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · 14d

Another little impromptu trip up to the East Lancs Railway today for the farewell to Black Five 45212, which is soon to be withdrawn for ten-yearly overhaul. The locomotive has been suitably chalked up for the occasion, as was common at the end of steam.

45212 blows off steam at Bury Bolton Street. The markings are clear to see, the face in particular a reference to 8F 48305 at Barry scrapyard, marked up with 'Please Don't Let Me Die'. Happily, the 8F survived, and so will 45212!

45212 accelerates away from the token exchange and around the curve out of Bolton Street towards Heywood, the chalk markings on the smokebox evident.

Still looking freshly ex-works, D5053 crawls towards Bolton Street with a set of blue and grey Mk1s.

Something a little different - ex-Greater Anglia Mk3 DVT 82143 and Mk3a TSOB (ex-FO) 10415 at the Bury Fire & Rescue Service training facility near the station.

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · 18d

Some lovely little festivities up at the East Lancs in celebration of Railway200! The oldest operational steam locomotive in Britain rubbing shoulders on a surprisingly bright day with some of the more modern heritage diesels on the route.

Warship D832 'Onslaught' draws into the platform with a set of blue and grey Mk1s while that ultimate rarity, D1041 'Western Prince' - a locomotive which has spent almost all of the last twenty years holed up in the shed in Castlecroft while a catastrophic electrical fault and serious rot is addressed.

Current flagship of the ELR steam fleet, 34092 'City of Wells' stands at Bury having just tailed in a diesel-hauled service.

Recently repainted and renumbered, D5054 powers out of the tunnel at Castlecroft. The locomotive carries the number D5053, as D5054 never historically carried the two-tone livery.

Britain's oldest operational steam locomotive, Furness Railway #20 of 1863 stands in Castlecroft yard.

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Sep 11

Moving onto the mighty Napier Deltic at the Greatest Gathering! There were three Class 55s present, but unfortunately one was parked in the corner well out of the way; also featured is the new-build Class 23 nearing completion, formed from a spare Deltic engine and a Class 37.

Good to see D9015 'Tulyar' finally finished her long-overdue rebuild, resplendent in as-built BR green with lime solebars. As the locomotive carries a nameplate, this would be c.1963 condition.

55009 'Alycidon', complete with Finsbury Park white cab window surrounds. Note also the plaque on the domino box commemorating the Greatest Gathering.

'Tulyar' flanked by a 91, a Clayton, with 'Alycidon' and the Baby Deltic in the background.

D5910 here is an interesting beast - a number which never existed in real life, the follow-on from the ten "Baby Deltics" built by EE in the early-1960s. They carried a single Napier Deltic 9-cylinder engine, as opposed to the twin 18-cylinder models in the Class 55s. The rest of the locomotive is formed from a Class 37 body and frames on Class 20 bogies, but is really starting to look the part - one can't help but wonder when the paint will be applied!

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Sep 2

Alright, back to The Greatest Gathering! Here we have a selection of no fewer than five of the six locomotives in the Class 50 Alliance fleet - the only absentee was 50031 'Hood'.

A lineup of Class 50s at the event, with 50007 'Hercules', 50033 'Glorious', and 50049 'Defiance' stand at The Greatest Gathering.

50035 'Ark Royal' at The Greatest Gathering, carrying red and blue vinyls to celebrate the event. This one carries 'So. Many. Trains.' branding, which caused quite the furore among pedants insisting that it's a locomotive!

50044 'Exeter', a locomotive under restoration with patchy paintwork on the nose, also carrying a vinyl livery. This one is a deep blue with 'This is it! The Greatest Gathering.' on the side, although the other side included the silhouette of several key exhibits.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Sep 1

Real shame that the Swedish dropped out, that would've been the cherry on top. I definitely think the organisers did a good job of making up for it though, as far as seaside airshows go it's one of the best I think.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Sep 1

This year's Southport airshow was somewhat beset by heavy rain across both days, but the blue skies came out to play towards the end of Sunday! Here we have some iconic British aircraft and a special visitor displaying in the skies above the Irish Sea yesterday.

NavyWings' iconic Fairey Swordfish I torpedo bomber, W5856 of 1941. The aircraft still carries invasion stripes on the wings and a dummy (one hopes!) torpedo.

Something very rare for this year's display was 44-34313 'Sweet Eloise II', a 1944 Douglas A-26B Invader light bomber in 1950s Korean War condition.

Westland/Sikorsky Sea King HAR.3 XZ597 of 1978, now flown by Historic Helicopters as G-SKNG. This aircraft's display was mostly made against a wall of solid grey.

Closing out the display as always, RAF Eurofighter Typhoon ZK329 this year carries standard grey, as opposed to the special liveries carried by display aircraft in previous years.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 27

And another day of things found at work! Firstly we have the Return of the King - bolstered with three spare carriages to replace the collision-damaged ones, set HD02 coasts through Leominster into a signal check with 67014 pushing. Then, as a little bonus, the full Flying Banana at Newport!

67014 coasts through Leominster with the recently-reformed HD02.

DB Cargo 66657 undertakes the New Measurement Train at Newport.

Buffered 43013 'Mark Carne CBE' tails the NMT.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 26

Just doesn't look right without the headcode boxes...

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 26

It's always nice to see something different at work! 40013 'Andania' leads a set of Intercity Mk3s with 45118 'The Royal Artilleryman' on the rear through Newport.

D213 sidles into the platform as 150252 lurks in the shadow of the footbridge.

D213 throttles up, having rounded the curve in the middle of the platform and confirmed that the following signal was green. Even in this hot weather, a trace of diesel smoke can be seen from the exhaust.

45118 gives a shunt from the back as the train disappears into Hillfield Tunnel.

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 24

Aaaand briefly back to the buses for the third annual Joint Fishwick's and Ribble Running Day in Leyland. I only spent a few hours today, but a thoroughly enjoyable time was had!

A recent entry into preservation, Blackpool 288 - a 2007 Optare Solo - stands alongside Merseyside 1054, a Leyland Panther.

Two Ribble NBC-liveried Atlanteans with differing bodywork styles stand alongside the sole survivor of Standerwick's gorgeous Bristol VRL double-decker coaches.

One of the Leyland Atlantean AN69 demonstrators which later found its way into Fishwick's hands stands at the head of a long line of preserved buses.

A Ribble full-cab Leyland Titan stands alongside a 2004 Transbus Trident/ALX400 in the ubiquitous Stagecoach 'Beachball' livery. Just peeking in on the right is a Volvo B10M/Alexander PS, also carrying that livery.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 24

Definitely one of the highlights of a brilliant day with the Dartmouth SR&RC was the magnificent paddle-driven steamship Kingswear Castle, which took me on an hour-long cruise from Dartmouth down to the mouth of the river, then back up as far as Greenway. A spectacularly enjoyable day!

Viewed from a steam train climbing the bank up towards Greenway, the Kingswear Castle disturbs the peace along the River Dart.

The Kingswear Castle departs the berth southbound towards the river estuary.

The Kingswear Castle stands at her berth, with various modern ferries and pleasure craft behind.

A view from my seat right in the bows of the steamer, over her jackstaff, with her namesake Kingswear Castle nestled into the hills beyond.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 22

Next up in our overview of the Greatest Gathering we reach the ubiquitous Brush Class 47 and its derivative Class 57. Compared to some other less-numerous and yet well-represented, Class 47s were rather sparse on the ground, but those examples present were all excellent.

Looking a rather different colour to when I saw it at Keighley just a month or so prior, 47715 'Rail Engineering Solutions' resplendent in Virgin Trains red and black inside the shed at Litchurch Lane. Reckon we ought to try to get it up to Crewe HC for a photoshoot with the 87!

A firm favourite of mine, 57604 'Pendennis Castle' stands at Litchurch Lane. I only saw this locomotive once before - at Railfest York, thirteen years previously.

GBRf-ish liveried 47739 basks in the sun alongside LSL's fictional Scotrail-liveried 37401.

LSL's rather fittingly-liveried 57003, carrying Railfreight Distribution sector triple grey, stands alongside DB Cargo 67005 'King's Messenger', one of the dwindling number of 67s behind which I haven't yet worked!

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 19

And so we move onto the iconic lines of the Class 43, HST power car. Six examples were on display at The Greatest Gathering; four are pictured here, plus a cab from a scrapped classmate.

Recently restored at Peterborough is 43060, renumbered to 43200 for this event. It carries a deep blue colour reminiscent of GNER with Railway200 branding.

Two of RailAdventure's two-tone grey power cars, 43468 and 43484, stand with a TfW "Metro" tram-train, the only TfW asset on display at the event after the withdrawal of 197120 for operational reasons.

A lovely low-angle photograph of 43198 'Driver Brian Cooper/Driver Stan Martin' along with 43004 'Caerphilly Castle'. This particular power car I have seen several times over the years in locations from Devon and Cornwall to South Wales; as such it is one of my favourites. It's also a rather poignant locomotive - the last Class 43 built, it carries the names of two people intrinsically linked with the class. Driver Brian Cooper was killed at the controls of 43011 when his locomotive was destroyed in the Ladbroke Grove disaster on 5 October 1999; Driver Stan Martin was killed at the controls of 43019 'Dinas Abertawe' when it derailed after striking a car on Ufton Nervet level crossing on 6 November 2004.

Bearing in mind the previous caption, this one somewhat stings. According to an information board attached to the side, this is the cab from power car W43011, damaged in a shunting accident on Landore in July 1976 very shortly after construction which necessitated the return of the power car to Crewe for rebuilding during which time this cab was replaced with a new fabrication. The replacement cab was the one at which the controls of Driver Brian Cooper was killed in 1999; this original cab is the only significant surviving part of the destroyed power car.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 18

Tbf, considering some of the horrid weather across the country that week, I got really rather lucky... sure, each day started with a fairly grey cloud cover over Torbay, but it had started to brighten by late-morning each day.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 18

Another couple of pictures from the Dartmouth Steam Railway back in July, this time of 4247, a gorgeous heavy freight tank engine built in 1916. I believe this was her first day back in service after a periodic overhaul, and a fine end to a splendid trip out.

A somewhat iconic photograph, and one I couldn't visit the area and not recreate - 4247 coasts bunker-first down Goodrington Bank.

4247 stands at the level crossing on Sands Road, awaiting the off to Kingswear. This locomotive had swapped with 'Lydham Manor' at some point during the day.

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 17

It's 65 years of the Class 37 this year, so it was only fitting to find so many examples at The Greatest Gathering, ranging from class leader D6700 in BR green through to a selection of modern liveries!

Representing one of the more prolific operators of Class 37s in the modern era, Europhoenix's 37800 'Cassiopeia' stands outside one of the sheds at Derby.

Two more examples of more modern liveries; on the right stands 37418 in Loram red and white, while on the left is 37508 in Railfreight grey. 418 is coupled to inspection coach 'Caroline', a carriage to which she seems semi-permanently coupled...

Class leader D6700 stands in shortly-after-completion condition, wearing BR green with small yellow warning panels added.

A more recent repaint, Europhoenix's 37501 now back in late-1980s British Steel blue with 'Teesside Steelmaster' nameplates.

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 16

A few of the Type 1s and Type 2s on show at The Greatest Gathering. My personal favourite here was beautifully-restored 27056, resplendent in bulled-up BR blue, gently idling away for much of the event, unwilling to be overshadowed by the 50s roaring away a little further along.

The sole surviving Clayton Class 17 stands at the event, tablet catcher recess in the cabside betraying her Scottish ancestry.

26007 has long represented this venerable class right at the end of their working lives and now, to that end, carries Railfreight Coal Sector grey, a decidedly rare livery in preservation.

Railfreight-liveried 31108, part of the initial batch of Class 31s without headcode boxes on the cab roof, stands on display.

A personal favourite of mine, 27056 idles away in the midst of the crowds. The locomotive is fresh from overhaul and now carries BR blue with embellishments - such as a white bodyside stripe - from when she hauled the Royal Train in the 1980s.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 15

Another stalwart of the Dartmouth Steam Railway fleet, and something of a favourite of my late-grandfather's, is 75014 'Braveheart', a Riddles Standard 4MT built at Swindon in 1951. This locomotive brought me back from Kingswear to Paignton on that glorious July afternoon.

75014 'Braveheart' coasts out of Paignton across Sands Road level crossing into a signal check at the base of Goodrington Bank.

Featuring a gratuitous shot of the gorgeous Pullman observation car and the Class 117 trailers which form much of the rest of the train, 75014 comes to a stand at the signal.

75014 'Braveheart' sets down onto its train at Kingswear ready for the climb back up to Paignton.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 14

Let's take a look now at some of the shunters present at The Greatest Gathering a couple of weeks ago. There was only one "traditional" mainline shunter present, but a few other interesting examples on display!

Leading - and somewhat dwarfing - this short train of Ffestiniog Railway stock is 'Trangkil No. 4', a Hunslet New Brazil Type built in 1971.

Carrying a spurious yet beautifully-applied Intercity Mainline livery, the Plym Valley Railway's Sentinel 10077/1961 stands outside the works.

Two small industrials, one Simplex from 1919 and one a Ruston 48DS from 1951, stand outside one of the shops.

A lineup of - more or less! - three Class 08s. On the right is recently-named 08721 'Ken Davies' representing the old order. In the middle is 08635 - now numbered H3802 and carrying a green variation on Intercity livery - which is now powered by hydrogen fuel cells, whereas on the right is 08308, now powered by batteries. Obviously, this locomotive has undergone much more serious surgery, with a cut-down bonnet, increased windows, and new WIPAC-style lighting.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 13

Not often you get to take a shot like that, it really was a lovely moment.

Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 13

One of the flagship locomotives of the Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway is 7827 'Lydham Manor', built in Swindon in 1950. The locomotive is seen here running around its train at Kingswear having brought me in from Paignton and then later departing, as viewed from one of the river cruises.

7827 'Lydham Manor' draws down onto its coaching stock at Kingswear.

7827 'Lydham Manor' departs Kingswear, tender-first, preparing for the gruelling climb up to the summit at Churston.

7827 streaks along the foreshore of the River Dart with a set comprising Mk1 coaches and at least one Class 117 trailer.

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 12

Alright, alright, let's start making our way through the exhibits from The Greatest Gathering! Here we've got some classic diesels, with classes 08, 42, 44, 45, 46, 52, and 56, almost all in the ubiquitous Monastral blue!

D1015 'Western Champion' recreating echoes of Swindon with D821 'Greyhound' beyond.

Recently repainted and somewhat ex-preservation, 56045 (formerly 56301) stands resplendent surrounded by Peaks.

'Greyhound' and the Grid flank several Peaks in the entrance to the works, with 44008 'Penyghent', 45108, and 44004 'Great Gable' visible.

44004 'Great Gable' and 45118 'The Royal Artilleryman' stand outside the works, with 40013 'Andania' beyond.

Reposted by Locomotive Spotting North West

Sam Foulger @tank621.bsky.social · Aug 11

Another highlight of RIAT 2025, representing the martime patrol aspect of the 'Eyes in the Skies' theme came from Flotille 23F of the French Aéronaval with Bréguet Atlantique 2 number 5. I must say, it was an absolute joy to hear the old Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprops in action.

Bréguet Atlantique 2 5 of Aéronavale at RIAT 2025

The French Navy, providing one of the standout highlights of the Royal International Air Tattoo representating the maritime patrol aspect of the 'Eyes in the Skies' theme for 2025.

This example is one of 28 Atlantique 2s that were built. 22 are in service with the Aéronavale, and this one comes from Flotille 23F, which has operated the Atlantique 2 since 1991, when it replaced the earlier Atlantique 1, which it flew from 1972.

The Atlantique 2 is expected to serve until 2035, and in perhaps typical French fashion, will be replacing them not with the Boeing P-8 Poseidon like many of its allies, but with a Maritime Patrol development of the Airbus A321neo.

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Locomotive Spotting North West @locospottingnw.bsky.social · Aug 11

Yup. The last time I posted a train as an attraction in its own right was late-April... I should really start doing it more often.