I’m increasingly reluctant to describe anyone else as
elderly these days. I can almost hear the refrain, “Who are you calling old?”
being bounced back at me.
We were entertained at railway club on Wednesday evening by
an octogenarian and former locomotive fireman, who first signed on with the
LNER in 1947. In the 1950s, he often fired the Flying Scotsman during her stint
on the Great Central lines between Leicester Central and London Marylebone. She
was shedded at Leicester Central, at the time.
FS was not at the top of his list of favourite engines, nor those
of the drivers he worked with. I’ve heard this a number of times, over the
years, that different steam engines from the same class often seemed to have
very different personalities, revolving around their steaming attributes, their
responsiveness to the controls and other idiosyncrasies that might not have
been expected from supposedly uniform designs.
All of which goes to show that looks can deceive. Here she
is again looking as resplendent as ever, this time leaving Liverpool Lime
Street station on a special train in May 1980. I’m assuming that she made it up
the slope to Edge Hill, without too much bother.
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