To be honest, we were not all that chuffed to see Mickeys at
the time. Every passenger train hauled by a Mickey was a slight disappointment
because it could easily have been something more exotic, like a Jubilee.
Mickeys were everywhere and there were probably too many of
them for us to get round to spotting the whole class. There were lots in
Scotland, for a start, so we had little chance with them, including two of the
four namers. On the other hand, we seemed to bump into Ayrshire Yeomanry all
the time. Mickeys were dead ordinary.
This prevalent view of the order of things gradually began
to change as, one by one, the other classes of steam locomotives disappeared to
the scrapyards until we were left with the surviving Mickeys, Stanier 2-8-0s
and a few Standards. Then we took a bit more notice. I decided that they were
not such a bad thing, after all.
They are, of course, a well-balanced and harmonious design,
which is very easy on the eye. They were also versatile, dependable and
generally well-liked by the railwaymen who operated them. We went to see No.
45110 leave Lime Street on the last day of steam on BR, 11th August
1968. It was quite a fitting aspect of the finale, that Stanier’s Black Fives
should feature so strongly on the day.
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