The Jubilees

Jubs [not Jubes] were always welcome at the platform end. For a start, they were all namers and there were plenty of them to see. There were 186 of them, in fact, at the time of my summer 1962 combined volume. No. 45637 Windward Islands had been scrapped following the disaster at Harrow in 1952. No. 45609 Gilbert and Ellice Islands was withdrawn from service and scrapped in 1960, and No. 45616 Malta GC was cut up at Crewe works in 1961, as were No. 45619 Nigeria and No. 45630 Swaziland.

I got to see most of them, though 28 had eluded me by the time it had all finished. Four examples escaped for preservation, one of which is currently masquerading as No. 45562 Alberta, which was a massive stink as a relatively late survivor that always seemed to make an appearance wherever we went. No 45574 India was another Jub that followed us around a lot. Preston was great for Jubs, where the L&YR route to Blackpool crossed the WCML.

Here are some of John Dyer’s pictures of the Jubilee Class. Thanks are due to John once more for allowing me to use his archive in my blogs. No. 45577 was at Shrewsbury in 1964, No. 45600 Bermuda was at Manchester Exchange in 1962, No. 45608 Gibraltar was at Crewe in 1963, No. 45641 Sandwich at Derby in 1962 and No. 45697 Achilles at Chester in 1964.     

[I included No '600 to mark this 600th blog today - 600 for heaven's sake!]