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Here's a record of a visit to Yorkshire in 1980, primarily to see a steam special hauled by ex-LMS no. 6201 "Princess Elizabeth" and ex-SR no. 850 "Lord Nelson", then a relative newcomer to the main line scene.

We started near Long Preston to photograph "Lizzie" - and nearly failed miserably. We'd actually packed away cameras, tripods etc, and were just getting into the car when a distant whistle was heard - the special ran around an hour late, I recall. It would change engines (Hellifield? Skipton?) so that when we saw the train again near Crossflats, it was hurrying along on favourable gradients behind Lord Nelson.

There would now be time to kill - which was achieved profitably by visiting firstly the Worth Valley, where 34092 "City of Wells" and 41241 were in action. We then travelled a little further downstream to Crossley's scrapyard near Shipley, where, in the company of three Ruston diesels, a small Barclay 0-4-0ST (1823 of 1924) was undergoing restoration. The condition of Rustons ranged from "in use", through "out of use", to "seriously decrepit"...  Happily, the OOU locomotive seen with the badly-bashed cab lives on, as the Derwent Valley's "Jim" (RH 417892 of 1959), while the Barclay, now known as Harry, lives at the Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway.

Time successfully killed, all that remained to be done was a last look at Lord Nelson, on the return working of the special, seen at Idle tunnel. Time for home.

Links:

• Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
• Derwent Valley Light Railway
• Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway

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