LNER Route: Leicester to Marylebone

Rugby Central Station: gcrcs288

On a miserable winter's afternoon a grimy ex-LNER B1 4-6-0 No 61205 restarts at 2:00pm from Rugby Central with a northbound local on Thursday 31st January 1963. It is unusual to see a locomotive allocated to March shed at Rugby Central, but not so at Rugby Midland though, where March locomotives were persistent visitors. I had seen this same locomotive on Saturday 9th September 1961 working an eight-coach Birmingham train away from Rugby Midland. Built by the North British Locomotive Company of Glasgow in June 1947, No 61205 was to remain in service until November 1963 when it was withdrawn from 31B March shed in Cambridgeshire to be scrapped by RA Kings of Norwich.

Tony Newman

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