Steam train with a famous past chugs through Melton Mowbray
Steam lovers were at Melton Mowbray railway station at the weekend to see a special locomotive pass through the town.
Paul Davies was there too to snap this stunning image of a steam special being pulled by former British Rail Class 5 No 45212 on Saturday on its way to Stratford-upon-Avon via Norwich.
Paul told us: “It was pulled by a former BR Class 5, of which 842 were designed and built by Sir William Stanier of the LMS – these locomotives regularly worked through Melton until the end of normal steam traction in the 1960s.
“Nearly 20 have survived and several are passed to work on Network Rail – one route they do is from Fort William to Mallaig on the ‘Jacobite’ train, which passes over Glenfinnan viaduct, made famous by the Harry Potter films.
“This locomotive's claim to fame was that it ran from Preston to Blackpool, heading the final steam-hauled revenue-earning service for British Railways on August 4, 1968.”