November 2019 Picture of the Month

The number '6229' stamped on the castings in this close up of drive motion linkages identifies the subject as Stanier ''Princess Coronation Class' 4-6-2 locomotive Duchess of Hamilton. It is one of the images I have already chosen for a new railway book project which I hope will occupy a lot of my time during 2020. The locomotive was built at the LMS's Crewe Works in September 1938 and was withdrawn from service in February 1964. Since then it has been seen in steam all over the country, but currently, clad in a recreation of its original 1938 streamlining, it is on static display at the National Railway Museum in York.