May 2019 Picture of the Month

A trip to the West Somerset Railway in late April brought, amongst other things, the opportunity to see former Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway Class 7F 2-8-0 No.53808 in steam. Built at Robert Stephenson & Company's works in Darlington in 1925, and originally given the SDJR number '88', this powerful goods locomotive was withdrawn from service in 1964 and sent to Barry scrapyard where it lay for six years. It was rescued from Barry in 1970 and restored to full working order, eventually returning to steam in August 1987. Until 2018 it worked under it original number before being repainted in BR un-lined black and carrying its final BR number. It is seen here beneath the Minehead signals after running round the train to commence its final run of the day on April 27th, running tender first back to Bishops Lydeard.