HOLDING ON TO A 60-YEAR DREAM!
ALMOST from the moment I could read locomotive nameplates, those such as St Dunstan’s, Royal Naval Division, Isle of Man, Caernarvon, Bradshaw, Lady Godiva, Blackpool, Private E. Sykes VC, Giggleswick, Home Guard and Lytham St. Annes have been imprinted on my mind, just like the distinctive outlines of the unrebuilt three-cylinder Patriot 4-6-0s that bore them.
Ten members of the class remained nameless for their entire lives, one of them, No. 45508, gaining notoriety after being fitted in 1956 with a plain stovepipe chimney that seemed to destroy the locomotive’s previous elegance at a stroke!
Overview
Sadly, every original condition Patriot had been sent for scrap by the end of 1962, and this relatively early withdrawal from service meant not a single one survived into preservation, leaving a huge and important gap
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