When was the real end of BR steam?
“The idea of purchasing a small fleet of new Class 08-style diesel-electric shunters was an early dead end”
WHEN was the last fire dropped on a BR standard gauge locomotive in ordinary service? It seems that no one really knows.
It was certainly not a ‘Britannia’ or Stanier ‘Black Five’ after their ‘Fifteen Guinea Special’ in the North West on August 11, 1968; nor was it the famous farewell run by a London Transport Pannier tank through London on June 4, 1971.
The actual event took place, most probably with the train crew as the only witnesses, at Mountain Ash Colliery in South Wales when National Coal Board-owned Pannier tank No. 7754 suffered a catastrophic cylinder failure and was unceremoniously dumped at the back of the shed.
The actual date of the mishap is not recorded, and cannot be pinned down any more accurately than to the closing months of 1974, or even the beginning of the following year.
It seems like sweet revenge for Great Western devotees that such an honour should befall a Swindon-designed locomotive when the Western Region
