ALTHOUGH I have stayed at Glenfinnanon the Fort William to Mallaig line (see later), I haven’t been on the steam-hauled trains on that line, so it is always good to hear from my regular correspondent Sandy Smeaton, who makes regular visits from his home north of the border. He has sent images, plus full details of the running of LMS‘Black Five’4-6-0 No. 45212 on the morning service on Saturday, October 15, and these are shown inTables One andTwo. Sandy takes up the story:
“45212 and 45407 were sharing the last month of this year’s‘Jacobite’duties, No. 44871 having returned south when the afternoon train ceased at the end of September. This was the last day of No. 45212’s penultimate week of operation and followed a night of heavy rain. Fortunately, the sky started to clear at about 10am and the sun shone from Glenfinnan westward.
“The driver was Matt Earnshaw, and Jayne-Louise Emsley, from the Strathspey Railway, fired. The load was seven Mk.1s, 258 tons tare and almost full; about
