FOR steam-era trainspotters, freight trains obviously had their limitations, writes Geoff Courtney.Yes, they may have provided a‘cop’, but in most cases the locomotives themselves were regarded as worth little more than a scribbled number in a wellworn notebook and if you were lucky, an underlining in the Ian Allan CombinedVolume on one’s return home.
That changed when the Standard Class 9Fs began to proliferate through most of the system from the mid-1950s. These were worthy of a second look and an intake of breath due to their sheer size and obvious power.
And proliferate they did.
