Fond memories of firing
What an issue Steam World December was for me! It contained shots of two locomotives I have fired on as well as a shot of the ‘Jones Goods’, No. 103. The locomotives that I fired were ‘Britannia’ No. 70041 Sir John Moore and ‘Castle’ 4-6-0 No.4079, Pendennis Castle. I wrote about firing these two in my book Firing in the 50s at Hitchin which Steam World kindly reviewed back in 2008. I saw the ‘Jones Goods’ at Shefford during the filming of the movie Those Magnificent on the Bedford-Hitchin branch. The coaches used in the filming were stabled overnight at Shefford, where I used to live prior to coming to Western Australia. I fired No. 4079 in Dampier on October 30 1983. I have attached some shots of Nos. 4079 and 4472 in Western Australia.
