www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/ Is this not it?

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Mike the shunter confirms that departure of the 6S45 07.15 alumina train to Fort William is imminent. Most unusually the train was a third of its usual length due to problems overnight with the loading equipment.

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Seen here in some kind of working order, this landmark finally closed in 2015 with large scale job losses.

Redcar, North Yorkshire
23rd November 2008

20081123 IMG_2763

Tags:   redcar teesside blast furnace steel industry contrejour

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Number 740-452 has been rotting in the sea air outside Siracusa station for many years. She was one of 470 Class 740 locomotives built between 1911 and 1923. I believe that there are around 400 preserved steam locomotives in Italy and rather surprisingly 49 of them are of this class 740. They were clearly long lived and only withdrawn on mass in the 1970's with even a small number kept in reserve until 1990's. According to Wikipedia there are three examples passed for mainline running.

I came about finding this locomotive through an aerial view on Google Maps. Although it is on display in a car park adjacent to the railway station there is no formal access to view it (I just blagged my way into the compound). It seems as though it has been forgotten about. There are other photos of the locomotive on Flickr dating from 2013 and it looks as though it hasn't had any attention since then.

Incidentally the adjacent station was featured in the last James Bond film 'No Time to Die'.

Tags:   740-452 Siracusa Italian Rail Italian Steam Sicily Italy Italian Railways

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My paternal grandfather John Dawson served with RAF squadron 616 for four years in WW2. He was ground crew and isn't in this photograph but he did bring home with him after the war a small selection of photos taken during his time with the squadron.

It turns out that a the subject here was a bit of a celebrity. This photo which would have been taken in May 1945 depicts Messerschmitt Yellow 17 which was flown was flown by Lt Hans Dorn of 1-JG7. It was captured at Fassberg by No 616 Squadron RAF in May 1945. The aircraft was tested and given an RAF designation before being returned to England. It was later sold to Canada where it was scrapped. By the end of the war the Luftwaffe had quite the range of jet fighters, six in total, although probably only the Messerschmitt 262 was built in any numbers. I will write to the squadron archivists to see if they have more details and perhaps they might be able to recognise the crew.

Tags:   Messerschmitt 262A RAF 616 Squadron 616 Squadron RAF Fassberg

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