Here's a shot from last year of 34072 757 Squadron at Swanage.

This is an ex-LMS Stanier Black 5 number 45407 in fine fettle at the glorious Grosmont station at the Whitby end of the North York Moors line. Whitby is of course where Captain Cook came from and as a place to visit I highly recommend it.

this is Sherringham station again on the 'Poppy Line' August 2003. This time it's 61572 which in my book is the only loco in class B12, introduced in 1932 a Gresley rebuild of a Holden (!!!) GE design of 1911. It doesn't look much like a Holden!!

This shot was taken in August 2003 on the West Highland line in Mallaig. The train is The Jacobite which runs daily from Fort William to Mallaig and back. Interestingly these locos were made specifically for this line; the class K1 Peppercorn 2-6-0 locos were introduced in 1949. The nameplate Lord of the Isles is genuine but comes from an older but similar K4 Gresley loco numbered 61996. I think the boiler pressure is past where the driver needs it! It's just about to pull out.

here's my favourite from Mallaig. (Mind you pixels don't deal with steam very well!)

I raced the train from Malaig (in my motohome!) a few miles back towards Fort William to get this shot. There were plenty of people on the bridge doing exactly the same thing.

Here's 62005 shunting her train in the rain at Fort William. Isn't the light fantastic? This is such a lovely loco. Pity the colour semaphores are in the way though. 65J is Stirling. I got chased off the station for taking this shot! Petty officialdom at its best. I suggest to the petty official that she might like to 'get out and about more.' Quite polite of me I thought.

not sure if I sent you some shots from the GCR - I went there in 2001 to drive a Manor 7821. Here's a shot of 7821 steamed up and the supremely elegant ex GCR 63601. Details can be found at their website .

75027 taken at Sheffield Park

this b&w photo was taken in the sheds at Grosmont - I have a few of these because I really like the patterns and shapes. I can't tell you what loco this is but I love the picture... I printed it myself which is why it is very "contrasty." By the way I use two cameras - this was taken with a Canon EOS 100 with a 28-80 lens and Ilford b&w film. But a lot of the colour photos were taken with a little instamatic sized Minolta Riva Zoom 140EX which has an amazing 38-140 lens on a camera that fits in your pocket. It takes fantastic photo and is particularly useful when I go mountain climbing and need to keep the weight down.

This is a photo of the beautiful Swanage line in Dorset. British Standard 2-6-4T loco number 80104 chuffs along the valley just south of the beautiful village of Corfe Castle in June 2001. I could not enter the field in the foreground because of foot and mouth restrictions.

Another boiler door shot from the Bluebell Railway taken in August 1999 - 80151 British Standard class 2-6-4T designed at Brighton and introduced in 1951. Its shed plate 75A shows that it actually lived in Brighton on the Southern Railway.

Here is a loco I haven't seen steamed up since the middle sixties - they used to run through my home town of High Wycombe regularly with long freights. It's a WD (War Department - Ministry of Supply) Austerity 2-10-0 built in the forties. Interestingly, in my Ian Allen British Railways Locomotives 1961/62 COmbined Volume, 90775 is not listed - the class ends with 90774. Next to a sprinkling of Beyer Garatts, these much have been the largest UK loco's built. It was photographed in August 2003 at Sheringham station on the north Norfolk coast. The shedplate 65F is Grangemouth which is half way between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

At the West Somerset Railway, here is one of my favourite class of loco: 92212 one of the last British Railways Standard Class loco's built in 1958. A class 9F 2-10-0, complete with double chimney. In beautiful condition - unfortunately I just missed it running. This is at Minehead.

Another shot of 92212 at Minehead Station on the West Somerset Railway in September 1999. I managed to get rid of the processing machine line myself this time. (Well most of it anyway!)

The last steam locomotive built by British Railways, the 2-10-0 "Evening Star" , seen here against the urban backdrop of Paddington Station. (Thanks to Stewart Hughes for the location information.)

Because this was the last loco built by BR, it was painted green, a colour usually reserved for passenger locos. Indeed, it has seen the greater part of its existence hauling passenger trains in preservation running.