KNOW YOUR… LIVERIES
PART 21: Ex-LMS steam traction – their final years under BR
Paul Chancellor presents a selection of fascinating images featuring former LMS steam traction during the last two years of BR steam operation.
The final two years of mainline steam on British Railways was centred mostly on the North West of England, where the final operational steam sheds were located. Therefore, it’s not surprising that ex-LMS locomotives featured strongly in steam’s swansong.
A few former LMS sheds in Scotland were also among the last bastions of steam and the supremacy of ex-LMS traction was broken only by the continued use of some of BR’s Standard classes.
Initially, the projected date for the demise of steam on the network had varied from the early 1970s, when the modernisation programme was first announced, to as early as the end of 1967. In the event, it was August 1968 when the final curtain came down.