An old friend: 61306 was the last of the LNER’s B1 class in normal BR service, withdrawn in September 1967 and going straight into preservation. I photographed it a number of times on steam specials in the late 1970s (it received the name ‘Mayflower’ in 1976), but for one reason or another we’d failed to meet since then. This week it’s been in action on the Crewe circular test route (driver training? I don’t know): today we saw and photographed it near the site of Allscott sugar factory, getting along very nicely at 60mph or thereabouts. For once, the sun and the wind behaved themselves…

(Click the image for a larger view)