Photo of the month January 2003

Hughes-Fowler 2-6-0 No 42764,of Saltley shed, shunts empty stock at the south end of Derby station circa 1955.

    This photograph,taken by my late father about 1955,shows how slowly the railways changed in the early years of Nationalisation.While the locomotive carries its BR number,42764,many signs of an earlier age remain.With the headcode for an empty stock train,the engine,based at Saltley,is probably setting back into the station prior to working a train to Birmingham.Although very little of the first coach is visible it is clearly an LMS Period 1 Brake,while that to the right is a MR 54ft Brake Third to Diagram 1246,built 1921.The Midland yard lamp and the wooden coal bunker for the signalboxtogether with the water tank for the loco shed are very evident,but perhaps the most striking feature is evidence of the new order.Slap in the middle are the new concrete toilet and coal bunker,which judging by the presence of the joiners saw horse,have just been erected.Far greater change was to follow in the years ahead,when Derby would lose its graceful buildings and overall roof and become the soulless concrete pile it is today.

Photograph W A Hudson © copyright Bill Hudson