A Puff of Smoke

There's something about steam trains that is guaranteed to quicken the hearts of small boys from four to ninety four.

My photographs today are from a visit to Haworth on May 4th, 1998, where we found this busy yard, part of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. A number of steam locomotives were out on display and at least two of them in steam. Here locomotive 75078 is being readied for an afternoon's work.

When I was a lad, the burning ambition of every young boy was to be an engine driver. It was a job aspired to as master of technology and power. For these things were and are unquestionably powerful and beautiful in form. When seen at the head of a train of a long chain of coaches the unconcious mind does a quick calculation of weight and momentum and goes "cor...!"

Whilst locomotive 75078 was being prepared, 75019 was busy drawing such a train along the line. I watched as it thundered towards the bridge I was standing on with a nostalgic thrill that I remembered from some forty years previously. Then smoke billowed about me, the ground shuddered and, with a quick cursory glance either way to make sure no traffic was about to knock me down, I dashed across the road to watch the leviathan emerge from the other side of the bridge until the last coach disappeared round the bend. "cor...!"

Large versions of the photos: loco 75078, train