RAILDATE 2024.06.07

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The Weekly Poser: Where is this?

Please identify the locomotive, and where it is.

Last week's Where is this?

A small town but quite a significant railway junction (1940s map). Where is it? [Map now unmasked]

Answer: Selby. Congratulations are due to the following for their correct answers: Chris Gibbard, Jim Allwood, Andy Foster, John Lacy, John Musselwhite, Bryn Pitcher, Jeremy Harrison, Paul Hopper, Colin Penfold, Andrew Treves, Neil Spencer

The Selby swingbridge across the River Ouse was a major bottleneck on the ECML until the Selby Diversion opened in 1983. The 25-mph speed limit on a bend had long been a problem for fast services but it was itself a diversion from the original 1850 routing via Knottingly.

A new mainline was built avoiding Selby as part of developing the Selby Coalfield. The old line to York has now closed, with the trackbed partly used by the A19, the rest by a splendid cycleway. It's fun to pedal along where LNER A4 Pacifics, Deltics, and HSTs once raced.

The image below shows a southbound HST entering Selby from the swingbridge on 2nd August 1979. The through lines have since been lifted. Image credit: Kevin Hughes RCTS Collection

SMALL PRINT

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©  Matthew Shaw 2024