LMS 5MT 4-6-0 No 45123 near ? in c1952.

Ian Norman has been trying to identify this location with the distant chimney like structure. He says "This is a difficult one………trees get planted and grow, and agriculture changes and what once wasn’t very productive land can now be transformed.

It’s a winter photo long shadows and the sun in the south.

I think this could be just outside Alves, having just passed through Mosstowie station. Easy cycling distance while WJVA did his National Service up there. But I’ll be delighted if someone identifies exactly where it is.

The structure on the hill is too big to be a factory/distillery chimney at that distance. Or else it’s a massive chimney that should have appeared in other photos of anything, somewhere. This differs from most photos of unmodernised speyside area distilleries with comparatively small chimneys. There is also a slight dark impression to the right at the top of it, suggesting another wall.

The structure could be York Tower. The OS map shows a quarry just to the left of it and rough ground between it and the railway. Unfortunately there not enough definition in the original image to confirm if it’s the same structure. Somethings seem to fit the location, others don’t.

The style of telephone posts match parts of the Dava line. Unfortunately, haven’t found a substantial monument/tower on a hill adjacent to that line"

Photo: W.J. Verden Anderson / Rail Archive Stephenson