Ex-Great Western 'Modified Hall' 4-6-0 entering Marylebone during the 1948 Exchange Trials
View northward just outside the terminus of the ex-GC London - Leicester - Sheffield main line. No. 6990 Witherslack Hall was on test on the 8.25am from Manchester London Road via Sheffield Victoria, during the trials of Mixed Traffic locomotives. No. 6990 was built 4/48, withdrawn 12/65 and is preserved on the Great Central Railway at Loughborough. The three gentlemen must surely be there officially but there is no sign of a lookout.
Peter Kerslake says "I am sure that the two chaps with their sports jackets and open necked shirts on the right are certainly not officials but are railway cameramen of the time, There appears to be a camera or its case just visible between the one on the left and the suited gentleman on the far left who, with his "regulation" trilby hat is doubtless an Inspector.
I have seen a published picture of a group of lineside photographers "in action" from those days which included C.R.L.Coles and E. Bruton and these two here look very familiar, with of course a third having taken this photograph so this is clearly an organised and authorised lineside outing. "Witherslack Hall" was somewhat limited in the part it could play in the 1948 Exchanges as its wide cylinders restricted it to the GCR Marylebone to Manchester line which fortunately was ideally suited with its generous loading gauge."