69018 1962-04-28 Darlington MPD
North Eastern Railway designed W.Worsdell 'J72' class 0-6-0 Tank No. 69018. Built at Darlington in January 1951 and withdrawn in October 1962.
Seen by the huge coaler at Darlington MPD in April 1962, 69018 will have a short life in service. Her NER-built classmates averaged 45 years before withdrawal, but the 28 BR-built examples managed only 11-14 years. A waste of money? Probably not, a lot of hard work can be packed into that modest timeframe! Note the iconic tartan 'duffle bag' on the right...
© Steve Armitage Archive