S&DJR 4F 0-6-0 No 44558 (S&DJR No 58) heads away from Midford with a Templecombe to Bath Green Park train on May 30, 1960.

Peter Kerslake says "A splendid sunlit portrait of "4F" 44558 as she climbs away on the rising gradient from Midford on the single line section to Combe Down tunnel, just to the south of Bath on this the northern part of the Somerset and Dorset line.
This single line stretch running northwards from Midford viaduct to Bath Junction proved to be somewhat of a bottleneck for the signalmen at Midford especially on busy Summertime Saturdays with the increased levels of heavily loaded additional passenger workings traversing the line.
Equally at home on secondary passenger duties such as this the little "4F's" were regularly rostered on freight workings as well as serving as pilot engines assisting train engines on the lengthy passenger workings throughout the line when so many additional services linking the North of England to the South Coast traversed the Mendips courtesy of the Somerset and Dorset."


Photo: D.M.C. Hepburne-Scott/Rail Archive Stephenson