A nicely turned out 70019 " Lightning " comes storming through Swindon station on the "Red Dragon " heading eastwards I think on the Paddington bound working which it will have taken from Cardiff .
This will be a daily " Out and Back " duty which will permit the locomotive and its crew to work back home again later in the day following a " turn round " at Ranelagh yard , situated just on the outside of Paddington as the locomotive will not need to go out to Old Oak Common .
Delivered from being newly constructed at Swindon for a brief three months at Newton Abbot from June of 1951 " Lightning " moved to Plymouth's Laira Depot in September 1951 , remaining at Laira until the wholesale transfer of all the Laira , Old Oak and Newton Abbot " Britannias " to Cardiff Canton in late 1956 .
Although a number of the ten such transferred " Britannias " were not in the best mechanical condition and needed Works attention , Canton rostered the best of the bunch to Top Link duties such as seen here until all that Depot's allocation were lost to the Midland Region in late 1961 , with " Lightning " heading to Carlisle Kingmoor and sadly being the first Western Region " Britannia " to be condemned in March of 1966 fom Carlisle Upperby .