There are not many photos I took as a teenager that I really like! This gritty, grainy, atmospheric image I took just before Christmas in 1966 is a rare exception. Only the second of the 251 BR Riddles 'Standard 9F' 2-10-0s to be built, 92001 has steam to spare as it passes Mirfield MPD with a westbound coal train on a murky Tuesday 20th December 1966. This is the Calder Valley railway I best remember, seldom being out of sight or earshot of the constant procession of coal trains. Loaded heading westbound and empties returning east to be replenished in the Yorkshire coalfields. 92001 was built at Crewe in January 1954 and was withdrawn in January 1967, just a fortnight after this photo was taken.

© Steve Armitage Archive