With 6965 Thirlestaine Hall.

First sights on entering Swindon Works for visiting enthusiasts were invariably freshly overhauled engines awaiting return to traffic and this location usually lived up to expectations.
Here , Newton Abbot's 4076 , " Carmarthen Castle " looks her best , and so does Laira's 6965 , " Thirlestaine Hall " , both Westcountry engines.
It was often believed that freshly overhauled locomotives were especially positioned here at this turntable to welcome visitors to the Works , and the splendours to be found within. Peter Kerslake says "I photographed 6965 ten years later at Gloucester in 1965 when she was one of the last survivors of her class and allocated to Bristol Barrow Road , and working in the Midlands and Gloucester areas in what were the final months of steam on the Western Region.
Bristol Bath Road and St. Philip's Marsh sheds had earlier closed to steam, and Barrow Road was a sad, neglected and run down place in those final months, as were the handful of steam engines there."