A " Flyer " if ever there was one in days past, 5000, "Launceston Castle" has worked home to Bristol Temple Meads and now runs light over to her Bath Road shed, her run on this particular working over.
A regular on the famous "Cheltenham Spa Express" in Great Western days this engine, in company with a number of the other "Castles" entrusted to that top link working, recorded some memorable runs betwen Gloucester and Paddington in the hands as such famous drivers as J.W.Street, who sets out in detail many such workings in his book "I drove the Cheltenham Flyer"
The little lad, complete with his ABC in hand, looks to be keeping abreast of 5000 and is determined to stay with it despite his Wellington boots which seem rather out of place on a dry, sunny day!
There must have been something special about 5000 as, apart from her exploits on the Great Western Railway she became, many years later in 1964 the oldest survivng "Castle" to survive in revenue earning service for most of that year.
Transferred from Hereford to Wolverhampton's Oxley shed she joined nine other "Castles" there in June of 1964 in order to cover the additional Summer Service Saturday workings between Wolverhampton and Birmingham to and from the Westcountry, running via Bristol, where the engines were turned and readied for the later run back home again later the same day.
All the other "Castles" rostered to such duties were younger than 5000, but fate eventually caught up with her in the Autumn of that year when the Summer Services came to an end and 5000 became the first of that last batch of wonderful engines to be withdrawn ,the others folllowing in quick succession.