Poor old 7024 "Powis Castle " is pictured here in the condition of many of Wolverhampton's Oxley Depot's " Castles " in their last years , that Depot seemingly having serious problems in maintaining its allocation in anything approaching a reasonable condition , but these were difficult times and steam was in sharp decline .
Passing through Harbury , this working of the Down " Pines Express " was on the revised route between the North Midlands and South Coast as that service , so long associated with the delightful former Somerset and Dorset line between Bath and Bournemouth , had been taken away from that welll loved and scenic course through the Mendips at the conclusion of the 1962 Summer Services, in company with all the other through Somerset and Dorset passenger services , to run via Banbury , Oxford and Basingstoke instead.
Allocated when new in 1949 to Old Oak Common , 7024 remained there until a transfer to Wolverhampton Stafford Road in late 1961 and then a move over to Oxley when Stafford Road closed in 1963 before being withdrawn from there in early 1965