The Castle class of the Great Western Railway were the most successful and efficient passenger express locomotives of any railway in Britain and perhaps the World. There may have been more powerful engines, or faster engines but on a day to day basis a Castle, due to its sound basic design, exacting Swindon engineering, the Great Western’s high standard of maintenance and the skill of the footplatemen, really did deliver.

Here a Castle heads an up express out of the Westcountry to the capital in a scene that could be the 1930s though to the 1950s.