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Bolton Lancashire 29th June 1968

Last day of steam at Bolton shed, 29th June 1968. LMS Black 5 4-6-0 45260 is suitably decorated to mark The End & I am suitably decorated in jacket & tie!

 

The shed's concrete coaling plant looms over the proceedings on the right & the semaphore signals mark the ex-Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway main line from Manchester Victoria. Bolton Trinity Street station is in the distance. Note the the proximity of the terrace housing on the left & the mill chimneys.

 

Bolton is a changed town today, the shed was demolished and this area is covered with 1980s housing on a road called "The Sheddings", presumably a strange combination of "Shed" & "Sidings".

 

My mate John and I had made a pilgrimage across from Thorne in South Yorkshire to visit the last sheds in the Manchester area - Patricroft, Newton Heath & Bolton which all closed on this day.

 

I have only just realised that while it might have been the last for Bolton shed this wasn't the last day for 45260 because I saw it on 1st August heading light engine past Burnley Rose Grove shed - without the chalk decorations. Three days later it finally did come to rest when steam was eliminated on BR.

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Uploaded on May 5, 2006