It was a painting commissioned by British Railways for a poster campaign, to celebrate the opening of the electrified Manchester-Sheffield-Wath route over the Pennines (you might remember me banging on about this from before).
The locomotives, resplendent in their shiny, blackberry black livery, are the two types developed for this route: on the left, a Class EM1 (later Class 76), designed by eminence gris Sir Nigel Gresley for the London & North Eastern Railway, a powerful mixed traffic engine; and on the right, a Class EM2 (Class 77), a later development of the EM1, designed for heavy express passenger work.
Here's a copy of the original poster:
I think the blackberry black locomotives work particularly well with the blood and custard livery of the passenger coaches.
The sense of pride they had at technological progress is almost palpable.
2 comments:
LeDuc you really take the biscuit for your magnificent railway pictures and all the time and effort you must put into finding them. I simply can't thank you enough for the sheer delight they bring... and I very much enjoy the others ones too, of course!
BG
Have you ever visited the remains of the old Woodhead route? Most of the line is clear and you can go right upto the tunnel but its fenced off at each end.
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