Beeston Sleeper Depot, 1959

Image: © John Sutton Taken: Unknown

The Midland Railway (later LMS, later still British Railways) Sleeper Depot - marked as Creosote Works on old railway maps - is long gone, its site now covered by industrial units. Unusually, it had a 3ft-gauge railway system. Still more unusually, this antique-looking narrow-gauge locomotive, No 1, was actually owned by British Railways. It had replaced an earlier engine in 1956, having been bought by BR from a dealer, and originally worked at Tuttle Hill Granite Quarry, Nuneaton (see Image]), where it was delivered new in 1911. It was built by W G Bagnall of Stafford - Mercedes Class, Works No 1889. It worked for only a couple of years at Beeston before being replaced by a diesel, but, parked here and never turning a wheel, was visible from passing trains and exciting to 11-year-old trainspotters. One Sunday, I persuaded my father to drive over to Beeston for a close look, and I took this Kodak Brownie shot, which shows my school friend Laurence Tansley on the footplate. No 1 survives, at the Amerton Railway (http://amertonrailway.co.uk/about/locomotives/steam/number1/ ) in its native Staffordshire, after many years rusting away in an enthusiast's garden.

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