IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Swanney Lodge Road, ROSSENDALE, BB4 6HW

Ex-British Railways Standard Tank Steam Locomotive 80080, hauling an East Lancashire Railway excursion from Heywood, pulls into Rawtenstall Station. 80080 was built to the then-standard BR design at Brighton Works in 1954. Rawtenstall railway station opened in 1846 as part of a line from Clifton Junction built by the East Lancashire Railway (later incorporated into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway). The line reached Bacup in 1852 and, for most of its life, the station served passenger services on a through route between Manchester and Bacup via Bury. Passenger and goods services to Bacup were withdrawn in 1966 and passenger services to Bury ceased in 1972. The station itself was closed in 1980 when a regular coal train was withdrawn by British Rail. The station has since been extensively rebuilt by the East Lancashire Railway, as nothing was left of the original buildings at closure.

Seen here passing the Rawtenstall West signal box, 60009 Union of South Africa is a preserved Class A4 steam locomotive built in Doncaster in 1937 by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and originally numbered 4488. It was named after the then newly formed Union of South Africa. For a time, during part of the 1980s and 1990s, it was renamed “Osprey” due to contemporary political opposition against South Africa because of that country’s controversial policy of racial apartheid (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-19989692 BBC News). 60009's name has since reverted to Union of South Africa. Union of South Africa was withdrawn from British Railways service on 1 June 1966 and was sold for preservation the following month. It is one of the six surviving A4 pacific steam locomotives designed by Sir Nigel Gresley; a sister locomotive to 4468 “Mallard” (see Image] ) and 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley (see Image]).

The water tower at the southern end of the platform, signal box and level crossing at New Hall Hey Road.

This train was being hauled south by No. 2857 a GWR 2-8-0 heavy goods engine. At the opposite end it was banked by a GWR 2-8-0T goods engine.

View from the level crossing at New Hall Hey Road.

Bulleid 7P5FA 4-6-2 ‘West Country’ class locomotive number 34092 ‘City of Wells’ approaches the water tower at Rawtenstall Station. It is heading an East Lancashire Railway passenger train on its journey from Heywood.

Great Central Railway’s preserved GWR Modified Hall Class locomotive 6990 “Witherslack Hall”. The locomotive was built at Swindon in 1948 and withdrawn from service in January 1966.

"James the Red Engine" passes the water tower at Rawtenstall Station as it pulls an East Lancashire Railway train from Bury during the "Day Out with Thomas" event. James the Red Engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_the_Red_Engine is a fictional tender locomotive, one of the main characters in “The Railway Series” children's books by the Rev Awdry, and the spin-off TV series Thomas & Friends. He first appeared in The Railway Series in 1946, in the book “Thomas the Tank Engine”. Two books in the series, no 3 “James the Red Engine” and no 28 “James and the Diesel Engines”, are dedicated to James. All of the locomotives in The Railway Series were based on prototypical engines; James is a mixed-traffic L&YR Class 28 'Mogul' 2-6-0 tender engine designed by George Hughes. For their “Day out with Thomas event, the East Lancashire Railway used their “Hughes Crab” or “Horwich Mogul” class locomotive 13065 which appropriately for “James the Red Engine” is painted in the LMS crimson lake livery that it will have carried for the early years of its operational life.

Seen here passing the water tower as it pulls into Rawtenstall Station, the East Lancashire Railway's northern terminus, 60009 Union of South Africa is a preserved Class A4 steam locomotive built at Doncaster in 1937 by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and originally numbered 4488. It was named after the then newly formed Union of South Africa. For a time, during part of the 1980s and 1990s, it was renamed “Osprey” due to contemporary political opposition against South Africa because of that country’s controversial policy of racial apartheid (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-19989692 BBC News). 60009's name has since reverted to Union of South Africa. Union of South Africa was withdrawn from British Railways service on 1 June 1966 and was sold for preservation the following month. It is one of the six surviving A4 pacific steam locomotives designed by Sir Nigel Gresley; a sister locomotive to 4468 “Mallard” (see Image] ) and 60007 “Sir Nigel Gresley (see Image]).