DOWN THE LINE TO SILLOTH CLOSED     page 7

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THE LAST TRAIN

Silloth Panorama Click here

43139 was known as Jezebel by local railway men. Here she is seen at Canal Shed which closed in June of 1963. The loco was moved to Kingmoor and was highly polished for the last train to Silloth, bearing in mind the service was a D.M.U when closed.

43139 worked the Langholm branch with freight until the Waverley route closed in January 1969

Silloth Panorama Click here

The now Border Railway Society was known has the Cumberland Rail Fans a group of twelve shed bashing train spotters. I was the leader and wrote to Barrow in Furness to ask if the last train could be steam hauled. The reply was yes, but I often wonder if other people also supported the idea. I wrote back and said thank you for your reply, and could we have loco 43139, the rest his now history.

After a heavy down paw on the Sunday afternoon the sun broke through to bring a beautiful evening for the last train to Silloth a small resort on the West Cumbrian coast. I arrived at the station and bought my ticket, which was four shillings & sixpence now forty-two & half new pence.

43139 arrived into platform 7 from Kingmoor boiler first. Normally the train would leave from Plt 8, because of the large turnout and there would be a number of passengers returning from Silloth the train departed on the main line Plt 4 with 10 coaches.

I started taken 8mm cine film which may be the only colour film taken that evening, other than the Border T.V news film which was in B& W.

SILLOTH The Holiday Line THEN & NOW