60103
(Saw this beauty yesterday on the NYMR. The whistle really does sound like an old kettle).
Steel and copper forged and cast
To bring to life a legend’s past
Snorting steam and smoke at last
A spirit now set free
The 60103.
Polished to a brilliant sheen
In LNER racing green
No finer loco has there been
Nor ever will be too
The 4472.
As he pulls from Pickering
His driver tells the whistle “Sing”
It’s like a kettle on the ring
In twinned-toned harmony
The 60103.
Steaming stately, steaming grand
Guided under oily hands
From London to the Scottish lands
Non-stop flying through
The 4472.
For sure his Flying days are done
Deserving more sedately run
Lest we forget the spurs he won
For all posterity
The 60103.
John Coopey
Sat 19th Mar 2016 19:29
Hello MC. Like many I have a distaste for Dr Beeching. But I recognise it has its roots in nostalgia.
I have just bought a copy of his report so I'll be wiser shortly but I recollect reading somewhere that 90% of traffic travelled on 10% of the track. Financial measures were similarly skewed.
As travellers we aspired to cars and Beeching can scarcely be criticised for not predicting the case for rail travel in the 21st century (road congestion, carbon footprint).
In any event the full scale of rail cutbacks owed far more to the incoming Labour government than to Beeching's recommendations.