Fifty years ago

Fifty years ago today the last passenger train ran between Robertsbridge in East Sussex and Tenterden in Kent. The line struggled to attract customers and closed a year before before Dr Beeching started hacking at branch lines.

Today the Kent & East Sussex Railway commemorated "The Last Train" by bringing together the same locomotives which worked on that day and also some of the railway staff. The final train of the day ran as a "triple header"; three engines pulled the train together. This shot shows them cresting the bank up to Tenterden Town station, the engineer on the third engine is preparing to pass the token to the signalman waiting with his arm raised. These engines are called terriers because of the panting sound they make and it's thought that this is the first time that three black terriers have worked together since the decline of working steam. Try this bad boy in big.

The full set on Flickr includes shots of cakes and the Red Arrows and Calum. Does it get much better than that?

Still some Saturday left - enjoy your weekend