News, nostalgia, preservation and modelling

New look for ‘Northern Belle’

Having spent the day at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, the former Galloway Princess (having lost this name for the second time) was recorded passing Golborne Junction in superb evening light with the 5Z52 18.45 Keighley to Crewe CS empty coaching stock move (running some two hours early) on May 24. A second member of the DRS Class 47 fleet is due to be painted into the same colours. No. 47810 Peter Bath MBE 1927-2006, which was bringing up the rear of the train, is unlikely to be the lucky ‘Brush 4’, having only just been released into traffic in ‘compass’ colours. Of course, for No. 47790 a new livery is just another day in the office. Delivered in two-tone green as D1973 in November 1965, it has since worn blue (as 47273, later renumbered 47593 on ETH conversion and given the name Galloway Princess), large logo, InterCity Executive (being renumbered 47673 in 1991 and receiving the short-lived name InterCity York Control during 1994), Rail express systems (as 47790, when it gained the name Dewi Sant/Saint David) and EWS maroon/gold before being resurrected in the autumn of 2007 in DRS ‘compass’ livery. It regained its original name and, very briefly, its 47593 identity in July 2009. Quite the career. Terry Eyres