Barry Island South Wales 13th October 1968

British Railways Standard 5 73156, built at Doncaster in 1956, in Woodhams scrapyard at Barry. Although it looks abandoned here it was eventually purchased & now it is under restoration at the Great Central Railway, Loughborough. See www.73156standard5group.co.uk/

The loco was virtually complete on arrival at Woodhams & would have been transported from Bolton shed to the yard by rail - the delivery address is crudely painted on the tender. In the left distance are a few of the thousands of railway wagons scrapped here which luckily delayed the cutting up of the steam engines long enough for them to survive into preservation. Note the virtually weed-free tracks & this is a scrapyard! Compare & contrast with the state of some of Network Rail's main lines these days.

It had only been at Woodham's for 8 months when this photo was taken but it stayed for 12 years in total a year longer than it actually was in service with British Railways!